Innehållsförteckning för September 2024 från Business Traveller

Field to table HILTON LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT is serving a field-to-table menu at its OXBO Kitchen and OXBO Café until the end of the month. The menu features ingredients harvested from the hotel's 21 raised-bed kitchen garden – from beetroot to peppers, edible flowers and honey produced by the 160,000 bees on the premises. The menu features 20 dishes, including confit duck leg with a warm lentil salad, spiced cauliflower fritters with red pepper and sun-dried tomato chutney, and sticky lamb belly bites with homemade mint mayonnaise. Executive chef Philip Clarke and the kitchen team have also partnered with nearby suppliers to provide further fresh and local ingredients. The ‘OXBOWL’ salad, for instance, features hot-smoked salmon from within 50 miles, and is paired with turmeric roasted peppers, beetroot and radish…

DOMESTIC: OPEN HOUSE FESTIVAL, LONDON, 14-22 SEPTEMBER This annual festival grants access to buildings across the capital's 33 boroughs – from historical Georgian houses to fascinating architecture, markets and museums after dark. The programme also features guided walking tours, talks and workshops. Some events are drop-in, while others are ticketed. SHORT-HAUL: OKTOBERFEST, MUNICH, 21 SEPTEMBER - 6 OCTOBER Despite its name, the Bavarian beer festival kicks off at the end of this month on the Theresienwiese – marking its 189th edition. pect plenty of beer, food stalls, parades, and a fairground ride for the two-week period. LONG-HAUL: FLOWER PIANO, SAN FRANCISCO, 13-22 SEPTEMBER This al fresco concert series in San Francisco Botanical Garden is back for its ninth year. The festival begins with a performance of Afro-Cuban music by Orquesta…

GROUND TRANSPORT A fleet of black Mercedes are lined up at Syon Park, Wheely's London headquarters -the company's Chauffeur Academy is in session. The intense three-day accreditation course is designed to push service levels to the maximum. Only 30 per cent of the chauffeur hopefuls will pass the course and join Wheely's 4,000-strong team of driving professionals across the globe. “What we do is deliver experiences, not just journeys,” explains Laura Allen, global director of customer experience at Wheely. “My background is in luxury hotels, I worked with the Jumeirah group for nine years in Dubai and that's the level we're trying to deliver – not just five-star, but seven-star service.” Naturally, this means immaculate presentation (of car and driver), smooth rides (no sharp corners or hard breaks), and discreet,…

DESTINATION You might have noticed headlines cropping up over the past 12 months, hailing “the Maldives of Europe”. Or, if you're on social media, influencers going crazy for a scenic stretch of beach in a tiny seaside town called Ksamil. This coveted new hotspot can be found in the somewhat unlikely destination of… Albania. Unlikely, because up until 1990, this staggeringly beautiful Balkan country, bordered by Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece was, to all intents and purposes, closed off to the rest of the world. Ruled for 40 years by dictator Enver Hoxha, it laboured under a Stalinist regime which foisted extreme poverty on its people; by the time of his death in 1985, the country was the poorest in Europe, and the third poorest globally, with a GDP per…

WELLNESS In today's age of social media overload, doomscrolling and scarily short attention spans, the opportunity to ditch digital devices has become a rare and sought-after luxury – one that I was eager to explore. My hunt for a digital detox took place in France's Loire Valley region, just 90 minutes south of Paris. As we drove deep into the forest my phone signal disappeared, indicating my arrival at Loire Valley Lodges, a luxury eco-retreat nestled in 300 hectares of private woodland. More hideaway than hotel, the main property features an idyllic stone house adorned with climbing ivy, while the grounds are scattered with tree-top accommodation, contemporary and abstract sculptures, fruit and vegetable gardens and a glistening outdoor pool. Most attractive, however, is the limited access to technology. Armed with…

BACKGROUND Eurostar operates e320 trains to Paris Gare du Nord from St Pancras International. The journey takes around two hours 27 minutes, and runs up to 17 times per day. I travelled in Business Premier (business class) on the 0801 train, arriving at 1118 local time. The main benefits of Business Premier are ticket flexibility, additional luggage (three pieces along with one piece of hand luggage), complimentary F&B service and fast-track queues. FIRST IMPRESSIONS I used the Eurostar app to manage my booking, save my ticket to Apple Wallet and keep track of my trip. The ticket flexibility is great. You can exchange the date/time with no fee (except the fare difference) up until the day before your trip, or get a full refund. You can also exchange or get…

DESTINATION There may not have been a tiger in my room when I woke up in Vegas, but I did find myself fully dressed in a ballgown, smelling slightly of chlorine, with muddled memories of a conga line and Richard Branson swirling in my mind… Bleary-eyed, I squinted at the time. It was 7.30am – 15 minutes before my Pink Jeep Adventure Tour to Red Rock Canyon was due to leave. A spike of panic propelled me into the shower, down to the lobby and into the back of a Barbie-coloured people carrier just in time. Red Rock Canyon is a national conservation area in the Mojave Desert, 40km from the strip, famed for its towering red sandstone peaks, picturesque canyons and Native American petroglyphs (rock carvings). I'd been looking…

4 HOURS IN… 1 THE STEPHANSPLATZ Stephansplatz is at the centre of Vienna both geographically and practically – you will pass through it because of the U-Bahn intersection while many shopping streets also lead to the large square. Other than the Gothic facade of the Cathedral, from which the square takes its name, it's less a place of sights and more for people watching, but that's a great reason to visit – you can get your bearings, take a breath and order your priorities. Vienna is blessed with dozens of world-class galleries and museums, so you'll need to make decisions on where to visit first. Head down to the U-Bahn Stephansplatz and take the U3 two stops to Volkstheater station for your first cultural stop. 2 LEOPOLD MUSEUM The Leopold…

BACKGROUND Mandarin Oriental opened its second London hotel in June 2024, joining the larger 181-room sister property in Hyde Park. A third hotel will open in the Bankside Yards development in 2028. It's the first new build in Mayfair in over a decade, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), with a combined entrance for the 50 rooms/suites and 77 residences. WHERE IS IT? The hotel occupies a prime position on Hanover Square in Mayfair, surrounded by flagship luxury stores and art galleries on New Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street. Nearby tubes include Bond Street (Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines) and Oxford Circus (Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines). WHAT'S IT LIKE? In a word: calming. A soothing jade-green Ming marble wall denotes luxury and nods to the…

BACKGROUND Swedish hotel operator Scandic has 13 hotels in Copenhagen. Scandic Spectrum is a new property that opened in 2022, and was purpose-built in a former harbour industrial area called Kalvebod Brygge (which is also the street name/address of the hotel). WHERE IS IT? Just one road back from what looks like a river but is actually an estuary leading out to the sea. It is a ten-minute walk to Copenhagen Central Station, and just under six miles to Copenhagen Airport – we took a Metro train then a bus, which stopped just behind the hotel. WHAT'S IT LIKE? The hotel is one of several glass-covered buildings in the area, but helpfully has the red Scandic sign on the top of its facade. We arrived too early for check-in, but…

SMART TRAVELLER Our guide to… Now that you're well-versed in the behind-the-scenes action of professional chauffeur services (see page 22), it's time to put the)drivers to the test. Here we round up the airlines that offer a)chauffeur service for premium customers, providing them with)an end-to-end luxury experience by organising transport from the airport to their home/hotel or vice-versa. Note that most services are)complimentary, but are not applicable on codeshare or partner airlines, and are not available for)reward flights or transfers between airport terminals. AIR CHINA China's flag carrier offers a luxury car transfer for passengers travelling to/from the mainland. Customers will be whisked from the airport to the city centre by a fleet of Mercedes Benz E Class, Mercedes Benz EQE and Hongqi H9 vehicles. Location: The service is available across…

British Airways to “pause” Beijing route BRITISH AIRWAYS is suspending its flights between Heathrow and Beijing on 26 October. The carrier said the suspension currently affects flights until November 2025, although it said that it would keep its schedules under review. The airline's flight times to Asia have been extended due to not being able to use Russian airspace, something which is not the case for Chinese carriers. BA said that the restrictions meant flight times were “considerably longer”, which in turn had “a commercial implication”. The carrier resumed flights to Beijing in June 2023, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The decision – along with the move to cut flights to Hong Kong to daily from October – leaves BA with just one daily flight to both…

I'm lounging on a comfy tweed sofa at 65 Harley Street. No, I'm not in the waiting room for a swish private clinic, but rather my lounge at the newest property from luxury apartment collection Living Rooms, where flats in a Grade II listed building have been lovingly restored by Barbara Weiss Architects with cosy interiors by Waldo Works. Five minutes into my stay and I'm already claiming the house plants, antique Persian rugs, framed prints and stylish coffee table books as my own. It's a good marker of how far extended-stay properties have come, resembling an actual ‘home away from home’ rather than the boring and, dare I say, clinical spaces that once dominated the market. “Guests choose our apartments for the extra space, flexibility and independence they provide,…

LEISURE Made up of 1,192 coral islands looping around 26 shimmering atolls in the remote Indian Ocean, there are few destinations more closely associated with aspirational A-list-level travel than the Maldives. Unique experiences come as standard – hopping on seaplanes flown by barefoot pilots, swimming with four-metre-wide manta rays, jet-skiing across empty lagoons in shades of blue you didn't know existed – but that's just the start. In a bid to attract big spenders, luxury hotels across the country have invested millions of dollars into one-ofa-kind facilities, from zip-lines zooming through the jungle and underwater restaurants to cuttingedge spa facilities, award-winning wine cellars and research-grade observatories. Here's our pick of the most OTT things to do – should your credit limit allow it. VIP stays at the Private Reserve All…

BACKGROUND This grand Grade-II listed building first opened in 1895, standing as The Refuge Assurance Company headquarters for almost a century. It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the architect who counts London's Natural History Museum among his notable projects, while the namesake 66-metre clock tower was added in 1912. In 2018, IHG announced they were buying the property and conducted a renovation before opening the rebranded Kimpton Clocktower in October 2020. WHERE IS IT? It dominates its corner of Oxford Street in the heart of Manchester, with plenty of restaurants, bars and shops nearby. For train travel, Piccadilly Station is a 15-minute walk, while Manchester Oxford Road station is next door. Manchester Airport is also a 20-minute drive. Discounted rates at the nearby NCP car park can be arranged through…

BACKGROUND This intimate Michelin-starred omakase restaurant is located in The Dorchester Collection's 45 Park Lane premises in Mayfair. The 13-seater restaurant opened in 2023 – the first opening outside of Asia Pacific for chef Shinji Kanesaka. THE VENUE Sushi Kanesaka is discreetly hidden on the first floor. Behind a Japanese-inscribed noren linen curtain lies a nine-seater counter and an adjacent four-seater private room – both with a sushi chef. Rooms feature bamboo accents, wooden Kumiko panels, ceramics aplenty and a counter crafted from a single piece of Japanese cedar wood. The dress code is smart-casual, with a recommendation to avoid strong perfumes to better appreciate the culinary aromas. FOOD AND DRINK There are two services at 6pm and 8.30pm. The experience is omakase, meaning “I'll leave it up to you”,…