Best place to stay in Chamonix: Amazon Creek has it all from hot-tubs to a dedicated chef March 7, 2016 The hot tub outside my huge Chamonix chalet has disco lights that make it look like a b-movie time machine. I’ve got a flute of Bollinger in my hand, and can hear the crackle of a log fire from indoors as I gaze through the steam across snowy peaks. This, I venture, is how one [...]
Lexus RX review: Will hybrid SUVs take over the market after VW’s dieselgate? March 7, 2016 Few things are as unwelcome in central London as a big, gas-guzzling SUV. One of them is a big, diesel SUV sporting a Volkswagen Group badge. Anti-diesel resentment has been bubbling for a number of years, culminating in the VW “dieselgate” emissions scandal that rocked (and continues rocking) the motor industry. However, one manufacturer has [...]
The 32 best barbecue restaurants in America: From Austin to North Carolina, we take a foodie tour of the American South’s top grills March 7, 2016 The best way to see America is by car, and the best way to taste America is on a driving tour of the country’s most celebrated BBQ pits. On a three week, six state and 2,500 mile journey from Texas to the Carolinas, I went in search of the best BBQ in the American South, [...]
Further growth forecast for hotel industries in London and other European cities after “bumper” 2015 March 7, 2016 Growth in the European hotel industry is set to continue this year but will not reach the levels of a "bumper" 2015, new research suggests. PwC's European hotels forecast suggests a robust outlook for European travel will continue to drive the industry this year and next. The report also noted that 2015 saw an almost 30 per [...]
London Has Fallen film review and other big releases this weekend March 4, 2016 London Has Fallen (15) | Dir. Babak Najafi ★★☆☆☆ Olympus Has Fallen was a surprise hit three years ago thanks to some old school plotting and a tailor made action hero in Gerard Butler. He returns as CIA Agent Mike Banning, who must protect the President (Aaron Eckhart) when the funeral of the British PM is [...]
This wildly reimagined A Midsummer Night’s Dream is riotously fun March 3, 2016 Hammersmith Lyric | ★★★★☆ There are few things more tragic than Shakespeare’s comedies. The plots are silly, the pacing is woeful, and what jokes there are are usually buried in such antiquated language and stale cultural references that you need a degree in early modern literature to have a chance of properly appreciating them. But Filter [...]
Hail, Caesar! is a witty love letter to Hollywood’s Golden era March 3, 2016 Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen | ★★★★☆ "Squint! Squint into the grandeur!” a film director yells as George Clooney, in a swinging leather skirt and scabbard, peers earnestly into the camera. He looks ridiculous, but then who wouldn’t? This image is the Coen brothers’ latest star-studded comedy in a nutshell, and thanks to their particular [...]
Botticelli Reimagined is a blockbuster show full of ideas and insights March 3, 2016 V&A | ★★★★★ When an exhibition says it will focus on an artist’s “influence”, it’s often a signal that it hasn’t got enough of his or her work to show. The Royal Academy’s disastrous Rubens and His Legacy and the National Gallery’s Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art are cases in point, both containing far [...]
We visit one of the last luxury chalets to be built in Courchevel March 3, 2016 Perched high up in the Tarentaise Valley in France’s Rhone-Alpes region, Courchevel 1850 has long reigned as one of Europe’s most expensive and glitziest resorts – ranking top on both Knight Frank and Savills’ prime and ultra prime ski resort indices. Set in the vast Three Valleys area – the largest ski location in the [...]
Watch review: Four classic wristwatches that will stand the test of time and match any style March 2, 2016 Ties are just so very 2014, aren’t they? Right now, dressing down is the new suited up to the nines, which you’d think would make life easier. Inevitably, though, the opposite is the case: looking effortlessly relaxed requires considerable effort, and details are everything. That’s where a classic wristwatch comes to the rescue – designs [...]