Swine flu, drug wars, and a down economy have discouraged many would-be visitors to Mexico—especially those in search of a wellness experience. But few settings could be more therapeutic than the courtyard relaxation area at Las Ventanas al Paraíso’s spa, where the resonance of crystal bowls rises above the sound …
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Como Shambhala Estate, Bali, Indonesia
Since acquiring the property that would become Como Shambhala Estate, Como Hotels and Resorts has changed the name (from Begawan Giri), added a few private villas, and built a new spa, the Ojas, which includes nine treatment rooms, a yoga pavilion, a swimming pool, and a water-therapy pool. However, while …
Kapalua Resort – Maui, Hawaii
The Kapalua Resort community, on Maui’s northwest coast, appeals to visitors seeking either tranquility or a cure for boredom. The 23,000-acre resort, which contains the island’s only operating pineapple plantation, has two golf courses (one designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore and the other by Arnold Palmer and Francis …
Winter Wellness: Cleaning House
Since acquiring the property that would become Como Shambhala Estate, Como Hotels and Resorts has changed the name (from Begawan Giri), added a few private villas, and built a new spa, the Ojas, which includes nine treatment rooms, a yoga pavilion, a swimming pool, and a water-therapy pool. However, while …
Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru, Maldives
Few experiences could be more soothing than the Sacred Water Ritual at the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru. The three-hour massage takes place in one of the resort’s four above-water treatment pavilions, so while a therapist uses a coconut-milk massage powder to work out the kinks in your …
Laucala Island, Fiji
At Fiji’s Laucala Island resort, the rest of the world can seem, well, unnecessary. After all, you have just about everything you need to lead the good life: shelter (in the form of 25 ocean-view villas), sustenance (from one of five restaurants, which use produce grown on the island), good …
Grand Openings: Czech Inn
King Wenceslas II of Bohemia founded Prague’s St. Thomas Monastery in 1285, and the structure, which was rebuilt in the 1700s after numerous fires, still serves as the home of an order of Augustinian monks. Today, however, the holy men share their sanctum with followers of London hotelier Sir Rocco Forte, …
Grand Openings: Young and Restful
The new La Réserve Ramatuelle resort offers a six-day antiaging program that promotes a youthful glow and a sense of well-being—traits one could ascribe to the property itself. Opened in May, the French Riviera resort centers on a renovated 1970s building perched on a hilltop above the Mediterranean Sea in …
Grand Openings: All in the Family
What do you do when your 19th-century Heidelberg villa is too big for your family? You make it even bigger and turn it into the German university town’s first luxury boutique hotel. Owner Peter Huetter and his brother-in-law, Italian architect and interior designer Michele Bonan, spent five years expanding and …
Grand Openings: On the Rise
The restored British Colonial buildings that mark the entrance to Capella Singapore shield an even greater architectural treasure. After passing through the 18th-century structures, which house the resort’s lobby and library, you step onto a grassy terrace offering views of a curvaceous edifice that sinks into the hillside below. Designed …