THE STYLE SEEKERS
CHRIS MOHNEY
Editor, urban guide Gridskipper.com
I plan on revisiting New Orleans in 2008. I can hardly conceive how the city of my birth will reshape itself in coming years. Post-hurricane devastation and the loss of half its population could lead to a renaissance, as happened in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Or it could splutter out in an exploitative mess fuelled by developers and bureaucrats. I plan to reacquaint myself with those classic New Orleans experiences that tourists used to take for granted - brunch at the Court of Two Sisters, dinner at Commander's Palace, and any bar that serves Dixie Blackened Voodoo beer ice-cold.
MATT TURNER
Editor, hotel design magazine Sleeper
Of the 50-plus hotels that are scheduled to open in Beijing for the Olympics next year, none will hold a torch to the new Mandarin Oriental. It is part of the China Central Television headquarters and will be housed in its own iconic structure, with two restaurants linked via a champagne bar suspended above a dramatic staircase with stunning views of the optical illusion that is the main CCTV building.
At the other end of the design spectrum will be The Other Side in Neiden (theotherside.no), Norway, which opens in the spring close to the Russian border. Guests will be met at the airport by husky sleigh and taken to a resort perched on a plateau overlooking salmon rivers, Arctic tundra and the Barents Sea, with interior design inspired by the culture of the local Sami people. The hotel promises 'an extreme take on modern luxury', 'otherworldly shamanism', and a chance to see the northern lights. Sounds good to me.
SARA HENRICHS
Travel editor, *Wallpaper
In the spring I hope to go to Miami for the opening of the Mondrian South Beach (mondriansouthbeach.com), designed by multiple award-winning Marcel Wanders. It's a sister hotel to the Delano. Wanders promises that the South Beach will be his 'Sleeping Beauty' creation. The exterior boasts a 16-storey wall of artwork that will be visible throughout the Miami Beach area, while a floating, elliptical, black-lacquered staircase leads guests away from the lobby, where vast digital images inspired by fairy tales will play against the walls.
STEPHEN BAYLEY
The Observer's design critic
Nice is one of my very favourite places. I suffer from the Englishman's hopelessly sentimental view of the south of France, but that apart, it's still a wonderful city: sophisticated and cosmopolitan or rough and romantic, according to choice. You can have a fine glass of champagne or a pissaladiere (the local take on pizza) and a tumbler of Provencal rosé, depending on where you are. I've been going there often since 1981, but for the past few years enjoyment has been compromised because the vast Place Massena has been excavated for tramways, turning the centre of the city into a building site. I'm looking forward to Nice getting back to its familiar sunny chaos in 2008.
THE TOUR OPERATORS
TOM BARBER
Director, Original Travel
I'm excited about the Musandam Peninsula in Oman. It's separated from the rest of the country by the UAE and is totally unspoilt with mountainous scenery and great diving. The Evason Hideaway Zighy Bay (sixsenses.com/hideaway-zighybay) opening in January, sits on a huge bay. You can get there by boat, by four-wheel-drive over mountains - or you can paraglide in.
Closer to home, I think Romania's one to watch. The Danube Delta is beautiful and unspoilt and you get all the African birds on their migration route to Europe in April and May. It's the best wildlife experience you can have without going to Africa. You can stay at a new eco-lodge, The Delta Nature Resort (deltaresort.com).
VICTORIA MCCLELLAND
Product director, Wellbeing Escapes
There's been a big shift from traditional spas to wellness resorts. Rather than pampering experiences, people are looking for longer-lasting substantial health benefits. They want a measure of self-improvement that they can incorporate into their lives back home. Ayurvedic treatments will continue to be big in 2008. Of all the Ayurvedic resorts, the Kalari Kovilakom in Kerala, India (kalarikovilakom.com) is perhaps the most powerful. It's really strict and really authentic and the results last.
Brazil is coming up in the wellness market. It's not really been on most people's radar, but the resorts there are trying to do something interesting, using local artisans and products. At some luxury spas you feel as though you could be anywhere in the world, but in Brazil they feel wholly authentic and unique to that country. The Kiaroa Eco-Luxury Resort (kiaroa.com) is fantastic. You fly into Salvador and then take a small plane to a private landing strip on the Marau peninsula. The spa is fabulous and there are just 28 rooms in 24 acres of lush jungle, fringed by beaches of gorgeous white sand.
TOM MARCHANT
Managing director, Black Tomato
Panama looks set to explode in 2008. It's stunningly beautiful, with amazing beaches and rainforest. The canal is incredible: it starts in an industrial zone and then emerges into open water dotted with tiny islands full of monkeys. It's a cool place to kayak, despite the crocodiles. Panama City's Unesco-protected Old Town is special, with its French and Spanish heritage - atmospheric and safe. It's easy to explore the city's jazz bars and cafes. One of the best eco-lodges is Coral Lodge, Bocas del Toro (blacktomato.co.uk/experiences/escape+time/a+secret+ paradise), with over-water villas, pristine rainforest and mangrove kayaking.
We are seeing a lot more interest in the Syrian capital, Damascus. It's like Marrakesh was 20 years ago, all crumbling city walls, amazing souks, mosques and coffee houses where the aroma is so dense you can almost feel it. The fact that it's only a six-hour flight away makes it a viable long-weekend destination. The city's first boutique hotel, the Al Mamlouka (almamlouka.com) recently opened in a 17th-century house in the Christian quarter of the Old City. It's been refurbished in traditional style and some of the rooms still have 200-year-old Christian frescos on the ceilings.
TONY HOPKINS
Director of products, Thomas Cook
The latest destination to make a splash is Port Ghalib on the Red Sea in Egypt. It's a remote stretch of unspoilt coastline, perfect for diving and snorkelling. The resort is new, having opened its doors to the paying public in November. The area offers rolling hills, desert terrain and coral reefs, not to mention ancient monuments locally and in the adjacent Nile Valley. We're featuring a four-star hotel, the Sun Oasis. It's ideal for families and those looking to take advantage of local activities.
THE HOTEL GURUS
JAMES LOHAN
Founder, Mr & Mrs Smith hotel guides
Since having a child a few months ago, I'm trying to stay closer to home. Fortunately, in Wales, the sprucing up of time-locked coastal havens has brought boutique hotels, delis and craft shops, which have sprinkled just the right amount of style dust over extraordinarily scenic surroundings. Cardigan Bay has hidden coves and sweeping river estuaries. Hurst House (hurst-house.co.uk) in Carmarthen Bay has reopened after a huge overhaul, and as well as seductive rooms, it has a helipad, a spa, a swimming pool, and a fire-breathing dragon sculpture in the courtyard. At the other end of the spectrum, The Drawing Room near Powys (the-drawing-room.co.uk) is a discreet three-bedroom hideaway. The owners describe it as a restaurant with rooms, and while it is unashamedly food-centric, it would be a mistake to think the rooms are an afterthought.
NIKKI TINTO
Founder, hotel website i-escape.com
Luang Prabang in Laos is a hotbed of boutique hotels. It's a beautiful spiritual city on the banks of the Mekong, famed for its cafes and bars and Buddhist temples. It has always been on the backpacker trail, but is moving into the mainstream. Our favourites are La Residence Phou Vao (residencephouvao.com/web/plua/laos.jsp) - which is the best in town. The Apsara (theapsara.com) is the best budget option, with colourful interiors, super-stylish rooms and an easy-going ambiance.
Siem Riep in Cambodia also has some lovely new boutique hotels. You could spend three or four days exploring the temples and into the jungle. The speedboats linking Siem Riep with Phnom Penh used to be basic affairs serving backpackers, but now we're seeing new, sophisticated luxury craft plying the route. It's mainly French ex-pats who are driving the new trade, investing heavily in the area's tourist infrastructure. Our favourite top-end hotel is the newly opened Heritage Suites (i-escape.com/heritagesuiteshotel.php), but the budget Hanuman Alaya (i-escape.com/hanumanalaya.php) is no less charming.
ALASTAIR SAWDAY
Publisher, Special Places to Stay accommodation guides
When I read about Count Kalnoky's Romanian guesthouses (transylvaniancastle.com/kalnoky.html) I was so excited I almost had to be restrained. They were mostly built in the 1800s and have been beautifully restored to keep their Transylvanian character, with big gardens and storks nesting on nearby rooftops. There are woodstoves, luscious bathrooms, a sauna and billiard room and a sense of distance.
Miklosvar is a remote village with little infrastructure. There may be an occasional electricity failure and the village streets remain unpaved and pot-holed. Perhaps it is a bit crude to want to enjoy something so removed from the experiences of the local people. But a combination of a country so long ignored and troubled, and a great house of such character, is hard not to long for.
HERBERT YPMA
Creator, Hip Hotels
Tangalle in Sri Lanka must surely be one of the few remaining secrets the Indian Ocean has left to offer. Guests at the new Amanwella resort (amanresorts.com) get three things: a beautiful beach all to themselves; architecture and design inspired by Sri Lanka's legendary Geoffrey Bawa; and the level of personal indulgence and luxury that Aman has specialised in.
I'd also like to go to the Maldives, which is very underrated as a family destination. Each resort is on its own island so you can't lose your kids, and the water isn't deep. At resorts such as Soneva Fushi (sixsenses.com) they can cycle around the island, watch films on the sand and stay in a room that has a slide into a swimming pool. For those with a taste for contemporary luxury and a short attention span, I'd recommend the W Retreat & Spa (starwoodhotels.com/whotels). With three vastly different restaurants, god knows how many bars, a spa complex that looks like something out of an architecture competition, it's a tiny little power house of an island.
THE ADVENTURERS
AMANDA MARKS
Managing director, fair-trade travel company Tribes
There's a lot of really good stuff going on in Zambia at the moment. It has always been known for its walking safaris but there's much more than that, from boating safaris on the Zambesi to excellent fishing. The lodges are fantastic, the guiding is wonderful, it's properly wild and a lot of tourism is done ethically, from safaris with people like Robin Pope and Norman Carr, to smaller operators - and the anti-poaching measures in Zambia are great.
I'm planning to take my family to South Africa in the summer. We're going to the Pafuri Camp (pafuri.com) in the northern part of the Kruger National Park, which is ideal for walking safaris. I know my sons, who are seven and 10, will love it. We're then going to the Shiluvari Lake Lodge by the Limpopo. The Venda tribe live there and it's home to lots of artists.
JONNY BEALBY
Founder, adventure travel company Wild Frontiers
I am looking forward to the colourful Shandor Polo Festival in northern Pakistan which, combined with a short walk in the Hindu Kush, will represent a classic adventure trip. We'll be running a trip there in July. At 3,800m, it's the highest polo ground in the world and I've heard it's an extraordinary spectacle. Chitral and Gilgit - the Man United and Liverpool of Pakistani polo - come together for three days of competition ending in a grudge match overseen by the president and 20,000 fanatical locals. With canvas tents, campfires and various sideshows and events, it's a scene that resembles the eve of some medieval battle.
HILARY BRADT
Founder, Bradt Travel Guides
From 1 April all pensioners in England can travel free on local buses in any area of the country. So in spring my friend and I will see if we can travel all the way from Land's End to the Wash without paying. We expect to augment the bus travel with a spot of hitchhiking. The route and time taken will be entirely in the lap of the gods.
Travel trends for 2008? My hunch is that more people will want to go on expedition cruises rather than conventional ones. Silversea Cruises (silversea.com) is adding a small (150 passengers) ship to its fleet, but this will visit unusual destinations and use Zodiacs (inflatable boats) to land in remote areas and uninhabited islands.
CHARLIE HOPKINSON
Director, overland expedition company, Dragoman
Our overland trip from Istanbul to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan is selling phenomenally well for 2008. But it's the Georgia part of the trip that we're excited about. It's a stunning country - like Europe 50 years ago. Our trip includes Georgian home stays with local families, plenty of Georgian wine and food, and walks in the Caucasus.
Our demographics are changing at Dragoman. The 40-plus market has taken off. The average age of the next St Petersburg trip, for example, is 43. Whereas the younger traveller still comes to us saying they want to follow the well-trodden hedonistic path used by their peers, the older travellers are looking for challenging trips, through challenging terrain. We're having to look at our programmes to cater for this demographic - more hotels and less camping, and shorter hours on the road - removing the rough edges.
THE HEDONISTS
PETE TONG
DJ
The new Fasano Hotel in Rio (fasano.com.br) has become a home from home for me since it opened on Ipanema beach last summer. It's almost perfect, not too over-styled, just how you would want your own apartment. I will be staying there in February for the carnival. I will also be travelling to Sao Paulo and Curitiba in south-east Brazil. It's all part of the Bacardi B-Live global music and cultural exchange, where artists collaborate to give local singer-songwriters the chance to work with internationally renowned musicians. For next summer, Mykonos is the hot clubbing destination. Its beauty blows me away. One of the two hottest clubs there is Cavo Paradiso (cavoparadiso.gr), on the top of a hill with an awe-inspiring view. The party goes on all night and until the middle of the next day, with partygoers spreading down the cliffs all the way down to the other hot club, the Paradise Club (paradiseclub-mykonos.com).
TREMAYNE CAREW POLE
Publisher, Hedonist's Guides
I had an amazing time in Sierra Leone - it's got the most beautiful beaches, big game fishing, elephants, leopards and lions, and it's just a six-hour flight from London. The infrastructure is very basic but it's one to watch. Otherwise the Central Asian 'stans', especially Kazakhstan, are very interesting right now. We launched a Hedonist's Guide to Almaty in November. It's where Moscow was 10 years ago, very exciting and vibrant, with that slight air of Russian decadence because of all the petro-dollars floating through. The nightlife is meant to be fantastic and on the doorstep is a wild, rugged land of steppes, mountains and lakes.
NEIL GREENWAY
Creator, efestivals.co.uk
British festivals are set for a tricky 2008 - this year's atrocious summer means people will probably wait to see what the weather's like before booking. I'm going to Wychwood and Guilfest because they're small, friendly and civilised. Endorse It (lgofestivals.com) in Dorset (8-10 August) is a crap name, but a nice festival with lots of ska and reggae and an old-style feel, as if a group of friends have put up a stage in a field. Festivals abroad are growing in stature, especially in Eastern Europe. Tickets to Opener (opener.pl) in Gdansk, Poland (4 -6 July) cost £40, which means you can buy a ticket, fly there and get drunk all weekend for the cost of a ticket to Reading - and it has most of the same acts.
RALPH MOORE
Assistant editor, Mixmag
If you want cutting-edge electronic music, the next place to blow (after Berlin of course) will be Bucharest, Romania. The biggest techno record across Europe this summer was a remix of St Germain's 'Rose Rouge' by Raresh, a young Romanian DJ who is leading the charge in Bucharest, along with Rhadoo and Petre Ispirescu. There's an excitement in the city because they are discovering quality techno for the first time. Our spies tell us that the key clubs are Krystal Glam (clubkristal.ro) and Webclub (thewebclub.ro), which are visited by Ibiza/Cocoon DJ legends such as Luciano and Ricardo Villalobos. I haven't been yet, but it's definitely on the agenda for 2008.
THE ETHICAL TRAVELLERS
MARK SMITH
Creator, rail information website Seat61.com
This year we'll see Amsterdam becoming a European rail destination to rival Paris and Brussels. Since the high-speed line to the Channel Tunnel was completed in November, you've been able to hop on a Eurostar in central London, make one quick change in Brussels, and reach Amsterdam in about five-and-a-half hours, with no airport blues. But a new high-speed line across the Netherlands, opening late next year, will cut London-Amsterdam to four hours 10 minutes, city centre to city centre, changing in Brussels. You can also now combine the city with Prague, Vienna, Milan, Copenhagen or Warsaw, thanks to the recent launch of new 'City Night Line' sleeper services from Amsterdam (bahn.de/citynightline).
GREG STEVENSON
Owner, Under the Thatch, an ethical cottage rental company
I set up Under the Thatch in Wales to preserve traditional buildings and local communities. I'd love to do something similar in Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria. Property developers - many of them British - have been buying up 10 houses at a time, wonderful stone-tiled buildings. They're either being left empty and will eventually rot, or being modernised really badly. At Under the Thatch, we restore sensitively and drop the prices until the cottages fill, so we can employ people all year round. In Bulgaria there's a risk that buildings that have been preserved by poverty will be ruined by people who see it as the new Costa del Sol.
LUCY SIEGLE
Ethical columnist, The Observer
This year we'll see a rise in the standard and variety of homegrown 'eco-ware' hotels. The Andaz (formerly the Great Eastern) on Liverpool Street is at the vanguard (andaz.com). It has a fairtrade purchasing policy, intelligent lighting, a super-duper heating system and water reduction policy, and it sources food and drinks locally. All of which means you can have a break in the city without leaving a footprint the size of greater London.
Travellers are beginning to realise that the term 'no-frills airline' is shorthand for 'intense misery', what with the security queues, the being barked at like an errant two-year-old, and the cancellations - never mind the carbon emissions. This really could be the age of the train. I quite fancy a 'deluxe compartment' on the Danube Express (danube-express.com). Billed as a luxury 'hotel on wheels', from May it will run from Budapest to cities including Istanbul, Prague, Krakow and Berlin, pulled by a modern, electric locomotive.
SIAN BERRY
Green Party candidate for Mayor of London
I've spent much of 2007 travelling around the UK doing research for my book, 50 Ways to Greener Travel. I have noticed a huge swing towards people taking domestic holidays in the old-school places: seaside resorts and national parks. We have the most stunning coastline, beaches and countryside in the world. It's a pity the train companies aren't doing much about high fares and complicated booking procedures. Though if you take a carful of people, it's as efficient for your carbon footprint as travelling by train.
More and more people I know are planning to take the train to Europe. Even my non-green friends are turning their backs on low-cost flying, keen to rediscover the romance of rail travel. Can there be anything more romantic than a sleeper cabin? And some of them are even talking about InterRailing in 2008, now it's open to all ages. Personally, I'd love to go to Copenhagen - the cycling capital of Europe.
THE LUXURY LOVERS
GLEN DONOVAN
Founder, luxury travel company Earth
I'm very excited by Brazil. We've discovered some great new boats - converted fishing boats, not gin palaces, with just six to eight cabins - which you can hire to travel along the smaller tributaries of the Amazon.
Warapuru (warapuru.com), the new Anouska Hempel hotel on the coast at Itacare in Bahia, opens next year. We're hoping it will kickstart a wave of Aman-style small boutique hotels. The hotel will have 40 pavilions tucked away in the rainforest with a spa and a beach club. I'm also likely to be spending a lot of time on the Gower Peninsula in Wales in 2008 - I've just bought a ruined barn there. The beaches are different from Brazil's but, in their own way, just as staggering.
MELINDA STEVENS
Travel editor, Tatler
Of course there will be fresh places on the up which will be exciting to visit this year, but there are also some old favourites which have strapped on their dancing shoes and are ready to jig. Thailand, for example, has been in and out of fashion since before the Vietnam War, but this year it's going crazy, with a mass of upmarket hotel openings including the splashiest of the lot, Soneva Kiri on Koh Kood (sixsenses.com) scheduled to open by the end of 2008, with its massive private villas, personal butlers and knockout beach. The Soneva properties are all about eco-cool, but it doesn't stop them from being the most indulgent places on the planet.
WENDY KENNEALLY
Senior product manager, long-haul specialist Kuoni Travel
Bali is seeing a return to popularity, with business up by 26 per cent for 2008 so far. The country offers a superb combination of fascinating culture, beautiful beaches and excellent service. At the top end, the private villas of the Chedi Club (ghmhotels.com) - a former tea estate among rice paddies - or the lavish Ritz-Carlton (ritzcarlton.com), which has been renovated, are noteworthy, while there are also some wonderful options inland such as The Alila Ubud (alilahotels.com).
India is also booming for 2008. We are seeing an increase in boutique properties with a twist, such as tea estates, small palaces which are run by descendents of the royal families, as well as luxury tented accommodation.
PHILIP HAMILTON-GRIERSON
Marketing director, luxury tour operator Cox & Kings
We're particularly excited about a luxury train we're launching in India in the autumn. It will travel from Mumbai to Kolkata and run year round, offering affordable luxury and visiting major places of interest en route, such as Varanasi and Delhi. It's like a cruise on land - you have the benefit of keeping your things in one place yet seeing a lot of the country. We're also offering a new boat in the Galapagos Islands called La Pinta, starting in March. It claims to be the most luxurious vessel in the region and is good news as the Americans tend to block-book boats, making availability tight. There's a restriction on numbers visiting the Galapagos, so it will become an increasingly exclusive destination.
ESCAPE'S PICKS
JOANNE O'CONNOR
Escape editor
I've just finished reading Philip Pullman's Northern Lights and am now obsessed with the idea of seeing the Aurora Borealis. This winter, tour operators Black Tomato and Original Travel are starting tours to Svalbard, a remote archipelago inside the Arctic Circle where there are almost as many polar bears as humans. I want to go dog-sledding under the northern lights and enjoy a pint in the northernmost pub in the world. After that, I might need some sunshine, so I'll head to Turkey to walk the Lycian Way. There are some lovely guesthouses opening along this coastal route to cater for walkers. Exclusive Escapes has a good selection, and for 2008 it can arrange stays with locals in traditional village houses.
TOM HALL
Travel editor, Lonely Planet
Bmi's takeover of the routes and fleet of BMed (British Mediterranean Airways) has got me interested in using two of their more unusual routes to visit Syria. An open-jaw trip into Damascus, below, and out of Aleppo would get any traveller's mouth watering. Damascus's Old City and Umayyad Mosque for starters, then Palymra's enormous Roman ruins, the Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers, and finishing with a few days getting lost in Aleppo's souks. For somewhere different, Yemen is an increasingly accessible trip for anyone with a nose for an under-rated Arabian adventure - and there won't be a chintzy Dubai-style hotel complex in sight.
TOM ROBBINS
Escape deputy editor
Last winter, the ski industry was obsessed with exploring ever more exotic slopes, from Japan to Alaska, Kashmir and Kamchatka. But this year things are turning full circle - the real trend is the rediscovery of the tiny, traditional mountain villages of the Alps. Perhaps it's because of the best early-season snow in Europe for more than a decade, combined with a growing aversion to long-haul flights and the over-crowded pistes of the mega-resorts.
Swiss villages such as Lenzerheide, Grimentz, Vals and St Peter, for example, once dismissed as too small for anyone but families and learners, are now drawing advanced skiers looking for powder fields that don't get tracked out by others within an hour of the lifts opening. Young companies like Snowmotions (00 41 76 345 6292; snowmotions.com) are specialising in such villages and also offer guides to take guests on long off-piste tours from hamlet to hamlet, without another soul in sight.