The top 21 places to travel in 2018
This year will be one for the books, with new over-the-top adventures, spectacular hotel openings, and must-see events.
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Every year, Robb Report circles the globe to uncover the up-and-coming destinations that will make for a year of amazing travel. This year will be one for the books, with new over-the-top adventures from Iceland to Antarctica, spectacular hotel openings from Cambodia to Napa Valley, and must-see events from Buenos Aires to South Korea. Whether your wanderlust has you craving a new city experience, a stunning island escape, or a safari getaway unlike any other, these 21 destinations are sure to keep you travelling in style all year long.
## Napa Valley
It may sound foolish to call Napa Valley lucky. The revered wine country seemed anything but in October, when wildfires ravaged more than 200,000 acres in Northern California, claiming thousands of homes and dozens of lives. But when the flames were finally doused and the smoke at last cleared, the valley floor, as if by some divine intervention, remained virtually untouched. Though surrounded by seared slopes and scorched trees, Napa itself — along with its scenic vineyards and glamorous resorts — appeared, however implausibly, as picturesque as ever.
Luck aside, Napa Valley has the resilience of its dedicated citizens and first responders to thank for its good fortune. A passionate committee of leaders, vintners, and luminaries, including everyone from chef Thomas Keller to designer Ken Fulk, banded together to support the people and places affected by the fires. Now the illustrious valley has but one message for the world: We’re back — and with a host of new reasons to visit.
On the culinary front, the talk of the valley is, not surprisingly, Thomas Keller, whose Michelin three-star French Laundry recently debuted a sleek revamp by the Oslo-based architecture firm Snøhetta. But there are plenty of new arrivals demanding attention too, from Christopher Kostow’s elevated-casual Charter Oak to Chris Cosentino’s refined Acacia House. Adding to the momentum is Harlan, whose elegant new Promontory is the revered wine-making family’s first endeavor to offer public tastings.
Hot hotel happenings are in abundance as well. Las Alcobas Napa Valley, a Luxury Collection Hotel, is the brightest new spot in the valley, with 68 spacious oak-filled guest rooms and suites (all with private terraces). Yountville’s Vintage House is basking in the glow of a recent renovation that brings a French-country-house vibe to its 80 bungalow-style rooms. The notable debuts will continue into this year, with Four Seasons Resort and Private Residences Napa Valley unveiling 20 homes — and eventually a neighboring hotel — among the vineyards of Calistoga’s Silverado Trail.
## Buenos Aires
Move over Miami — the Americas have a new art-world darling. This year, Buenos Aires is claiming the cultural spotlight as the first host of Art Basel Cities, a new global initiative from the giants behind the world’s biggest art fairs that will spotlight the Argentinean capital’s local arts scenes.
The multiyear partnership kicked off in November with the launch of the Art Basel Cities House, a venue set among the galleries and cafés of the chic Retiro district that will host events and workshops throughout 2018. The art cognoscenti are already marking their calendars for September, when Art Basel Cities will host a weeklong program directed by curator Cecilia Alemani of High Line Art in New York. The event will highlight more than 80 galleries across Buenos Aires, as well as emerging art and design districts like La Boca and Barracas.
Adding to the events are expansion projects throughout the city, the largest of which is a US$200 ($A251) million port improvement that aims to turn Buenos Aires into South America’s premier cruising hub. Next door, Puerto Madero is gentrifying with the Alvear Icon, a slick new hotel created by the owners of the city’s grande dame, Alvear Palace. And in Barrio Norte, the new 113-room MGallery by Sofitel is opening this summer between two 18th-century structures, embodying the city’s heady mix of old and new.
## Lake Lucerne
Something big has been brewing above Lake Lucerne. Nine years and more than US$500 ($A628) million in the making, Bürgenstock Resort — the historic Swiss hideaway that once lured the likes of Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn — has been reborn as a sprawling lakefront complex unlike anything Europe has ever seen. This spring, a grand event will celebrate the full-scale opening of the 148-acre project, which comprises four hotels, 12 restaurants and bars, a nine-hole golf course, private residences, and a state-of-the-art wellness center.
Among the options at Bürgenstock are the 19th-century Palace Hotel, which has been restored and renovated to its former glory; the gleaming Bürgenstock Hotel, whose 102 contemporary rooms and suites are dressed in Arana marble and American walnut; and the just-opened Waldhotel, which features one of Switzerland’s most comprehensive medical spas, with wide-ranging programs that span from preventive medicine to post-op recovery. For active types, Bürgenstock also offers championship tennis courts, a curling rink, seven helipads, a private lido, and 70 km of hiking and biking trails.
## St. Barts
St. Barts was shaping up to have a landmark 2017. New hotels were opening up left and right, giving long-established favorites like Eden Rock and Isle de France some friendly competition. The St. Barth Gourmet Festival was preparing for another impressive year, with an all-star chef lineup that would be presided over by Paris’s Eric Frechon. And next-generation restaurants like Guy Martin’s Aux Amis and Saint-Tropez offshoot Shellona were breathing new life into the island’s culinary scene. Then Irma happened. The Category 5 hurricane made landfall on the French Caribbean isle last September, wreaking havoc on its most beloved haunts and hideaways.
But St. Barts is banking on a victorious comeback in 2018. With most shops and restaurants already open for business and many of the top villa rentals currently taking reservations, the island’s glitzy nautical events — including March’s Bucket Regatta and April’s Les Voiles de Saint Barth — will go on as planned. Colombier newcomer Villa Marie Saint-Barth and Hotel Christoper St. Barth will reopen their doors in time for both events. More progress will come this summer, when Grand Cul-de-Sac’s Le Guanahani will unveil an upgraded look. The biggest openings, however, will come at the end of the year, when Hotel Le Toiny relaunches with eight new villas (each with its own private pool) and the hilltop Hôtel Barrière Le Carl Gustaf makes its highly anticipated debut with an outpost of France’s Le Fouquet’s restaurant and a Biologique Recherche spa. In true St. Barts style, every opening is sure to be a fashionable fête.
## Antarctica
Don’t fear the Drake Passage. The notorious stretch of sea that lies between the tip of South America and Antarctica is as legendary as it is mercurial — treacherous one day, smooth as glass the next — but a necessary evil for those who wish to see the Southern Continent. This year, however, new ships are taking travellers across the Drake in so much style, a little tussle with the waves might just go unnoticed.
Taking Antarctic adventures to new heights — and depths — is the 200-passenger Scenic Eclipse, which will debut in August with two helicopters, a seven-passenger submarine, and 12 custom Zodiacs for polar exploration, as well as onboard luxuries like a spa, an indoor swimming pool, and butler service. Meanwhile, Silversea’s new Silver Cloud Expedition is making waves of its own with a 1-to-1 crew-to-passenger ratio and a Relais & Châteaux restaurant. Also launching this year are French cruise line Ponant’s first two ice-class Explorers ships, Le Champlain and Le Laperouse, both of which will feature underwater lounges that immerse passengers in the views — and sounds — of the surrounding waters.
For those who wish to bypass the Drake altogether, a pair of new private-jet journeys is bringing travelers to the seventh continent by way of the sky. Naya Traveller’s high-flying adventure takes guests on an 8-day itinerary that includes stops in the South Pole and the emperor-penguin-filled Atka Bay, and overnight accommodations in luxe igloos. And for a quickie touchdown amid the White Desert, book Natural World Safaris’ One Day Antarctica Adventure charter, which jets travellers in for 8 hours of exploration among the continent’s epic landscapes.
## Cambodia
No visit to Cambodia would be complete without a trip to Angkor Wat, but this year you’ll want to venture farther into the country than ever before, from its remote rain forests to its isolated islands. The Koh Rong archipelago has earned its Cambodian Riviera nickname for its recent influx of luxury beach resorts, the newest of which are the Six Senses Krabey Island — a 40-villa retreat set to debut in August on a 30-acre private isle — and Alila Villas Koh Russey, opening later this year with 50 pavilions and 13 private residences. On the mainland, Cardamom National Park will be the rain-forest home of hospitality designer extraordinaire Bill Bensley’s Shinta Mani Wild, an ambitious and utterly over-the-top safari-style camp with 16 tents implausibly perched over a kilometre-long stretch of river and waterfalls. There’s news in the cities, too: Rosewood Phnom Penh will debut early this year in a glistening tower above the Mekong River, and for a luxurious option on your Angkor Wat stop, Bensley’s new Shinta Mani Angkor features 10 villas, each with its own private pool and garden.
## New Orleans
The Big Easy is turning 300 this year, and it’s celebrating in appropriately big style. The Southern Creole city — which was founded in 1718 by the French-Canadian explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville — will honour its Tricentennial with a year’s worth of events, openings, and citywide improvements, from a much-needed makeover of Bourbon Street and a US$100 ($A125) million riverfront revitalisation to the debut of the Sazerac House, a museum devoted entirely to the locally revered cocktail.
Celebrate by checking into the recently reopened Pontchartrain Hotel, the Garden District’s circa-1927 grande dame that has been reborn as an elegant blend of old NOLA and new luxury with restored Charles Reinike murals and antique furnishings. The local culinary scene is heating up, too, with Top Chef Nina Compton’s Caribbean-eclectic Compère Lapin and James Beard Award finalist Isaac Toups’s Cajun-fusion Toups South leading a smart revival in elevated dining. And keeping the tricentennial party going well into the future are two major developments: The Louis Armstrong International Airport’s US$917 million ($A1.15 billion) César Pelli–designed terminal and, across town, a Four Seasons hotel and residences that will revitalise the city’s former World Trade Center complex.
## Rwanda
Until recently, Rwanda wasn’t on many must-see safari lists. But this year, the beautiful country with a heartbreaking past is bursting onto the African travel scene with a trio of new luxury lodges — the first of which is Wilderness’s innovative Bisate Lodge — and a fresh approach to the safari experience.
## Mexico City
This year, Mexico City becomes the first destination in the Americas to be named the World Design Capital. The honor is not to be taken lightly: The yearlong event will not only draw world-class exhibitions and innovators, but will also cement the Mexican capital’s standing as a mecca for the arts.
The 2018 program will focus on socially responsible design, with an emphasis on creating more livable, international cities. Utterly international — if not always livable — Mexico City has given the design faithful plenty to hold dear in the last few years, with contemporary museums like the avant-garde Museo Jumex and fairs like Zona Maco adding to the long-revered local scene established by such institutions as Casa Luis Barragán and Casa Azul. Design is also part of the package at hotels like Las Alcobas Mexico City — a Yabu Pushelberg creation that will debut a host of renovations later this year — and Hotel Habita (hotelhabita.com), a sleek boutique in upscale Polanco. Even the culinary scene comes with a touch of the inventive, whether it’s “living mole” at Enrique Olvera’s recent revival of Pujol or mezcal cocktails topped with ants at Fifty Mils, the new speakeasy-style bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Mexico City.
## South Korea
South Korea may not be the Korea on your mind these days — but it should be. Next month, the country will claim the world spotlight as the host of the 23rd Olympic Winter Games. In preparation, the sleepy northern ski town of Pyeongchang has reinvented itself, spending US$10 ($A12.5) billion on futuristic new sporting venues and sleek hotels, including the 238-room InterContinental Alpensia Pyeongchang Resort and the nearby Richard Meier–designed Seamarq. A new high-speed rail line linking the mountain retreat tothe capital city of Seoul in less than an hour is also making it easy to access the games with a side of après-culture. But the reasons to visit South Korea won’t end with the last medal ceremony: This year also marks the debut of Jeju Shinhwa World, an expansive resort development on idyllic Jeju Island that will eventually be home to luxury residences, entertainment venues, and a new Four Seasons resort.
## Shanghai
Is there ever a quiet moment in Shanghai? China’s fabulously frenetic metropolis seems to be in a perpetual state of advancement, and this year it’s firing on all cylinders. From the leafy boulevards of the French Concession to the towering skyscrapers of Pudong, it seems every corner of this captivating city has something new for travellers.
## Iceland
You may know Iceland best for its volcanoes, glaciers, and geysers, but this year the country is cultivating a more cosmopolitan side. No longer a mere pit stop en route to the sky-dancing Northern Lights or brooding ice caves, Reykjavík is becoming an attraction in its own right.
Visitors to the Icelandic capital can choose from sleek new properties including the Sandhotel — a 52-room boutique with an eclectic style that fits somewhere between Scandinavian cool, Danish hygge, and Art Deco chic — and the exclusive Tower Suites, a collection of eight high-design accommodations decorated with furnishings by Tom Dixon, Fritz Hansen, and Moooi. Later this year, the Reykjavik Edition will debut, claiming a coveted location next to the sparkling glass Harpa Concert Hall.
A craft-cocktail scene has also taken hold in Reykjavík, with establishments like Apotek and Loftið leading a spirited revolution. And come spring, the forefather of New Nordic cuisine, René Redzepi, will open a pop-up of his legendary Noma in the city.
Of course, Iceland remains first and foremost the Land of Ice and Fire, and new offerings among the country’s many natural wonders are elevating the great outdoors as well. Set to open in April, the Retreat at Blue Lagoon Iceland will bring an upscale experience to the well-known geothermal hot springs of Grindavík, with 62 modern suites and a subterranean spa. Most intriguing of all is the exclusive-use Eldar Lodge, a hidden-away gem nestled among the geysers of south Iceland, featuring six suites, a private chef, a wine cellar, a helipad, and two geothermal baths.
## Toronto
Canada was the talk of the travel scene last year, when the country honored its 150th anniversary with 365 days of celebrations from coast to coast. But in Toronto, the party is just getting started. This spring, the Ontario capital’s well-established cultural scene will expand anew with the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, a 5,100-square-metre institution set within a long-abandoned industrial building in the burgeoning Junction Triangle. Phase one of the city’s ambitious Bentway — an urban-park project combining art and exhibition space across seven neighborhoods — is also slated for completion this year. And come September, when T-Dot is flooded with celebs and cinephiles for the annual Toronto International Film Festival, three new hotels will be open for business: the 44-story Bisha Hotel, with its glamorous design and rooftop pool; the sprawling Hotel X (hotelxtoronto.com), an “urban resort” leading downtown’s lakefront expansion; and the Kimpton Hotel Toronto, set in the heart of upscale Yorkville.
## Hamburg
Forget about edgy Berlin and beer-loving Munich — Hamburg is the German city to see in 2018. For evidence that this northern port city is on the rise, look no further than the Elbphilharmonie, the striking Herzog & de Meuron–designed concert hall that opened last year on the Elbe River. After countless delays and controversial budget increases, the sail-shaped venue is finally making good on its promise to put Hamburg on Europe’s modern cultural map, presenting dozens of sold-out performances in the months since it opened.
But the Elphi, as locals refer to it, isn’t Hamburg’s only modern marvel. The late Zaha Hadid designed the city’s newly completed River Promenade, a rippling walkway that winds along the Elbe, connecting many of the city’s restaurants, shops, and cultural attractions. Just north along the sparkling Alster Lake, the Fontenay Hamburg — scheduled to open this month—is being heralded as Germany’s most anticipated hotel debut in recent memory, for both its spellbinding architecture and its top-notch amenities, including a 1,000-square-metre La Mer spa and a restaurant by the Michelin-starred chef Cornelius Speinle. Also new to the hotel scene, the Sir Nikolai opened in June, bringing a stylish vibe of its own — think bohemian chandeliers and Art Deco bar carts — to one of the city’s oldest canals.
## Valletta
Though it looks more like a Game of Thrones setting than a modern cultural hub, Valletta is Europe’s of-the-moment destination for 2018. The Maltese capital — whose winding 16th-century streets have indeed served as the backdrop for several of the HBO series’s scenes — has been named the European Capital of Culture 2018. The smallest city yet to earn the distinction, Valletta is no doubt deserving: The UNESCO World Heritage site is a seamless combination of old and new, its baroque churches and Renaissance piazzas balanced by modern masterpieces like Renzo Piano’s Valletta City Gate and the soon-to-open MUŻA museum.
The city, along with select locations throughout Malta, will host more than 140 projects and 400 events over the next 12 months, including February’s Carnival, April’s Design and Technology Expo, and June’s Valletta Film Festival and Malta International Arts Festival.
Making way for the influx of visitors this year are a number of new high-design hotels, the most impressive of which is the historic Phoenicia, which reopened last year after a renovation by hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray. Elsewhere, the city’s baroque mansions are being converted into stylish boutique properties, including the eight-suite Casa Ellul and the ornate Palazzo Consiglia. Not to be outdone, Valletta’s longstanding luxury stalwart the Corinthia Palace Hotel recently unveiled a collection of new Signature Suites with private terraces overlooking the city.
## Israel
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have long been considered Israel’s two poles: The former is embedded in its past, while the latter is hurtling toward its future. For 2018, however, the country’s major cities are trading places.
In Jerusalem, new hotels and emerging events are encouraging a savvy breed of pilgrims to look beyond its sacred sites. Just steps from HaTachana — a former railway turned trendy shopping and dining space — the new Orient Jerusalem is offering a chic boutique alternative to the city’s staid luxury hotels. Nearby, an Ottoman-era villa has been converted into Villa Brown, another fashionable property with its finger on the city’s modern pulse. That pulse will be racing in June, when the annual Jerusalem Design Week brings some of the world’s top creatives to the City of David.
In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, the city’s contemporary streak is taking a retro turn. In the revitalised port neighborhood of Jaffa, the new W Tel Aviv – Jaffa (starwoodhotels.com) will soon open within a former 19th-century convent and hospital. Nearby, the Setai Tel Aviv has claimed its own ancient abode in a carefully restored 13th-century structure set along the rugged Jaffa coast. Farther north, Dizengoff Square is getting the throwback treatment as well, with a meticulous restoration that will bring the Bauhaus landmark back to its beginnings as the city’s social hub.
## Botswana
Botswana’s abundant wildlife, private reserves, and stable political system have helped make the southern African country an eminently popular — and excessively expensive — safari destination. Now, new lodgings are bringing the country’s level of accommodation up to that of the on-the-ground experience, leaving no doubt that Botswana is Africa’s safari spot to beat.
Leading the charge is Great Plains Conservation’s Duba Plains, where a five-suite camp and an elegant two-bedroom residence opened last spring in a 77,000-acre private reserve rich with lions, Cape buffalo, and elephants. Luxury adventure at its best, the Okavango Delta escape complements Great Plains’ Zarafa, a five-suite retreat in the Selinda Reserve whose 2008 debut helped set Botswana on its upward spiral of exclusivity.
Another standard-bearer in southern Africa, Wilderness Safaris opened the eight-suite Qorokwe camp in the southeastern Okavango Delta in December. The company is also in the process of renovating its Mombo and Little Mombo camps — once considered Botswana’s definitive safari lodges — and reopening them in March in a prime location in the Okavango’s Moremi Game Reserve. Elsewhere in the Okavango, the outfitter andBeyond reopened its Nxabega Okavango Tented Camp last June, Belmond renovated its renowned Eagle Island Lodge, and Sanctuary Retreats reopened its Sanctuary Chief’s Camp with the new 620-square-metres — and as much as US$12,000 ($A15,070)-per-night—Geoffrey Kent Luxury Suite.
## Newport
The 13th Volvo Ocean Race will crisscross four oceans, six continents, and 83,340 kilometre before it reaches its final destination in the Hague this June. But the legendary around-the-world sailing competition will make only one North American stop, and that’s in the sailing mecca of Newport, R.I. For 2 weeks in May, the tony New England town will become ground zero for the seafaring extravaganza, playing host to the end of leg eight (a 10,556-kilometre journey originating in Itajaí, Brazil) and the beginning of leg nine (a transatlantic stretch culminating in Cardiff, Wales). In between, visitors to Newport’s race village can watch in-port practice sprints between the world’s most skilled sailors. For the best port views, stay at the new Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina on Goat Island, just opposite the race village.
## St. Kitts
The buzz around St. Kitts’s Christophe Harbour has waxed and waned for years. The 2,500-acre development has been promising since 2014 to turn its West Indies home into the Caribbean’s newest hot spot. That finally might happen this year, as the harbor at last reaches a critical mass thanks to recent debuts including a marina village and the Park Hyatt St. Kitts. The former is home to 25 berths (including a handful that can accommodate superyachts up to 76 metres), as well as new boutiques, galleries, and a beachside bar. The latter, which opened in November on a golden stretch of Banana Bay, brings to the island the Caribbean’s first Miraval Life in Balance Spa. There’s more to come this year, with a Tom Fazio–designed golf course, dozens of million-dollar villas and residences, and the 1,020-square-metres Customs House (a VIP port of entry for the yachting crowd that will include a fitness centre, lounge, and marina operations post), all ensuring that the St. Kitts buzz swells well into 2019.
## Marrakech
Marrakech doesn’t need a Bilbao effect — but it might get one anyway. The Moroccan city, which was already a hit for its enchanting medina and colorful Jardin Majorelle, welcomed in October the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, a 3,995-square-metre museum devoted entirely to the work of the fashion icon for whom it’s named. Located just a few steps from the Majorelle — Saint Laurent’s former estate that recently renovated its Berber Museum and Villa Oasis (the residence he shared with his partner in life and business, Pierre Bergé) — the ochre-coloured institution showcases thousands of sketches and couture designs. The new museum is sure to send the fashion set flocking to Marrakech, where they will have no shortage of places to stay, including the new Oberoi, Marrakech, slated for a spring debut, and the forthcoming Grace Marrakech.
## Russia
Current events aside, Russia is rife with reasons for a visit this year. As host of both the 2018 FIFA World Cup and an annual Formula 1 Grand Prix, the nation is working hard to remind travellers of the intrigue and appeal that lie beyond the heated headlines.
“Russia has been investing heavily in tourism, infrastructure, and renovations, spending a lot of time and money to get it ready for visitors,” says Jaclyn Sienna India, founder of the luxury outfitter Sienna Charles, which offers bespoke trips to the country. For U.S. travellers attending the World Cup, India notes that Russia’s typically involved entry process will become markedly easier — the country is waiving its visa requirements for attendees of the sporting event who visit between June 14 and July 15. Beyond that, booking with an in-the-know expert who has on-the-ground connections is imperative. Sienna Charles can organise such VIP experiences as after-hours museum and gallery tours, dinners in private palaces, exclusive visits to traditional bathhouses, and, of course, tickets to this year’s sporting events.
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Watch of the Week: the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon
The Altiplano claims the throne as the world’s thinnest Tourbillon.
Piaget has once again redefined the meaning of the words “ultra-thin” in watchmaking thanks to its newest masterpiece, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon—the world’s thinnest tourbillon watch.
In the world of high-watchmaking where thin is never thin enough—just look at the on-going ‘battle of the thinnest’ between Piaget, Bulgari, and Richard Mille—Piaget caused a furore at Watches & Wonders in Geneva when it unveiled its watchmaking feat to coincide with the Maison’s 150th year anniversary.
Piaget will say that the new Altiplano is “shaped by a quest for elegance and driven by inventiveness”, and while this sentiment might be true, it’s clear that the Maison’s high-watchmaking divisions in La Côte-aux-Fées and Geneva are also looking to end the conversation around who owns the ultra-thin watchmaking category.
The new Altiplano evidently pushes the boundaries of horological ingenuity, once again, which comes 67 years after Piaget invented its first ultra-thin calibre—the revered 9P—and six years after the Maison first revealed the world’s then thinnest watch, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept. Now, revealing this unrivalled timepiece at which comes in at just 2mm thick—the same thinness as its predecessor, yet now housing the beat of a flying tourbillon, prized by watchmaking connoisseurs—you can’t help but marvel at its ultra-thin mastery, whether the timepiece is to your liking or not.
In comparison, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon came in at 3.95mm thick when it was unveiled in 2020, which seems huge on paper when compared to what Piaget have been able to produce. But to craft a watch as thin and as groundbreaking as its predecessor, now with an added flying tourbillon complication, the whole watchmaking process had to be revalued, and reinvented.
“We did far more than merely add a tourbillon. We reinvented everything,” says Benjamin Comar, Piaget CEO.
After three years of R&D, trial and error—and a redesign of 90% of the components of the original Altiplano Ultimate Concept—the 2024 Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is a piece that needs to be held and seen simply to be believed. The finishing product certainly isn’t a watch for the everyday watch wearer—although Piaget will tell you otherwise—but in many ways, Piaget didn’t conure a timepiece like the Altiplano as a profit-seeking exercise. Instead, overcoming such an arduous and technical watchmaking feat proves that Piaget, the watchmaker’s watchmaker, can master the flying tourbillon in such a whimsical fashion, and in the process, subvert the current state-of-the-art technical principles by making an impactful visual—and technical—statement.
The only question left to ask is, what’s next, Piaget?
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Model: Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150th Anniversary
Diameter: 41.5 mm
Thickness: 2 mm (crystal included)
Material: M64BC cobalt alloy, blue PVD -treated
Dial: Monobloc Dial; polished round and baton indices, Bâton-shaped hand for the minutes Monobloc disc with a hand for the hours
Water resistance: 20m
Movement: Calibre 970P-UC, one-minute peripheral tourbillon
Winding: Hand-wound
Functions: hours, minutes, and small seconds (time-only)
Power reserve: 40 hours
Availability: Limited production, not numbered
Price: Price on request
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Polar Opposites
A journey north to one of the harshest, remotest spots on Earth couldn’t be more luxurious.
A century ago, an expedition to the North Pole involved dog sleds and explorers in heavy, fur-lined clothes, windburned and famished after weeks of trudging across ice floes, finally planting their nations’ flags in the barren landscape. These days, if you’re a tourist, the only way to reach 90 degrees north latitude, the geographic North Pole, is aboard Le Commandant Charcot, a six-star hotel mated to a massive, 150-metre ice-breaking hull.
My wife, Cathy, and I are among the first group of tourists aboard Ponant’s new expedition icebreaker, the world’s only Polar Class 2–rated cruise ship (of seven levels of ice vessel, second only to research and military vessels in ability to manoeuvre in Arctic conditions). Our arrival on July 14 couldn’t be more different from explorer Robert Peary’s on April 6, 1909. On that date, he reported, he staked a small American flag—sewed by his wife—into the Pole, joined by four Inuits and his assistant, Matthew Henson, a Black explorer from Maine who was with Peary on his two previous Arctic expeditions. (Peary’s claim of being first to the Pole was quickly disputed by another American, Frederick Cook, who insisted he’d spent two days there a year earlier. Scholars now view both claims with skepticism.)
Our 300-plus party’s landing, on Bastille Day, features the captain of the French ship driving around in an all-terrain vehicle with massive wheels and an enormous tricolour flag on the back, guests dressed in stylish orange parkas celebrating on the ice, and La Marseillaise, France’s national anthem, blaring from loudspeakers. After an hour of taking selfies and building snow igloos in the icescape, with temperatures in the relatively balmy low 30s, we head back into our heated sanctuary for mulled wine and freshly baked croissants. Mission accomplished. Flags planted. Now, lunch.
As a kid, I was fascinated by stories of adventurers trying to reach the North Pole without any means of rescue. In the 19th century, most of their attempts ended in disaster—ships getting trapped in the ice, a hydrogen balloon crashing, even cannibalism. It wasn’t until Cook and Peary reportedly set foot there that the race to the North Pole was really on. Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the first to reach the South Pole, in 1911, is credited with being the first to document a trip over the North Pole, which he did in 1926 in the airship Norge. In 1977, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika became the first surface vessel to make it to the North Pole. Since then, only 18 other ships have completed the voyage.
Visiting the North Pole seemed about as likely for me as walking on the Moon. It wasn’t even on my bucket list. Then came Le Commandant Charcot, which was named after France’s most beloved polar explorer and reportedly cost about US$430 million (around $655 million) to build. The irony of visiting one of the planet’s most remote and inhospitable points while travelling in the lap of luxury doesn’t escape me or anyone else I speak with on the voyage. Danie Ferreira, from Cape Town, South Africa, describes it as “an ensemble of contradictions bordering on the absurd”. Ferreira, who is on board with his wife, Suzette, is a veteran of early-explorer-style high-Arctic journeys, months-long treks involving dog sleds and real toil and suffering. He booked this trip to obtain an official North Pole stamp for an upcoming two-volume collection of his photographs, Out in the Cold, documenting his polar adventures. “Reserving the cabin felt like a betrayal of my expeditionary philosophy,” he says with a laugh.
Then, like the rest of us, he embraces the contradictions. “This is like the first time I saw the raw artistry of Cirque du Soleil,” he explains. “Everything is beyond my wildest expectations, unrelatable to anything I’ve experienced.”
The 17-day itinerary launches from the Norwegian settlement of Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the northernmost town in the Arctic Circle, and heads 1,186 nautical miles to the North Pole, then back again. As a floating hotel, the vessel is exceptional: 123 balconied staterooms and suites, the most expensive among them duplexes with butler service (prices range from around $58,000 to $136,000 per person, double occupancy); a spa with a sauna, massage therapists, and aestheticians; a gym and heated indoor pool. The boat weighs more than 35,000 tons, enabling it to break ice floes like “a chocolate bar into little pieces, rather than slice through them”, according to Captain Patrick Marchesseau. Six-metre-wide stainless-steel propellers, he adds, were designed to “chew ice like a blender”.
Marchesseau, a tall, lanky, 40-ish mariner from Brittany, impeccable in his navy uniform but rocking royal-blue boat shoes, proves to be a charming host. Never short of a good quip, he’s one of three experienced ice captains who alternate at the helm of Charcot throughout the year. He began piloting Ponant ships through drifting ice floes in Antarctica in 2009, when he took the helm of Le Diamant, Ponant’s first expedition vessel. “An epic introduction,” Marchesseau calls those early voyages, but the isolated, icebound North Pole aboard a larger, more complicated vessel is potentially an even thornier challenge. “We’ll first sail east where the ice is less concentrated and then enter the pack at 81 degrees,” he tells a lecture hall filled with passengers on day one. “We don’t plan to stop until we get to the North Pole.”
Around us, the majority of the other 101 guests are older French couples; there are also a few extended families, some other Europeans, mostly German and Dutch, as well as 10 Americans. Among the supporting cast are six research scientists and 221 staff, including 18 naturalist guides from a variety of countries.
The first six days are more about the journey than the destination. Cathy and I settle into our comfortable stateroom, enjoy the ocean views from our balcony, make friends with other guests and naturalists, frequent the spa, and indulge in the contemporary French cuisine at Nuna, which is often jarred by ice passing under the hull, as well as at the more casual Sila (Inuit for “sky”). There are the usual cruise events: the officers’ gala, wine pairings, daily French pastries, Broadway-style shows, opera singers and concert pianists. Initially, I worry about “Groundhog Day” setting in, but once we hit patchy ice floes on day two, it’s clear that the polar party is on. The next day, we’re ensconced in the ice pack.
Veterans of Arctic journeys immediately feel at home. Ferreira, often found on the observation deck 15 metres above the ice with his long-lensed cameras, is in his element snapping different patterns and colours of the frozen landscape. “It feels like combining low-level flying with an out-of-body experience,” he says. “Whenever the hull shudders against the ice, I have a reality check.”
“I came back because I love this ice,” adds American Gin Millsap, who with her husband, Jim, visited the North Pole in 2015 aboard the Russian nuclear icebreaker Fifty Years of Victory, which for obvious reasons is no longer a viable option for Americans and many Europeans. “I love the peace, beauty and calmness.”
It is easy to bliss out on the endless barren vistas, constantly morphing into new shapes, contours and shades of white as the weather moves from bright sunshine to howling snowstorms—sometimes within the course of a few hours. I spend a lot of time on the cold, windswept bow, looking at the snow patterns, ridges and rivers flowing within the pale landscape as the boat crunches through the ice. It feels like being in a black-and-white movie, with no colours except the turquoise bottoms of ice blocks overturned by the boat. Beautiful, lonely, mesmerising.
Rather than a solid landmass, the Arctic ice pack is actually millions of square kilometres of ice floes, slowly pushed around by wind and currents. The size varies according to season: this past winter, the ice was at its fifth-lowest level on record, encompassing 14.6 million square kilometres, while during our cruise it was 4.7 million square kilometres, the 10th-lowest summer number on record. There are myriad ice types—young ice, pancake ice, ice cake, brash ice, fast ice—but the two that our ice pilot, Geir-Martin Leinebø, cares about are first-year ice and old ice. The thinness of the former provides the ideal route to the Pole, while the denseness of the aged variety can result in three-to-eight-metre-high ridges that are potentially impassable. Leinebø is no novice: in his day job, he’s the captain of Norway’s naval icebreaker, KV Svalbard, the first Norwegian vessel to reach the North Pole, in 2019.
It’s not a matter of just pointing the boat due north and firing up the engine. Leinebø zigzags through the floes. A morning satellite feed and special software aid in determining the best route; the ship’s helicopter sometimes scouts 65 or so kilometres ahead, and there’s a sonar called the Sea Ice Monitoring System (SIMS). But mostly Leinebø uses his eyes. “You look for the weakest parts of the ice—you avoid the ridges because that means thickness and instead look for water,” he says. “If the ‘water sky’ in the distance is dark, it’s reflecting water like a mirror, so you head in that direction.”
Everyone on the bridge is surprised by the lack of multi-year ice, but with more than a hint of disquietude. Though we don’t have to ram our way through frozen ridges, the advance of climate change couldn’t be more apparent. Environmentalists call the Arctic ice sheet the canary in the coal mine of the planet’s climate change for good reason: it is happening here first. “It’s not right,” mutters Leinebø. “There’s just too much open water for July. Really scary.”
The Arctic ice sheet has shrunk to about half its 1985 size, and as both mariners and scientists on board note, the quality of the ice is deteriorating. “It’s happening faster than our models predicted,” says Marisol Maddox, senior arctic analyst at the Polar Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “We’re seeing major events like Greenland’s ice sheet melting and sliding into the ocean—that wasn’t forecasted until 2070.” The consensus had been that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2050, but many scientists now expect that day to come in the 2030s.
That deterioration, it turns out, is why the three teams of scientists are on the voyage—two studying the ice and the other assessing climate change’s impact on plankton. As part of its commitment to sustainability, Ponant has designed two research labs—one wet and one dry—on a lower deck. “We took the advice of many scientists for equipping these labs,” says Hugues Decamus, Charcot’s chief engineer, clearly proud of the nearly US$12 million facilities.
The combined size of the labs, along with a sonar room, a dedicated server for the scientists, and a meteorological station on the vessel’s top deck, totals 130 square metres—space that could have been used for revenue generation. Ponant also has two staterooms reserved for scientists on each voyage and provides grants for travel expenses. The line doesn’t cherrypick researchers but instead asks the independent Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium (ARICE) to choose participants based on submissions.
The idea, says the vessel’s science officer on this voyage, Daphné Buiron, is to make the process transparent and minimise the appearance of greenwashing. “Yes, this alliance may deliver a positive public image for the company, but this ship shows we do real science on board,” she says. The labs will improve over time, adds Decamus, as the ship amasses more sophisticated equipment.
Research scientists and tourist vessels don’t typically mix. The former, wary of becoming mascots for the cruise lines’ sustainability marketing efforts, and cognisant of the less-than-pristine footprint of many vessels, tend to be wary. The cruise lines, for their part, see scientists as potentially high maintenance when paying customers should be the priority. But there seemed to be a meeting of the minds, or at least a détente, on Le Commandant Charcot.
“We discuss this a lot and are aware of the downsides, but also the positives,” says Franz von Bock und Polach, head of the institute for ship structural design and analysis at Hamburg University of Technology, specialising in the physics of sea ice. Not only does Charcot grant free access to these remote areas, but the ship will also collect data on the same route multiple times a year with equipment his team leaves on board, offering what scientists prize most: repeatability. “One transit doesn’t have much value,” he says. “But when you measure different seasons, regions and years, you build up a more complex picture.” So, more than just a research paper: forecasts of ice conditions for long-term planning by governments as the Arctic transforms.
Nils Haëntjens, from the University of Maine, is analysing five-millilitre drops of water on a high-tech McLane IFCB microscope. “The instrument captures more than 250,000 images of phytoplankton along the latitudinal transect,” he says. Charcot has doors in the wet lab that allow the scientists to take water samples, and in the bow, inlets take in water without contaminating it. Two freezers can preserve samples for further research back in university labs.
Even though the boat won’t stop, the captain and chief engineer clearly want to make the science missions work. Marchesseau dispatches the helicopter with the researchers and their gear 100 kilometres ahead, where they take core samples and measurements. I spot them in their red snowsuits, pulling sleds on an ice floe, as the boat passes. Startled to see living-colour humans on the ice after days of monochrome, I feel a pang of jealousy as I head for a caviar tasting.
The only other humans we encounter on the journey north are aboard Fifty Years of Victory, the Russian icebreaker. The 160-metre orange- and-black leviathan reached the North Pole a day earlier—its 59th visit—and is on its way back to Murmansk. It’s a classic East meets West moment: the icebreaker, launched just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, meeting the new standard of polar luxury.
The evening before Bastille Day, Le Commandant Charcot arrives at the North Pole. Because of the pinpoint precision of the GPS, Marchesseau has to navigate back and forth for about 20 minutes—with a bridge full of passengers hushing each other so as not to distract him—until he finds 90 degrees north. That final chaotic approach to the top of the world in the grey, windswept landscape looks like a kid’s Etch A Sketch on the chartplotter, but it is met with rousing cheers. The next morning, with good visibility and light winds, we spill out onto the ice for the celebration, followed by a polar plunge.
As guests pose in front of flags and mile markers for major cities, the naturalist guides, armed with rifles, establish a wide perimeter to guard against polar bears. The fearless creatures are highly intelligent, with razor-sharp teeth, hooked claws and the ability to sprint at 40 km/h. Males average about three metres tall and weigh around 700 kilos. They are loners that will kill anything—including other bears and even their own cubs. Cathy and I walk around the far edges of the perimeter to enjoy some solitude. Looking out over the white landscape, I know this is a milestone. But it feels odd that getting here didn’t involve any sweat or even a modicum of discomfort.
The rest of the week is an entirely different trip. On the return south, we see a huge male polar bear ambling on the ice, looking over his shoulder at us. It is our first sighting of the Arctic’s apex predator, and everyone crowds the observation lounge with long-lensed cameras. The next day, we see another male, this one smaller, running away from the ship. “They have many personalities,” says Steiner Aksnes, head of the expedition team, who has led scientists and film crews in the Arctic for 25 years. We see a dozen on the return to Svalbard, where 3,000 are scattered across the archipelago, outnumbering human residents.
The last five days we make six stops on different islands, travelling by Zodiac from Charcot to various beaches. On Lomfjorden, as we look on a hundred yards from shore, a mother polar bear protects her two cubs while a young male hovers in the background. On a Zodiac ride off Alkefjellet, the air is alive with birds, including tens of thousands of Brünnich’s guillemots as well as glaucous gulls and kittiwakes, which nest in that island’s cliffs, while a young male polar bear munches on a ring seal, chin glistening red.
On this part of the trip, the expedition team, mostly 30-something, free-spirited scientists whose areas of expertise range from botany to alpine trekking to whales, lead hikes across different landscapes. The jam-packed schedule sometimes involves three activities per day and includes following the reindeer on Palanderbukta, seeing a colony of 200 walruses on Kapp Lee, hiking the black tundra of Burgerbukta (boasting 3.8-cm-tall willows—said to be the smallest trees in the world and the largest on Svalbard—plus mosquitoes!), watching multiple species of whales breaching offshore, and kayaking the ice floes of Ekmanfjorden. Svalbard is a protected wilderness area, and the cruise lines tailor their schedules so vessels don’t overlap, giving visitors the impression they are setting foot on virgin land.
Chances to experience that sense of discovery and wonder, even slightly stage-managed ones, are dwindling along with the ice sheet and endangered wildlife. If a stunning trip to a frozen North Pole is on your bucket list, the time to go is now.
PARADIGM SHIP
For those studying polar ice, a berth aboard Le Commandant Charcot is like a winning lottery ticket. “This cruise ship is one of the few resources scientists can use, because nothing else can get there,” says G. Mark Miller, CEO of research-vessel builder Greenwater Marine Sciences Offshore (GMSO) and a former ship captain for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Then factor in 80 percent of scientists who want to go to sea, can’t, because of the shortage of research vessels.”
Both Ponant and Viking have designed research labs aboard new expedition vessels as part of their sustainability initiatives. “Remote areas like Antarctica need more data—the typical research is just single data points,” says Damon Stanwell-Smith, Ph.D., head of science and sustainability at Viking. “Every scientist says more information is needed.” The twin sisterships Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris, which travel to Antarctica, Patagonia, the Great Lakes and Canada, have identical 35-square-metre labs, separated into wet and dry areas and fitted out with research equipment. In hangars below are military-grade rigid-hulled inflatables and two six-person yellow submersibles (the pair on Octantis are named John and Paul, while Polaris’s are George and Ringo). Unlike Ponant, Viking doesn’t have an independent association choose scientists for each voyage. Instead, it partners with the University of Cambridge, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and NOAA, which send their researchers to work with Viking’s onboard science officers.
“Some people think marine research is sticking some kids on a ship to take measurements,” says Stanwell-Smith. “But we know we can do first-rate science—not spin.” Other cruise lines are also embracing sustainability initiatives, with coral-reef-restoration projects and water-quality measurements, usually in partnership with universities. Just about every vessel has “citizen-scientist” research programs allowing guests the opportunity to count birds or pick up discarded plastic on beaches. So far, Ponant and Viking are the only lines with serious research labs. Ponant is adding science officers to other vessels in its fleet. As part of the initiatives, scientists deliver onboard lectures and sometimes invite passengers to assist in their research.
Given the shortage of research vessels, Stanwell-Smith thinks this passenger-funded system will coexist nicely with current NGO- and government-owned ships. “This could be a new paradigm for exploring the sea,” he says. “Maybe the next generation of research vessels will look like ours.”
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Shifting into Neutral
How to Rock a Neutral Selection of Menswear This Autumn.
Model, designer and international jet-setter Johannes Huebl dons autumn’s most refined looks and shares his style insights gleaned from years in front of the camera. Styled by Alex Badia and photographed by Feb Daemen in Barcelona, Huebel’s simple advice rings true.
“I like a natural colour palette and wear monochrome a lot. I tend to stick to no more than two textures in an outfit: a cashmere overshirt and corduroy trousers, for example,” says Huebel, reflecting on his signature style which is captured well in this Autumnal photoshoot.
“Attitude—and a fashionably relaxed mindset— is the secret to wearing clothes like these. The comfort and quality put me at ease.”
Massimo Alba hand-brushed-cashmere sweater, $1,440; Begg & Co cashmere scarf, $870; preowned Blancpain Villeret watch $34,720
L.B.M 1911 wool sweater, $595; Officine Générale wool pants, $995.
Kiton cashmere and silk overshirt, $10,065; Ahlem acetate sunglasses, $780; Rolex x Bamford Watch Department watch (model’s own)
Bally cotton and poly trench, $3,605; Brioni cashmere and silk shirt, $5,895, and cashmere and silk turtleneck, $2,380: Stòffa wool pants, $795.
Louis Vuitton wool double- breasted Pont Neuf suit jacket, $5,215, and wool cigarette pants, $1,650; Connolly cashmere and silk T-shirt, $680; Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, $1,210.
“My most valuable hacks: get your trousers hemmed so they fit right, avoid anything too tight, and align your colour palette. And don’t overthink it—a dark-navy suit never fails.”
Altea technical-wool jacket, $1,300; Officine Générale cotton shirt, $430.
“Proportion and fit are all-important.I’ve learned that from designers and tailors over the last 20 years.”
Valstar suede jacket, $4,050; Louis Vuitton cotton T-shirt, $855; Lardini wool and cashmere pants, $1,275; John Lobb suede loafers, $2,720.
Loro Piana blazer, $7,560, sweater, $2,495, and pants, $2,190, all in cashmere and wool; John Lobb leather boots, $2,995.
Zegna shetland-wool jacket, $5,215, shetland-wool shirt, $6,275, and pure-wool pleated trousers, $2,250; John Lobb suede loafers, $2,720.
Altea technical-wool jacket, $1,300; Officine Générale cotton shirt, $430.
Model: Johannes Huebl
Senior market editor and casting: Luis Campuzano Hair and makeup artist: Mónica Marmo
Photo assistant: Paolo Caponetto
Executive producer: Rebecca Watson
Production assistants: Nikita Klepach, Marc Gejo Photo director: Irene Opezzo
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Forever Leather
Furnishings wrapped or accented with classic, cognac-coloured hide create a patina that works with any aesthetic.
Onsen, Gandia Blasco
As the textile industry makes technological advances, traditional outdoor furniture made from iron, wicker and teak seems ever so throwback-y and, dare we say, inconvenient and even uncomfortable. Gandia Blasco’s Mediterranean roots and architectural approach shine in its Onsen collection of garden furniture. Luxe synthetic-leather straps wrapping a tubular stainless-steel structure paired with long-wearing cushions in a similar shade lend new life to the idea of living with leather outdoors. From about $4,425; soft mat about $620, warm mat about $810; Onsen, Gandia Blasco
Gabri, Bolzan
The pared-down, leggy look of these tripod tables packs a functional punch without foregoing refinement. Designed by Matteo Zorzenoni for Bolzan and made in Italy, the Gabri’s leather-bound frames with subtle topstitching and semicircular notches recall desktop accessories of an analog age. The dark tops with touches of chalky veining are thoroughly of this century: made from neolith stone, they’re temperature-resistant and waterproof, so go ahead and place your martini where you will. Small, about $1,735; large, about $2,603; Bolzan.com
Zenius Lines Giobagnara
Giobagnara’s leather-encased Nespresso machine with vertical- or diamond-quilted detailing is genius in its unfussy application. The leather suits the product; the design channels the look of a luxury Italian sports car. The brand began with the Bagnara family producing household items in 1939, before moving into the luxury realm in the ’70s. Giorgio Bagnara changed its name to B. Home Interiors in 1999 and to the eponymous Giobagnara in 2014. If you like your home appliances with liberal leather detailing, it’s one to follow. About $7,900; Artemest.com
Vague, Tonucci Collection
Fun house–meets-Baroque in this softly symmetrical, wall-mounted mirror that playfully beckons you into another dimension (and will bounce beautiful light around the room). Designed by Viola Tonucci, who took the reins of Tonucci Collection from her father last year, the thick, leather-covered frame introduces architectural interest and a hint of levity to a room, be it traditional or modern. About $8,050; Tonucci.com
DS-707, de Sede
Given Philippe Malouin’s propensity for experimentation, it’s no wonder that Swiss furniture firm de Sede took a whole new approach in manufacturing Malouin’s DS-707 design. He began by noodling around with foam, folding it this way and that before settling on the serpentine shape. Although the silhouette made de Sede wary—creating it required the team to manipulate leather in a manner that could leave it less supple— the project prevailed with great success. The system itself invites experimentation as customers can configure the components to their heart’s content. From $30,450; deSede.com
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The Perfect Fit
From garden to park, feel the burn with Ethimo’s slick access-all-areas gym.
Not feeling your Peloton?
Hit the gym outside with garden furniture brand Ethimo and Studio Adolini’s open-air “fitness room”, OUT-FIT. Measuring 250 x 250 cm and 280 cm in height, but designed to be adaptable to any open-air location, OUT-FIT is made entirely in teak and rust-finish metal, and comes with a series of equipment for bodyweight training.
Let’s do this. ethimo.com
