Work’s slow, YouTube’s dull, the weather’s rubbish. You’ve been longing for
summer since November, and now it’s arrived – but more dead than
alive. It’s a lull, a hiatus. It’s as if we’re all waiting for something. A
holiday, perhaps, but that’s still three weeks away. What you need is a
weekend super-spritzer, a short burst of I’ll-sleep-when-I’m-dead
excitement, with either guaranteed sunshine or rainproof fall-back plans.
Here’s our glossy dozen, featuring riad-chic Morocco, cocktails on the
Riviera, high-class Paris and the latest way to throw yourself down a river.
THE LONDON WEEKENDER
When fashionable Londoners want a weekend away, they go to ... London. Well,
why bother with beta when you’re already in the ultimate alpha global city?
Encapsulating the capital’s sassy superiority is the new Haymarket Hotel
(020 7470 4000, www.firmdalehotels.com;
doubles from £245), a glorious John Nash townhouse that cuts a Beau Brummell
dash, from the mesmerising lobby sculpture to the whimsical fabrics. It’s on
the doorstep of the world’s best theatre, dining and shopping –
don’t miss the fashion store Dover Street Market (www.doverstreetmarket.com).
The Haymarket also offers the chance to get wet in style, in its stunning
swimming pool, illuminated by the coolest of light installations. There’s no
spa to speak of, but no matter: the InterContinental Park Lane (020 7318
8691, www.spaintercontinental.com)
has just opened one to rival anything in Asia. Book a La Thérapie facial:
clever types choose its “cosmeceutical” skincare over cosmetic surgery. Eat
at the Inter’s new restaurant (020 7318 8747), run by Theo Randall –
formerly head chef at the River Café. For naughty nights, Movida (www.movida-club.com)
is still packing them in.
MARRAKESH SPICE
Morocco’s star city is just the ticket for putting pep into your summer. Stay
at Riad El Fenn (00 212 2444 1210, www.riadelfenn.com;
doubles from £195, including transfers), where the chic blend of medina and
modern art means cute touches such as rows of brightly coloured Moroccan
slippers curling up their toes beneath Bridget Riley paintings. Last month,
the hotel became even more irresistible with the addition of a vast roof
terrace, dotted with day beds that overlook the minaret of the Koutoubia
mosque; an authentic hammam; and six lavish new suites, with leather tiles
on the floors and Antony Gormley ink studies on the walls. Savour the spicy
delights of the souks, but save your pennies for a splurge in the host of
funky new designer boutiques, such as Atelier Moro and Akbar Delights. They
sell fabulous fripperies and one-off craft pieces that leave you wanting
Moor.
Atlas Blue (020 7307 5803, www.atlas-blue.com)
and EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) fly from
Gatwick; British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com)
flies from Gatwick and Heathrow; Ryanair ((0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com)
flies from Luton.
THE NEW WAY TO GET DOWN A RIVER
It’s been bucketing down in Wales, which makes this the perfect time to try
out the latest whitewater craze: Orcas. These two-man inflatables are just
the thing for beginners with bottle, the closest the inexperienced can get
to canoeing the churning Grade IV rapids of the Tryweryn, in Snowdonia.
They’re a bit more stable than a canoe, but a lot more thrilling than a
raft, not least because there’s no room for an instructor –
they’ll paddle alongside you. Rain? Who cares? With all that frothing water
flying about, you’re going to get drenched anyway. A full day’s session is
£102, plus £5 for your wetsuit, at the National Whitewater Centre in Bala
(01678 521083, www.ukrafting.co.uk).
You’ll want somewhere civilised to dry out, so it’s handy that the Ffynnon
Townhouse (01341 421774, www.ffynnontownhouse.com;
doubles from £120) opened last week. Just 15 minutes down the road, it
offers three discreetly luxurious rooms in a converted Victorian rectory,
all claw-foot baths, Egyptian cotton sheets, flat screens, WiFi, decent
whisky at the honesty bar and a slap-up Welsh breakfast in the morning –
ideal to set you up for another day on the water.
POOL OR PAMPER IN VENICE
The conventional wisdom on Venice in the summer: blazing hot (it was 38C last
week), rammed with tourists, avoid like the plague. Ah, no. Two new hotels
have changed the game, making it a cracking weekend break – if you get
the strategy right. The Hilton Molino Stucky Palace (0870 590 9090, www.hilton.com;
doubles from £198) opened the city’s first rooftop pool last month, with
staggering views from Giudecca over the massed domes, spires and palazzos.
So that’s the sightseeing done without even taking your cossie off.
The building’s a bit modern, though – a mere stripling, built as a
flour mill in 1833. The Bauer Palladio (00 39-041 270 3801, www.bauerhotels.com;
doubles from £206), in a 16th-century nunnery along the island, has more
gravitas. No rooftop pool, but next Wednesday (August 1), it opens a Daniela
Steiner spa – with views to St Mark’s through the huge picture windows.
So, swim or spa by day, and in the cooler evening – when all the trippers
have packed off home – hop on either hotel’s courtesy boat over to St
Mark’s to see Venice at its romantic best, by moonlight. Stroll past still
canals and crumbling palazzos, all the way up to tiny but lively Campo San
Giacomo di Rialto, where the city’s burgeoning population of creative types
tucks into innovative Venetian cuisine at Naranzaria (041 724 1035), under
the vaulted roofs of the tiny former warehouse – or out back, at a
prime spot on the shimmering Grand Canal.
Fly to Venice Marco Polo with BMI (0870 607 0555, www.flybmi.com),
BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com), EasyJet
(www.easyjet.com) or Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com).
COUNTRY COOL IN IRELAND
Ireland has recently discovered the cool country-house hotel, and so far
nobody’s doing it better than Bellinter House, which opened last year in Co
Meath. The setting is a gorgeous Palladian pile, built in 1750 and
overlooking the River Boyne: the recipe is one part zeitgeisty chic (the
funky design betrays the owners’ background as nightclub entrepreneurs), one
part history (they’ve retained plenty of original detail, including
monumental stone fireplaces and oak-panelled walls) and two parts sheer
relaxation. Rain or shine, there’s plenty to do – pools, a sauna,
a billiards room, seaweed baths and flyfishing on a private three-mile
stretch of the river – but most weekend guests spend an inordinate
amount of time chilling out in the bar, feasting at the Eden restaurant and
mingling with the Dublin media set, who have made the place their own. If
all that lounging inspires any guilt, borrow some wellies and set off for a
hearty yomp through the 12-acre grounds ... to Mrs O’s, an authentic country
pub dripping with character and craic. Don’t worry, the hotel will pick you
up if you overdo it.
Saturday-night doubles start at £190: call 00 353 4690 30900 or visit www.bellinterhouse.com.
It’s a 45-minute drive from Dublin airport, to which there are flights from
more than 20 airports in mainland Britain: airlines include Ryanair (0871
246 0000, www.ryanair.com) and Aer
Lingus (0870 876 5000, www.aerlingus.com).
CLUB EUROPE
Rotterdam is one of Europe’s top clubbing destinations, with a raft of
destination clubs, such as the pioneering and still cool Off Corso
(Kruiskade 22; 00 31-10 411 3897) and Outland (Prins Alexanderlaan 37; 10
258 0999), hosting names such as Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold and Hed Kandi
(visit www.hollandclubbing.com
for lineups). Even Amsterdammers head to Rotterdam for their weekend
dancing: fewer tourists and stag parties, you see. There are two big reasons
for going in summer. The Heineken Fast Forward Dance Parade (August 11; see www.ffwdheinekendanceparade.nl)
is a 300,000-strong free street party with 40 trucks carrying sound systems,
which ends with a huge party at the Cruise Terminal building. Then there is
Bloemendaal aan Zee, a small resort with a fine beach, an hour’s train ride
from Rotterdam’s Centraal station. It is fast becoming a clubber’s hang-out:
by day, it is all about the often eccentric beach clubs (as well as nursing
hangovers); at sunset, things move to bars such as Woodstock 69 (www.woodstock69.nl)
and Republiek (23 573 0730; www.republiek.tv).
Be warned, it’s not an especially late-night scene. It’s best to spend the
day and evening there, then head back to Rotterdam for hard-core partying
till dawn. For details, visit www.vvv.rotterdam.nl
or www.holland.com.
Fly from Stansted with Transavia (www.transavia.com)
or from London City or Manchester with VLM (0871 666 5050, www.flyvlm.com),
and check in at the soaring glass tower that is the Westin (00 31 10 430
2000, www.westin.nl), the city’s only
five-star hotel. It has an excellent summer weekend offer: £68 per double
room per night, B&B.
A HOLIDAY ROYALE
George Clooney has a rival. Lake Como’s newest star is Villa Balbianello,
which showed up in Casino Royale as the sanatorium where Bond recovers after
his nasty encounter with a knotted rope. Business is now booming. The villa
(00 39-0344 56110; closed Mondays and Wednesdays, admission £3) is at Dosso
di Lavedo, about 15 miles north of Como, on the tip of a steep wooded
promontory – and it really is as lovely as it looked on screen. There
is also a glamorous new waterfront eating place, L’Altra Riva (26 Via Regina
Vecchia; 031 400260), in Carate Urio. All the white leather might look a
little contemporary for Como regulars, but the food is good and reasonably
priced. And don’t worry, the new fame hasn’t really gone to Como’s head: the
lake is as soporifically beautiful as ever, and the temperature perfect.
Inghams (020 8780 4433, www.inghams.co.uk)
has four nights at the four-star Grand Victoria hotel in Menaggio, on Como,
from £692pp, half-board, including flights from Stansted or Luton and
transfers.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE POSHTERSHIRE
Barnsley House (01285 740000, www.barnsleyhouse.com;
doubles from £275) is the stars’ Cotswold cocoon of choice. Its flamboyant
rooms are stocked with complimentary champagne and homemade chocolate
truffles, and some feature private gardens with hot tubs, conservatories or
side-by-side freestanding bath tubs. Indulge in supremely soothing
treatments at the glamorous, golden-stoned spa (the venue for Elizabeth
Hurley’s prenup face pack); reserve a pink-leather two-seater sofa for a
private screening in the decadent cinema; and, if the sun shines for just
one minute, drape yourself seductively over a bench in the award-winning
gardens. Search for lovers’ trinkets in the antiques shops of
Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Campden, or visit eco-trendy Daylesford
Organic (01608 731700, www.daylesfordorganic.
com). The emporium stocks all manner of unnecessary green goodies,
including aphrodisiacal ingredients that will make the famously steamy scene
from the movie Tom Jones look like a Disney production.
PARIS DE LUXE
You can have yourself a high old time in Paris at a couple of new joints. Last
week, the Hôtel Balzac (6 Rue Balzac; 00 33-1 44 35 18 00, www.hotelbalzac.com)
reopened after a comprehensive overhaul. Don’t expect a new minimalism, more
an old opulence reborn: if Louis XIV were to come back, he wouldn’t turn up
his nose at some of the sumptuous bedrooms. There is an opening offer, until
the end of August, of £235 per room per night, B&B, at weekends.
Also new is the swish Anne Sémonin spa (01 42 66 24 22, www.annesemonin.com;)
at the equally swanky Hôtel Le Bristol. Day treatments start at £35 for a
20-minute manicure treatment, rising to £316 for a five-hour overhaul.
Treatments for men start with a 55-minute “decreasing” facial (£77).
Once you are toned to a Parisian standard, spend a musical evening at
Versailles. English National Ballet performs Swan Lake next weekend (July
26, 27 and 28, 8.30pm; from £24); and on August 4, 11 and 18, there are
installations featuring music, lights and smells around the gardens and
fountains, followed by fireworks (9.30pm; £12). For details, call 00 33 1 30
83 78 89 or visit www.chateauversaillesspectacles.fr.
Go to Paris with Eurostar (0870 518 6186, www.eurostar.com)
from London Waterloo or Ashford; returns from £59.
GROWN-UP ANDALUSIA
You will not find Vejer de la Frontera in many travel brochures. You might
even have trouble finding it on the map. (It’s on a mountainside between
Jerez and Tarifa.) Once known only to holidaying Spaniards, it has recently
started attracting discerning foreigners who want an authentic, unspoilt
medieval old town, with lovely, empty and vast beaches nearby, great seafood
and interesting bars. To cater to these new visitors, hotels have appeared,
among them Casa Cinco (00 34-956 45 50 29, www.hotelcasacinco.com;
doubles from £84), a five-room B&B lovingly restored and decorated
in Moorish Andalusian style. Run by a couple of former Soho faces, it has a
cool, shaded roof terrace on which to sit out the summer heat, and the
friendly owners will plug you right into the late-night drinking scene in
the old town and tell you which fish restaurants to frequent. It’s the
perfect place for couples to unwind, especially because, due to the complex
open-plan layout, it doesn’t take children under 16. To get to Vejer, fly to
Jerez from Stansted with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com)
and hire a car through Holiday Autos (0870 400 4461, www.holidayautos.co.uk).
A QUICK DIP IN THE MED
For the past week, the daytime temperature on the Côte d’Azur has rarely
dropped below 30C. So why go any further for your sunshine?
Villefranche-sur-Mer, four miles to the east of Nice, is a cute little port
set on a bay lined with good fish restaurants and has its own small beach.
It is connected by local train to Nice, Monaco and Menton. If it gets too
busy with day-trippers, or even cruise-shippers, retreat to the sea-view
balcony of your room at the Hôtel Welcome (3 Quai Amiral Courbet; 00 33-4 93
76 27 62, www.welcomehotel.com;
doubles £138, room-only) and enjoy a bottle of chilled Côtes de Provence
from its downstairs bar. Come evening, you can watch the odd celebrity being
collected from a floating gin palace by the restaurant shuttle boats. John
Travolta, Bono and Lance Armstrong have all eaten hereabouts in recent
seasons, notably at Carpaccio (17 Promenade des Marinières; 04 93 01 72 97),
where they enjoyed the raw seafood. You can afford to as well – it
isn’t a wallet-busting celebrity-only haunt, and you can always have a
pizza.
Fly to Nice with BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com),
from Heathrow; EasyJet (www.easyjet. com),
from Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Belfast, Bristol, Liverpool or Newcastle; BMI
(0870 607 0555, www.flybmi.com), from
Heathrow; BMI Baby (0871 224 0224, www.bmibaby.com),
from Birmingham; and Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com),
from Leeds/Bradford and Manchester.
SUPER SCOTLAND
The alternative to coming up with your own super-spritzer weekend is to let
someone else do it for you. Dream Escape (01368 850788, www.dreamescape.co.uk)
specialises in bespoke Scottish breaks for deep-pocketed clients, and the
company reckons it can tailor-make pretty much anything you want north of
the border – recent coups include a private dinner at Glamis Castle
with Lady Strathmore and a colossal birthday fireworks bash at exclusive
Inverlochy Castle.
To be sure of chasing away the grey-sky blues, Dream Escape suggests two
nights at Pool House, an opulent romantic hideaway on the shores of Loch
Ewe. While you’re there, dine on succulent Scottish beef, haggis with
Drambuie and lobster straight from the loch; take a stirring half-day’s
sail, with a hamper, of course; and create your own fragrance with
international perfume consultant George Dodd, a local resident.
And to get there? There’s the clincher: at Inverness airport, a nice man will
hand you the keys to a Ferrari 355 Spider. That’s £95,000 worth of red
eight-cylinder adrenaline that can take you from 0-60 in 4.7 seconds –
it’s a Clarkson favourite – and might shave a minute or two off
what’s usually an hour and a half’s drive to the hotel through the finest
scenery in the Highlands. The car’s yours for the whole weekend, by the way.
The bill? A little matter of £3,770 for two. Go on: if the bank manager gets
grumpy, tell him he needs a break – and you know just the one.
