If you want to stay somewhere that’s truly trendy, do what the A-listers do
and reach for one of Herbert Ypma’s Hip Hotels books. When it comes to
jet-set travel, Ypma is the undisputed king of cool, a man with an unfailing
ability to seek out and find the most stylish properties in the world.
He has visited hundreds over the years, producing nine books that offer
everything from Mediterranean beach retreats to Oriental palaces — all
places that create the zeitgeist. But Ypma has always resisted appeals to
name those he considers the absolute best — until now. We have persuaded him
to come clean and give us his 20 all-time favourites. Here, Herbert reveals
the megastar hotels that make it into his personal hip parade.
SAMODE HAVELI
Jaipur, India
When I go to India, I want that sense of the magic of the maharajahs . . . the
romance . . . that Passage to India feeling. What I love about Samode Haveli
is that the owners haven’t done anything to it. They may have updated the
bathrooms a little, but basically what you’re getting is the intact city
palace of the royal family of Singhji.
It is something real, slightly frayed, definitely not sanitised. Once, I
stayed in what had been the maharajah’s lovemaking room. It had archways
with coloured glass that threw this funky light across the room when the sun
filtered through, and was covered in mirrored tiles. In the maharajah’s
time, the bed used to hang suspended from the ceiling — the hooks are still
there. It was an extraordinary experience to lie there and know this was
where he’d go in the afternoon to be entertained by his women. It’s the
perfect introduction to Jaipur.
Details: 00 91 141 263 2370, www.samode.com; doubles from
£58, B&B. Virgin Atlantic (0870 574 7747, www.virgin-atlantic.com)
flies direct from Heathrow to Delhi; from £530. Jet Airways
(www.jetairways.com) flies from Delhi to Jaipur; from £80 return.
BAY OF FIRES LODGE
Tasmania, Australia
Australia is all about emptiness. It’s a wild, lonely continent, and Bay of
Fires Lodge is the three-dimensional synthesis of that. It forces you to
experience that untouched beauty because you’re not allowed to go straight
to the hotel. Guides pick you up at the airport and you have to walk for two
days along beautiful beach after beautiful beach to reach it; the guides
cook for you and put up a tent for you to sleep in.
You don’t see another soul, just hundreds of wallabies, whales, dolphins and
abalones. It’s like your very own wildlife reserve, but a friendly one — not
like Africa, where you’re scared something might jump out and bite you.
The reward after the trek is this extraordinary piece of architecture — it’s
like a spear hanging over the beach. The style of this place is so pure that
it doesn’t intrude on nature, it touches it lightly. It has a brutal beauty.
You’ll leave here with a fresh sense of life, and you can’t put a price on
that.
Details: 00 613 6391 9339, www.bayoffires.com.au; four days,
including two nights at the lodge, from £665pp, full-board. Trailfinders
(0845 058 5858, www.trailfinders.com) has flights from Heathrow or
Manchester to Melbourne with Cathay Pacific, then on to Launceston with
Virgin Blue; from £740.
VILLA FELTRINELLI
Lake Garda, Italy
A night in this splendid Italian villa is worth a month anywhere else in the
world. Yes, it’s expensive, but as you waltz down its noble staircase, ready
to take its custom-built, 80ft mahogany speedboat to Verona for the opera,
followed by dinner on board in the moonlight, you’ll feel pretty good about
yourself.
This place is engineered to create the most unforgettable experiences that
you’ll talk about for ever. It fulfils every cliché, every expectation of
Italy that you have. And the thing about Italy is that it’s one of the few
countries that hasn’t ruined its natural beauty. Italians know how to take
the most beautiful setting, add layers of architecture and landscaping, and
somehow make it even more beautiful.
Villa Feltrinelli typifies that talent. It has the best location on Lake Garda
and huge rooms that are exactly what you’d expect from a grand villa.
Suffice to say, no corners were cut in anything. It’s perfect in every
detail.
Details: 00 39 0365 79800, www.villafeltrinelli.it; doubles
from £500. British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) flies from Gatwick to
Verona; from £95. Hotel transfers take 75min and cost £115.
DUNTON HOT SPRINGS
Colorado, USA
This old mining town, way up in the Rockies, is where the Hole-in-the-Wall
Gang used to hide out. It had become a ghost town, literally with a river
running through it. The guys who bought the place decided its batteredness
was its charm, so they opted to renovate only every other log cabin. At
great expense, they put all the services and amenities underground,
preserving the town’s authentic feel.
Inside, though, the cabins are tremendously luxurious, with African textiles,
baronial antiques and high-quality fittings. So it’s this amazing mix of
ruggedness and luxury. You go outside your cabin and feel like the Marlboro
Man, and think you might have to wrestle a brown bear or something.
The breakfast room is an old saloon where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
spent a winter. You can go heli-skiing or spend time in the hot springs.
It’s a fantasy, a very special place that transports you to another time.
Details: 00 1 970 882 4800, www.duntonhotsprings.com; minimum
stay two nights, from £275pp, full-board. United Airlines (0845 844 4777,
www.unitedairlines.co.uk) flies from Heathrow to Denver, via Chicago; from
£550. Travel on to Telluride with Great Lakes Airlines (00 1 307 433 2905,
www.greatlakesav.com); from £250. Hotel transfers take 1hr and cost £55.
AMANSARA
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap, is one of the most fascinating places in the
world. And what I love about Amansara is that it is a complete contrast. The
hotel is a modernist villa, built by the Cambodian king to entertain
visiting dignitaries such as Brezhnev. The king was a bit of a groover, and
he commissioned a French architect to design this Frank Sinatra/Palm Springs
kind of joint in Cambodia.
Amanresorts was very clever when it took the place over. It didn’t change
anything; it just added an Asian twist to the 1960s-inspired modernism by
using local materials such as teak and raffia. There’s this incredible
overlap in styles. It’s amazing to eat in its round dining room, where the
likes of Jackie Kennedy and Nureyev were guests, and then, the next morning,
get up at 5am to be taken to Angkor Wat by the hotel manager, who knows all
the secret entrances, so you get to walk around by yourself.
It’s a powerful combination, and the sort of experience that stays with you
for ever.
Details: 00 855 63 760333, www.amanresorts.com; doubles from
£425. Bridge the World (0870 444 6878, www.bridgetheworld.com) has flights
with Singapore Airlines from Heathrow or Manchester to Siem Reap, via
Singapore, for £699. Hotel transfers take 15min.
KASBAH BEN MORO
Ouarzazate, Morocco
This is an example of how something basic can have a purity that’s really
interesting. The owner, a former bank manager from Cadiz, fell in love with
this kasbah as soon as he saw it. It was a dilapidated ruin, but he found
craftsmen still skilled in the traditional techniques of building in mud to
re-create it perfectly.
It’s much the same today as it would have been when built four centuries
ago — except for the diesel generator, but that only works for three hours a
day, if that. So the electricity keeps breaking down, and there’s no proper
heating, and the rooms are simple, but the whole thing is incredibly
impressive. Its rawness gives you a completely different frame of reference
for Morocco than, say, Marrakesh, which is great but touristy.
Ben Moro is remote and hot and exotic, and very real. You’re in your
400-year-old castle in this oasis town, Skoura, surrounded by palm trees and
gazing out onto the desert and the beauty of the Atlas Mountains. In fact,
it is so unbeliev-ably quiet, it can feel a little spooky at night. It’s not
plush, but it is an experience.
Details: 00 212 44 85 21 16, www.riadomaroc.com; doubles £21.
Royal Air Maroc (020 7439 8854, www.royalairmaroc.com) flies from Heathrow
to Marrakesh, a 5hr drive from Ben Moro; from £200. Holiday Autos (0870 400
4447, www.holidayautos.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £195.
LE DOMAINE DE LA BARONNIE
Ile de Ré, France
The Ile de Ré is where really picky Parisians go in the summer. It’s authentic
with a capital A. It’s got these lovely cobblestoned fishing villages, where
every house somehow manages to be even cuter than the last, and every town
still holds weekday markets. It’s so French, you expect everyone to be
driving a 2CV.
Then, right in the middle of St-Martin, the most beautiful town on the island,
there’s this wrought-iron gate. You can’t see the house. There’s just a
buzzer, so you press it and the gate swings open. You walk down a tree-lined
path and arrive at this beautiful chateau. It’s now a B&B, and you
think: “Hey, how did this happen?” Pierre Pallardy used to be a physician;
his wife, Florence, was a model. They are so in tune with the island and all
the good things about France. The rooms are vast, baronial, high-ceilinged
and decorated with a combination of flea-market and auction antiques. It is
the ultimate French retreat with an affordable price tag.
Details: 00 33 5 46 09 21 29, www.labaronnie-pallardy.com;
doubles from £100. Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com) flies from
Stansted to La Rochelle, which is linked to the island by a road bridge;
from £40. Europcar (0870 607 5000, www.europcar.co.uk) has a week’s car hire
from £139.
ADRERE AMELLAL
Siwa, Egypt
This oasis town sits on one of the world’s largest underground wells. When you
arrive, it’s like a mirage. You drive along and there’s just sand, sand,
sand. Then, suddenly, there’s this huge lake in the middle of nowhere,
surrounded by date palms. The lake is as salty as the Dead Sea, so the
locals reckon — it’s almost impossible to submerge in it, and it’s great for
the skin.
Then there’s the hotel. It was built beside the lake from mud and salt, and it
is very, very beautiful. There is no elec- tricity, so, at night, beeswax
candles are placed in every cranny. They change the venue for lunch and
dinner every day, and in the evening, you follow the flames to your table.
When you’re here, you disappear into a different mill- ennium. There’s
something simultaneously ancient and refreshingly new about the place. It
makes you see the desert in a way you never have before.
Details: 00 20 2 738 1327; all-inclusive doubles from £218.
British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) flies to Cairo, an 11hr drive
from Siwa; from £340. Hertz (0870 844 8844, www.hertz.co.uk) has a week’s
car hire from £168.
HOTEL RAYA
Panarea, Italy
Panarea was always regarded as the ugliest of the Aeolian Islands. It had
nothing going for it other than beaches. So when the island’s fishing
community emigrated en masse to Australia, that should have been the death
of it. Except that a guy named Paolo Tilche realised this was great. There
was nothing there, so he could buy it, impose a strict building code and
make it something very special.
It’s visually extraordinary. Tilche decided houses had to be light blue, ochre
or white. He banned cars, bikes and mopeds, then he built his hotel, which
follows a simple formula. It’s a whitewashed fantasy. There might be the odd
antique in one room, a huge seashell in another. It’s the sort of style
statement only Italians can get away with.
There are no nightclubs, no bars, no boutiques, just a volcano for
entertainment. The terrace of the hotel overlooks Stromboli. It’s the
ultimate Mediterranean retreat.
Details: 00 39 090 983013, www.hotelraya.it; doubles from
£140. Holiday Options (0870 013 0450, www.holidayoptions.co.uk) has flights
to Catania from Gatwick, Heathrow or Manchester; from £149pp. The ferry from
nearby Milazzo takes 1hr 45min and costs £8; visit www.siremar.it.
BABINGTON HOUSE
Somerset, UK
What the owner has achieved here is remarkable. The country house is part of
British culture, and Nick Jones has taken this Georgian manor and turned it
into a funky retreat without wrecking it. It’s so clever.
So many British hotels are anti the whole notion of relaxing. There are so
many rules: you have to have breakfast by 10am and you have to wear a tie
for dinner. But this place is stylish without losing out on the fun. I love
the fact that its spa is in the old cow shed, and the treatments have names
such as Knackered Cow.
Details: 01373 812266, www.babingtonhouse.co.uk; doubles from
£215. The hotel is just outside Frome.
CIBOLO CREEK RANCH
Texas, USA
Here, you get a large slice of Texan authenticity. Cibolo is in the Big Bend,
which by European standards is completely uninhabited, with those wide open
spaces you see in the film Giant. Cibolo is an adobe fort, built to protect
the settlers from the Indians. Its walls are 3ft thick, it has corridors
lined with old western saddles, and the rooms have these huge adobe
fireplaces, big old frontier beds and floors laid with traditional baked
tiles.
In the evening, a big gong goes and everyone eats together at one long
refectory table in a beautiful Spanish-style hall. Afterwards, everyone has
coffee around an outdoor fire, under an endless sky, breathing crystal-clear
air and with that deafening silence we all crave. You rope a calf, you ride
out, you raft the Rio Grande. You’ll feel like one of the Magnificent Seven.
Details: 00 1 432 229 3737, www.cibolocreekranch.com; doubles
from £200. American Airlines (0845 778 9789, www.aa.com) flies from Gatwick
via Dallas to El Paso, 3hr 30min from Cibolo; from £799. Avis (0870 010
0287, www.avis.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £158.
LA SACRISTIA
Tarifa, Spain
This area is famous for its beaches. It’s just 30 minutes by ferry from
Morocco, and at night you can see the twinkling lights of Tangier. The
Moorish influences are everywhere — especially at La Sacristia, which was
built in the 1400s and is a classic stone town house with very refined
tastes. The rooms are neutral, with strategically placed antiques. There is
a loft room with an enormous red Chinese bed. It’s very dramatic and
beautifully done.
And I love Tarifa. There are more surf shops here than anywhere else I’ve
been. It’s hip, but with this Moorish twist. It’s a very different Spain.
Details: 00 34 956 681759, www.lasacristia.net; doubles from
£83. Avro (0870 066 1464, www.avro.co.uk) has flights from several UK
airports to Malaga, about an hour from Tarifa; from £90. Budget (0870 153
9170, www.budget.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £134.
PERIVOLAS
Santorini, Greece
This was a very poor part of the world, and the dwellings were really caves,
clinging to a cliffside above a collapsed volcano. Perivolas retains the
cave aspect, which is perfect for the climate, but has turned the interiors
into something truly amazing. The rooms are part Wilma Flintstone, part John
Pawson.
Its strength is its simplicity — but it’s not easy to carry off the minimalist
aesthetic. The guy who owns the place is the son of a sea captain: he’s a
surfer, and really loves the ocean and his island. It’s really important to
him that you experience the authentic Santorini, so he’ll tell you about all
the places no other tourists go to. He won’t just try to make you eat at his
restaurant every night, he’ll tell you about this amazing deserted beach
where there’s nothing but a shack that sells the most delicious food. It’s
enchanting.
Details: 00 30 22860 71308, www.perivolas.gr; doubles from
£200. Excel Airways (0870 169 0169, www.xl.com) flies from Gatwick to
Santorini; from £179. Auto Europe (0800 169 9797, www.auto-europe.co.uk) has
a week’s car hire from £99.
BALE
Nusa Dua, Bali
When this hotel opened, it was very controversial. Nobody was doing the
monochrome, minimalist, modernist thing on Bali, and critics said it didn’t
suit the island. Yet it is very Balinese, in an abstract sense. It has 20
bungalows and more than 70 pools. Water is the spiritual foundation of
Hinduism, and here, pools cascade into other pools — you can even dive into
your own private pool from your bathroom.
It’s exotic but contemporary, and beautifully designed. What I love about it
is that it’s real — so much better than those fake black-and-white fabric
places in Ubud. The funny thing is that while Americans and Europeans get
hung up on finding what they think is ethnic Bali, the Balé is incredibly
popular with Asians who just want to stay somewhere beautiful. This is the
most booked-out hotel on the entire island, yet westerners hardly know it
exists.
Details: 00 62 361 775111, www.thebale.com; doubles from
£260. Travelbag (0870 814 4441, www.travelbag.co.uk) has flights from
Heathrow or
Manchester with Singapore Airlines, via Singapore; from £600. Hotel transfers
take 30min.
MAISON DU BASSIN
Cap Ferret, France
Don’t confuse this with Cap-Ferrat, in the south. The two
are miles apart, and not just in geographic terms. Cap Ferret is the Martha’s
Vineyard of France. It’s on a spectacular stretch of the Atlantic coast,
north of Biarritz, and remains very much a fishing village. It’s got these
great pounding waves and Europe’s largest sand dunes, mini-mountains of
pale, rippling sand.
This is the essence of barefoot beach culture, and at Maison du Bassin, you
feel as if you’ve been part of it all
your life. The place has rugged simplicity coupled with sophistication. Take
breakfast, for example: freshly squeezed orange juice is served in glasses
etched with Napoleonic bees; the pastries come in embroidered linen slip
covers.
The decor features varnished wooden floorboards, weathered leather furniture,
pebbles, wicker baskets and traditional light-blue beachside cabanas.
The owners started out wanting to create a nice place for their friends, and
the atmosphere is so relaxed it hardly feels like a hotel. This allows you
to experience Cap Ferret exactly the way you should.
Details: 00 33 5 56 60 60 63, www.lamaisondubassin.com;
doubles from £86. Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com) flies from
Stansted to Biarritz; from £45. Alamo (0870 400 4562, www.alamo.co.uk) has a
week’s car hire from £130.
HOTELITO DESCONOCIDO
Jalisco, Mexico
The location, on an extraordinary lagoon, is beautiful, and the palafitos
(stilt houses) you stay in are gorgeous: individual and eccentric. But what
I really like is that the owner has held fast to his concept. There’s no
electricity, which puts paid to laptops and e-mails and faxes and mobiles,
and creates an intense, special atmosphere.
It’s a great equaliser, and so much fun — the only way you can get to the
Hotelito’s beach, for example, is by rowing boat. By day three, you’ll feel
as if you’re in the Scouts again.
Details: 00 52 322 281 4010, www.hotelito.com; doubles from
£160. Expedia (0870 050 0808, www.expedia.co.uk) has flights on United
Airlines and Mexicana from Heathrow to Manzanilla, via Chicago and Mexico
City; from £619. Hotel transfers take 2hr and cost £190.
DOORNBERG
Galle, Sri Lanka
Galle was an important supply stop for the Dutch East Indies Company when
bringing back spices from Java and Sumatra, and Doornberg was the home of
one of the Dutch fleet’s admirals. It is built in a beautiful position on
top of a hill, and it’s the most fantastic example of Dutch colonial
architecture.
Brilliantly, it has survived as a house. Rooms and spaces are used as they
would have been originally. It’s so tempting for hotels to turn the main
house into a reception area, but at Doornberg there were seven enormous
bedrooms when it was built, and there still are. Every one is charged with
history: the ambience is colonial grandeur without the clichés.
It’s not just the bedrooms that are immense; the bathrooms are, too. But the
real draw is the pace of the place. Doing nothing, very slowly, is the order
of the day. It’s so seductive and peaceful.
Details: 00 94 91 438 0275, www.thesunhouse.com; suites from
£180. Airline Network (0870 700 0534, www.airlinenetwork.co.uk) has flights
from Gatwick with Qatar Airways, via Doha; from £482. Hotel transfers take
4hr and cost £35.
EVASON HIDEAWAY AT ANA MANDARA
Nha Trang, Vietnam
Vietnam is still largely unspoilt. The country has applied the brakes to
tourism, so while Nha Trang is like a Vietnamese version of Miami, beyond it
women still wear traditional costume and television still shows interviews
asking children what they think of Ho Chi Minh.
The Hideaway is in the most spectacularly beautiful spot, and you can only
reach it by boat. It is a Robinson Crusoe beach on a mountainous peninsula
overlooking a series of bays. The architecture is so inventive. Villas have
been constructed by local craftsmen using only interlocking wood — no nails
or glue — and they are built into the massive boulders scattered on the
beach. The boulders are used as screens, as organic ornaments; some have
even been turned into swimming pools. Each room is designed to be at once
completely private and completely exposed, with decks and verandas with
sweeping views.
This hotel represents a new luxury, one that’s more rugged, raw and natural.
It’s the ultimate escape.
Details: 00 84 58 829 829, www.sixsenses.com; doubles from
£220. WestEast Travel (0870 220 1001, www.westeasttravel.com) has flights
with Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines from Heathrow to Nha Trang, via
Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon); from £550. Hotel transfers cost £8
and take 45min by coach and boat.
PURI GANESHA
Singaraja, Bali
This place is a bit of a secret. Even people on Bali don’t know about it,
because it’s on the forgotten north coast. It’s nowhere near as lush or
tropical as the rest of the island, and because you have to cross the
mountains to get there, it’s untouched.
A German woman, Diana von Cranach — just because she was fearless, I guess —
decided to build the most extraordinary series of bungalows along the beach
here. Each is the size of a small English manor house, with its own staff,
pool and an acre or two of grounds. And the only rule is: there are no
rules.
You do what you want when you want. That degree of freedom is really very
unusual. It’s also highly affordable: each house can easily take four. If
you hire one for Christmas, you’ll have your best one yet.
Details: 00 62 362 94 766, www.puriganeshabali.com; doubles
from £190. Travelbag (0870 814 4441, www.travelbag.co.uk) has flights from
Heathrow or Manchester with Singapore Airlines, via Singapore; from £600.
Transfers take 3hr by car and cost £32; going by sea plane takes 40min and
costs £120pp.
GANNERHOF
Tyrol, Austria
I’d read about this amazing hotel where they make their own butter and herbal
teas, and the duck you eat at dinner is the one you saw running around the
yard that morning. All I had was an address, and I got hopelessly lost.
Nobody knew of the place but, finally, someone standing behind me at a
petrol station gave me directions.
You turn into a tiny lane and suddenly you’re in a hidden valley. It’s like a
rerun of The Sound of Music. Eventually, you reach a traditional farmhouse
where grandad still tends his cows. It’s full of chunky old furniture and
wonderful hand-painted stencilling, and the walls are 3ft thick. There’s
nothing fancy: rooms have an old brass bed and maybe grandma’s old table.
But you will eat like you’ve never eaten before, and the skiing’s just five
minutes away. It’s brilliant.
Details: 00 43 4843 5240, www.gannerhof.at; doubles from £50.
Austrian Airlines (0870 124 2625, www.aua.com) flies from Heathrow to
Innsbruck, a 2hr 30min drive away, via Vienna; from £103. Sixt (0870 156
7567, www.e-sixt.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £152.
Herbert Ypma talked to Susan d’Arcy. His Hip Hotels series is published by
Thames & Hudson. Titles available are: City, Escape, Beach, Italy,
France, USA, Budget, Ski and Orient (RRP £18.95).
To buy them for £13.95 each, excluding p&p, call The Sunday
Times Books First on 0870 165 8585
