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Dorchester Collection

With its tropical gardens, retro-style pool, and old-school Hollywood glamour The Beverly Hills Hotel has been a celebrity hotspot since opening in 1912. Located just off Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Beverly Hills, from Angelenos looking to staycation to travelers seeking a perfect base to indulge in a spot of festive retail therapy on nearby Rodeo Drive, it's the most wonderful time of year to get a stay on the books.

Beverly Ma/Dorchester Collection

Celebrate the Season

Pulling out all the stops for guests this Christmas – including a toy soldier welcome along the famous red-carpet entrance, holiday carolers and visits from Santa – the legendary property makes the perfect setting to gather with family or friends during the holidays. The hotel's Festive Seasonal package, available to book through December 20, includes a discounted nightly rate paired with breakfast and hotel credits (treat yourself or someone special to a signature palm print item from the gift shop) plus welcome drinks. 

Beverly Ma/Dorchester Collection

Spirited Cocktails & Desserts

In the lead up to Christmas, dining gets sprinkled with a little festive stardust, too, with the aptly titled 12 Days of Soufflés when executive pastry chef Brooke Martin will create a dozen iterations (think gingerbread and eggnog) of the Polo Lounge’s signature dinner dessert. While the Polo Lounge Bar and Bar Nineteen12 will serve classic and seasonal tipples like spiced mulled wine, spiked eggnog, and a Fig Sidecar cocktail.

Culinary highlights also include executive Chef Michal Santoro’s prix-fixe dinner menus at the storied Polo Lounge restaurant with a four-course meal on Christmas Eve and a three-course option on Christmas Day. Guests staying over New Year can ring in 2020 with chef Santoro’s elegant four-course affair complete with a Champagne toast at midnight and live music. 

Beverly Ma/Dorchester Collection

Rooms & Suites

To choose from are 210 guestrooms and suites – named after the hotel's architect, Paul Williams Suite has a cool mid-century modern vibe with its grand piano and bespoke curved bar – plus 23 private bungalows, including five that take inspiration from famous former guests. Recently restored by New York-based designer and interiors guru Alexandra Champalimaud, No. 22 is modeled after Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs home; the fabulous Bungalow 5 is where Elizabeth Taylor spent six of her eight honeymoons. 

Dorchester Collection

The Festive Season offer includes a discounted nightly rate on luxury accommodation and welcome drinks for two guests paired with a $100 daily breakfast credit, and $100 hotel credit. Rates start at $685 for guestrooms and $985 for suites between November 21, 2019, and January 7, 2020. Visit Dorchester Collection's The Beverly Hills Hotel for more details. 

Dorchester Collection

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Photo credit: Canyon Ranch & Aman

In the same month, November 2019, two major luxury brands announced their newest designs in term of unique experience and wellness. Combined, they seem to define how luxury has evolved from exclusive commodity to an inclusive concept, showing how luxury now allows for profound multi-dimensional experiences rather that simply owning a branded object of want or desire. 

Both brands view wellness, a multi-trillion-dollar industry, in different modalities but with a similar objective: to offer new vistas for the provision of insightful experience. 

First, Canyon Ranch, debuting Its new signature concept, The Canyon Ranch Wellness Retreat, Woodside, California. It is the first California property for Canyon Ranch, and it brings an intimate and immersive wellness experience to the picturesque redwood forest above Silicon Valley.

Photo credit: Canyon Ranch -Tree House Accommodation

Photo credit: Canyon Ranch - Meditation area with redwoods

It is also the brand’s first retreat model. The property provides wellness for those seeking rejuvenation and restoration with community-driven, introspective, and nature-infused sojourns. Set on 16 acres covered in ancient redwoods in Woodside, California, the property is a true retreat to nature.  

“The opening of our first property in California is a significant milestone in the ongoing evolution of our brand,” said John Goff, Chairman of Canyon Ranch. “This new concept distills our approach to integrative wellness into curated, goal-focused. Travelers today seek shorter, more frequent, and highly experiential trips, and launching Canyon Ranch Wellness Retreats offers guests an intentional, collective reset that embodies our philosophy.”   

The property combines intimate spaces and a singular natural setting with multi-day, intentions- based programs – maintaining the core belief that uniting like-minded people with common goals, guiding them with science-backed programming, and inspiring them with exclusive destination experiences is the recipe for true change in participants’ lives. 

The spa will offer traditional, alternative, and modern therapies, including Canyon Ranch favorites and new signature treatments inspired by the redwood forest setting. The spa is comprised of five treatment rooms, an indoor saline pool and whirlpool, and a fitness studio called The Training Zone, that open to forest views.  

Canyon Ranch

Formerly Stillheart Institute, Canyon Ranch Wellness Retreat – Woodside, has been reimagined by Cole Martinez Curtis & Associates. The new aesthetic embraces the surrounding natural beauty and fosters connectivity with the outdoors, leading to a deeper sense of place and sense of self. The property features 14 rooms in the main lodge and 24 rooms in standalone luxury treehouses, which are elevated on stilts and immersed amongst the towering redwoods.   

Photo credit: Aubrie Pick - Canyon Ranch Wellness Retreat

Also in November 2019, Luxury Frontiers, the San Francisco and Johannesburg-based international design and development services firm, has conceived and designed exclusive luxury accommodation for Camp Sarika by Amangiri. Canyon Equity developed the 78-acre campsite, set to debut in spring 2020 near Aman’s Amangiri resort in Southern Utah. 

Photo credits: Aman

Camp Sarika will be the first-ever North American all-weather, year-around luxury camp, home to 10 elite tents, located in the colorful rock and mesa formations of Utah’s southern desert landscape.  

Photo credit: Aman - Exterior/Interior Camp Sirika, Luxury Frontiers

Given the Sanskrit name for “open space” and “sky,” Camp Sarika’s luxury encampment is surrounded by 600 acres of pristine desert wilderness. Not only does the camp offer ancient vistas of rocky outcroppings and flat-topped mesas, it allows guests access to five National Parks, National Monuments, the Navajo Nation, and various amenities of nearby Amangiri.  

Aman

As with all of its projects, Luxury Frontiers’ concept is driven by contextual design, evident in the enfolding of its architecture into the landscape. The tented pavilions blend with rock formations creating a blended milieu of natural canvas with ancient sandstone.  

In keeping with its desert setting, Luxury Frontiers has designed the tents to withstand the extreme weather elements, such as temperatures varying from 20° to 105° F. The deck is shaded from the Utah sun by an extended canvas overhang, allowing for a seamless integration of inside and outside environments.

Aman - Interior tent, Camp Sirika

The outdoor areas of the tented units have Douglas Fir sliding doors, and private heated plunge pools.  

“Camp Sarika embodies the key principles of Luxury Frontiers’ approach to design by providing an architectural platform that compliments the guests’ experience of the high desert. In essence, it’s the union of nature and architecture,” said Luca Franco, CEO and Founder of Luxury Frontiers.  

Aman

Modern Tent, Ancient Sandstone, Camp Sirika, Luxury Frontiers

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Photo by Lavinia Lumezanu

With Cancun airport being an easy gateway for both international and domestic flights, the entire Riviera Maya is a beautiful protected jungle by the ocean that not only survived the general Mayan collapse, but was also largely left untouched by the Spanish colonists. Currently one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Riviera Maya never ceases to amaze with its beautiful clear waters, its ancient ruins and archeological sites, its nature preserves, and its world-renowned cenotes.

Photo by Rio Secreto

Located about an hour away from Cancun international airport, Riviera Maya is host to a variety of beautiful beaches, incredible jungles, and amazing cenotes, which are sinkholes, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath.

Photo by Secrets Capri Riviera Maya

With so many natural splendors to protect, it’s no wonder that more and more hotels and organizations in the area are fighting to keep it environmentally conscious. One such hotel is Secrets Capri Riviera Maya, an oasis located right on the beach, on a 71-acre lot in the middle of nature, where every decision is made with a deep respect for the surrounding environment. The resort is Rainforest Alliance Certified™, a certification that assures the commitment of Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun to reduce the impact of its activities on the planet and local communities. The requirements for certification are aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

Photo by Secrets Capri Riviera Maya

Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun boasts 291 all Preferred Club luxurious smoke-free guestrooms and suites designed to reflect the romance and charm of a Mediterranean villa, that come equipped with a complimentary mini-bar and room service as well as a private terrace and balcony.

Photo by Secrets Capri Riviera Maya

Guests can indulge in an expansive array of local and international cuisine and a number of health-conscious options at each venue or they can choose to stay in and order room service, which is available 24 hours.

Photo by Secrets Capri Riviera Maya

In alignment with the highest requirements of each guest, the special menu items include vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free, organic, and more. Your Unlimited-Luxury® privileges include all meals and top-shelf spirits.

While staying at the Secrets Capri Riviera Maya, there are a few things that should be on every visitor’s list.

Photo by Rio Secreto

Head off to Playa del Carmen for an unforgettable experience in the underground caves of Rio Secreto, where tourists can observe natural history dating back millions of years, as they hike and swim through a route of about 1 km full of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.

Photo by Rio Secreto

Deep inside an underground cave, visitors can experience true silence among some of the most dramatic mineral formations in the world.

Photo by Rio Secreto

These underground caves called cenotes are the result of water seeping through the limestone over millions of years, creating unbelievable patterns and shapes and creating a home for small fruit bats and species of fish that have perfectly adapted to the lack of light.

Photo by Rio Secreto

There are a few options for the tours, yet all of them begin with a Mayan blessing for safe passage and good luck.

For another eco-friendly adventure in the Riviera Maya, Isla Mujeres and Isla Contoy are an absolute gem of the Carribean.

Photo by Lavinia Lumezanu

In Pre-Columbian times Isla Mujeres (Island of Women) was considered sacred to the Maya goddess of childbirth and medicine, Ixchel and was named Isla Mujeres by the Spanish who arrived in the 16th century and saw all the images of goddesses on the island.

Photo by Alltournative

Today the island is home to various environmental endeavors from rebuilding the coral reef to bringing awareness to the conservation of the Carribean island.

Photo by Lavinia Lumezanu

Isla Contoy is another small island in Quintana Roo, just 18 miles north of Isla Mujeres.  The island itself is only 1.22 sq miles and is protected by the Mexican government. Supervised eco-tourism and regulated commercial fishing is allowed on and near the island. Only a few tour companies have permission to bring the only at maximum 200 daily visitors to Isla Contoy. Visitors need to apply for permission to visit the island at the park offices in Isla Mujeres or Cancún.

Photo by Lavinia Lumezanu

The island seems broken off a dream with hermit crabs and iguanas running wild and popping off for a visit during lunchtime.

Photo by Lavinia Lumezanu

The pelicans surveil the island which is a safe haven for 152 tropical marine birds such as the frigate bird and the double-crested cormorant, 4 species of turtles that nest on the beaches. Sunscreen is completely forbidden on the island as it interferes with the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Photo by Lavinia Lumezanu

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The AmaMagna. Photo, AmaWaterways

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