DESTINATIONS
Hokkaido in Shoulder Season: Niseko in May, Furano in October
Hokkaido's two principal luxury destinations — Niseko in the southwest and Furano in the centre — are both shoulder-season landscapes that operate at…
Vol. I · No. 7 · The Destinations desk
Destinations
On-the-ground reporting from the places worth flying to.
26 pieces on file · most recent first
DESTINATIONS
Chile Atacama 2026: The Tierra, Awasi, Explora Circuit
The Atacama Desert upper-tier lodge market is the most consolidated luxury circuit in South America; the desk's 2026 assessment is that the four principal…
DESTINATIONS
Albania Riviera 2026: The Emerging Adriatic and What Is Actually Bookable
Albania has been on the upper-end travel-press radar for roughly three years; the desk view in 2026 is that the country is interesting, the coast is real,…
DESTINATIONS
The Amalfi Coast 2026: Where the Desk Goes Instead
The Amalfi Coast in 2026 is not what it was in 2016. The desk view, after a five-day sweep in late May, is that the principal villages have crossed the line…
DESTINATIONS
Morocco Beyond Marrakech: Fes, Essaouira, Tangier for 2026
Marrakech remains the structural anchor of the Moroccan upper-end market; the three cities that the desk recommends as the working alternatives are the…
DESTINATIONS
Iceland 2026: Deplar Farm, Torfhús, and the Luxury Ring Road
Iceland's upper-end hospitality has matured into a credibly serious programme through 2018-2026; the country's structural answer for 2026 is no longer the…
DESTINATIONS
The Faroe Islands 2026: The Tórshavn Dining Pivot
The eighteen islands of the Faroese archipelago — historically a quiet North Atlantic destination known primarily for the dramatic coastal scenery and the…
DESTINATIONS
Antarctica 2026-2027: The Small-Ship Season Outlook
The Antarctic 2026-2027 small-ship expedition season — running approximately November 2026 through March 2027 — is shaping up as the most ship-dense season…
DESTINATIONS
Norwegian Fjords 2026: The Zero-Emission Window
Norway's UNESCO World Heritage fjords — Geirangerfjord, Nærøyfjord, and three connecting waterways — entered a phased zero-emission regime on January 1,…
DESTINATIONS
The Greek Islands Beyond Mykonos
Mykonos and Santorini are the two Greek islands that the international upper-end market knows by name; the four islands the desk recommends for summer 2026…
DESTINATIONS
Egypt 2026: The Grand Egyptian Museum and the Nile-Cruise Reset
The Grand Egyptian Museum opened on 1 November 2025 after twenty years of development; the desk's first-quarter 2026 assessment is that the museum is the…
DESTINATIONS
Galápagos 2026: The Small-Ship Expedition Market
The Galápagos small-ship expedition market in 2026 is in the most settled state it has been in for nearly a decade — a small group of well-established…
DESTINATIONS
The Maldives in Monsoon: What's Worth the Rain
The Maldivian southwest monsoon — running May through October — is the country's quiet season, with rates approximately 40 percent below the…
DESTINATIONS
Vietnam 2026: Hanoi, Hoi An, and the Six Senses Ninh Van Bay Anchor
Vietnam's upper-end inventory has matured meaningfully through 2018-2026; the desk's 2026 assessment is that the country now carries a credibly integrated…
DESTINATIONS
The South Pacific in 2026: Brando, Wakaya, Vatuvara, Vatulele
Four of the most serious private-island resorts in the South Pacific — The Brando on Tetiaroa, Wakaya Island Resort in Fiji, Vatuvara Private Islands in…
DESTINATIONS
Madagascar 2026: Miavana, Constance Tsarabanjina, and the Lost Decade
Madagascar's serious luxury inventory in 2026 amounts to two genuinely high-end private-island properties — Miavana by Time + Tide in the northeast and…
DESTINATIONS
The Resurgence of Patagonia: New Lodges Opening Across Aysén
After a decade of investment limbo, Chile's Aysén region is welcoming four new luxury lodges between November 2026 and March 2027. We previewed three of them.
DESTINATIONS
The Engadine in Winter: A Slow Week Across the Lakes
St Moritz, Sils Maria, Pontresina, Silvaplana — a six-night winter circuit through the upper Engadine, with White Turf, the Cresta Run, and the quieter…
DESTINATIONS
The Italian Lakes 2026: Como, Garda, Maggiore and the Tremezzo Aftershock
Three seasons after Passalacqua opened on Lake Como and reset the upper end of Italian Lakes hospitality, the rest of the lake — and the two quieter lakes…
DESTINATIONS
Bhutan in 2026: The High-Value Math After the SDF Cut
Bhutan's USD 200 Sustainable Development Fee has been halved to USD 100 per night through September 2027.
DESTINATIONS
Botswana and Namibia 2026: The Okavango-Sossusvlei Combination
Botswana and Namibia operate as two structurally different safari countries that share a single overland border and a meaningfully complementary visitor…
DESTINATIONS
Kenya 2026: The Mara, the Conservancies, and the Lamu Coast
Kenya's upper-end safari market has consolidated around the private conservancies adjacent to the Masai Mara reserve; the desk's 2026 assessment is that the…
DESTINATIONS
Sri Lanka 2026: Tea Country, Galle Fort, and the Resplendent Ceylon Circuit
Sri Lanka's upper-end visitor inventory remains structurally smaller than the comparable Southeast Asian markets but has compounded meaningfully through…
DESTINATIONS
Rwanda 2026: Gorilla Trekking, Bisate, and the Singita Volcanic-Country Position
Rwanda's mountain-gorilla trekking programme has become the structural luxury-safari proposition in central Africa; the desk's 2026 assessment is that the…
DESTINATIONS
Croatia 2026: Hvar, Korcula, Vis, Mljet and the Maslina Reset
The Croatian Adriatic upper-end market has been quietly compounding since the country's 2013 EU accession; the 2026 inventory is the most credible it has…
DESTINATIONS
Inside Lofoten's Quietest Season
Between the aurora hunters of February and the cruise crowds of July sits a four-week window that locals call 'den stille tiden' — the quiet time.