A Luxury Travel Blog

Luxury hotel brand Ritz-Carlton has announced plans to open an exclusive 320-room oceanfront resort situated on Aruba’s famed Palm Beach.  The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba will bring a new level of elegance in accommodation and amenities to the island. It will offer several restaurants, a luxurious spa, two swimming pools and a 24-hour casino. In addition to spacious rooms and suites, the hotel will include The Ritz-Carlton Club Level, a private floor accessible only by elevator key.  The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba is projected to open in late 2012 and will be the seventh property in The Ritz-Carlton portfolio in the Caribbean.

Located nine feet below the surface in a converted wine cellar, Nine is an intimate new dining experience at the luxurious Tower Estate. Enjoy a tour of the wineries and the beautiful Hunter Valley before tucking into a seasonally produced 9 course degustation with matched Tower Estate wines ($250 per person / approx £125). Established in 2009, Nine was developed to extend the special experiences that Tower Lodge is renowned for and to provide a new level in dining diversity. The private dining room seats from two to 16 guests.

Hobart’s historic Grand Mercure Hadleys Hotel is undergoing a $30million extension ready for a grand reopening in September 2010. Built circa 1830, the hotel will have an additional 128 suites (to the existing 71), and a new a la carte restaurant and cafe. The new suites in Hadleys will cost from $229 (approx £115) per couple per night for a room with a city and harbour view – the views extend over the top of parliament house to Hobart’s marinas and to the Derwent Bridge. The 9th floor two-storey penthouse with exterior deck and hot tub will cost from $900 (approx £450) per night.

For those who aren’t already familiar, Shanghai Tang is a leading luxury lifestyle brand emerging from China, offering everything from luxury apparel for men, women and children, as well as accessories and homeware.

And now, if you own an iPod Touch or iPhone, you can enjoy their latest collection courtesy of their free ‘City Chic’ app. The collection “embraces the euphoria of love with a sense of restraint and creative defiance, reflecting Shanghai Tang’s distinctive spirit of interpreting diverse artistic and cultural elements with a contemporary Chinese chic style”.

You can view items in the collection, watch video footage of models parading up and down at a Shanghai Tang fashion show and redeem vouchers that give you money off at certain stores or on certain products.  But the app goes much further than this… it also tells you the coolest places to eat, drink, shop and party in Shanghai.

Whether you’re looking for a boutique 5 star hotel (88 Xintiandi), a chic little lounge bar (DR Bar near Ma Dang Road), the private tearooms of the Whampoa Club, or a sophisticated nightclub perched on top of a skyscraper (M1NT), or other hidden secrets of the city, you’ll find it all neatly packaged in this app.

There’s also, of course, the fine offerings of Shanghai Tang itself, including the Shanghai Tang Café, the Shanghai Tang Xintiandi Flagship Store, the Shanghai Tang Peninsula hotel store, the Shanghai Tang Shangri-la hotel store and the Shanghai Tang Jinjiang hotel store, making this a great little app for anyone looking to ‘live it up’ in Shanghai.  The app is free – download it, give it a try and let us know what you think.

The wonderful  Elounda Solfez Villas on the island of Crete – which I visited in person and ran a special feature on earlier in the year – is running a Minoan Trail competition.  Solve the riddle on their website and you could be on your way to winning a fabulous 7-night stay in one of their three-bedroom villas. The closing date for entries has been extended until 17th May 2010.

A weekly pick of luxury travel links for your perusal…

• Virgin Holidays and Hip Hotels: vhiphotels.co.uk
• Swedish gourmet traditions from Grythyttan
• An idyllic farmhouse in North Cornwall
• Paradise in Goa from The Leela Kempinski Goa