A Luxury Travel Blog

Résidence Supérieur is an extreme luxury concept, designed by internationally known lifestyle designer Richard Nilsson, located on the French Riviera. The concept include super sports cars, private jets, yachts, butlers, chefs, bodyguards and any other service you may wish for. Résidence Supérieur is created for the extreme connoisseurs and is totally unique in the way that there are no limits for how you can tailor your staying. The concept will be expanded to other locations in the near future and is currently offering Villa Oxygene in Cannes.

Looking for luxury in Southern Belize, but also worried about your carbon footprint?  Look no further – Palmetto Bay Resort in Southern Belize’s Placencia Peninsula recently announced plans to build the first eco-friendly resort design green from the ground up.  The four star amenity-driven property, designed by Julieanne Dobson - renowned for work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Turtle Inn, offers luxury beachfront condominiums with views of the azul blue Caribbean Sea and extensive outdoor living spaces designed to take advantage of the beautiful weather and scenery. Real estate ownership in Belize is without restriction, with foreign buyers taking full title and enjoying the same rights as Belizeans. For more information, visit their site.

Roman Abramovich, Chelsea FC owner and the world’s 15th richest man, has been quietly buying up apartments in a Georgian mansion in Kensington, West London. As of today, the Russian oil tycoon will own the entire building and will begin work on turning it into a £150 million palatial home - a sum that is almost double the current record (£80m) for a house in the UK. As well as having 8 bedrooms, there will be a pool, cinema, sauna, huge garage and even a block of apartments for the staff. John Simpson & Partners - known for work at Buckingham Palace and Prince Charles’ Poundbury village in Dorset - have been given the responsibility of overseeing the conversion.

North Yorkshire will be home to a £100 million hotel by 2011 according to plans presented by The Skelwith Group.  The Flaxby Country Club will be the largest five-star hotel in the North of England.  It is located between Knaresborough and York, and rooms and suites will be sold individually to investors. Prices for a standard hotel room will start at about £90,000, or investors can pay £250,000 for each of five presidential-style suites, complete with individual cinema and private dining areas.

Las Vegas Strip has a new condo hotel - Palms Place. The property has 600 condos, some of which will be hotel rooms, and a spa, but no casino, yet it is connected to The Palms (and its casino) by a moving walkway.  Rapper Eminem, wrestler Hulk Hogan and singer Jessica Simpson are apparently among the celebrities to have made condo purchases. The hotel spa includes a hammam and the first Sunset Tan franchise in the area.

A Public Inquiry opens next week into proposals for a 144m high residential tower on a site immediately behind the National Theatre on London’s South Bank. The Secretary of State to refuse planning permission for the scheme because of the serious damage it will cause to the capital’s heritage.  What’s your take on Doon St Tower?

If money wasn’t the key limiting factor that it so often is, where would you choose to have your dream holiday home, what type of house would it be, and why? Would you prefer to opt for fractional ownership? Are there any existing holiday home owners that would like to speak out and share their own experiences?

The Cliffs is proud to introduce Keowee Springs, a new and unique kind of healthy-living community. At Keowee Springs, family wellness is an exciting journey of discovery, of living completely, of enjoying life to the fullest. The Cliffs at Keowee Springs is the ideal place to begin, or continue, a legacy of living well that will enrich and inspire generation after generation.

Four Seasons is heading for downtown Manhattan.  It will retain its midtown location but will also occupy the first 22 floors of an 80-story residential tower that is planned near Ground Zero.  The plans form part of a proposal from World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein. The new tower will be Robert A.M. Stern Architects with an anticipated opening by 2011. The hotel will have 175 rooms, a restaurant, pool, spa and health club with several suites, including one 3,700-square-foot royal suite.

The former Sea Castle motel has been demolished to make way for Hyatt Siesta Key Beach resort, taking up 300 feet of the beautiful Crescent Beach. The resort will offer 44 furnished residences, 1,600-2,600 square feet, with privileges at an adjoining beach club, and the units are anticipated to cost from $200,000 to $750,000. Hotel-like amenities such as valet parking, full-time front desk, concierge, pool, fitness center, locker room and spa and massage treatment rooms will also be available. Occupancy is planned for 2009.

Baccarat Hotels And Resorts to debut in Anguilla with The Baccarat Hotel and Residences at Temenos, Anguilla. It will include a 114-key ultra-luxury hotel and an 18,800-square-foot world-class spa and fitness centre. Within the hotel there will be 50 oceanfront residences. Guests and residents will enjoy personal exclusive services and signature Baccarat aesthetics. The 286-acre resort will also include 18 estate homes, 10 villas and 38 Spa Villas along with a Greg Norman-designed championship golf course -Anguilla’s first and only course.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is to introduce its renowned St. Regis brand to Africa, with plans to debut a new property in the heart of downtown Cairo in 2011. The St. Regis, Cairo will include 299 lavishly furnished rooms and 103 serviced apartments as part of a luxurious, mixed-use development overlooking the River Nile. Owned by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, the St. Regis, Cairo will represent the ultimate expression of contemporary luxury in Egypt’s thriving capital city.

As the fractional ownership trend popularized by Americans, spreads across the pond to Europe, Borgo di Vagli, Italy’s first Equity Residence Club development was recently named Best International Redevelopment (Multiple Units) by the 2007 International Property Awards. Situated in the heart of Tuscany, 30 minutes from Cortona, Borgo di Vagli is a 14th Century medieval hamlet set on 32 acres of olive groves and gardens. The rustic residences are sold fractionally, starting at  $60,000 for a one-bedroom and $92,500 for a two-bedroom.

A day doesn’t seem to go buy without some media publicity surrounding Donald Trump’s latest golfing resort, which was originally intended for Scotland.  Following rejection there, the latest speculation is that he might be taking it to Northern Ireland. Bloomberg reports that he has signed an option to buy a piece of land in County Antrim and has 30 days in which to make a decision on it. Antrim is no stranger to golf, and has a number of well-known golf links already, including the famous Dunluce links course of the Royal Portrush Golf Club, a club famous for being the only one to have staged the British Open outside of Great Britain.

California might be best known for its beaches, but its the popular ski resort of Mammoth Lakes where a new luxury hotel has just opened. The Westin Monache is a 230-unit condo-hotel built by Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Intrawest, featuring a full-service restaurant, 24-hour room service, ski valet, rental shop and more. The first four units with another private residence club, called Talus, sits on the 10th fairway of the Sierra Golf Course in Mammoth Lakes with views toward Lincoln Mountain. An additional 19 units are planned. The resort also has a new, high-speed chairlift, the Cloud Nine Express.

You may recall me reporting that Donald Trump had his plans for a $2.1 billion golf course approved.  Well… not any more.  The plans have been rejected by Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Committee and this takes precedence over the earlier decision. An appeal to Scottish government ministers is a possibility, but Trump might also explore alternative European locations.  Read more here.