A Luxury Travel Blog

A weekly pick of luxury travel links for your perusal…

• Craving for Travel: Celebrating Life’s Moments
• Check out the luxury spas portfolio from Johansens
• Rollable travel shoes (!) from Spare Pear
• Boutique chic from Villa Elena, Sicily

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.

Remember the Travelwrap that we reviewed earlier this year? Well, it sounds like the company is going from strength to strength.  In addition to winning Luxury Gift of the Year (UK) 2008, it’s now a recipient of the prestigious Best Company of the Year, International Women in Business at the 2009 Stevie Awards.

Alongside the new autumnal colours for the Travelwrap, this season sees the introduction of luxury lounge socks – the perfect accompaniment for a winter wardrobe and Christmas stocking filler.

Whether travelling for business or pleasure, take the time to indulge in some serious retail therapy at Heathrow this Autumn. Catering for your every want and desire, the airport is home to a wide collection of premium brands including Paul Smith, Prada, Harrods, Gucci and Sony – all at airport prices. Here are their picks for the ultimate in luxury and opulence this season.

Enjoy travelling through time with the elegant Cartier Ballon Bleu watch. Available to purchase from Harrods Heathrow stores for £23,000, the 18 carat white gold timepiece features a case set with round-cut diamonds and Cartier calibre 057 quartz movement.

Put pen to paper with the limited edition Montblanc Skeleton A380. Made with 750 white gold and adorned with 42 diamonds, this investment scribe is available to purchase from The Pen Shop and costs £11,086.95.

Add the colourful characters of The Dalmore (home to the oldest maturing stocks of any single Highland malt) to your drinks cupboard with the The Dalmore Sirius 1951 available exclusively from the World Duty Free store in Terminal 5 for £10,000. Relish the aromas of intense citrus and honeyed chocolate followed by roasted coffee, crushed walnuts and hints of liquorice spice. With just twelve bottles made, and five already sold, ensure you don’t miss out by going online to World of Whiskies where a limited number are available to pre-order.

With thigh-high boots remaining the must-have footwear for Autumn, be sure to check out the sumptuous Paulitta boots from Bally. A step above the rest, these black stretch suede and leather boots cost £1,435 and feature a 130mm brass lace ‘cage’ heel and gilt edge platform.

For state of the art eyewear, look no further than the new Pit Boss sunglasses from The Oakley Elite Collection. Available exclusively from the World Duty Free store in Terminal 5, these shades have taken four years to develop and seamlessly blend the world’s most advanced optical technologies with truly unique aesthetics. There are three lens and frame colour combinations to choose from each costing £425 per pair.

Don’t you just hate it when you turn up somewhere, only to find someone else is wearing an identical garment?  I wonder how Rihanna felt when she emerged from the Hotel de Rome in Berlin today and found herself being upstaged by the doorman…

These days it seems it’s not enough to offer just a few drinks and snacks in a hotel minibar.  Hotels are going a step further, offering all manner of items from bikinis (W Retreat & Spa, Maldives) to gourmet dog biscuits (The Loews Hotel, Denver). 

But perhaps one of the most unusual items you’ll ever find is an oxygen cannister!  Rooms at the Banyan Tree Ringha can be up to 10,500 feet above sea level and so the minibars come with a cannister containing almost 10 litres of lung-boosting freshness.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever come across in a hotel minibar?

The Travelwrap from The Travelwrap Company arrived at A Luxury Travel Blog HQ this week. This company offers the perfect travelling companion in the form of their original, contemporary, Scottish-knitted cashmere Travelwraps. So soft and luxurious, they are made from the finest cashmere: the company spent a long time finding the right mill to do the knitting and dying of the ethically-sourced yarn as the finish and palette of cashmere is so important. Knitted by one of the world’s top cashmere suppliers in Scotland, this was a vital ingredient in getting The Travelwrap exactly right.

There are four Travelwrap collections available, with a variety of designs to choose from, covering classic and contemporary styles.  Ours is ‘Poppies’ from the Eclectic Collection (pictured) and it came in a beautifully-presented signature gift box and wrapped in tissue paper.  As we lifted it from the box, it exuded luxury in every way and we could immediately see why it was well suited for travel, being so lightweight.  Also, being 100% cashmere, it beats those awful acrylic blankets you get on flights by a country mile – in fact, it’s not really fair to draw any comparison!

It’s with good reason, therefore, that The Travelwrap earned the prestigious title of ‘Luxury Gift of the Year 2008′. Although marketed for travel, you could equally use The Travelwrap at home, curled up on the sofa in your PJs with a good book. And despite being largely a girl thing, The Travelwrap also comes in smaller sizes for toddlers and children. What’s more, the company is to launch slightly more muted Travelwraps for Him collection later in 2009.

Travelwraps retail from £191 adult/£140 children and are available online. But here’s some good news for you, our readers!

The Travelwrap Company is kindly offering readers of A Luxury Travel Blog a 20% discount on purchases from The Eclectic Collection or Evening Collection made up to and including 30th April 2009.  Just quote the promotional code TRAV1.

Gwen Stefani isn’t just known for her music.  She’s also a fashion designer and was recently named ‘top celebrity designer’ by In Touch Weekly magazine, ahead of the likes of Justin Timberlake, Victoria Beckham and others. And her eye for design has clearly been noted by W Hotels who have commissioned her to design new uniforms for their female bar stuff.  The new range will be phased in in December 2008.

Ever worn socks with sandals or committed some other fashion no-no?  Better still, do you know someone else who has?  Enjoy a bit of interactive fun and the chance to win a luxury weekend away courtesy of holidaycrimes.co.uk – the site has been built by the Hotel Reservation Service (HRS) and asks those who have been on holiday to post photos of themselves, friends or family who have committed “holiday crimes” such as wearing inappropriate swimwear or sporting socks and sandals. Visitors to the site will automatically be entered into a weekly prize draw to win a luxury weekend break.

I’ve previously read about a backpack that can re-charge your laptop whilst you walk around with it, and I recall blogging about this solar-powered handbag a while back, but now it would appear that the same ideas are being carried forward to clothing.  Ermenegildo Zegna’s solar-powered sporty jacket has solar panels within its neoprene collar and can be used to charge an iPod or mobile phone.  Look out for it in stores from November 2007 and expect to pay in the region of $750 for it.

Fancy getting your hands on a Mercedes C-class? wejetset, which is due to launch an online store next month selling everything from backpacks to travel apparel, is partnering with Mercedes Benz to give away a 2008 Mercedes C-class sports sedan with a set of luggage from one of their favourite brands. For a chance to win, enter before 18th September 2007.

A swimsuit made of pure gold has been unveiled in Kyoto by the Tokyo jewellery store Ginza Tanaka. It’s a one-piece, hand-woven, halter-neck outfit weighing 500g and can be yours for 10 million yen (approx. $82,000).  Seems like a lot for a swimsuit that they say is not for water recreation, but I suppose it’s still not a patch on Susan Rosen’s $30 million diamond bikini.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts now offers Fairmont President’s Club Members easy access to adidas training gear through Fairmont Fit. This newest guest benefit for loyalty club members will deliver workout apparel, footwear and accessories directly to your accommodation for use in your room, in the gym or to enjoy in the great outdoors. It is currently available at Fairmont hotels throughout the US and Canada.

Looking for a dress for all occasions?  This may not quite be what you had in mind, but it’s interesting nonetheless! Designed by Despina Papadopoulos of Studio 5050 as a hommage to Paco Rabanne, the Day-for-Night dress is perhaps more a celebration of eletroncic beauty than fashion. It has the ability to lengthen or shorten depending on the weather and, once charged by the sun during the day, can even change colour in different lighting circumstances come nightfall!

Solestrom have come up with the world’s first UV Smart Bikini featuring a smart fabric UV meter with Bright LED display. Designed to protect you from excessive exposure to the sun’s rays, the device is quick and easy to use and powered by standard long lasting CR2025 batteries.

An ex-Sony technician, Kouzi Ichigaya, has launched the world’s first ‘air-conditioned’ shirt. The shirt can be powered by USB, an in-car cigarette lighter or, perhaps most practically of all, by four AA batteries. Shirts for both men and women are currently available in Japan. Two small fans are located on both sides of the shirt, towards the bottom of the back. It’s not so much air-conditioning, more just air circulation.