A New You

The allure of going back in time has long been a coveted fantasy. For some it is an opportunity to relive a golden era, whilst for others, it is all about having a “do-over”. What if you were lucky enough to grant yourself such a wish or fortunate enough to be gifted a do-over. This selection of luxury health and wellness resorts, not only has the magical effect of transforming you into the best version of yourself but also mending your soul. When you glow on the outside, you are bound to do so on the inside as well. To look yourself in the mirror and like the optimized version smiling back at you, can make you feel invincible.  It is that moral boost that can open you up to an avalanche of new experiences and new beginnings.

 Clinique La Prairie 

Located in Switzerland, this resort is considered the Holy Grail for wellness and beauty, with elite doctors and therapists behind the personalized spa treatments and the promise of reengineering your life, one can feel confident that it will be an experience to remember.

For nearly 90 years, those in search of a profound change in their health and wellbeing have been coming to Clinique La Prairie to benefit from cutting-edge medicine and technology, combined with unique well-being and nutrition plans. Discover the secret of living longer, healthier and fuller lives.

Perfection is this facility’s goal; it has the massive range of programs and the deluxe hospitality service, to make your stay unique.

Being both a health clinic and award-winning SPA, pioneer in longevity since 1931 and creator of the cellular therapy. Clinique La Prairie’s holistic and preventive approach to health is astonishing.

InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

If you are feeling burned-out and in need of an escape from the fast-paced world, the 5-star luxury resort has everything to help you regenerate your soul.

Located in Bora Bora, surrounded by the mesmerizing bright blue lagoon and sapphire sea, makes it the ideal vacation spot.

Winner of TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice 2020, the pioneering spa, offers thalassotherapy, which promotes the use of seawater in wellness treatments,   panoramic views of the ocean while experiencing their signature treatments.

With people more oriented towards experiences rather than materialistic things no wonder the luxury wellness business is booming. If you want to experience the life of the rich and famous or simply want to open yourself to a future ridden of all the bitterness, anger and disappointment, you owe it to yourself to try these places. As for men looking to breath life and happiness unto their love interest, this is the place to start. As you know unhappiness and discontent are the enemies of love, so offer your lover the chance to radiate beauty and joy, as it will make her more inclined to romance you.

 

The New World Post CoronaVirus

As Singer-songwriter John Lennon once said “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” This is precisely what happened to the world as it was struck by the CoronaVirus pandemic. With danger looming around with no imminent end and many speculative scenarios, the assumption that this devastating tragedy will forever change the world becomes very plausible.

The surge of Videoconferencing Applications
Zoom and other videoconferencing applications have proven to be extremely helpful and effective during the epidemic. Not only businesses were able to use these tools to conduct meetings, even news media has resorted to them. News agencies have been able to conduct interviews with doctors and experts via these mediums. Thus this will open up the door to many more similar apps to flood the app-stores.

Accelerated digital transformation
Thanks for the pandemic, businesses, schools, universities and restaurants have realized the importance to gearing up towards becoming digital.  Resorting to e-commerce websites , delivery applications , and online courses have become crucial to any business’ survival.

Live Streaming
The trend of live steaming witnessed a surge in usage. From doing concerts to cooking classes to cycling marathons to gym classes, everything you can think of has been turned into a live streaming opportunity. Thus businesses have realized the importance of live streaming as an effective marketing tool.

Working from Home
Having been forced to let employees work from home during the pandemic, business owners realized that outcome is more important than shifts. As long as the job is getting done, there is no need to keep tabs on employees. Post-CoronaVirus employers have realized that it is all about the bigger picture. In order to focus on what is important time is of the essence thus there is no need for long meetings and presentations.  However with the typical nine-hours workdays no longer existing and the need to be continuously online, bosses will learn to exercise self-control and not takeover their employees’ life, bearing in mind that they are not dealing with a robot whose sole purpose in life is to serve them and their interests. Employees need to allocate quality time for themselves and their family in order not to burnout.

Empowerment
During the pandemic certain employees have proven themselves to be independent and in no need of management, thus employers have realized  that employees handle the business far better than  newly hired managers and consultants.

Frontline Workers
The need to re-evaluate the importance of frontline employees becomes imminent as they proved themselves to be essential during the pandemic.

 Hygiene Practices
If Coronavirus has taught us anything, it is the power of good hygiene practices. With restaurants implementing rigorous hygiene practices, this will become a permanent part of their operations:
– Washing hands repeatedly.
– Wearing gloves and a mask when handling food.
– Giving sick-leave to any mildly sick employee.
– Disinfecting the kitchen and space.

Traveling
After Coronavirus, according to paper from Imperial College London  governments will need to turn lockdown measures on and off to keep thing in check. Furthermore, travelers will be needing more than only their passports to travel, some health certificates might be also required.

Automation
Long before the CoronaVirus pandemic hit, experts were speculating that sooner or later robots will replace humans in certain work areas. But with social distancing being demanded, which is suspected to continue, post CoronaVirus , certain businesses will accelerate their use of automation especially in the medical as well as well delivery field.

No matter what the future might bring, we need to go forth. As the poet Patrick Overton, once said, “When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon or you will be taught to fly.”

 

Venice of the Netherlands

Venice has been widely recognized as one of the most romantic cities in the world. However, tucked away in the Netherlands, you will find its rival Giethoorn, a car-free village in the northeastern Dutch province of Overijssel, known for its boat-filled waterways, footpaths, bicycle trails and centuries-old thatched-roof houses.

Giethoorn has several nicknames, like Little Venice (or) Venice of the North, as a testament to its charm and grace. It will not take you long to fall in-love with this village which gained notoriety in 1958, when the Dutch filmmaker Bert Haanstra made his famous comedy Fanfare there.

Giethoorn has over 150 bridges and is a very popular destination for tourists as it offers the perfect rural experience.  In a haven, full of lakes, reed beds and forests, the picturesque village with its thatched roofs farmhouses and characteristic wooden bridges, is a magnet for those seeking an escape from their everyday life. In the old part of the village, transport is solely by boat over its many canals.

Giethoorn has also established a culinary reputation for itself. It is home to various excellent restaurants that are sure to offer guests gastronomic enjoyment. Mostly situated at the water’s edge, restaurants, such as the 2 Michelin stars De Lindenhof, have everything to satisfy a curious food palate.

Giethoorn, is a must visit as it has all the making of a memorable adventure.

The First of Its Kind: Forest City

Imagine having the best of both worlds, enjoying the perks of modern life without compromising your love of nature. It is the perfect blend between modernism and wild life. Imagine looking outside your window and gazing upon a marvelous forest view whilst enjoying all the comfort that urban life has to offer.

Architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri Architetti decided to make this fantasy a reality with his Liuzhou Forest City project. Inspired by his previous Vertical Forest project that he had executed in Milan in 2014, which received many international awards such as the International Highrise Award ( 2014) and the Best Tall Building Worldwide Award (2015) by CTBUH, he decided to take his pioneering concept of biodiversity in architecture, to the next level. He started off by presenting his project of Forest City in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), becoming one of the main actors in the debate on climate change in the field of international architecture. He got the chance to realize his vision when he was contracted to build a Forest City in north of Liuzhou, a Chinese city of about one and a half million inhabitants in the mountainous Southern province of Guangxi Liuzhou. The Liuzhou Forest City is the first prototype of its kind, an urban city in which offices, houses, hotels, hospitals and schools are almost entirely covered by plants and trees of a wide range of varieties and sizes.

The Liuzhou Forest City will be able to absorb about 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of micro-particles every year, producing about 900 tons of oxygen at the same time thereby combating the serious problem of air pollution in an effective and indepth way thanks to the multiplication of urban draining and plant surfaces. The distribution of plants not just along the avenues in parks and gardens but also on the facades of buildings means that a city already designed to be self-sufficient in terms of energy will also be able to improve air quality, reduce the average temperature of the urban heat island, generate a barrier against acoustic pollution. Completely connected, the new green city will be linked to the nearby centre of Liuzhou through a highly efficient fast railway infrastructure and a road network reserved exclusively for electrically powered cars. The Liuzhou Forest City is intended to house different types of residential areas and a full range of facilities, combining commercial and hospitality spaces and various public services including two schools and a hospital. The master plan developed by Stefano Boeri Architetti envisages a green city with all the characteristics of an urban settlement that is fully self-sufficient from an energy consumption point of view, starting with the use of geothermal energy for the interior spaces of buildings and the rooftop installation of high efficiency solar panels for the capture of renewable wind energy.

The Liuzhou Forest City construction which started in 2016 is expected to be completed by 2020. It will accommodate 30,000 residents spread over an area of ​​138.5 hectares. The community will include apartment buildings, schools, hotels, hospitals, shops and offices.

 

Tunisia’s Star Wars Hotel

Star Wars fans can now rejoice as they can experience a true Luke Skywalker fantasy by lodging in Sidi Driss, a hotel where was filmed scene of the hero’s childhood home on the planet of Tatooine.

Located in the village of Matmâta, small Berber speaking town in southern Tunisia renowned for its typical structures created by digging large pit in the ground;  Around the perimeter of this pit artificial caves are then dug to be used as rooms, with some homes comprising multiple pits, connected by trench-like passageways.

Opened all year round the hotel offers affordable accommodation and can lodge over 145 guests in 20 rooms, grouped in four separate caverns. The fifth is dedicated for the hotel’s restaurant/bar. The traditional Berber hotel offers a historic and calm atmosphere. In Sidi Idriss you can delect yourself with traditional dishes, cave rooms and an exceptional bar. Prices are fairly cheap, ranging from 30 dinars per person to 47 dinars, with 12% discount for children aged below 10.

American filmmaker and entrepreneur George Lucas, picked Hotel Sidi Driss as an ideal location to film for his movie Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.

After filming, most of the decorations used were removed by the owners but thanks to a French Star Wars enthusiast by the name of Philip Vanni, the hotel rooms were restored and in 2000, George Lucas filmed one of his prequels, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.

The Hotel Sidi Driss is not a Universal Studios re-creation; it is authentic and real. The rooms are compact caverns dug into the base of a tall circular courtyard whilst beds are blankets placed on the floor. So if you are looking to have a full Star Wars experience, it can’t get more authentic than that.

Mirazur: the World’s Best Restaurant

The Mirazur restaurant has been bestowed the title of the best restaurant in the world.

Topping 2019’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.  This achievement doesn’t only mark a first for the restaurant but also for France, this is the first time that a French restaurant is crowned Best Restaurant in The World.

 

The Mirazur restaurant was able to dethrone Noma restaurant a two-Michelin-star restaurant run by chef René Redzepi, which had been a crowd favorite for several years. Noma restaurant had been ranked World’s Best Restaurants in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

The Mirazur restaurant located at the foot of the mountains overlooking the sea, near the Italian border, enjoys an idyllic setting, surrounded by lush vegetation that spreads across three levels on the hillside. Diners can relish themselves with fine dining whilst enjoying the panoramic view of the sea and the town of Menton through the large windows running all the way around.

 

The path of this three stars restaurant wasn’t easy. 2019 marks the first year that it tops the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. In 2017, it was only able to obtain the 4th place whilst in 2018 the 3rd place.

The restaurant stellar reputation, can be attributed to Chef Mauro Colagreco who had forged a style of his own.

By using his Italian-Argentinian cultural heritage. Inspired by the sea, the mountains and the fruit and vegetables grown in his own gardens, Mauro managed to invent colourful, pictorial dishes that play with textures and bold contrasts.

The Mirazur’s cuisine is a blend of three themes: Sea, garden and mountain. The combination of elements is what helped Chef Mauro Colagreco climb the lather of success and achieve first place.

 

 

The First Vegan Hotel

“Saorsa 1875”, first vegan hotel opens its doors in the Highland, United Kingdom. Jack McLaren-Stewart and his mother, Sandra, decided to tap into the veganism trend and open the first of its kind vegan hotel in Pitlochry, Perthshire. 

Ensconced by 2 acres of natural woodlands and gardens and overlooking the town of Pitlochry, Saorsa 1875 is a unique hotel dedicated to showcasing ethical luxury.

Designed for vegans, vegetarians and the plant-curious, Saorsa 1875 balances the building’s Victorian Gothic origins with modern amenities to offer a unique experience. More than a synthesis of tastes, the hotel offers the perfect antidote to the frantic pace of modern living.

The 19th-century baronial house has 11 bedrooms individually styled with a calming combination of luxurious linens, bohemian styling and antique furnishings.

Downstairs, the lounge and restaurant is a cozy all-day spot for relaxing by the fire. Our menu is completely plant-based and showcases local, seasonal and foraged produce – all washed down with craft beers, a unique wine list and cocktails inspired by the region.

The boutique vegan hotel in the gateway to the Highlands, promises their consciousness guests a uniquely luxurious experience.

3D Circus

In 1976, inspired by Austrian Peter Hajek, “Sarah Roncalli, Tochter des Mondes”, Bernhard Paul and André Heller teamed up and launched a German circus: Circus Roncalli.

The circus is one of the oldest and most successful circuses in Europe, it owns the largest circus collections in the world, including old costumes, circus books and posters, which they plan to display in a museum.

Bernhard Paul and André Heller have always been visionaries. It is thanks to their perseverance and trend-setting thinking that they managed to sustain their shows for decades. That is why, in order to follow current times and please conscientious clients, Circus Roncalli decided to replace live animals with holographic ones thus joining the fight against animal cruelty which circuses have been accused of for years.

Thanks to Bluebox and Optoma projectors , clients can see the 3D animals from their seat no matter where they are seated in the room.

The circus collaborated with Bluebox to create stunning visuals. Eleven ZU 850 laser projectors were used to create the holographic animals that include prancing horses and fierce lions.

Death Defying Swimming Pool

Compass Ceramic Pools is a UK company specialized in the professional installation of indoor and outdoor pools which has forged a solid reputation turning fantasy pools into reality.  In one of their most daring endeavor yet, Compass Ceramic decided to set-up a death defying swimming pool with a 360 degrees view of London.  The new architecture set in central London, will allow visitors to float over 200 meters above the capital’s skyline.

Pool designers at Compass Pools have developed Infinity London, the only building in the world to incorporate a 360-degree infinity pool. The concept, also referred to by the Greek lemniscate symbol (∞), features a 600,000-litre pool built right on top of a 55-storey building. The pool is made from cast acrylic rather than glass, as this material transmits light at a similar wavelength to water so that the pool will look perfectly clear.

The floor of the pool is also transparent, allowing visitors to see the swimmers and sky above. Swimmers will access the pool through a rotating spiral staircase based on the door of a submarine, rising from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out.

Other advanced technical features include a built-in anemometer to monitor the wind speed. This is linked to a computer-controlled building management system to ensure the pool stays at the right temperature and water doesn’t get blown down to the streets below. Boasting an innovative twist on renewable energy, the pool’s heating system will use waste energy from the air condition system for the building. The hot gas that is produced as a by-product of creating cold air in the building will run through a heat exchanger to heat the water for the pool.

The pool is also fitted with a full spectrum of lights which will give the building the appearance of a sparkling jewel-topped torch at night.

Infinity London could kick off construction as early as 2020 if all the partners and contractors are confirmed. It will have a five-star international hotel on the top floors of the building with the pool used by the guests.

Infinity London’s exact location is yet to be confirmed.

 

 

Ladurée Goes Vegan

Ladurée is a staple of the French pastry industry and the concept maker of Macarons dessert, thanks to its owner Pierre Desfontaines who in the middle of the 19th century, thought of taking two macarons shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling. The recipe remains the  same ever since.

Today, in its usual trend-setting fashion, Ladurée has a new surprise for their fans.

After celebrating its 150-years as one of the ultimate French pastry chains, Ladurée decided to revamp its Beverly Hills branch and turn it into a vegan pastry shop.

The new all vegan menu is the work of Matthew Kenney, an American celebrity chef, entrepreneur, author, and educator specialized in plant-based cuisine. He has authored 13 cookbooks and is the founder of Matthew Kenney Cuisine.

For years Ladurée  has been ahead of the curve, combining a plethora of styles, tastes, with an artistic twist.

In its usual disruptor fashion, Ladurée  heads the trend of gourmet pastry gone vegan.