He enjoys two things most: traveling and being pampered. Travel journalist knows like no other Ivo Weyel where you need to book a suite. MASTERS takes you to places where adventure, comfort and history come together. Text: Ivo Weyel
Online editorial: Noa Verseveldt
Adventure is something from when you were young. Backpack, two pairs of underwear (alternately), peeling travel guide (albeit without a mapped out itinerary), budgeted train ticket and even more budgeted budget and then see where the wind blows you. And then you get older. And richer. And spoiled. Then adventures become less and less adventurous, because comfort has crept into your life and comfort is the death of any adventure. Sleeping on the beach under the open sky is suddenly no longer an option, backpacks have become too heavy (and too small for what you need, because you no longer have to think about wearing underwear) and not knowing your destination is no longer possible. more for your vocabulary. And then you get older and the midlife crisis creeps in and you want to go on an adventure again, one more time, just to see if you haven't forgotten and to prove that you are still fit as a young god. So then you go camping in Antarctica, the South Pole, yes, in a tent, just like then, far from civilization, just you and the harsh outside world full of ice and cold and hardship. The word hardship alone is everything you long for, far away from the underfloor heating in your bathroom, your Porsche, your business, your ever-ringing iPhones (plural). Enter the smart travel companies that cater to your target group. They have realized that your target group is not only nature-oriented adventurous (or pretends to be), but also rich. White Desert is one of those clever ventures that flies you to a tent at the South Pole for a week for a negligible $53.000 per person. Exclusive sleeping mask, an essential accessory because it remains light for 24 hours and the tent is semi-translucent (tip: available at Ritzparisboutique.com, in cashmere, for 580 euros). The gin and tonic served as an aperitif in the dining tent is cooled by 10.000 year old ice and the sleeping tents have heating and running water. By the way, that $53.000 is an entry-level price for the least luxurious adventure. For $250.000 per person you can't go wrong, and you can land in a private jet from Cape Town on the South Pole ice plain and you can hike to your heart's content and crawl through ice tunnels and abseil from ice cliffs and cycle around on spiked bicycles and windsurf and bond with penguins or just read a book in front of your tent with a ten thousand year old gin and tonic in your hand. If you are a little less successful in life and all this hors budget falls (loser!), you can go a little closer for 17.500 euros, in Scotland, where you can participate in the Highland Kings Race from April 25 to 29, a race through the Highlands with overnight stays in unheated (well, logical, for that price?) tents, but again with meals prepared by a Michelin-lauded chef and daily calf massages. Don't think that the target group for this kind of luxurious adventure is small: a similar Rat Race Run Britannia from West Cornwall to North Scotland is already full for the coming years. There will only be room in 2024.
Great new book about London's renowned Savoy Hotel, The secret life of the Savoy by Olivia Williams. The history of this hotel is very special, once built as an annex for the theater that the founder built (so theater visitors could sleep over at a time when road traffic and public transport were still difficult), it grew into a luxurious stopping place for the rich and famous. Exciting things happened during the war (particularly because of Churchill), quite a few celebrities died and the daughter who inherited her father's hotel initially had no interest in it at all, but manifested herself as an avid manager and entrepreneur, and when she When she died she was one of the richest women in England. The hotel's short driveway is the only stretch of street in the entire country where people drive on the right (because otherwise cars would not end up exactly in front of the entrance), a right for which the founder asked (and received) special dispensation from the Crown. It is also special that the founder Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901) was the cradle of famous names such as Gilbert and Sullivan, Laurence Olivier, Noël Coward, in short, the finest in theater. George Gershwin made his famous debut there Rhapsody in Blue and Monet stayed there for months and painted dozens of paintings. It is now owned by an Arab prince, who spent three years completely renovating it into what it is today. Completely new is the Royal Suite, yours for 17.500 euros per night, a vehicle furnished by Gucci, which is very appropriate as founder Guccio Gucci worked in the Savoy as a luggage carrier around 1890 and then saw that rich people had crappy suitcases and so came up with the idea. started producing its own chic suitcases. Whoever is going to stay there must have a huge one friend of the brand because there is not a pillow, candle, slipper, bathrobe, towel, plate or wine glass without the Gucci label. Upon arrival, all (and there are many) televisions are programmed for Gucci fashion shows and in the bathroom, of course, only Gucci items. Butler and use of the house Roll-Royce are included in the price. No breakfast.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France is already well-placed with art (Galerie Maeght has been world famous for decades, not to mention the restaurant La Colombe d'Or), but now there is a new local player, a Belgian indeed, Hubert Bonnet, collector of art, houses and design. He collects it all so fanatically that he can no longer fit it in his houses (count: Dominican Republic, Panarea, Verbier, Geneva, Knokke, London, so that makes seven with his Brussels house), not even in his first private museum, his Fondation CAB in Brussels (since 2012). So a second CAB was opened in the aforementioned artists' village in the South of France, following a yawn (as the Belgians so beautifully say as an equivalent of our stone's throw) from Galerie Maeght. Bonnet's money comes from the family business he grew up with, steel giant Forges de Clabecq (doesn't Tata Ijmuiden sound much nicer?). He spends it generously. He accepts that his two CABs will never become profitable. Never mind. The art he collects is mainly modern, minimalist and conceptual (Judd, LeWitt, Flavin, Kuri et al.) and they simply have to have space, hence the houses (Bonnet wholesales in multiples) that are on the site. You can also spend the night there, because there are four 'hotel rooms', from a simple 250 euros. Truly spectacular is the Demountable House by the famous designer/architect Jean Prouvé from 1944, which is located here and in which you can also stay for 750 euros. All the furniture is also from Prouvé, so you spend the night in a real work of art. Also take a look at his own house set Bibihome.net. It shows all his private houses, one more beautiful than the other, not only from the point of view of peeking at the neighbors, but you can also go there, because Bonnet spends money like water, he also wants to earn something back, so they are all available for rent for a holiday or whatever. And the nice thing about Bonnet is that he has taste. At least hardly a piece of furniture without a proper name (Mies van der Rohe, Prouvé, Le Corbusier, Bauhaus, etc.). Staff can be booked on demand. Photography Fondation CAB – Antoine Lippens Order the new MASTERS MAGAZINE now!
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