Issue January 2016 - Conde Nast Traveller UK (2024)

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Island storiesEDITOR’S LETTERWELCOME TO OUR ISLANDS ISSUE. I love an island. Who doesn’t? But perhaps my favourite island of all is Bali.So my friend Jo and I are 18 and we’ve just left home for our first big trip.We’re on a motorbike driving up from Denpasar to Mount Batur. This is more than 20 years ago, so there’s pretty much nothing around, just endless trees and layers of paddy fields. We have strapped speakers onto our motorbike and we are listening to Enigma. (Do I want to change this part of the story? Yes, obviously. But I can’t. Because this is the voice of Enigma). Either way, Bali is blowing us away with its beauty. It is lush and green, and it is wild and unlike anything I have ever seen. It…2 min

Island storiesSEBASTIAN FAULKS‘Porquerolles is a funny little place, a short boat ride from the south coast of France, near Toulon, only seven kilometres by three. You can’t drive a car, so you have to hire a bicycle; but to get the most from it you need to walk or run, to crash through the brambles and go down to the rocky inlets they call ‘calanques’. Here you can be dive-bombed by seagulls or throw yourself into the turbulent water. The port has a strip of bars and restaurants, all more or less disgusting, but a decent alimentation and one passable hotel dining room in the square. The Auberge des Glycines is the best place to stay in the port. The dock area has various salons de thé and ice-cream parlours so firmly…1 min

Island storiesISLAND EXPLORERSCara Delevingne Parrot Cay (p118)‘It’d have to be Bear Grylls. We would drink snake blood, wrestle alligators and probably build a boat. He was climbing Mount Everest by the time he was my age, so there would be no question of my not surviving.’Supermodel-turned-actress Cara is starring in several films out this year and is currently shooting in Paris alongside Clive Owen and RihannaMargaret Atwood Newfoundland (p29)‘Caliban would know where all the roots, berries and fish are, is good at carrying logs and has an entertaining vocabulary of swear words. At my age I wouldn’t have to worry about his, you know, urges, and he might even worship me like a god.’Margaret lives in Toronto and her most recent novel, ‘The Heart Goes Last’, is out nowSimon Armitage Earth (p62)‘It’s…2 min

Island storiesPersoal spaceIf you’ve been to all seven continents, it’s time to venture to the elusive ‘eighth’: Madagascar. Some say the island is difficult to classify – not quite African, not quite Asian – but that otherness means its biodiversity rivals the Galápagos. By October 2016, there will be a new reason to go, as Miavana, pictured, opens as a rival to supreme North Island in the Seychelles, with 14 sensational villas on Nosy Ankao off the north-east coast, where you can kite-surf, hike into the rainforest and trek to see lemurs. The natural world is also the focus at eco-conscious Bawah Island, new this coming autumn, on a secluded Indonesian atoll in the Anambas archipelago. The 35 villas have been built entirely by hand using bamboo, stone and recycled teak, with…4 min

Island storiesBREAKBEATCan Cuba get any hotter? Spurned on by the December 2014 political détente with the USA, travellers from around the world have been rushing to book trips here, to ‘see it before it changes’. Now celebrities have their eyes on the Caribbean isle too (Mick Jagger, Sting and Stevie Wonder all want to perform in the country this year) and Chanel couture will strut into Havana in May when Karl Lagerfeld shows his 2017 cruise collection in the city. But there has also been a shift on the home-grown cultural scene, and ever since President Raúl Castro rubber-stamped a private business law five years ago, a new breed of restaurants, art spaces and places to stay have emerged.Havana, once a culinary backwater, is growing its foodie credentials: top chefs Massimo…2 min

Island storiesMARGARET ATWOOD‘Many will invoke palm trees and beaches for their dream island, but if blazing sun and sand in your bikini are no longer your ultimate joy, the more vigorous Newfoundland appeals. What’s it got, in addition to spectacular scenery and hiking, numerous lobsters, unmistakable mittens, cod cheeks, and Screech, a form of rum that produces a sound effect when you drink it? Very funny people, with their own traditional music and unique Newfoundlandish vocabulary. Two genial web-footed water dogs: the Newfoundland and the Labrador. Fascinating geology: Newfoundland was once located at the South Pole, and acquired bits of Africa and North America through the magic of plate tectonics – a theory proven at Gros Morne National Park, where a huge lump of orange, toxic mantle stone bulges up through the…1 min

Issue January 2016 - Conde Nast Traveller UK (2024)

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