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Laqua by the Lake: modernist aparthotel floating above Italy's least discovered lake
You can even hire one of the hotel's electric boats (from €100 an hour) to take a leisurely tour of the lake and take a closer look at the Isola San Giulio with its Benedictine monastery – the dragon infestation having been sorted by St Julius in the Middle Ages, so legend has it.
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Evening Standard
7 days ago
- Evening Standard
Laqua by the Lake: modernist aparthotel floating above Italy's least discovered lake
You can even hire one of the hotel's electric boats (from €100 an hour) to take a leisurely tour of the lake and take a closer look at the Isola San Giulio with its Benedictine monastery – the dragon infestation having been sorted by St Julius in the Middle Ages, so legend has it.
Telegraph
20-04-2025
- Telegraph
This pub with rooms in an underrated Scottish coastal town should be your next weekend break
I've never laughed out loud at a Wi-Fi password before, but 'westendgulls' made me roar. It also helped me take a guess that – as I looked at the smart Ercol steam-bent wooden chair at the desk in my room and the bright, chic colour scheme surrounding it –that the Southgate in the beautiful little Fife fishing town of Crail, was a dream project for a gay couple. And probably from London. Like recognises like. It's exactly the kind of thing I'd do with an old pub in a picturesque fishing town in Scotland with my husband if we wanted to leave the capital. And we, too, would go to town with a disco pun to access the internet. It turns out, on chatting with the owner in the bar, that I was right. Although he has roots here in Crail - his grandfather had a cottage here, which was the family's summer retreat - he and his husband took a knackered-out hotel at the top of the hill above the harbour and worked magic on it. There was, apparently, mild panic from the landlord of the only other pub in town, that his business would be impacted, but he was placated when he realised that The Shoregate wouldn't take away from his loyal clientele who come for fish and chips and their £9 Pensioners Special (a great deal, no denying). The excellent thing about Crail is that it hasn't been minced like Margate, and reinvented. It's not cool, which makes it cool. Tourists come for the coastal castle walk, Crail Pottery, and the proximity to the golf at St Andrews. The Shoregate has immediately attracted locals as well as weekenders, and on a Friday evening the bar is full of friends with bouncy puppies, and local gossip. It could be any pub in Fife, apart from the brass pelican and monkey lights, the bonkers playlist of Nineties bangers (Urban Cookie Collective and Betty Boo), and the feeling that a lot of money and time has been spent tarting the place up, with pristine wood and stained-glass windows. There's also a cocktail list that you are unlikely to find anywhere else along this coastline. The Peruvian Pear comes with pear liqueur and ABA pisco (they missed out on a good pun there), and Two Drunk Monks mixes Bulleit rye, green chartreuse and Benedictine. Upstairs (a sign warns you in the hallway that the building is much older than your knees, and the stairs are wonky), there are four bedrooms, each with polished-up original architectural detail (windows set into the stone walls, ceiling beams), nice Missoni-style graphic carpets, comfortable sofas, and a colour scheme with a shade of orange that I imagine was laboured over, swatch after swatch, before being chosen. Pristine modern bathrooms have locally sourced Arran bath products and a wild gorse room spray, which smells like delicious biscuits. On arrival: glittery pink macarons next to the tea- and coffee-making tray, along with locally distilled gin miniatures. There's no room service, but they say they will nip up with a bottle of champagne if you really want one. Everything at The Shoregate is done really well. It feels like the family business that it obviously is, and the owners and staff couldn't be more in love with the town. As I walked about the cobbled alleyways and along the harbour, I fantasised about having a little cottage here myself. I'd be visiting The Shoregate for lunch or dinner at least once a week. Food is accomplished, ingredients are locally sourced, and dishes served, of course, on Crail Pottery. Portions are a little absurd though: the sourdough (which was really ciabatta) came as a half loaf, sliced up. My terrine would have served two. Ditto the tapenade-crusted pollock. I imagine the charcoal roast chateaubriand for two would do four. My only real complaint was that much of what I had was a little too… fried. But then, this isn't the kind of place to come for a salad for dinner. The dining room is pleasingly austere but feels as upbeat and breezy as the rest of the building. Flashes of colour come from the overhead lampshades, in that aforementioned signature orange. The windows face directly down the hill towards the sea, and on a sunny morning, the whole room glows, and reminds you why people move to these little coastal towns if they weren't born here in the first place. It's a big dose of happy. Just as the eggs Benedict portions are. Again: The Shoregate delivers in quantity as well as quality. And the place has a ton of atmosphere. I was woken up at dawn by gulls, possibly flying from the west, who knows. I felt far away from my own bed, but also curiously at home. Doubles from £180, breakfast included. There are no accessible bedrooms due to the stairs.
The Independent
17-01-2025
- The Independent
How to nail the perfect short ski break in Chamonix
Few ski resorts are as evocative as Chamonix -Mont-Blanc. Set in the sawtooth-sided valley beneath the north face of Europe's highest peak, the town has a strong claim to be the birthplace not just of mountaineering, but of mountain tourism full stop. In 1741, two intrepid British travellers, William Windham and Richard Pococke, paid a visit to what was then just a few shepherds' huts clustered around a Benedictine monastery. Their account of the marvels of 'Chamouny' and its glaciers made the village a must-see for adventurous, aristocratic young Europeans undertaking what was known as 'The Grand Tour'. Goethe passed through in the late 1770s. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his future wife Mary Wollstonecraft visited in 1816 (with Mary drawing inspiration for her putative novel, Frankenstein). Dumas, Dickens, and Flaubert followed. Inspired by a reward offered by Swiss naturalist Horace Bénédict de Saussure in 1760, Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard had made the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786, more or less inventing mountaineering in the process. But by the beginning of the 20th century, a newfangled sport imported from Norway was attracting nearly as many tourists to the valley in winter as in summer: skiing. Today around three million people visit Chamonix every year. Despite the numbers, the valley still maintains something of the wild edge that drew in those early adventurers. Among serious skiers, 'Cham' is known for its gnarly steeps, and it's not uncommon to find yourself sitting on the cable car next to groups equipped with ropes, harnesses, and ice axes, as well as skis. For all its fearsome reputation, however, the resort still has plenty to offer intermediates and beginners across its four separate ski areas: Les Grands Montets, Brévent-Flégère, Domaine de Balme, and Les Houches. Aside from its setting, Chamonix's other huge draw is that it's incredibly well-connected. It's just over an hour's drive away from Geneva airport, and easily reached by train, making it ideal if you're looking for a long weekend skiing, rather than the traditional week-long holiday. This is a growing trend among time-strapped Brits, according to recent reports from both the Ski Club of Great Britain and the tour operator Crystal, which has seen a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in short break bookings since the pandemic. Head to Chamonix on a Thursday and you can be back to your desk by Monday morning having spent three days skiing world-class facilities, surrounded by unparalleled landscapes, and centuries of alpine history. Beats a couple of nights down the pub, doesn't it? How to get to Chamonix By train If you're one of the growing number of skiers looking to keep carbon emissions to a minimum and travel by train, Chamonix is a great place to go. If you're not, a trip there may well make you think twice. One of the town's most famous sights, the Mer de Glace glacier, provides a stark reminder of the devastating impact of man-made climate change. It's retreated over 400m in the last 20 years alone. Catch a Eurostar from London to Paris, and after switching stations from the Gare de Nord to the Gare de Lyon (an easy taxi or metro ride) you can board a direct TGV which will whisk you at speeds of up to 300km/h to Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains' Le Fayet station. From there, it's a 20 minute train ride up to Chamonix station, a Wes Anderson-esque building which dates from 1909. Alternatively, you can take one of the new Eurostar Snow Trains (introduced last winter) and change at Lille, Lyon and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine. SnowCarbon is a specialist site dedicated to providing info on ski holidays by train. The Man in Seat 61 is a fantastic resource for European train travel more generally. You can book tickets for international train travel on By plane If you prefer to fly, London to Geneva is one of the most heavily trafficked airline routes in Europe. EasyJet, SWISS, Jet2 and British Airways offer multiple routes from airports all over the UK. The quickest way from the airport to Chamonix itself is a shared transfer, which should take just over an hour. For transfers, try Mountain Drop-offs, Alpy Transfers, or Cham Van. Where to stay Because of its long history as a tourist destination, Chamonix is home to some of the oldest, grandest ski resort hotels you'll find anywhere in the world. The Grand Hotel des Alpes dates to 1840 and hosted many of the athletes at the first-ever Winter Olympics in 1924. But arguably the pick of the bunch is the five-star Hotel Mont Blanc Chamonix, a beautifully-refurbished, Belle Epoque building in the centre of town. If you're looking for something a little quirky, try the Refuge de Montenvers. Originally a mountain hut, it's accessible only by foot, ski (down the famous Vallée Blanche off-piste run) or funicular railway. Its stunning location, overlooking the Mer de Glace, makes the isolation worthwhile. If you're on a budget, there's an excellent Auberge de Jeunesse run by Hostels International France on the outskirts of Chamonix proper. Where to rent gear If you're renting skis, you can't go far wrong with France's biggest ski rental franchise chain, InterSport. They have multiple shops in the Chamonix valley, their prices are competitive (especially if you book in advance online) and with their top rental packages, you have the option to swap your skis for a different model each day if you like, to suit different conditions. Snowboarders can rent from Intersport, but no trip to Chamonix would be complete without at least a visit to Zero G, the town's legendary snowboard store. A community hub as much as it is a shop, Zero G offers a whole range of boards to suit all ability levels, including some from pretty niche brands like Korua or Dupraz, as well as specialist kit like splitboards. Where to ski Chamonix has a reputation for being intimidatingly steep, but there are actually several excellent beginner areas, and some decent intermediate terrain spread across its four ski areas: Les Grands Montets, Brévent-Flégère, Domaine de Balme, and Les Houches. There are three lift pass options: the Les Houches pass, the Chamonix pass (which offers you access to everything except Les Houches and the Aiguille du Midi) and the Mont Blanc Unlimited pass, which includes the lot. The different areas aren't connected by lift, so you'll need to take the free buses. But as a rule, it's worth picking one area per day and sticking to it. Grands Montets offers testing, high-altitude terrain, with challenging reds and blacks and lifts that go up to 3,275m. Domaine de Balme, which includes Le Tour and Vallorcine, has mellower blue and red runs that are better suited to intermediates. There's also some excellent off-piste skiing to be had off the back of Le Tour, which is often overlooked – a rarity in Chamonix. Brévent-Flégère is great for intermediate and advanced skiers, but has some excellent beginner areas at mid-station lift level. Les Houches is usually regarded as the most family-friendly of the four, but advanced skiers often head there to go tree skiing when snow's falling hard and visibility is poor. The Vallée Blanche, a famous glacier run accessed by the Aiguille du Midi cable car, is often described as a bucket list item. It's gratifyingly long and a whole lot of fun, but far less challenging than some of the mythology around it might suggest. That said, unless you're an experienced off-piste practitioner, you'll need a guide, and avalanche safety kit is a must for everyone.
