Search results for

Why we love it: A private island resort where guests can truly disconnect

The Highlights:
- Just eight casitas and 400 acres of nature
- A strong commitment to sustainability
- A hyper-local culinary program

The Review:
Off the Pacific coast of Panama, near the border with Costa Rica, floats a lush island that indigenous people dubbed Palenque, or “sanctuary.” Once home to an ancient, pre-Columbian community, the island stood empty for hundreds of years—save for the all the wildlife, birds, and flora—until Ben Loomis arrived. For five years, the architect and designer lived on site, sleeping in a hammock by night and getting to know the land by day. Eventually, he put both his background and love for nature to use by creating this private island resort, dedicated to the principles of sustainable luxury.

There are just eight beachfront casitas and one Villa Estate on the 400-acre island, so privacy is a given. Each of the 650-square-foot casitas has direct beach access, an outdoor tub, organic bath products, daybeds and hammocks, artisan-made furnishings, and a mini-bar stocked with local juices, snacks, and beers. Standout amenities include binoculars, a yoga mat, and a meditation cushion, plus a water bottle to use around the resort; Wi-Fi is free, but “island speed.” In addition to the main beach that fronts the casitas, guests have access to six other sandy stretches, along with nature walking and hiking trails, a main infinity pool, a spa, and complimentary use of kayaks, snorkels, and paddleboards. Meals are full of fresh, sustainably sourced ingredients and vibrant Panamanian flavors; rates include three meals a day, along with snacks and non-alcoholic drinks. An Island Foraging experience brings you closer to the culinary process as you learn to fish using ancient techniques, pick goodies from the island’s orchards, and hunt for wild ingredients along rainforest trails. Off-island excursions like whale watching, island hopping, and more can also be arranged, but with the run of a place like this, it’ll be hard to leave.

Kolmanskop is a ghost town that was abandoned by German miners after the 1920’s. In the 1980’s, diamond giant De Beers refurbished some of the structures and established an on-site museum. After you check in and get your permit, you’re allowed to wander freely through the small village. Piles of sand have accumulated in and taken over some of these colonial-era homes, a good indication of how hard it must have have been for the inhabitants. It’s an excursion that involves some planning beforehand, but it’s so worth the effort. Photographers love getting creative here. Kolmanskop is about 3 hours from Keetmanshoop and 5 hours from the Fish River Canyon, down the dead-end road to Luderitz on Namibia’s coastline, so you’ll want to time your excursion down this way bearing that in mind.

High above English Harbour in Nelson’s Dockyard National Park sits the Blockhouse, a brick ruin. On a perch overlooking the southeastern coast of Antigua, the circa-1787 site encompasses an officer’s quarters and those of servants, as well as stables. An ammunition-storage space, a catchment and a cistern have been restored in recent years.

Rare in Tahiti, Manava sits on a white-sand beach on the island’s west coast, offering dazzling sunset views across the water to Moorea. Beyond its romantic vibe, however, the resort is actually great for families, as rooms feature full kitchens that make cooking a breeze, plus modern amenities like free WiFi and flatscreen TVs with DVD players. There’s also a gorgeous infinity pool fronting the beach and lagoon as well as an onsite restaurant, Vaitohi, which offers an extensive à la carte menu of Polynesian and international cuisine. When you need a break from the kids, head to either the Taapuna Pool Bar or the contemporary Punavai Lounge Bar.

This “Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven” was once the heart of Korea. It was the power center of the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897), and was originally built in 1395—some new digs for a new dynasty. Like the Forbidden City in Beijing, the palace is a complex of buildings—a throne hall, the king’s living quarters and more—a sort of city inside a city, accented by gardens and pavilions. The Japanese flattened the place in the 1590s, and the site remained a ruin until a complete reconstruction in 1867 brought back more than 500 buildings. At the Gwanghwamun Gate, soldiers, beautifully costumed in red robes, still perform the changing of the guard. Seoul has other palaces, but this is the one to see if your time in town is limited.

One of the most popular beaches on Guadeloupe is Sainte-Anne, a family-friendly, mile-long stretch of white sand on the south coast of Grand-Terre. A coral reef protects the beach and the resulting calm water offers shallow swimming for the little ones. The beach has everything you need, including a fruit and spice market, casual beachfront restaurants, and a nearby arts and crafts shopping mall. After sunset, it is illuminated until midnight and active families come for a cool night swim, beach volleyball, and street snacks. Food trucks come out for the night, serving up bokits (a kind of fried sandwich) and conch kebabs.

The Fish Deli, founded by Martin and Katja Wittneben in 2008, is a seafood shop and restaurant located in Swakopmund, Namibia. The restaurant—one of the first in Namibia to sell seafood—serves fresh fish, oysters, and other foods sourced directly from Namibia’s coastal waters.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park was created through the cooperation of the governments of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. Their cooperation has united several smaller fragmented parks into a larger border-less area for wildlife to roam. Highlights include viewing predators like cheetah, hyena and black-manned lions, along with bat eared foxes, meerkats, wildebeest, and other species. One of the best camps on the South African side is Kieliekrankie. It’s an unfenced campsite located towards the middle of the park located on the top of a dune. Four self-catering cabins come with a kitchen and outdoor grill. There is a ranger on-hand to help check you in and oversee your stay in the event some curious leopards or jackals come to visit your cabin. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a big park and a lot of the roads are corrugated, so a 4x4 vehicle is strongly recommended (but not necessary). Make sure to stop at Twee Rivieren with your passport if you plan on exiting through Namibia or entering Botswana.

Many Central American countries have coasts dotted with mangroves, a brackish ecosystem that is a sheltering habitat to numerous flora and fauna. Visitors can kayak through many of the mangrove systems, getting an eye-level view of the mangroves’ spreading root systems and being on the look-out for everything from crabs to crocodiles. Barra de Jiquilisco and Barra de Santiago are two of the navigable mangroves, and visitors who want to explore them can hire an outfitter or guide for a day trip.

Every detail at this former farm has been carefully executed to highlight the spectacular setting, a nature preserve near Norway’s southwest coast. The hotel’s nine wood cabins hover atop metal rods discreetly drilled into boulders above the Valldøla River—the architects’ solution for securing hard-to-get government permits while leaving the land virtually untouched. Purposefully spare yet stylish, each is furnished with only a bed and a couple of lounge chairs next to a wall of glass that encourage quiet meditation on the beauty of the Valldal valley and snow-capped mountains beyond. The concept continues in the spa, which is perched on a bluff overlooking the river and features a small outdoor hot tub and glass-enclosed steam room. Meals are served at a long communal table in a renovated cow barn; though breakfasts are included (the smoked salmon is to die for), three-course dinners are extra but worth the splurge thanks to locally foraged and sourced ingredients such as reindeer steaks.

Actually, the lobby of the Sapphire Hotel is as far as you’ll get when you visit these days. And for all intents and purposes, it’s far enough. The Sapphire maintains the edge its enjoyed since its inception in the early 1900s. Then a gathering place for the quirky and lightly mannered; cool before cool was cool, it now is the great-grandparent of PDX hip. The candlelit scene keeps the conversation low and the alcohol levels, therapeutic. With cocktails like: You’re Not My Real Dad, Retrosex, Winter Isn’t Coming and Floozie, what could possibly go wrong. The hotel rooms are long gone, but the kitchen still hangs around. The menu maintains a simplicity and charm of another era. An order of the salmon corn cakes with a Sapphire salad will easily sustain, but why stop there. Go for the fully-loaded Sapphire burger, have another pop and regroup for the ginger-vanilla bean creme brûlée. The best thing about the Sapphire is the hang time. It’s out on the bleeding edge of Hawthorne, so once you get out there, you’ll tend to want to linger. The atmosphere encourages it with a sharp wait staff supported by bartenders that roll the dice to delver concoctions you can’t get just anywhere. Happy hour tends to evolve into happy evening, even happy night. I’d say it was a gem, but that would be stating the obvious.

Hansik Olbaan is the place to go in Seoul if you want to try a bit of everything, or just have the appetite to justify hitting a gigantic buffet. Extremely popular with South Korean families, the restaurant doesn’t really care that you don’t speak Korean, so there are no English-language labels and you might not ever figure out exactly what you’re eating. Just grab what looks good—and know this is Korean food, not Korean food for tourists.

On Tahiti’s rocky east coast, the volcanic Lava Tubes of Hitiaa are underground channels and eroded sections of rock in caves that have been penetrated by water. Although you can visit solo, it is really best to visit with a guided 4WD tour. Check with Marama Tours, which also does a range of other island tours from encounters with dolphins to 4WD trips across the Papenoo valley that is rich in waterfalls and archeological sites.

This complex of Taoist religious buildings was constructed in the early 15th century under the Yongle Emperor, who also commissioned the Forbidden City, just to the north. The temple’s central building is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a 38-meter-high (125-foot), three-tiered structure atop a three-tiered marble base. The wooden hall was built entirely without nails. Inside, the beautifully painted walls and ceiling make it a riot of color. On spring and summer mornings and on sunny winter afternoons, locals gather here to sing, dance, play games such as mah-jongg, and sip tea while catching up on neighborhood gossip.

The bleak, windswept landscape of Connemara in the West of Ireland is characterized by bogs, lakes, mountains, and miles of stone walls. Connemara National Park is one of the best places to appreciate this unique landscape, with more than 7,000 acres of national park encompassing mountains, including some that are part of the Twelve Bens range, plus Western blanket bog and treeless plains that are home to red deer, sheep, and Connemara ponies. Explore for yourself, and find traces of history dating back thousands of years, including 4,000-year-old megalithic tombs and abandoned farms.