The Jubliee Celebrations are over but there is still a vast amount to see about the history of British Royal Families.  One exhibition in particular is across the road from our lovely London Kensington Apartment – Victoria Revealed is on at the newly restored Kensington Palace – this exhibition looks at the life and reign of Victoria through her own words.  It is a lovely and interesting exhibition and one for all the family to enjoy.  Kensington Gardens is also a lovely park to explore and enjoy, it is particularly popular in fine weather for picnics.

A fabulous exhibition is currently on at the Victoria and Albert museum – Ballgowns: British Glamour Since the 1950′s.  It’s all about what was worn on the red carpet, royal balls, private parties and state occasions.  The exhibition will cover over sixty years of a strong British design tradition that continues to flourish.  Eveningwear from the V&A’s vast collection, by designers including Zandra Rhodes and Jonathan Saunders will be on show alongside dresses fresh from the catwalk shows of Alexander McQueen and Jenny Packham.

The V&A Museum is on Cromwell Road and only a short walk or bus ride from our Kensington Apartment.

With almost 70 properties across Europe, South Africa, Mauritius, Asia, America, Mexico and the Caribbean Members of the Club have access to properties within close proximity to some of the world’s best golf courses all year round.

Our Concierge service is ideal for golfers wanting to concentrate on their game and not on the hassles of booking tee times and worrying about restaurant reservations.

The Hideaways Club Concierge team will:

• Recommend the best golf courses for you to play in the local area.
• Book your tee times in advance of your trip making sure you secure the best tee times available.
• Organise a private chef to cater for your group or make restaurant recommendations and reservations at your request.
• Stock the villa with your selection of drinks and groceries saving you the trip to the supermarket.
• Book your car hire (and make sure it’s big enough for all the golf clubs!) or organise a driver for your stay.

The Lifestyle membership provides year-round access to golfing resorts around the world at only 66% of the cost of a Premium membership.  Contact The Hideaways Club for more information:

Tel:  +44 (0) 207 824 9940
Email:  info@thehideawaysclub.com

Here are just some of our properties most popular with golfers:

Europe

Algarve, Portugal – Quinta Algarvia and Villa Palmeira both have five bedrooms each and are located in the premier golfing region of the Algarve close to the courses of San Lorenzo, Quinta do Lago, Vale do Lobo and Pinheiros Altos.

Sotogrande, Spain – Villa Dorada is a grand Spanish villa in the elegant resort of Sotogrande.  There are no fewer than five top-class golf courses nearby, including Valderrama, host of the 1997 Ryder Cup and the 1998 World Golf Championship.

Majorca, Spain – On the island of Majorca, the Hideaways villas La Pleta and Gran Vista are both minutes away from some of the island’s excellent golf courses.  With 300 days of sunshine a year, Majorca provides a great European winter-golf option.

The French and Swiss Alps – Chalet Soleil in Chamonix, France and Chalet Lune and Chalet Etoile in Nendaz, Switzerland are the locations of The Hideaways Club’s mountain chalets in the Alps.  During the summer these locations become ideal golfing locations with warm sunshine and cool mountain breezes.  Both locations provide easy access to the many golf clubs in the region.

Asia

Bali, Indonesia – The Hideaways Club’s dramatic Balinese villa, Asmara, is only 15 minutes away from the World Travel Awards’ Best Golf Course in Asia, located at the Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali Resort.  There are another three superb golf courses set within the lush tropical vegetation of the region and overlooking the Indian Ocean nearby.

Phuket, Thailand – Villa Layan in Phuket is only twenty minutes away from the Blue Canyon Country Club famous for being the course where Tiger Woods staged “one of the most outstanding comebacks championship golf has ever witnessed.”  Members of The Hideaways Club also have access to the Banyan Tree Private Collection’s two bedroom villa on the Banyan Tree Phuket resort, home of the Laguna Phuket Golf Club (voted Top Ten for Best Golf Resort in Asia, Best Clubhouse in Asia and Best Golf Course in Thailand by readers of Asian Golf Monthly magazine.)

Africa and Mauritius

Marrakech, Morocco – There are three superb courses in Marrakech, all accessible from the Club’s two villas; Dar Lain and Dar Hasnaa.  The golf courses are all located in delightful settings, surrounded by palm groves and with views of the majestic snow-capped Atlas Mountains.

South Africa – Villa Steenberg is located on the Steenberg golf and wine estate, thirty minutes from Cape Town, and is rated as one of the top three courses to visit in South Africa.  Villa Arabella is one hour from Cape Town and situated on the Arabella golf estate, ranked as the number one golf course in the Western Cape.

Mauritius – Stargazer and Hibiscus are the Club’s two beautiful villas in Mauritius with access to a private pathway leading to the excellent Heritage le Telfair golf course.   Set between the ocean and the mountains, this challenging course provides wonderful views throughout.

USA, Mexico and the Caribbean

Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA – This five bedroom beach house is located on Hilton Head island, voted by readers of Golf Digest as number 10 on its list of the world’s best golf resorts.  The area has spectacular oceanfront courses, challenging riverside courses and courses designed by some of the PGA Tour’s most noted players.

Los Cabos, Mexico – A six bedroom property in Los Cabos which has become one of North America’s hottest golf destinations.  Los Cabos has no fewer than six championship golf courses to choose from.

Barcelona is buzzing with great restaurants, cafes, food markets and tapas bars and you never have to walk far to find the perfect place to satisfy your appetite.  However, there are a few that really stand out, the real creme de la creme, and Tapeo is definitely on this list.

Tapeo is a local favourite, it’s just a short walk from The Hideaways Club’s apartment and when trying to describe it the words delicious, inventive, modern and unique all spring to mind.  It’s Tapas with the twist and what really sets it apart is that the chefs are never afraid to experiment, meaning you’re always in for a treat.

The food is fresh, creative and just to top it off the service is great too… it’s so good you might even find yourself going back for more!

Health and well being yoga retreat

Working from a Member’s suggestion, we are delighted to be able to offer Members and their friends the chance to participate in a health and wellbeing yoga retreat in the invigorating surroundings of the Swiss Alpine Summer.

Chalet Etoile and Chalet Lune in Nendaz, Switzerland will be open for selected weekends for Members to take part in this exclusive retreat available only to Members and their close friends.  The Hideaways Club has appointed Renée Mann, an Ayurveda specialist and yoga instructor, to host these weekends.

As its name “science of life” suggests, Ayurveda is a way of life that includes healthy eating, nutrition, use of super-foods, body work, massage, life style methods, mental relaxation, stress management techniques and herbal medicines all of which brings us well-being and longevity.  One of its aims is to enhance positive health, youthfulness and the quality of life in its maximum potential.

Renée strives to empower her clients to better understand their body and how food can be used as medicine. Her role, as a practitioner, is to facilitate the process of natural healing and help you consciously better understand the powers of the human body to self heal.

Your long weekend will include:

• Three nights accommodation in luxurious Chalet Lune or Chalet Etoile (on a shared or single basis, as you prefer)
• Two, one hour massage treatments during the weekend
• Instructed Yoga/meditation sessions everyday
• A Personal Ayurvedic consultation with Renée
• Delicious organic breakfasts, lunches and dinners during each day of your stay

Dates available:

• Friday 15th June 2012 – Monday 18th June 2012
• Friday 22nd June 2012 – Monday 25th June 2012
• Friday 21st September 2012 – Monday 24th September 2012

  

Please contact the Concierge Team for further information: UKConcierge@thehideawaysclub.com

With the Tony nominees announced last week, New York City Theatre is at an incredible high this season with celebrity actors, incredible new plays and hilarious musicals. I recently saw Venus in Fur, the sexiest, funniest, most acclaimed new play on Broadway, starring fan favorite Hugh Dancy and Tony nominee Nina Arianda.  Showing at the Lyceum Theater, this hilarious ninety-minute show flew by as the audience roared with laughter.

Other entertaining shows include musicals Book of Mormon, Memphis and, for families with children, newcomer Spiderman.

Plus, an incredible feature of the City Collection’s apartment in New York? It is center stage in the theater district with the discount ticket booth TKTS just one short block away!

Come visit New York City (and Broadway stars like John Lithgow, Blair Underwood and Andrew Garfield) very soon!

The Steenberg Estate’s tasting room has launched an innovative wine tasting experience, as reporting by www.winetimes.co.za

The Sensory Tasting Experience takes you on a journey which stimulates all five senses, bringing wine to life in a completely new way.
The journey starts of with a walk through the vineyard where the vines benefit greatly from the cooling influence of summer sea breezes along with the sun that sets early behind the mountain.

Steenberg is one of my favourite places.  I love the peace and quiet of the Estate, which is such a surprise considering how close you are to the heart of Cape Town.  The Hideaways Club’s villa is opposite one of the fairways on the 18 hole championship golf course.  With three bedrooms, it’s one of Classic Collection’s smaller villas, perfect for a family or a couple’s retreat.

Afternoon Tea is taken very seriously in London and is something which the best hotels strive to master!  Conde Nast has produced their list of what they think are the best Afternoon Tea experiences in London.

My favourite is by far and away the Pret-a-Portea at The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge.  All of the cakes and biscuits are shaped to resemble the top fashions exhibited over London’s fashion week.  I went recently and enjoyed a Dolce & Gabbana handbag made out of blueberry sponge and a Christian Louboutin high heel in the form of a vanilla biscuit!  Wonderful if you want to treat the fashionista in your life!  They book up fast, so make sure you ask the Central Concierge to reserve your table as early as possible.

Conde Nast Traveller recently released their top 5 restaurants in Paris.  You can see their choices here: Conde Nast Traveller

Paris is full of great restaurants but unfortunately there are also a lot of tourist traps which will cost you the earth and leave you disappointed (and possibly hungry)!  Sites like Trip Advisor are very useful when planning which restaurants to go to.

But even more valuable is the feedback we get from our Local Concierges or Apartment Hosts in each Hideaways locations.  We always choose people who have lived in the area for a long time and know all the best places to go.  Their recommendations mean that you immediately skip all of the tourist traps and head straight for the places the locals like to go!  The locals aren’t going to waste their time on disappointing restaurants, and neither should Hideaways Members!

On one of our occasional trips abroad a very close friend Keith Austin said something which has stayed with me: “it’s not the number of breaths that you take that is important, it’s the number of things you see that take your breath away”.

Well my goodness, the view from our apartment in Troika, Kuala Lumpur  is pretty breath-taking. The tower itself is amazing, another great example of Sir Norman Foster’s brilliance. But the apartment one of the best I’ve stayed in. It was the first Hideaways City Collection property I visited, and what a first impression.

Now I’ve stayed in some great places. Like the suites at The London Hotel in New York…

….the Panoramic Suite at the Burj Al Arab….

But Troika is amazing.

It’s the attention to detail which I love. The styling is great, but the dining chairs are actually really comfortable too. I couldn’t get the telescope to work though

On my last night in KL, I finally witnessed from our balcony the weather that had been forecast:

Wow

 Back to Iain Johnston’s Member page

International property investment company The Hideaways Club announced this week the appointment of Iain Johnston to the role of CEO. Iain brings a wealth of experience and business expertise to the role having previously held a number of top managerial positions in a range of growth companies.

Commenting on his appointment Iain said, “I have been greatly impressed by The Hideaways Club both in terms of the product and the personnel. The company has achieved a huge amount in a short period during what is one of the worst financial and economic climates for many years. This in itself underlines the quality and demand for the Hideaways product.  I am thrilled at the prospect of helping this exciting company to build on its current success and to establish a strong platform for further growth and development as a global force in the market.”

Click here to read the full release