The Kriya Spa at the Grand Hyatt Bali in Nusa Dua appears to have been designed on the ambitious premise that you may arrive as one person and leave as a loosely assembled collection of very happy limbs.
The first stay was in Allawah’s two-bedroom apartment at Picture Point – 35 Picture Point Crescent, nestled in one of Noosa’s most prestigious pockets. It’s close enough to Hastings Street and Noosa Main Beach to make wandering down feel effortless, yet far enough away to avoid the full holiday parade of families negotiating ice-cream diplomacy in public.
The first thing to know about The Ritz-Carlton Bali is that it is not Mandapa. Let us clear that up before anyone starts packing linen trousers for Ubud and preparing to commune with a rice field. This is the Ritz-Carlton in Nusa Dua, perched in that gloriously polished corner of Bali where the ocean sparkles like it has been briefed by management, and even the golf carts seem to glide about with a quiet sense of purpose.
Grand Hyatt Bali sweeps you up in a kind of tropical operetta involving parasols, palms, polished stone, and the sudden conviction that your normal life has been an administrative error.
But The Rusty Rabbit, newly hopped into Concord, has solved this existential crisis. This is not a café where vegetarians are forced into the culinary equivalent of sitting at the kiddies’ table with toast and butter. No, here you’re spoilt. Here, the meatless meals strut onto the stage, demand a round of applause, and frankly, steal the show. Of course there are plenty of meaty meals for the carnivores too.
We’re barely on the wharf before we are claimed by Dolphin Island. Staff appear like a Broadway chorus, flowers around our necks, and cocktails in our hands. “Welcome home,” says Dawn, the manager.
There are wine bars, and then there’s that wine bar your friends won’t shut up about. In Surry Hills right now, that’s 40Res, the sort of place where you wander in for “just a glass” and somehow end up staying until they’re stacking the chairs, wondering whether you could get away with adopting the sommelier.
It’s not every day you can get a travel tip from Bill Murray so do take heed and book a night or two at the elegant Park Hyatt Tokyo which featured in Lost in Translation. Set on the top floors of the 52 storey Shinjuku Park Tower, you can imagine the eye popping views this special hotel offers.
The Hyatt Centric Ginza lobby is set on the fourth floor with a wonderful library that features dark wood and deep copper tones, a Space Invaders machine, and a retro Pacman giving off a hipster-style vibe.
As I take the lift up the 247 metre tall skyscraper which houses the Andaz Tokyo, I’m glad I’m not a bird. No need to flap my wings as the lift is far more effortless.
