George V (V) travel tips

Elizabeth Stenne’s career painting bespoke pieces of art for some of the world’s most luxurious hotels spans more than three decades.

The French capital’s most famous street, the Champs-Élysées, transformed into a massive picnic blanket on Sunday, as around 4,000 people sat in the sun enjoying an al fresco meal.

When I was a little girl – I dreamed, dreamed, dreamed of going to Paris. I grew up in a very non-wealthy part of Connecticut, and I never thought I would get there. Part of my inspiration was seeing the movie Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, the acclaimed 1957 film about a beautiful model who is photographed in France. Oo la la! It was a dream. And I even actually came very close to getting to Paris when I was in sixth grade – I won first prize in a Singer Sewing Company dress-making fashion competition – but alas, I did not make it to the nationals. I only wound up with a portable phonograph – it wasn’t until a few years later that my family and I actually made a three-day trek to Paris after visiting our family in Poland. (and it wasn’t until I became a luxury travel writer that I frequented gorgeous places such as the Four Seasons George V and the Shangri-La hotels).

The glamour of Hotel Martinez, Unbound Collection by Hyatt hits you even before you walk through its doors. Thanks to its prime location on the iconic La Croisette — plus a chic private beach club draped with gorgeous globetrotters, and candy-colored Lamborghinis and Ferraris parked outside — the 5-star heritage hotel is as synonymous with the fashionable French Riviera jet set as the Cannes Film Festival itself.

Michelin began rating hotels this month, starting with 189 properties in France. Yet many of the hotels that received coveted Michelin “keys” didn’t overlap with the list of best-rated hotels at online review sites. What gives?

No place in the world enchants the collective imagination quite like Paris. In the City of Light, you’re encouraged to savor every moment, from beginning the day with a warm, crusty baguette to toasting the evening with glasses of wine on a terrace under the twilight sky. Some of the best places to indulge in these simple pleasures (and those more elaborate) are Paris’ storied hotels, which have a reputation for impeccable service, opulent accommodations and exquisite fine dining.

In a groundbreaking move, the prestigious MICHELIN Guide unveils its inaugural ranking of MICHELIN Keys for France today, marking its first foray into hotels. With 189 distinguished establishments across France among the 600 hotels in the new guide, Michelin celebrates the talent and dedication of these hospitality professionals, setting a new standard for excellence in the hotel industry. As MICHELIN's inspectors continue to scour the planet for the best in class, hotel rankings for other destinations are to follow later this month.

What’s trending on land eventually makes it to the skies.

There’s no shortage of chic hotels in Paris. But very few offer the comfort and intimacy of a luxurious Parisian apartment coupled with the five-star service of a top hotel. That is, except for the Hotel San Régis, the iconic 100-year-old gem in the tony eighth arrondissement that’s hosted the likes of Richard Avedon, Lauren Bacall, Gene Kelly, Louis Malle, Jacqueline Bisset, Romy Schneider and more.

Saudi billionaire and royal family member Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud has snapped up a 50% stake in the upcoming Four Seasons resort in the ultra-luxurious Red Sea project in Saudi Arabia for $266 million, according to a release from Red Sea Global.

Luxury hotel lovers who carry select Chase cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve, have a new reason to celebrate this season — well, every season — as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts now has 118 properties available to book through Chase's Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, April 12. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

As holidaymakers were evacuated from wildfires raging across the Greek island of Rhodes and Corfu this week, some still in swimsuits, travel analysts are taking bets that the U.K. and northern European destinations will be the travel winners in the short-term. As Bloomberg notes, with thousands of tourists evacuated under the scorching European heat at the height of peak season, can the southern European tourist industry, worth $2 trillion, survive the impacts of climate change?

It was the shower for me. A shower convinced me that more luxury fashion brands should explore expansions into hotels and resorts. This particular shower was in my suite at the Bulgari Hotel Paris, one of the legendary Italian brand’s newer properties opened in December of 2021. For some reason, a lot of luxury resorts and hotels like to tout “rainfall” showers as a feature of their rooms, but for the most part, and in the hundreds of properties I’ve visited, such “rainfall” showers usually feel like a downpour let down. But not at the Bulgari Hotel Paris: this shower was transformative, the droplets so fine yet plentiful and luxuriously soft that I knew I had never felt real rain in actual nature like THIS.

Wherever your itinerary takes you, travel in Myanmar (Burma) is sure to provide a wealth of new exotic experiences – whether you’re air-kissing at your waiter in a city teahouse or witnessing your first nat ceremony. To mark the release of our first guide to the country, we've picked the best things to do in Myanmar.