As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel room in Biarritz, the doors flung open, looking over the Atlantic and listening to the waves as they crash onto the shore. The air is heavy with the scent of orange blossom and jasmine. And the sky, although the day is overcast, is radiant with light. Throughout the day, I have been watching different groups of people make their communion with the ocean: early morning brought the waves, the surfers and the more intrepid swimmers; the afternoon was filled with children and idle tourists bobbing by the water’s edge. The beach is still uncrowded – it’s a good few weeks before high summer brings its surge of yet more tourists – but the atmosphere is loaded with the anticipatory zing of holiday. 

It feels apt, then, that I should be writing about this week’s publication, the summer travel issue, in which we look at ways to refresh, recharge and revive the mind, body, heart and soul. Based on an article I read last year in this very magazine (I am possibly HTSI’s most dedicated client), I have decided to book my summer break in Cap Ferret, just up the coast from Biarritz. Normally, I’m one for being active and adventurous, but this year I’m craving something deeply lazy: I want the beach life and oysters and a big pile of unread books. Having said that, and having read the stories in this issue, I’m also feeling inspired by Sara Semic’s “The pure happiness of the walking holiday”, which looks at the growing popularity of hiking holidays, in particular among the poor experience-starved, digital-dependent younger generations who are beginning to cop on to the fact that life begins when you go beyond a screen. As one of their elders, I have simply reached the age when a hiking trip sounds far more thrilling than the prospect of a party island and all-night drinking. Plus, you know, it’s good to get out and limber up those creaking knees.

<img width='1' height='1' style='display:none;border-style:none;' alt=' src='https://images.passendo.com/t/2/8448/npxlpxnaph@nie.podam.pl/2385986104634018/0/0'><img width='1' height='1' style='display:none;border-style:none;' alt=' src='https://images.passendo.com/extt/2/8448/npxlpxnaph@nie.podam.pl/2385986104634018?pid=1'><img width='1' height='1' style='display:none;border-style:none;' alt=' src='https://images.passendo.com/extt/2/8448/npxlpxnaph@nie.podam.pl/2385986104634018?pid=2'><img width='1' height='1' style='display:none;border-style:none;' alt=' src='https://images.passendo.com/extt/2/8448/npxlpxnaph@nie.podam.pl/2385986104634018?pid=3'><img width='1' height='1' style='display:none;border-style:none;' alt=' src='https://images.passendo.com/extt/2/8448/npxlpxnaph@nie.podam.pl/2385986104634018?pid=4'>

I’m also intrigued by the arrival of a new hotel on Giudecca: the Airelles Palladio opened last month, just along from the Cipriani, in a first venture by the Airelles hospitality group outside their native France. The hotel has undergone an extensive five-year renovation, on a site that was formerly split between an academy for aristocrats and a lacemaking institute. Hester Underhill got the first taste of the new kid on the canal, one that boasts all the current preoccupations in the business, including a sumptuous private garden, indoor pool, Peruvian-Japanese restaurant and what is claimed to be Venice’s largest spa. 

Chris Schalkx, meanwhile, has got me thinking about Cambodia, and more specifically its capital, the oft-overlooked Phnom Penh. No longer. A renewed appetite for their Khmer heritage has inspired a new community of cooks and creatives, each of whom is making an exciting contribution to a culture that is moving away from the country’s troubled past. In a similar spirit, Victoria Woodcock has travelled to Sarajevo to meet the creatives trying to rekindle precious but endangered Bosnian crafts. 

All that and English safaris, a Brazilian-New Zealand supermodel (Angelina Kendall makes a second and much-welcome appearance on our cover) and a delightful tour, via photographer Matthieu Salvaing, of the salty and sometimes savage landscape of the Camargue. Plus, sunglasses and the best hotel breakfasts. My personal favourite is anywhere that offers me kippers (to quote the most excellent “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp). Even if I don’t necessarily eat them, and I usually do, I find it enormously comforting just knowing that I could.