With a string of wildly successful bars in the UK under his belt, award-winning mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan, has made his highly anticipated international debut in Amsterdam, opening all-day cocktail bar Super Lyan.
Housed in a historic seventeenth-century building connected to the glam Kimpton De Witt hotel, the space is comprised of a light-filled garden serving brekkie cocktails and spiked milkshakes (alongside an impressive brunch
menu) and a neon-lit bar area complete with cosy booths.
It’s here you’ll find some of the more innovative drink options – like the Rhubarb Daisy with buttermilk whey and hibiscus paint – and tasty snacks, including the now famous chocolate and chips. Make sure you say hi to Robin, too – he’s Super Lyan’s resident party cat.
If you thought an igloo using a frozen lake for a floor was cool, picture one boasting more than just an icy interior. This ice-brick structure by Rukan Salonki Chalets conceals a steamy sauna right on top of Lake Salonkijärvi, out in the heart of Finland. Illuminated by the reflection of sunlight and ice and heated by a stove, which is only brought inside when guests are there to avoid melting the walls, the ice sauna is one of the most unusual ways you’ll ever get a sweat on. Warmed to steamy 60°C, the heat is less aggressive than at most saunas but the humidity is high, causing your body to perspire as soon as you enter. It also promises relief to those with breathing issues and colds. Up to 10 people can enter the igloo at once, and when it’s time to simmer down, custom dictates you plunge through a hole in the ice for a shrivelling winter swim. rukansalonki.fi
Willy Wonka, eat your heart out. This is your golden ticket to an art-meets-spa experience. Glimmering in Sweden’s northernmost town us this gold-plated, egg-shaped public sauna. Designed by Swedish artists Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström, the Solar Egg was gifted to the town of Kiruna after it was announced the entire city district was to be relocated because of crumbling foundations following decades of mining for iron ore. A heart-shaped wood stove heats the aspen and pine interiors to between 75ºC and 85°C, while solar panels incorporated into the geometric design offer eco-friendly lighting. The eight-person egg isn’t immobile either – it visited Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Minnesota, before rolling back to heat Swedes in the Arctic Circle once more.
When it comes to Finland, ski slopes and saunas are two things that roll with the territory. But what about a sauna built into a gondola floating above a snow-slathered mountain? Throw in some heavy metal music and traditional karelian pies, and you have yourself the ultimate Finnish experience. Get your Finn on at Sport Resort Ylläs, where snow bunnies can unwind in the Ylläs 1 Gondola after a day carving up the slopes. The world’s first suspended sauna cruises a two-kilometre line, treating up to four riders at a time with 20 minutes of spectacular views of Lapland’s powder-white landscape. Skiers looking for extra respite should book a two-hour package and soak in the outdoor hot tub at Café Gondola 718, situated on the mountaintop, which can be enjoyed privately by up to a dozen guests. yllas.fi
While it may resemble a set from Lord of the Rings, we promise a visit to this little hidey-hole sauna is far more relaxing than a day spent in Hobbiton. Located in Northern Italy’s Passeier Valley, the luxe Applesauna is hidden on a green hill in the expansive apple orchard at farm-turned-three-star Apfelhotel Torgglerhof. Using the Finnish method, stones are heated on a stove and water poured on top to create the warm and steamy atmosphere. Timber benches frame concrete walls and floor-to-ceiling windows welcome natural light. Best of all, guests steaming inside are treated to panoramic views of the treetops and the surrounding Sarntal Alps. When the steam has settled, a nearby cottage has been transformed into a rest area where cups of tea and fresh fruit (no doubt an apple or two) are served as body temperatures cool. apfelhotel.com
At Frihamnen port in Gothenburg, a strangely shaped, corrugated-iron structure stands at the end of a bridge, its reflection wavering in the waters below. Inside this weathered, metallic building is a small slice of luxury that adds a softer side to Scandinavia’s largest port. Recycled materials feature in the design, with timber lining the walls and 12,000 bottles surrounding the changing rooms to create privacy while allowing natural light to permeate. Stewing in the steamy interiors offers views past cranes and shipping containers and out across the harbour, which is undergoing a redevelopment due to be completed in 2021. The experience is free, and when you’re toasted and lobster-red, there’s a chlorine-free pool nearby with enticingly cool waters. goteborg.com
Forget Eat, Pray, Love – if anyone has inspired a pilgrimage to India’s ashrams, it’s The Beatles. Chaurasi Kutia, the ashram of guru and creator of transcendental meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was the holy site where the band famously spent weeks penning songs that would eventually fill The Beatles, or what is known by most as the White Album. While it’s rumoured the group left shortly after they arrived – Ringo Starr departed after just 10 days, while Paul McCartney only hung around for a month – this ashram is a famous part of the Beatles’ history. Until recently, the abandoned buildings – like the Beatles Cathedral Gallery, which was brought to life by the art of street artist Pan Trinity Das – had been reclaimed by the surrounding wilderness. In 2015, however, the grounds were reopened to the public. As for what comes next for the ashram, future plans are yet to be confirmed, but it looks bright.
Take a step back in time at Berlin’s Paris Bar. Beneath its glowing neon sign, artworks by German artist Martin Kippenberger adorn almost every surface of the bar’s interior, which was once the haunt of many A-list artists, actors and rock stars, including Madonna, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Yoko Ono. It’s also the place of the infamous 1979 Rolling Stone interview with an inebriated David Bowie and Iggy Pop, and where Iggy drunkenly rolled around in the snow outside. It serves classical French cuisine and while a visit here is accompanied by a somewhat hefty price tag, it’s still worth sitting with the locals among the bar’s rich old-world glamour, admiring the art that decorates the walls and, if you’re lucky, rubbing shoulders with a celebrity. artberlin.de/restaurant/paris-bar
In a bid to escape the bedlam of Los Angeles, a move to Berlin in the late 70s was a pivotal experience for David Bowie. While living on Haupstrasse in the quiet district of Schöneberg, he once described the city to Uncut magazine as a place of “virtual anonymity” and could often be found popping into cafe Neues Ufer for an espresso. The cafe’s name means ‘the new side’ (formerly it was Anderes Ufer, aka The Other Side). Coincidence? We think not. During his self-imposed exile, Bowie penned the enduring hit ‘Heroes’, which was inspired by a young couple kissing against the Berlin Wall, a moment he was said to have witnessed from a window in Kreuzberg’s Hansa recording studio (he would later reveal the couple was producer Tony Visconti and his girlfriend). Today, Neues Ufer is one of Berlin’s oldest gay cafes and retains its original ambience, with the addition of a few photos of the famous rock star. Join the Bowie Berlin Walk by Berlin Music Tours, where you’ll discover his other haunts in the Kreuzberg and Mitte districts, before finishing off with a bevvy at this enduring favourite. musictours-berlin.com
Some may not know this, but Queen front man Freddie Mercury was actually born Farrokh Bulsara to Parsi parents. While he spent years studying in Bombay, it was in Zanzibar’s Stone Town that this showman spent most of his childhood. In Shangani, where Mercury was born and later returned before leaving for London at the age of 18, the Bulsara family home still stands, now labelled Mercury House. It’s not open to the public, but Zanzibar Gallery, where Mercury also once lived, sells a bunch of souvenirs and a t-shirt or two in this Freddie-obsessed town. Visitors to the Tanzanian archipelago can also visit the Zoroastrian temple where the Bulsara family once worshipped. A number of tours offer the chance to trace his footsteps along Shangani’s streets, connecting you to the life of Freddie before he became a huge star. Plus, no visit is complete without a stop at the Mercury Restaurant.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono: this twentieth-century power couple has never ceased to amaze the world. In 1969, the pyjama-clad newlyweds spent eight days in a peaceful bed-in protest against the Vietnam War in Suite 1742 of Montreal’s Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel. It was here ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was also recorded. While the couple’s first bed-in – a room at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam – can still be visited, Suite 1742 in Montreal’s Fairmont has been refurbished for a truly immersive experience. The two-bedder has the iconic song lyrics splashed across the walls, as well as an interactive cabinet installation packed with videos, images and podcasts, and a virtual reality experience that allows guests to view the room as Lennon and Ono did half a century ago. fairmont.com
Denmark is widely regarded as one of the happiest countries on Earth, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that its capital is home to first-ever museum dedicated to smiling, laughing and generally having fun.
Of course, it’s so much more than a few dad jokes and a display of whoopee cushions through the ages. This is part of the Happiness Research Institute, an independent think tank that focuses on wellbeing, happiness and the quality of life. You may be acquainted with its founder, Meik Wiking, whose books, including The Little Book of Hygge, have been published in more than 50 countries.
The reasons behind it all are rather simple. We all want to be happy, right? But do we really know what we need to get to this elevated state? There are eight rooms in the museum that each explore happiness from a different perspective. It’s all interactive and you can get involved in various experiments. Plus, people from all over the world have donated personal items that remind them of their lives’ happy moments and they’re all on display.
A former coaching inn that offered respite for weary travellers in the early 1600s, the Bushmills Inn has undergone a few transformations in the 400 years since.
Its current incarnation as a luxurious hotel means it continues to accommodate guests in true Ulster fashion, just a short drive from some of Northern Ireland’s most iconic sites – including the world’s oldest distillery.
Each room is named after a whiskey and has been designed to reflect its story and flavours. There’s also an in-house cinema in the old stillroom and even a secret library. After a day of sightseeing, plonk in a booth at the seventeenth-century restaurant, then retreat to the Gas Bar – which still glows with traditional Victorian gaslight – for a dram and Irish tunes.
One of Europe’s most raucous festivals is tucked between rolling Serbian hills, a three-hour drive from Belgrade. For one week each August the quiet village of Guca becomes a mass of maniacal dancing, heavy drinking and enough brass to plate an empire as bands battle to win the coveted Golden Trumpet Award.
The town swells from 2,000 inhabitants to a whopping half-million as Serbs, Eastern Europeans and a smattering of international travellers converge to hear horn at its best. Said to warm the soul of the population, the trumpet heralds every important occasion, and festival goers celebrate their affection for the instrument with gusto.
Official competitors perform on stage from Friday through to Sunday, while gypsy orchestras and travelling bands jam in surrounding streets and restaurants, tooting Balkan tunes in exchange for cash licked and pasted to their sweaty foreheads.
Days begin with sticky shots of rakia (plum brandy) followed by gallons of local beer. Competitors’ tunes are rehearsed to perfection, but a din of vevuzelas sounds over the trumpets mingling with the chants of patriotism in the hot summer air.
Vegetarians beware – hundreds of pigs crisp on spits until they’re ready to be devoured with a mound of cabbage and litres of beer. Temporary stalls share slices of Serbian life, with weavers, tailors and cobblers hawking their wares as brewers pour homemade liquor with a generous hand. First held in 1961 with just a scraping of musicians, the festival survived decades of political turmoil and the trumpeters of Dragacevo continue to bust out brass like you’ve never heard before.
On the Canary Islands coastline, you can trial the remote and romantic life of a lighthouse keeper for yourself. At more than 150 years old, Faro Punta Cumplida is Spain’s oldest lighthouse and, while still guiding ships away from rocky shores, it can also be your private abode on La Palma.
There are three luxurious suites (two of them house two guests; the other is large enough for four), all a little different, but each enjoying the sorts of views you’d expect when perched on a rocky headland. There’s a kitchen onsite, should you want to prepare your own meals, although a basket of local breakfast goodies is supplied to get you off to a good start.
What to do during your stay? Swim laps in the tranquil infinity pool, a stark contrast to the pounding Atlantic Ocean below. Top the view in your room by conquering the 158 steps up to the 34-metre-high terrace rewarding yourself at the top with a tipple from the Sky High Mini Bar. Otherwise, flip through the Lighthouse Secrets guidebook for some other island suggestions.
From every corner of this property you’ll feel the power of the ocean and be lulled by the sound of the seas battering the surrounding cliffs.
Be overwhelmed in the best possible way when you venture into quaint and cosy Ølhallen. The oldest pub in this surprisingly lively Arctic city, Ølhallen offers 67 rotating Norwegian beers on tap – said to be the widest draught selection in all of Europe. What’s more, around 15 of these are prepared right next door in the Mack microbrewery, which, until not long ago, held the mantle of the northernmost beermaker in the world.
Brewed to a rock soundtrack (it’s said to get the yeast ‘moving’), some of the beverages feature rock star names, from the American light lager Lemmy (in honour of the Motorhead frontman) to the Sweet Porter of Mine (dedicated to the Guns N’ Roses classic). Play it safe by ordering the five-beer flight, or be bold and head straight to the bar for a mug of Dead Cat IPA.
With its whitewashed walls set behind a grove of ancient olive trees, this rustic guesthouse is the ideal antidote to twenty-first century hustle. Drawing inspiration from traditional masserie (farmhouses), it features a well and an organic farm, but the lifestyle here is anything but hard yakka. Six suites are furnished with king-size beds placed on stone floors, and vaulted ceilings and thick walls keep the space naturally cool.
It’s hard to resist the Adriatic glimmering on the horizon and the ivory old town of Ostuni cascading down a hill just three kilometres away. But when the sun beating down on Puglia’s countryside gets a bit much, there’s shade from orange trees in the garden and the cool embrace of the pool.
In the age of social media maintaining anonymity can prove tough. Go incognito at Anonymous, a cocktail bar down an alley in Prague’s Old Town. The brothers who opened the bar based it on a trilogy of familiar symbols of anarchy: Guy Fawkes, V for Vendetta and the hacktivist group, Anonymous. These inspirations are encapsulated in every aspect of the decor.
Once you’ve tracked down the boozy take on V’s hideout, order a cocktail from a mixologist sporting a Guy Fawkes mask and set to work figuring out how to unlock the secret drinks list. Consuming several brews is enough to wipe your memory, though that Instagram pic you posted will provide some proof the evening took place.
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