Where to go in November
Whether you’re making a winter escape into the wilderness of Nepal or Norway, taking a glamorous city break in London, discovering the hidden treasures of Rome or going zen in Devon, these are the best places to visit in November. By CATHERINE FAIRWEATHER
PAVILIONS HIMALAYAS THE FARM Pokhara, Nepal
Pavilions provides a sustainable and life-affirming experience in the wild and unspoilt mountain landscape of the Himalayas. A program of gentle activities and treks connects guests to the local community, from the organic farms to the children whose education is supported by the hotel. There are guided walks with resident naturalists through the terraced rice paddies to the foothills of Annapurna, or paragliding and rafting for the more adventurous. And now the new Lake View camp offers luxe tented villas on the shores of the mighty Phewa Lake some 45 minutes away. There are many reasons to linger here, from guided meditations to health experiences that tap into the resort’s own selection of mountain botanicals and natural springs. And then there is the simple exhilaration of being on the roof of the world, making this an ideal retreat for a mental and spiritual reset. Book with Blacktomato.com; Pavilionshotels.com
BROWN’S London, England
Providing cocooning comfort with paneled drawing rooms, botanical wallpapers, deep sofas and real roaring fires, Brown’s is a classic: the quintessential unflashy-yet-elegant British hotel with a cosmopolitan edge. It offers a unique menu of 17 specialist teas in the English Tea Room, and swinging-’60s-themed cocktails in the Donovan Bar – and with its so-called ‘naughty corner’ decorated with the photographs of this generation’s icon, Terence Donovan, it’s a place to hole up. Special weekend packages in November offer complimentary tickets to the much-acclaimed Anthony Gormley exhibition in the nearby Royal Academy, his most ambitious show for years. Roccofortehotels.com
HOLY DEER SAN LORENZO CITY LODGE Rome, Italy
Rome’s greatest treasures are unseen, hidden behind the closed doors of the palaces of the black (or papal) aristocracy, which is why the recent launch of this unique two-bedroom residence in a 17th-century palazzo in the historic centre is such a talking point in the Eternal City. Pope Innocent X liked to escape here for secret assignations with his mistress, riding a white donkey up the shallow-stepped grand staircase to the second-floor apartment. Inside, the restoration project includes newly re-gilded and sumptuously frescoed bedrooms, along with cashmere-lined closets by Stefano and Giorgia Barbini. They are the couple behind San Lorenzo Lodges, the group that owns this Roman address, alongside a mountain retreat and a luxury yacht. The Pope’s Bedroom is the very height of opulence, with a throne of a bed and a whirlpool in the Sant’Agnese church bell tower. The Piazza Navona below is Rome’s most sensational and theatrical square, and is magical in winter, when the crowds dissipate and its pavement cafes are reclaimed by locals lingering over a negroni in the mild mellow sunlight of winter. Sanlorenzolodges.com
YEOTOWN Devon and London, England
Epic hikes and surf sessions along the Atlantic seaboard of Yeotown’s stunning corner of Devon are guaranteed to blow away the cobwebs and blast away the winter blues. And those are just some of the activities on offer at this five-day wellness retreat. Here, the mostly vegan menus help shift bad eating habits, and co-founder Mercedes Sieff’s yoga and positive psychology classes are designed to leave you feeling restored from the inside out. Where once this five-day course focused almost exclusively on fitness, today the emphasis is as much on mental as physical health, as seen in the meditation and breath work sessions, with specialist therapists leading the processes. In November, Yeotown opens a London off-shoot of the retreat at Inhabit Hotel, near Hyde Park, which is ‘wholebeing focused’. There will be walking therapies available, running groups, community wellbeing events and meditation pods, as well as the Yeotown Kitchen café serving up wellness-focused dishes and what aims to be London’s healthiest cocktail menu. Every detail at Inhabit Hotel, from the heating and lighting design and the ethical craftsmanship in homewares and furnishings to the plastic-free bathroom amenities, has good-practice sustainability at its core. It’s a game-changer in other ways, too: no other London hotel offers treatments for specifically targeted travel-related issues such as jet-lag, homesickness and sleep deprivation.Yeotown.com; Inhabithotels.com
WOLF LODGE Norway
What sets this sumptuous and impossibly romantic wilderness lodge inside the Arctic Circle apart is its resident pack of wolves. Born in captivity in this vast compound in the north of Norway, they make regular appearances around the lodge, prowling the wooded hills outside your chalet-style bedroom or pressing up against the floor-to-ceiling glass walls of the open-plan sitting/dining room. By day you can venture into the snowy outdoors and get close enough to the wolves to feel the warmth of their breath on your neck, their tongues on your face and the thick pelt of their haunches beneath your hands. Stig, the charismatic host, stage-manages the whole experience, alternating wolf encounters with excursions designed to reconnect you with nature; days driving snowmobiles down frozen rivers to remote huts for lunch, or mushing with dogs and sleds off towards the Swedish border. Book through Pelorusx.com; Wolfelodge.no