Simply because we’re hurtling towards lots of Christmas cheer, long tryptophan-induced afternoon naps and catching up with our nearest and dearest, it doesn’t mean travel news stops.
TML has been scouring the press releases and the latest on the interwebs for all the magnificent travel news happening now and into 2017.
The Jackalope Hotel
Mornington Peninsula’s Jackalope Hotel might set a new benchmark for Australian boutique hotels when it opens early next year.
The dream of Louis Li who purchased Willow Creek Vineyard in 2013, Jackalope is a high-end mash-up of luxurious design and the surreal. What could be more surreal than the Jackalope – a mythical Wyoming hybrid of a pygmy deer and rabbit?
The hotel brings together some of Australia’s preeminent designers including Fabio Ongarato Design, Carr Design Group and landscapes courtesy of Taylor Cullity Lethlean.
Rooms will feature floor-to-ceiling windows, private terraces, rain showers, some with deep-soak Japanese baths and spacious terraces overlooking the vineyard. Dining options are fine diner ‘Doot, Doot Doot and cellar-door ‘Rare Hare’, with former Amankila Executive Chef Guy Stanaway designing menus for both.
Framed by two coastlines and surrounded by more than 50 cellar doors, 20 golf courses, national park and the not to be missed Peninsula Hot Springs guests will be spoiled for choice. Of course, if you can leave your spa-like room or suite with complimentary on-demand movies, WiFi and mini bar. http://jackalopehotels.com
Flatiron Sky-Line
Just in time for the festive season, the Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition winner was recently unveiled in New York. Architects were asked to design a temporary structure for the traffic island (more a wedge) at Broadway, 5th Avenue and 23rd street next to Madison Square Park.
The winning design? Flatiron Sky-Line: ten hammocks suspended on white powder-coated steel arches with LED lights to add a soft luminescence. Perfect for this popular spot in a New York summer; Winter maybe not so much. http://www.flatirondistrict.nyc/holiday2016
Perhaps a holiday season Instagram opportunity not to be missed?#flatironskyline
Holoverse
We all know Queensland’s Gold Coast is famous for fun, but now the year-round playground is home to the world’s most futuristic theme park – Holoverse. Developed with the assistance of Australian government funding this is as much educational as it is fun.
This is an entertainment centre made up of 40 state-of-the-art hologram rooms where you and your closest buddies don waistbands, wands and special glasses before you are immersed in a world made of light. You can dive underwater and swim with turtles, defy gravity, jump down holes and break rocks with a ‘hammer’ to reveal another universe.
A second adventure allows you to fight monsters as you are ‘in’ the game. In mid-December Holoverse will add a new experience that allows visitors to soar over and above the Surfers Paradise skyline and between its many skyscrapers. http://holoverse.com.au/
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival All-Star MasterClasses
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock (or not regularly keeping up with This Magnificent Life) you would know The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is coming to Melbourne next year.
Where the ‘Oscars of Food’ goes so do the world’s most influential chefs. The 25th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival will host a MasterClass series with some of the most innovative chefs cooking today. This will be the only opportunity for the general public to see and cook with some of the superstars of fine dining.
Over 2 days luminaries such as Grant Achatz of Alinea (currently ranked number 15), David Thompson of Nahm (#37), Quintonil’s (#12) Jorje Vallejo will be joined by Wylie Dusfresne, Ashley Palmer and Zaiyu Hasegawa. Tickets will sell out quickly: http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/