Summer may only just be behind us but thanks to our favourite travel concierge, Scott Dunn’s exclusive deals and discounts, we’re already looking ahead to our next adventure.
While we are looking forward to further time away, there’s plenty to do in London and at home, from French fashion and family drama via Apple TV’s latest release, La Maison, to a visual journey across New York’s illustrious bar scene thanks to a celebrated photographer duo’s new book. Here’s what to read, watch, and book this week.
BOOK NOW A trip to Sri Lanka and the Maldives with Scott Dunn
We still may be clinging on to the cusp of summer – having just touched down after our sunny travels – while the autumnal season gets closer by the day, but we are also already gearing up for our next adventure. Plus, Scott Dunn’s latest offer of up to 50% saving on a 14-day trip to Sri Lanka combined with the Maldives is hard to refuse. We’ve all seen – and grown envious of – Instagram diaries from overwater villas that hang over azure seas and romantic, candle lit dining on white sands. Thankfully, Scott Dunn is offering an incredible discount for the eco-chic, luxury hotel Soneva Fushi – one of the Maldives’ most covetable stays. The trip includes a return seaplane transfer and complimentary Hanifaru Bay Manta Ray snorkelling excursion. While you’re there, you’ll get it all – barefoot luxury, incredible cuisine, and an action-packed itinerary or days spent lounged under palm trees. Across the Laccadive sea in Sri Lanka, find an equally riveting itinerary awaiting. From staying in the Wild Coast Tented Lodge to the Ceylon Tea Trails where you’ll dine on a culinary feast as well as a private tea infused and beach dinner experience – it’s an offer we can’t refuse.
READ THIS Great Bars of New York City: 30 of Manhattan's Favourite Storied Drinking Establishments by James T. and Karla L. Murray © 2024 Prestel Verlag, Munich, London, New York
From dive bars to jazz bars, Parisian brasseries to American fares serving the world’s best martinis, you can find it all in New York City. The city’s bar scene has long been immortalised in international films and literature, however none quite as in depth as the new book by James and Karla Murray. For the past two decades, the husband-and-wife photographer duo have captured the heart of New York City – its bar scene – and the result is Great Bars of New York City: 30 of Manhattan’s Favourite Storied Drinking Establishments. The book is the second volume – preceded by Store Front NYC: Photographs of the City’s Independent Shops, Past and Present – in a series devoted to celebrating the spirit of the city. For this edition, the photographs are accompanied by storytelling by culture writer Dan Q Dao spotlighting 30 bars, pubs, dives, cocktail lounges, and speakeasies and their independent histories, crowds, and menus: a literary toast to New York.
WATCH THIS La Maison, Apple TV
Family tribulations and plenty of tulle, Apple TV has just released a preview of La Maison, set to hit screens this week, 20th September. Just in time for Paris Fashion Week, this ten-episode family drama stories the behind-the-scenes of a Paris high-fashion atelier and the high-pressured and succession-like tales born from working with relatives, in a legacy fashion house within the cut-throat industry. The show is centred around star designer Vincent Ledu (played by Lambert Wilson), head of fictional fashion house LEDU. The star-studded cast also features César Award winner, actress Carole Bouquet, Florence Loiret Caille and many more. Whether you’re attending Paris Fashion Week or watching from the sideline, pour a glass of wine and immerse yourself in the French fashion world via La Maison.
VISIT THIS Bharti Swain at the Hayward Gallery
Standing tall on London’s Southbank, part of the well-loved Southbank Centre, is Hayward Gallery. Just unveiled, is the gallery’s latest artwork installation by Bharti Kher, taking over the outside of the brutalist building with a colourful display of contemporary murals and sculpture. Named Target Queen, this installation celebrates bindis, traditionally used by South Asian women to symbolise the third eye, made supersized to span three meters each, decorating the side of the gallery in bright shades of pink, blue, yellow, and more. Despite an impressive, three-decade career in the international art scene, this is the first Time British-Indian artist, Bharti Kher’s outdoor work has been displayed in a London gallery.
EAT HERE The Barbary, Notting Hill
Notting Hill’s foodie scene has just welcomed another dining hotspot with The Barbary. Following the success of Michelin Bib The Barbary in Covent Garden by Zoë and Layo Paskin, the same team are heading west to London’s refined and trendy borough for their second spot, bringing a flavour of the Barbary Coast (which runs from Southern Europe to Northern Africa) with them. The menu amalgamates the notes of a variety of cultures and cuisines which run along this sunny coastline, curating dishes to the tune of seasonal flatbreads, Iberian lomo, and crispy pork belly skewers. Catch the new opening and book in for a night out with friends.
Lead image credit: La Maison, Apple TV
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