"Pavilion Hotel has long been part of Avalon's story, and this next chapter is an opportunity to both honor that legacy and reintroduce it in a way that feels thoughtful and true to the island."
"There was so much beauty, so much more than enough for everyone, that it did appear to be a vain activity to try and make a corner in it." This quote captures the essence of Villa Beatrice, where beauty and luxury converge in a breathtaking setting.
Each Philippe Starck-designed villa begins with a grounded base formed in stone to give weight to the lower levels and establish a tactile connection to the earth. Above, the architect designs lighter structures, where glass and slender framing open the interiors toward the horizon.
Rather than representing a simple return to the past, this renewed interest reflects a broader reconsideration of how architecture engages with materials, local resources, and environmental conditions.
This golden strip of sand, fringed by turquoise waters, is part of the popular Abel Tasman National Park on Tasman Bay (also known as Te Tai-o-Aorere) at the top of the South Island. Awaroa Beach is nothing if not beloved. So much so that in 2016, almost 40,000 Kiwis banded together to buy the beach from a private entity for more than $2 million and donated it to New Zealand's Department of Conservation.
Visually striking and intricately crafted, the traditional armour and weaponry of the Kiribati islands in the Pacific Ocean were built from coconut fibre, human hair, sharks' teeth and porcupine fish. Yet, fearsome and lethal as these objects were, the people of this remote archipelago weren't especially warlike, as British colonists had long assumed, but were instead part of a ritualised style of combat intended to keep violence between clashing groups to a minimum.
On an empty beach at the bottom of the world, the waves that roll over the sand are midnight blue and lit by the stars and a waxing moon. I'm only vaguely familiar with the constellations that hang above Great Barrier Island, known for centuries to the Māori as Aotea, some 56 nautical miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. I'm not all that used to seeing them so clearly,
Haruka Kojin (artist), Kenji Minamigawa (director), and Hirofumi Masui (production manager) are the founding trio of 目[mé] (which means "eye" in Japanese). Their approach? "To create works that allow us to relive the 'world as it is' that constantly unfolds before our eyes," they explain on their website. This rather mysterious intention has nonetheless led the Japanese collective, created in 2013, to exhibit at the Japan Society in New York and the Centre Pompidou-Metz, which have presented several of their installations. Japanese private homes seem to be a favorite disruptive space for the artists, who have previously integrated an extremely minimalist art gallery into a dilapidated house on another Japanese island in 2020. Other notable works include giant inflatable faces installed above natural landscapes and the recreation of monumental waves.
The accompanying catalogue for Hawai' i: a Kingdom Crossing Oceans features more than 150 works, from ancient Hawaiian treasures to important contemporary pieces, telling "a compelling story of movement, allyship and cultural exchange [between the UK and Hawaii]". An inventory of the entire collection of Native Hawaiian works housed at the British Museum, the largest collection outside of Hawaii, is included in the catalogue.
Growing up in the midsize city of Vancouver, Canada, I always dreamed of living in a big metropolis - a cultural hub where something was always going on, with endless places to explore. For a while, I did. When I started dating a Brit, I moved to his hometown of Birmingham, England, the second-largest city in the UK population-wise, with over a million residents.
Since opening in October 1987, Coffee Gallery has been part of Haleiwa's history and daily life. Over the decades, we welcomed locals and visitors from around the world, and saw multiple generations return through our doors. What began as a coffee shop became a place for connection, memories, and community,
Candidly, most people visiting the British Museum's Hawaii exhibition probably walk in with a lot of stereotypical preconceptions about the island nation. And will walk out with a totally different understanding of it. Understandably, we probably think of it as not much more than the Pacific island nation that's part of the USA, home to Pearl Harbour and the long-running TV show Hawaii 5.0.
The 26-year-old real estate project manager from Munich came to the surf camp to improve her skills on the water. I came to talk with adventurous travelers about their big ideas, from new businesses to life after layoffs.
The best places to visit in May take advantage of that elusive window of perfect weather as spring turns to summer, when it's not too hot and it's not too cold-all you need is a light jacket. That frees up essential space in our carry-ons (big puffy jackets and thermal leggings can stay home, finally), creating more room for souvenirs from wherever we may go.
We were expecting to see houses and buildings dot the shore, as well as the hawkers who'd typically crowd around piers in Indonesia with food and wares to sell. There was none of that. It was just a pier next to a tiny village. After disembarking, we set off walking and within 100 metres ran out of houses, surrounded only by rice paddies and farmland. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go, and not even a tree to seek shade under.
A new summerhouse by Biris-Tsiraki Architects rises above a rocky cape on Antiparos, facing the open Aegean and the island of Despotiko across the water. Set into a steep slope and exposed to northern winds, the house addresses sea, sky, and terrain with a measured architectural language shaped by orientation and movement. From the approach, the building reads as a composition aligned to horizon and topography.
Maui's dreamy landscape turned into a nightmare on Aug. 8, 2023. What began as a brush fire, fueled by dangerous winds, quickly engulfed the historic town of Lahaina and damaged other parts of the island. The deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century claimed 102 lives, destroyed more than 2,200 structures, and caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage.
If any corner of the world is synonymous with paradise, it's French Polynesia's scattered, sparsely inhabited islands, buttercream palm-fringed beaches, and glass-clear waters. The region is best visited by water, yet, when it comes to cruising, the islands around Tahiti remain surprisingly uncharted territory: the region welcomed 110,000 passengers in 2024-compare that to the Caribbean's 15 million or the Mediterranean's 5.8 million for the same period.
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