December 1, 2025 - OFFSHORE

Found: The Perfect Gift for Travellers

December 1, 2025

A new flexible hotel voucher is making the case for giving experiences over things.

If you’ve ever tried to buy a gift for someone who already owns everything they want — or insists they don’t want anything at all — you know the struggle. This year, one idea is quietly gaining traction among frequent travellers and minimalists alike: a single hotel gift card that can be redeemed at a huge range of luxury properties around the world.

Unlike traditional “one brand only” gift certificates, the new Hotel & Spa Resorts voucher works across thousands of hotels, from big-city towers to remote spa resorts. The appeal is obvious. Instead of guessing where someone might want to go, you give them the freedom to decide — whether that’s a quick weekend escape or a long-dreamed-of trip they finally have a reason to book.

It also taps into a broader shift toward gifting experiences instead of physical items. In an era where people are trying to declutter, travel feels like a splurge that doesn’t add more stuff to their lives. And for last-minute gifters (we see you), this kind of present is instant, elegant, and doesn’t require knowing someone’s clothing size or décor preferences.

Most importantly, it’s the rare gift that becomes a memory: a sunrise somewhere new, a pool they didn’t want to leave, a hotel bathrobe they definitely considered taking home. And on that note, if you’re set on wrapping something, we love the idea of tucking the gift voucher into a plush new robe. Happy gifting!

This Iconic Okavango Lodge Just Reopened its Doors

December 1, 2025

Baines’ Lodge has reopened after a complete rebuild, with just six suites and front-row access to Botswana’s most spectacular wetland.

Botswana’s Okavango Delta has no shortage of remarkable safari stays, but one of its most intimate lodges has just re-entered the scene with a striking new identity. Baines’ Lodge, an A&K Sanctuary property, has reopened following a complete rebuild, taking inspiration from 19th-century explorer and artist Thomas Baines, whose watercolours first introduced the region’s landscapes to the world.

Perched on the floodplains of the Boro River at the edge of the Moremi Game Reserve, the redesigned lodge feels like an open-air gallery. Soft greens and papyrus tones echo the reeds outside; sand-washed neutrals mirror the Delta’s islands; and rich timbers ground each space in its setting. Instead of walls, columns frame the views, so the watery landscape becomes the artwork.

With only six suites and a maximum of four guests per vehicle, the emphasis is on slow, deeply personal safari experiences. The private concession allows activities you won’t find in the main park — walking safaris, night drives, and, when water levels permit, mokoro canoe excursions through the channels. Seasonal floods transform the area from May to September, drawing elephants, lions, leopards, wild dogs, and extraordinary birdlife into the surrounding mosaic of waterways.

Thoughtful touches nod to both exploration and craftsmanship: the Explorer’s Lounge comes kitted with microscopes and maps, woven ceilings created by South African artisans mimic the patterns of termite mounds, and reclaimed timber from the original lodge has been reimagined throughout the property. Private decks feature “star baths” — open-air tubs positioned for long soaks under the night sky — making the lodge especially appealing for honeymooners and romantics.

For travellers drawn to the Delta’s quieter corners, this rebuilt retreat offers something increasingly rare: a place where the landscapes take centre stage and the days unfold at nature’s pace.

Contiki Unveils Key Travel Trends for Canadian Gen Z and Millennials

December 1, 2025

The tour operator's annual “Voice of a Generation” survey reveals how Gen Z and Millennials plan to explore the world next year.

Every November, Contiki takes the temperature of the next wave of travellers, asking thousands of Canadians aged 18 to 35 what’s actually shaping their plans for the year ahead. The 2025 edition of the Voice of a Generation survey offers a surprisingly candid portrait of what young travellers want — and what they’re willing to sacrifice to make a trip happen.

A few patterns stand out.

Experience wins over everything else

The Netflix-scroll “Where should we go?” debate is real. Seventy percent of respondents say the destination itself is the number-one priority. They’re looking for places that feel right, and they’re increasingly choosing itineraries that are sustainable, culturally immersive, or simply less crowded. Meanwhile, more than one-third say they actively seek out brands that prioritize sustainability.

Nostalgia is stronger than ever

A wave of “show me where I grew up” travel is building: 83 percent say they’d love to recreate a trip from their childhood. It’s partly sentiment, but also practicality, as familiar destinations often feel safer and more comfortable. Many also want to revisit the places their parents once explored.

Money matters (but not in the way you’d expect)

Young Canadians are famously value-driven, and this survey confirms it. Time is just as important as budget: nearly a third are using Buy Now, Pay Later tools to fund their trips, while 55 percent would happily trade a little paid time off for more cash to travel. Many also prioritize paying for vacations over other big purchases.

Travel is increasingly about recharging

Burnout is the quiet engine behind a lot of 2026 plans. Sixty percent of respondents say they’re desperate to pack a bag and disconnect. Even tech-savvy Gen Z admits the phone can stay home — at least for a day — when the point of the trip is to rest. Wellness, slower itineraries, and nature-forward activities are part of the appeal.

Solo travel is no longer niche

Over the past few years, solo travel has gone mainstream, but according to this survey, Gen Z and Millennials aren’t just comfortable with it — they’re thriving on it. Eighty-eight percent said they’re ready to give up their phones for a free trip, and many say connection doesn’t need to be constant. Online interaction may matter, but the real priority is exploration. A significant number even credit travel with helping them manage anxiety, burnout, or daily pressures.

If 2026 has a theme, it’s intention. Young Canadians are travelling with purpose to recharge, to reconnect with old places, to engage more deeply with new ones, and to spend their limited time and money on experiences that feel meaningful.

The Best Hotels for a Christmas Escape

December 1, 2025

Whether you want a tree waiting in your suite, a Christmas morning spent snorkelling with sea turtles, or a fireside feast in Bavaria, there’s a perfect December escape calling your name.

For some, the perfect Christmas morning smells like pine trees and cinnamon rolls. For others, it smells like sunscreen and a piña colada. If the idea of swapping snow boots for sandals feels more your style — or you just can’t imagine hosting another extended family dinner — a December escape might be the best gift you can give yourself. If you’re ready to skip the tradition and hit the airport, here are six hotels around the world offering festive packages to get in the holiday spirit from abroad.

1. Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa — Maui, Hawai‘i

For: Sun, snorkelling, and a Santa who arrives by outrigger canoe.
Maui doesn’t do a subtle Christmas, and the Hyatt Regency’s Mele Kalikimaka Celebration in Paradise package embraces that energy. Guests can book a six-night stay in an ocean-facing room and get airport transfers, nightly turndown surprises, private cabana access, and a dedicated Christmas tree waiting in their room. Add in festive luaus, holiday cocktails, and prime stargazing — Maui has one of the clearest skies in North America — and this becomes the ultimate destination for Christmas in paradise.

2. Fairmont Scottsdale Princess — Scottsdale, Arizona

For: A full-throttle desert Christmas with ice skating, 6 million lights and nightly snowfall.
The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess goes all out for the holidays. As in, “North Pole meets Arizona desert”. Their annual Christmas at the Princess festival turns the resort into a massive light-filled playground: fire pits for s’mores, a 95-foot tree, Ferris wheel, tubing slides, plus an actual ice rink and nightly “snowfalls” (yes, in the desert). Add festive dining pop-ups, kid-friendly activities (like cookies with Mrs. Claus), golf rounds, and spa days for adults who need a holiday exhale, and it’s one of the most delightfully over-the-top places to spend Christmas in the U.S.

3. Schloss Elmau — Bavaria, Germany

For: A storybook European Christmas with actual alpine magic.
If your inner child longs still dreams about Narnia, Schloss Elmau delivers: grand halls, live classical concerts, snow-dusted forests and nightly feasts that feel plucked from a fairytale. Their holiday programming usually includes curling, skiing, yoga, dog sledding, and enough culture to make the entire week feel gently enriching. There’s also a family-friendly spa and ultra-cozy suites for post-feast naps.

4. Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai — Thailand

For: Festive season meets rice paddies and slow living.
A dreamy option for travellers who crave something atmospheric but not overtly “holiday.” At the Four Seasons Chiang Mai, December brings lantern-lit nights, cooking classes with local chefs, spa rituals infused with Thai botanicals, and a Christmas dinner served overlooking rice fields. It’s warm, serene, and wonderfully grounding — an antidote to consumer season.

5. The Plaza — New York City, USA

For: A classic, over-the-top, movie-moment Christmas in Manhattan.
If your ideal Christmas looks like a scene from a golden-age holiday film, The Plaza does it better than almost anywhere. Each December, the hotel transforms its Fifth Avenue lobby into a glittering spectacle that includes a towering tree, garlands draped along marble balconies, and enough sparkle to make even lifelong New Yorkers stop and stare. Festivities centre around the hotel’s famed Holiday Afternoon Tea in The Palm Court, complete with tiered trays of pastries, champagne and live piano. Step outside and the whole city becomes part of the celebration: Central Park dusted in snow, the Rockefeller Center tree, Fifth Avenue’s iconic window displays and ice-skating rinks all within a short walk.

6. Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo — Monaco

For: A Riviera Christmas with Champagne, caviar, and twinkling lights.
Monaco in December is magical, with mild Mediterranean weather, glittering harbour markets, and Belle Époque buildings dressed in holiday lights. At the chic Hôtel Hermitage, the season comes alive through a series of festive traditions: a lavish Christmas Afternoon Tea in the hotel’s ornate Belle Époque salon, complete with pastries, kid-friendly workshops and a visit from Santa; holiday menus at Michelin-starred Pavyllon Monte-Carlo by Yannick Alléno; and Christmas Day buffets served under sparkling chandeliers. Step outside and you’re moments from Monaco’s seafront Christmas village, complete with stalls, decorations and seaside lights.

Guatemala by Design

December 1, 2025

From Antigua to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala reveals a balance of raw beauty and refined details.

By Renée Morrison

Stepping into Villa Bokéh in Antigua Guatemala feels like slipping into a secret garden. It’s just minutes from the bustling cobblestoned streets of the town centre, but past the unassuming entry gates lies a six-acre haven. With views of the twin volcanoes Agua and Fuego, manicured gardens of bamboo and birds of paradise surround a pond with three resident ducks, and a sleek pool is tucked into a lush corner. The hotel itself, designed by local Paliare Studio and featuring artwork from the private collection of owner Claudia Bosch, has 15 suites—each its own palette of colour, texture, craft—and sets the tone for a trip defined by design.

My Olive Suite pairs soft greens and white linens with woven accents, plus a private patio and fire pit. Here, the thoughtful touches extend beyond design: one night, a lavender eye mask and aromatherapy diffuser appear alongside local honey sweets; the next, a woven pouch of tiny Mayan worry dolls, said to take away your stresses if whispered to before bed.

Stepping beyond Villa Bokéh’s gates, Antigua mirrors that same dialogue between past and present. Once the Spanish colonial capital, this UNESCO-listed city is famed for its barroco antigueño, a local take on Spanish Baroque adapted to withstand earthquakes. Thick adobe walls, low arches and sturdy columns meet delicate stucco façades, while Mudéjar-inspired tiles and arched windows—echoes of Arabic Spain—soften the geometry. On a walking tour, Antigua reads like a living design textbook: Mayan, Spanish and Moorish influences shaped by time and tremor.

In the bustling Parque La Unión, we stop at the Tanque, a public washbasin built in 1853 where women once aired out their laundry both literally and figuratively. A few blocks away, we step into a verdant courtyard that looks like a bohemian boutique hotel, only to find it’s a Starbucks (worth a photo, but head to Artista de Café for your caffeine fix). Nearby, Casa del Jade offers a fascinating primer on the stone’s cultural importance, a mini museum of original ceremonial artefacts, and a boutique selling contemporary jewellery.

On our final evening, back at Villa Bokéh, I climb a spiral staircase to the Honesty Bar—a tiny, unmanned gem that opens onto a rooftop terrace overlooking the gardens. We mix cocktails with local Zacapa Rum as the sun fades behind the volcanoes. Then, suddenly, the sky lights up with fireworks. They’re part of an engagement happening elsewhere on the property, doubling as a celebratory send-off.

From City to Stillness

The next morning, a two-and-a-half-hour drive through the highlands brings us to Lake Atitlán, an immense volcanic caldera lake ringed by three imposing volcanoes. The landscape is enough to rewire your sense of scale. Perched on the mountainside facing the lake, Casa Palopó is modest from its façade, but as I’ve learned, much of Guatemala’s beauty lies beyond first impressions.

Inside, the sprawling property is bold yet refined, courtesy of Guatemalan designer Katy Jay. Colour reigns: cobalt, ochre and red on the walls, terracotta floors, patterned textiles. In the restaurant, vines of fuchsia and aquamarine blossoms hang overhead as hummingbirds dart around the open terrace. My room, beside a library stacked with vintage travel and décor magazines, opens onto a claw-foot outdoor tub facing the lake—a private theatre for volcano sunsets.

But that will have to wait. When the hotel’s private three-bedroom villa isn’t booked, guests can slip into its stone-clad infinity pool that feels lifted from a Slim Aarons photograph. So I do, watching my first Lake Atitlán sunset from the hot tub as faint Spanish lounge music drifts through hidden speakers. Later, we take the funicular down to Kinnik, the lakefront restaurant in a sleek glass-and-stone pavilion. Dinner is perfectly medium-rare beef asado, gorgonzola-roasted cauliflower, grilled vegetables and fresh tortillas—hand-pressed just steps away from our table. It’s one of those meals that quietly ruins you for others.

By day, in the neighbouring town of Santa Ca- tarina Palopó, we see how design is being used as a force for change. The Pintando Santa Ca- tarina Palopó project—an initiative led by Grupo Alta, the ownership group behind the hotel—is transforming this lakeside town of roughly 5,000 Kaqchikel Maya residents into a living canvas. With plans to paint more than 950 façades in bold geometric patterns inspired by ancestral textiles, the project revives local pride, creates jobs, and turns the town into a cultural landmark. Guests at Casa Palopó can even volunteer to help paint.

Inside By Katy Jay, the hotel designer’s boutique in Santa Catarina, shelves display artisanal pieces like wooden serving pieces, woven baskets and ceramic bowls, each representing the region’s craft traditions. I’m invited to try my hand at weaving on a miniature telar de cintura (traditional backstrap loom). My guide explains how cotton threads are dyed with natural pigments—hibiscus for purples, chipilín leaves for greens and cochineal insects for reds—before showing me how to weave them into a bracelet to take home.

Our final night brings something sacred. At sunset, we meet our Mayan shaman, Tomas, for a private fire ceremony on the hotel terrace. We sit around a circular altar of flowers, corn and candles as he takes our birth dates to reveal our nahuales—Mayan spirit companions—before guiding us through a cleansing ritual. The fire crackles as the sky shifts from coral to black, and I can’t imagine a more meaningful ending than this glimpse into living Maya culture, which has been threaded into almost every textile, turndown and tour stop of my trip.

Later, returning to my suite, I find the al fresco bath drawn with rose petals, the same hue as those in the altar. It’s a simple gesture, and one any guest can request, but in context, it feels like magic. In Guatemala, as in design, it’s all in the details.

The List

Where to Stay
Villa Bokéh (Antigua) and Casa Palopó (Lake Atitlán), which features its own heli-pad for 30-minute air transfers that can be arranged by the hotel.

What to Eat
Shrimp ceviche (Casa Cristal at Villa Bokéh); Fagottini stuffed with icha-j pá sakil (6.8 Restaurant at Casa Palopó); Beef asado (Kinnik at Casa Palopó)

What to Do
Take a 20-minute boat ride to the artisan village of San Juan La Laguna for locally made chocolate, coffee, ceramics and handwoven goods.

What to Drink
Exceptional coffee, grown in volcanic soil; a cocktail made with Zacapa rum

What to Bring Back
Salted 70% chocolate from Xocolatl (San Juan La Laguna); a woven throw or tortilla basket (Santa Catarina); a carved charm featuring your Mayan nahual from Casa del Jade (Antigua).