Home Is Where the Spa Is (SpaFinder 2010)

At an increasing number of communities around the world, spa-going is now spa living.

A spa residential community has more to offer than merely access to spa services close to home. Whether it’s an apartment complex or a suburban enclave of timeshare condos, an urban high-rise or a rural villa, spa residential communities have a central common theme: They’re dedicated to integrating spa concepts—such as healthful eating, medical supervision, life coaching, and organized athletic activities—into multiple aspects of residents’ lives.

Spa Customs around the World (SpaFinder 2010)

When in Rome—or a Roman spa—do as the local spa-goers do, with our primer on local spa etiquette.

A trip to the spa should be a relaxing, rejuvenating experience, but uncertainty about etiquette and local customs when visiting a spa overseas can be enough to get you all tied up in knots. Here’s a sampling of what you need to know when visiting spas around the globe.

 

A Moveable Feast (Private Air: Aug/Sep 2008)

 A Moveable Feast: Years of cooking on the go leads to a rare treat indeed.

For an admittedly nervous flyer, Laurent Tourondel sure knows his way around a galley. Maybe it’s the year the chef behind the popular Manhattan eatery BLT Steak spent cooking up cabbage and potatoes in the French Navy. Or his later tour of duty in the early ’90s as the chef aboard the Honey Fitz, the legendary private yacht that once belonged to the Kennedys. Or maybe it’s just in his genes (although a certified Xanax flier himself, his father was a private pilot).

The $1.3 Million Vacation (Private Air: Aug/Sep 2008)

The $1.3 Million Vacation: An Asian golf outing might set some sort of new record.

If you’re bored with the links at St. Andrews and Pebble is passé, one California-based company thinks it has the golf vacation for you. This past spring, food-and-wine events impresarios Angel’s Share began offering a private jet golf vacation through Asia that may just be the most luxe — and priciest — golf excursion of your life. How pricey, you ask? How’s an even $1.3 million sound?

Iron Man Air (Private Air: May/Jun 2008)

Iron Man Air: The creator of this summer’s most popular wearable aircraft tries his hand at something a little more spacious.

In Iron Man, when billionaire/genius inventor Tony Stark is kidnapped by baddies who try to force him to build WMD, he develops a suit of armor to fly through the sky like a missile. In Private Air, when the editors ask Phil Saunders, the concept co-designer behind all of the movie’s gadgets, to dream up a conveyance for battling the evils of commercial aviation, he develops this baby.

Da Bears (Private Air: May/Jun 2008)

Da Bears: At this fly-in lodge, everyone has salmon on the brain — including some 900-pound guys who really need a shave.

In Katmai National Park on the Alaskan peninsula, spring begins in June. That’s when the icy landscape starts to break up and droves of Pacific salmon — sockeye, chum, pink, silver and Chinook — navigate the long distance from the ocean to the tundra’s thawing tributaries.

The Vacation That Just Keeps Going (Private Air: May/Jun 2008)

The Vacation That Just Keeps Going: Turns out the finest way to fly around the world in 80 days is to make it in 70.

Hopping in the Lear for a brioche breakfast in Paris is probably something you’ve done once or twice. But have you ever followed that with lunch in Gibraltar and dinner in Marrakech? Doubtful unless you’re Phileas Fogg or one of the lucky few on Air Journey’s first around-the-world jaunt.

Early Birds (Dealmaker Apr/May 2008)

Early Birds: At 540 Park, power breakfasters always get the worm.

If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the power breakfast could prove the most important meal of your career...particularly at 540 Park at the Loews Regency Hotel, the legendary Midtown eatery that gave birth to Manhattan’s morning-meeting tradition.

Seeing Eye to Eye (Dealmaker Apr/May 2008)

Seeing Eye to Eye: Morgan Stanley’s Peter Crnkovich takes up his firm’s charitable legacy.

In 1997, Morgan Stanley’s Peter Crnkovich was faced with a question many parents dread: “Dad, can I have a puppy?” Little did he know the answer to his then-11-year-old daughter’s prayers would lead him to a longstanding role on the board of The Seeing Eye, a Morristown, New Jersey–based nonprofit that trains canine companions for the blind.

Romancing the Stone (Trader Monthly Apr/May 2008)

Romancing the Stone: For decades, Martin Rapaport has tried to create diamond futures, running afoul of the industry. A study in tenacity.

“We’re at the very beginning of the birth process,” says Martin Rapaport of his crusade to launch a futures contract for diamonds. His tone is strikingly upbeat for someone whose life’s work has been marred by so much failure. “Something has to happen.”