If there was ever anyone destined to live just a two-minute walk from the sea off the coast of Mexico, it’s Doug Schneider. Hooked on surfing since his early teens and drawn to the Mexican language and culture surrounding him growing up in Southern California, it’s no surprise he now owns the jaw-dropping Casa La Laguna […]
With direct flights from some major US cities, Costa Rica’s nature-centric gated 400,000-acre luxury enclave, Papagayo Peninsula, is increasingly within easy reach for North Americans. Deep within the protected forested sanctuary on the sea is yet another peninsula. There, at the tip of the verdant outcropping, perched over the Pacific, is the very secluded Villa Manzu. […]
The tale behind the origin of Cayo Espanto, the now legendary luxe private island resort-to-the-stars, goes something like this. About 20 years ago, an adventurous and entrepreneurial young former army brat, Jeff Gram, picked up a stomach bug (he calls it “gringo fever”) while traveling in Guatemala. As soon as he recovered, he was off […]
There are many stories about determined and entrepreneurial young people leaving their home countries to take on the challenges of starting a new life and launching a business in the U.S. Young Rudy Malka, originally from Marseille, France is one of the risk takers who has followed that exact path. The owner of Masterpiece villa, […]
Hawaii, the 50th state, might have been a latecomer to the union but it was at the head of the line when it came to launching the farm-to-table movement that has blanketed the North America food scene over the past decade. Although it sounds like an obvious birthplace for plant-to-plate style cuisine, Hawaii, for all […]
You would be forgiven if you thought of Palm Springs as a fossilized moment in mid-twentieth century celebrity history. It is true that the luxe desert mecca was a hotspot for celluloid and vinyl celebs such as Frank Sinatra, Liberace and Loretta Young. Those luminaries are long gone, though many of their old homes and old […]
When Mark Fichandler and partner Paul Travis finally decided to buy a house in Palm Springs after spending a number of vacations there, it definitely wasn’t the dated home with the boxy lines and the low ceilings that sold them on the deal. It was, however, everything else! “The historic neighborhood, the little dead-end street, […]
It’s true that the house Dahlia Haas bought and completely renovated on Kauai’s Secret Beach is breathtaking, but a house is just a house until it grows its personality, claims its character. Dali Hale is overflowing with personality, not in small part because of its effervescent owner, culinary wizard, Dahlia Haas. When she and her […]
