In today’s travel industry, “luxury” has become a sanitised, generic, and stubbornly bland descriptor. It is arguably the most overused term in the business—often serving as a mask for a lack of true discernment.
In the world of super high-end travel, true luxury has nothing to do with ostentation or social media approval.
As the year draws to a close, the focus turns to Miami, where Art Basel Miami concludes the 2025 contemporary art calendar with its VIP preview on December 3rd.
As the global calendar takes shape, our team is dedicated to securing privileged access to the world’s most exciting destinations and experiences. For the upscale traveller, the focus is on journeys that move beyond the ordinary.
As the 2026 global calendar takes shape, the Nota Bene team is dedicated to securing privileged access to the world’s most exciting destinations, openings, and occasions. If you are planning a year of boundary-pushing travel, these five standouts are essential.
Patrice de Colmont, the inimitable patriarch of Club 55, has sadly passed away at the age of 77.
At Nota Bene, we believe that true luxury is defined by the doors we unlock for you.
In an era of social media’s curated perfection and Instagram-ready travel experiences, a profound question emerges: What really makes the difference? For us, the answer is unequivocally authenticity.
We are delighted to share an interview between Rachel Dube, who is writing for Forbes.com, and Nota Bene founder Anthony Lassman.
There’s a reason we love working with exclusive-use chalets and lodges. It’s the scope for dreaming up out-of-this-world journeys and experiences that can’t be replicated.
One of life’s greatest pleasures is indulging in a beautiful wine or champagne served at the perfect temperature in just the right glass. Extra points for a magnificent view of the ocean, an elevated terrace overlooking wildlife plains or rainforest, rolling countryside hills, or a brilliant blue sky against snowy alpine terrain.
The landscape of luxury travel has changed dramatically over the past two decades.
For many of us, gone are the days of sun worship, letting go of our diets on vacation, and drinking more wine than water.
Cast your mind back to a memorable weekend. One spent with family or friends, enjoying late lunches, perhaps an early morning swim, a long walk, a boat trip or a bike ride.
We recently took the Eurostar from London to Paris and were reminded of a crucial detail
Scandinavia – Sweden, Denmark, Norway (and for the purposes of this email, let’s include Finland and Iceland, though formally they aren’t considered part of Scandinavia) – is a land of immense contrast.
Arguably South Africa’s most celebrated artist, William Kentridge’s 40-year career has produced a body of work nothing short of spectacular.
When you imagine embarking on your greatest adventure, what comes to mind?
This might come as a surprise, but summer 2022 has been our busiest ever.
Nota Bene dips into Paris to compare the city’s two most hotly-anticipated hotel newcomers
There are certain situations where tried-and-tested wins the race.
How has COVID-19 affected the prices of top hotel suites, notably in major European cities and Mediterranean hotspots?
Travel may have resumed at full throttle but it has acquired a haphazardness that we aren’t accustomed to.
I suppose a box of chocolates is somewhat how I view villa rentals. Wrapped up in shiny marketing brochures and alluring websites, you never really know if you’re going to like them until you sample. And you can be sure of this: The vast majority fall short. Does a marketing brochure show you the unsightly …
Continue reading “Introducing Nota Bene Real Estate”
We enjoyed a quiet, reflective holiday season and braced ourselves for lockdown life and another avalanche of cancelled travels. Thankfully our fears were mostly unfounded. Much to our delight, very few people were willing to disrupt their vacation plans. Our phone lines kept ringing. Not for cancellations, but with clients wanting to travel! Believe it …
Continue reading “Nota Bene New Year 2022”
You hadn’t finished your glass (or your starters for that matter) and the hand has poured fresh wine onto the lukewarm remnants. “Would you like another bottle?” Actually, I’d rather finish my conversation without getting swindled into ordering as much alcohol and bottled water as possible. It doesn’t get much more irritating. Good service is …
Continue reading “The Skill of Perceptive Service”
When people talk about skiing in Courchevel, do they appreciate the difference ski-in/ski-out makes, especially with your skis and heated ski boots laid out at the edge of the piste every morning? How does this then compare with the ski experience at St Moritz, for example, which does not offer ski-in, ski-out? Where does Gstaad …
Continue reading “Why You Can Only Trust the People Who Have Been”
For example, arriving after a long flight and being expected to stand at the reception desk and fill out a cumbersome form (full of details the hotel invariably already has). Or someone phoning me to ask if I want turndown service. Yes, I do. But I don’t want to talk about it. I’d like it …
Continue reading “What drives you up the hotel wall?”
The world’s upcoming art events are particularly significant this year. They signal what we’ve all been waiting for. The opportunity to travel overseas to our favourite art fairs, regroup in our beloved galleries, and once again indulge ourselves in the physical culture of art.
The pandemic may have temporarily ‘closed‘ parts of the world to the international traveller yet, with careful navigation of which destinations ARE possible, it is, relatively, a more positive than negative picture.
Pol Roger made his first sale of wine in January 1849. Family circumstances forced him to set up a business: his father, a notary, had contracted an incurable disease and could no longer carry on his practice.
Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global art market, a young generation of African artists defied the gloom by breaking new auction sales records and raising eye-brows among the international art community.
There is some optimism in the air surrounding travel opportunities after mid-May when we hope to be paving the way back towards normalcy.
As the coronavirus vaccination programme continues to be rolled out in many regions worldwide, and we start to see a way forward in travel, we are constantly being asked for advice.
As we contemplate how travels in 2021 might play out, our taste buds are alerted to our favourite culinary destinations.
As an extraordinary 2020 draws to a close we reminisce about the freedom of travel – and look forward to resuming the exciting, unrestricted Nota Bene world journey very soon.
When we enter a hotel suite or private villa the first thing we look for is the view. Space, appointment, style and the overall feeling are essential criteria but it’s that magical view that counts most.
Frequently we also write about exceptional Italian cuisine, so on our return from the south of Italy this past weekend, we could not resist telling you again about the food of Campania.
Cap Ferrat is the most expensive piece of real estate on the entire French Mediterranean coast, but construction hoardings and the occasional crane mask many of the unoccupied villas lining its prime avenues.
There is nothing worse than a hotel claiming to be the ultimate in luxury when it simply does not deliver. You know how much you loved a place by how ready you are to leave.
Bodrum is back. We were there last week in perfect early summer conditions, the hotels looking great, occupancy levels high, weather perfect and the sea as enticing as we can ever recall.
Is there anything that annoys like noise? Given the sophistication and substantial investment in most hotel and restaurant designs, it never ceases to amaze us how many places seem to take no account of acoustics.
An appreciation of art and an eagerness to experience it first hand has long enthused international travellers and today that passion is further fuelled by an explosion of interest in contemporary art.
It’s the tiny details and the nuances of service, which influence our judgement and form our abiding memory of a place.
In a digitally saturated world of so-called expert travel opinions there are few, if any, independent, impartial and unique sources. And this is why Nota Bene exists.
