From a private castle in Hungary and a night beneath the stars on a Maldivian beach to tracking pumas in Patagonia, your 360 Travel Designer will shape a journey around the experiences that call to you. Whether that means delving deeper into a destination, sailing Svalbard’s ice fjords alongside a legendary polar storyteller, or finding a different perspective on South Africa’s Wild Coast, each detail will be fine-tuned to your every need.
Beyond the Guidebook: From Paris to the Wild coast
Every quarter, we introduce our members to some of 360 Private Travel’s most exclusive and under-the-radar destinations and experiences — taking you Beyond the Guidebook.
In this edition, we delve into the details that make travel so much more memorable: the Dior connection to an iconic Parisian address, French-inspired grandeur at a Hungarian castle, an Arctic expedition in extraordinary company aboard S/Y Selar, and the thrill of tracking pumas in Patagonia. Elsewhere, a night in a beach bubble opens up the Maldivian sky, while a lodge on South Africa’s Wild Coast offers close encounters with whales and dolphins.
Paris, With Privileges
at Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris
Set along Paris’ tree-lined Avenue Montaigne — home to the first Dior boutique — Hôtel Plaza Athénée oozes fashion history and shares much of that history with long-time collaborator, Dior. The Haute Couture Eiffel Suite is dedicated to Dior, while the Dior Spa Plaza Athénée continues the hotel’s long relationship with the house, with everything from the anti-aging Kobi-Dior facial to light therapies and sleep-focused treatments in a unique Dior Light Suite. Add to this five restaurants and bars, including the Michelin-starred cuisine at La Grande Table du Plaza Athénée, and afternoon teas in La Galerie and the time required simply to enjoy this sublime Parisian address becomes a holiday in itself.
This is where Dorchester Collection’s Arrive Early, Stay Late offer comes into its own, allowing guests to check in from 8 am and depart as late as 8 pm, giving your Paris stay considerable flexibility. Book the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris with 360 to unlock Dorchester Diamond Club privileges, including complimentary breakfast for two per bedroom, plus a £100 hotel credit to spend during your stay. Eligible rooms and suites receive a guaranteed one-category upgrade at the time of booking or on arrival, alongside complimentary return airport transfers for qualifying suite categories.
Sailing the High Arctic in Extraordinary Company
Aboard S/Y Selar, Svalbard
High above the Arctic Circle, Svalbard is one of the world’s last true frontiers: a wilderness of ice-filled fjords, thundering glacier fronts and drifting pack ice, where polar bears roam the shoreline beneath the midnight sun. From 16–25 May 2027, dmXplorations will explore it aboard S/Y Selar, the first solar-sailing polar vessel of her kind. Powered by wind and sun, she glides almost silently through the ice, with 90% lower emissions than most vessels in the region. With just 13 cabins for 26 guests, there’s no fixed itinerary — if whales are feeding in a nearby fjord, that’s where you’ll go. Days are spent cruising beneath ice cliffs by Zodiac, kayaking through sheltered bays and walking the tundra with expert guides, before warming up in the sauna or gathering for a Negroni chilled with thousand-year-old glacier ice.
What makes this departure truly singular, though, is the company on board. Christian Black, Hollywood motion still photographer – known for his epic photos on Mission Impossible ( Tom Cruise) and underwater photographer, has spent 25 years shooting from helicopters, mountainsides and open water across more than 75 countries, and brings that extraordinary eye to the Arctic. Kari Herbert, daughter of the legendary polar explorer Sir Wally Herbert, spent her earliest years living with the Polar Inuit of northwest Greenland — her first language was Inuktun — and is a captivating storyteller of the polar world as well as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Completing the trio is Ross McCall, the Band of Brothers actor turned conservationist, who joined Sea Shepherd on the ground in the Faroe Islands and went on to write and direct the documentary The Grind of the Faroe Islands. Evenings become a living library of Arctic stories, shared over Nordic-inspired dinners as the scenery drifts past the windows.
A Night in a Beach Bubble
At Finolhu, Maldives
Set amongst the vivid blues and greens of the Baa Atoll, Finolhu pairs white-sand beaches and crystal-clear water with villas set along the shore and over the lagoon. But to make it even more special, you can add a romantic night in a villa made of bubbles on a stretch of private sandbank licked by dreamy Maldivian water. The evening begins with a sunset stroll to the beach bubbles hidden away on the sand, where you’ll indulge in a beach BBQ before sleeping with a full view of the stars twinkling overhead. The spot is renowned for its sublime sunrises, painting the sky in oranges and pinks, a perfectly divine backdrop for a breakfast at the water’s edge.
The bubbles are custom-designed to take full advantage of their location. The outer material is transparent, UV-protected, and fully waterproof, and there’s a separate opaque bubble with a WC and shower. Interiors are intentionally pared back with custom- fitted wooden floors and bespoke furnishings, to create the perfect setting for a romantic interlude.
Ask your Travel Designer to help select your villa (a three-night stay is a must) based on your needs, and add a night in Finolhu’s Beach Bubble for an inimitable evening beneath the stars.
A Fairytale Castle with French Flair
At BOTANIQ Castle of Tura, Hungary
Travel the countryside of Pest County, just east of Budapest, and you’ll eventually find a château that seems to have grown legs and wandered over from France’s Loire. Slate roofs rise into a skyline of ornate chimneys and turrets, and a tower rises over the parkland and lush private woods that surround it. This is BOTANIQ Castle of Tura, built in 1883 by Baron Zsigmond Schossberger as a neo-Renaissance residence for his wife. The location, a 50-minute drive from Budapest, makes it an appealing proposition for a multi-generational celebration, a group trip, or a fairytale wedding venue.
Think of BOTANIQ Castle as something close to a lavish countryside hotel combined with the exclusivity of a private house escape, all wrapped up in a fairytale castle. Available for exclusive hire for a minimum of two nights, it has 19 rooms and suites, each with lush details such as handmade cashmere mattresses, while some suites benefit from stunning terraces and four poster beds. The interiors are exquisitely appointed, with a grand staircase functioning as a transition between the ground-floor social salons and the private upper suites, flanked by monolithic stone columns — perfect for making an entrance. But there’s also an impressive wine selection with 200 varieties, the BOTANIQ Spa with a heated plunge pool, sauna, steam room & salt room, tennis courts, and 25 acres of parkland and ancient woodland ensuring privacy for your group.
A Wild & Sustainable Escape
at GweGwe Beach Lodge, South Africa
South Africa’s Wild Coast is enthralling and dramatic: rolling grasslands spill to the ocean, and rivers tumble over cliffs in cascading waterfalls straight onto the beach amongst secluded shorelines and shipwrecks. And set on one of its wildest corners, within the Mkambati Nature Reserve, is the GweGwe Beach Lodge. With just nine suites between bush and sea, the lodge feels intimate and closely connected to its surroundings, with interiors in natural greens, turquoise and earthy tones echoing the landscape beyond. Each suite has a 5 metre private pool set within moments of the sea, a patio garden and panoramas of an ocean frequented by dolphins and whales breaching the waves.
Activities are deeply informed by the surrounding ecosystem and include guided walks across coastal grasslands, wildlife watching amongst dramatic cliffs — where humpbacks are sometimes sighted from the shore — and exploring secluded beaches, tumbling waterfalls and dense swamp forest. Back at the lodge, fresh seafood and sundowners are served overlooking the water, and sustainability is integrated throughout, with solar power and careful waste management. Additionally, the land at GweGwe Beach Lodge is owned by the Mkambati Land Trust, representing seven local villages whose ancestors were the area’s original inhabitants, and the lodge channels benefits into local employment and conservation, connecting stays here to the future of the Wild Coast.
Puma Tracking in Chilean Patagonia
at Awasi Patagonia
The puma is Patagonia’s apex predator and one of its most elusive residents. They roam the open terrain around Torres del Paine, offering a rare and exhilarating opportunity to observe these solitary cats in the wild. Accompanied by specialist trackers, you’ll search in a dedicated INEOS Grenadier, travelling the foothills and grasslands where pumas roam, reading the landscape for signs of their presence and activity and learning about the techniques used to observe and monitor Puma in the wild.
Located in a vast 7000 acre reserve, Awasi Patagonia is sheltered from the notorious Patagonian winds by a dense forest of lenga and ñirre trees. There are only 16 stand-alone villas at Awasi Patagonia, but each offers direct views of the jagged peaks of the Torres del Paine. 360’s Travel Designer suggests the new Cenit Villas, oval-shaped villas with grass roofs, two master suites, a sheltered patio with a hot tub, and a a fully equipped kitchen, where a private chef prepares breakfasts, lunches and dinners to your tastes. The mountain peaks are splendidly framed through expansive windows, but whether you’re inside, in the hot tub, or hiking into the heart of the Plaine Massif you’ll have sublime views of everything that makes Patagonia so extremely special.
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