The BEST OF TRAVEL

In the best of all possible worlds the adventurer would set out with '

I a light heart because, as Martha Gellhorn said, "Now it's hapI pening, we're starting, we're traveling again." Since 9/1 1 the travI el process has been necessarily heavy-handed, oppressing the lighthearted enterprise of seeking new experience with the onerous duty of removing one's shoes at airports ruled by the tin-pot Hitlers of security. So, as I sat in the Hotel Caruso, in Ravello, Italy—the year's

best new hotel, high above the cerulean Amalfi Coastdrinking the world's best Bellini, made by the world's best barman, Carlo Carlino, the best news was that the Americans are traveling again. Gore Vidal was in his Ravello villa; the voices of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles resonated in Positano.

Suddenly, last summer, travel seemed full of possibilities. Travel is fantasy; it disproves Paul Theroux's diktat that "travel is only glamorous in retrospect." Once, there was the grand tour and a Henry Jamesian view of louche aristocrats. There were the grande-dame hotels and precious little else. Now we expect our pillows to be filled with the down from archangels' wings wherever we lay our heads. ■ And so it has come to pass. Fantasy Island? The best new kid on the coral-reef block is indubitably One & Only Reethi Rah, in the Maldives, not just for the 1 2 perfectly curved man-made beaches but also for the deliciously healthy food, the crisply professional spa, and the whiz-bang high-tech gym. You could travel there with just the world's best capsule wardrobe, from Bamford in

London, comprising silkcotton sweats and T-shirt, pashmina shawl, cashmere socks, the perfect caftan, and a tiny linencovered hot-water bottle for the flight from Lady Bamford's new range. Her clothes are so pure they're practically organic.

As we travel to change our selves, so we embrace adventure. Beautiful, extraordinary Bhufan is open to visitors for the world's most glorious trekking. Diddy has

already been to the mountain kingdom, and television has only just been permitted, but Christina Ong has opened a new hotel there,

Uma Paro, and the first Amanresort, Amankhora, has arrived. Get ahead of the crowd.

Africa is the eternal adventure, but you must know what you are doing, or know the woman who does. Phoebe Weinberg at Greatways Travel, in Michigan (greatwaystravel.com), is the African Queen. Knows it all, been there, done it, ridden the elephant, and is on first-name terms with the owner of the safari lodge, the guide, and his tracker, all of whom worship at her shrine. Hugely sophisticated,

she's inspired by passion.

And if's Passion that drives Susan Huxter,

owner of the world's best restaurant with rooms attached, Le Quartier Francois, in Franschhoek, part of the Winelands area outside of Cape Town, South Africa. The simple, stylish rooms are in gardens around the pool, and she's just added a private cinema for guests where they can sit on pink ostrich-skin seats and drink wine while watching movies.

The actual process of travel is such a dire modern problem that private jets are soaring; fractional ownership in Warren Buffett's NetJets is one of the best deals, starting with just a 25-hour commitment. And at last a yacht that doesn't look like a floating apartment block. The YachtPlus "Signature Series," designed by architect Lord Foster, makes for all-encompassing seclusion. Privacy is the best travel mantra now; we even want our own swimming pool with our bedroom so no one can see our famous faces or our fat bits. Think of the fabulous rock villas at the Evason Hideaway at Ana Mandara, the best new retreat in Vietnam. We're traveling again, but the stakes are infinitely * •-!-

higher. VICTORIA MATHER