ADDING YOUR VOICE
In all my years of traveling,
many of the best recommendations have come via word of mouth. There’s nothing quite like hearing from people who have been there themselves, sharing their advice on where to stay and what to do on your precious time off.
That leads us to the main story this issue: our 2017 Readers’ Choice Awards, which has been an annual fixture of our magazine—and something we look forward to hosting—for 12 years now. A lot has changed over that time, and we’ve brought in a few updates to reflect the current state of luxury travel. While past iterations of the RCA put the spotlight on the most popular cities around the Asia-Pacific region, our new country-based rankings offer a much broader scope. Also making an entrance this year is a category for boutique hotels, which we define as those with less than 100 rooms.
Two categories that haven’t changed, though, are Best Airport and Best Airline. If you’ve ever met me in person, you know how much I enjoy keeping up-to-date with this aspect of the travel industry. The experience of getting there is important and it’s an area that shouldn’t be overlooked. And of course we continue to gather readers’ feedback on the top spas, serviced residences, city and island destinations, and overall hotel brands, making this an invaluable survey of the best of regional travel.
Elsewhere in the magazine, Jonathan Hopfner heads into the streets of Taipei to see how the city’s thoughtful approach to urban planning and development is giving its creative communities a boost. Meanwhile, our longtime editor-inchief Christopher P. Hill embarks on a timeless cruise up Myanmar’s Irrawaddy river from Yangon to Bagan, while over in the remote Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil, Joe Yogerst recounts his adventure involving close encounters with wildlife and the unique cattle-ranching lifestyle of the hardy men and women who call this region home.
We hope you find plenty to inspire you within these pages, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on the hotels and airlines that are recognized in our Reader’s Choice Awards.