Hotel Mumbai We shall never forget the dreadful terrorist attack on the Taj in Mumbai. Actor Dev Patel, a British native of Indian descent, reveals the message behind his new movie 'Hotel Mumbai': "You can't bri...
The Delhi Durbar, the "Court of Delhi", where the King-Emperor announced the move of India's capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911. From our book IMPERIAL New Delhi. India has been viewed with a lot of awe and amazement by the entire world for...
Excerpt of the Minutes of the Meeting of the Jury (London, December 2018) Do we Brexit or not? For 33 years the minutes of our organisation were typed at Pall Mall, London. Last December we held our regular jury meeting at our historical conference ...
The last stop before Bangkok was Rangoon. After flying over dense jungle, the mountains gave way to flat irrigated paddy rice fields and soon Don Muang, Bangkok’s airport, was reached. In March 1924 the British formed Imperial Airways (the for...
Vijay Wanchoo, Senior Executive Vice President and General Manager at The Imperial, New Delhi, addressed the guests on the occasion of 69th Independence Day of India.
From our book IMPERIAL New Delhi. India's kings and queens always had a deep fondness for jewellery. Both royal men and women wore priceless, precious pieces all over their personage, starting from rare gems encrusted in t...
Salvatore Ferragamo "Maharani" wedge, 1938 Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala, famous for the Patiala Necklace, and his queen Rani Yashoda Devi, were known to travel to London, to Vandyk Studios (a successful London photographer, bo...
The first three Rolls-Royce cars owned by the Rajpipla royal family. Leading is a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 1921 carrying Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla and Governor of Bombay Sir Frederick Sykes, followed by Rolls-Royce 20 hp 1922, and Rolls-Ro...
Just as the West was enamoured by the wonders of India and Asia, the royals from India were adapting to the western culture with élan. Photograph from our book IMPERIAL New Delhi. Being an Indian royal was all about the finer things ...
The original Louis Vuitton 1923 cabin trunk of the private secretary of the Maharajah of Alwar. When the Indian Royalty travelled abroad, they travelled in style. Even their luggage planning was a big affair. Bespoke, monogrammed luggage with the R...
Jagatjit-Singh Bahadur, Maharaja of Kapurthala on his visit to Vienna's Hotel Imperial. Not just travel, Indian royalty were also creating second homes in the international playfields of the rich and famous or in the exclusively secluded plac...
Coverpicture: India — The Long March, by Joplin Sinclair By Andreas Augustin The history of the Hotel Imperial brought me back to this hotel which I had been visiting since the 1980s. Happy personal memories were merged with professional res...
Two books by Adrian Mourby should interest all hotel aficionados: Rooms of One's Own — 50 Places That Made Literary History Writers' relationships with their surroundings are seldom straightforward. While some, like Jan...
By Adrian Mourby, Contributing Editor Before arriving at The Imperial in Delhi I’d read a wonderfully inaccurate entry in an Indian guide book. Evidently it was in a bar at The Imperial that Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatama Gandhi,...
Arrival in Calcutta, 1930s I guess you have noticed that half of all famous hotels are currently either closed or working at half speed. It is not the first time that global travel has virtually come to a standstill. But that realization doesn'...
Travel agencies have been organized mostly since the development of commercial aviation from the 1920s, although Thomas Cook (left, in Egypt) was a notable early, pre-flight pioneer in 1841. The British Company, Cox & Kings is the oldest travel a...
Fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, and marginally fluent in Russian, Chinese and Japanese, Aloha Wanderwell – nomen est omen – was the first woman to drive around the world in a customised Model T Ford. Aloha Wan...
Johannes Baur, born in Austria in 1795, was a visionary entrepreneur who profoundly shaped Zurich’s hospitality industry. In 1837, at the age...Read More
The historic building (top, slide to the right): The "new" Raffles main building in 1899. It opened on 18 November 1899, featuring the all new...Read More
Since decades “The Oriental”, as it is affectionately known by travellers from all over the globe, leads the lists of most...Read More
In 1952, a group of wealthy individuals including Donald Deskey, the fabled designer (among his works the Radio City Music Hall); Harvey Firestone,...Read More
You don your safari gear during the day, but you always dress for dinner. Because Mount Kenya Safari Club Nanyuki is an exclusive retreat. High on...Read More
