Beautiful South
September 2017
Way of Life: Villa Syrah, France. In the foothills of the Lubeon massif I turn off the road onto a rough gravel driveway spearing between neat rows of vines. From a distance, my destination looks like a simple farmhouse surrounded by olive and cypress. But close up, it is far more refined than rustic; it fact, it’s a very handsome house.

Dream Team
Winter 2015-2016
Unlike other general managers, often tucked away in their windowless offices, Christelle breezes around the hotel: fresh, French, all style and all smiles, as frontline as she is back office. And no wonder — she started more than ten years ago in the restaurant of this French Caribbean outpost and has since seamlessly made her way up to the top job. [...]

The Fab 50
January 2016
A throwback to the F. Scott Fitzgerald era, this grand 19th-century mansion on Cap d’Antibes has 117 rooms and two villas with sumptuous Louis XV and XVI furnishings, gilded mirrors and chandeliers. The gastronomic Eden-Roc Restaurant has just been renovated and serves classics such as roasted sea bass and lobster with tarragon [...]

Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, Côte d'Azur, France
January 2016
A throwback to the F.Scott Fitzgerald era, this grand 19th-century mansion on the Cote d’Azur is set among nine hectares of landscaped gardens, with a guest list that reads like the credits of a Hollywood movie. [...]

The smartest time to visit Europe’s hotspots? The off-season
Winter 2014
Europe’s busiest tourist destinations? We prefer the off-season.
January: Venice. Before Carnevale, Italy’s waterside city has fewer crowds jostling on its streets and bridges. It also has a melancholy beauty in this misty month and, on January 5, hosts hosts the traditional Regata delle Befane, a boat race for over-fifties [...]

Travel writers' trips of a lifetime
Winter 2014
To celebrate 10 years of Ultratravel, the Telegraph's luxury-travel magazine, contributors recall their most extraordinary travel experiences.
The Peking to Paris classic-car rally, Michelle Jana Chan. Driving a 1940 Ford Coupe, my co-driver Mike Reeves and I crossed the start line at the Great Wall of China. [...]

The Highs of Climbing Mont Blanc
October 31, 2014
It's just after midnight but the snow is glistening in the light of a harvest moon—and our headlamps. I look up, enchanted, at the silhouettes of jagged Alpine peaks and processions of fellow climbers. Despite the physical task ahead—and against my guide’s wishes—I pull out my camera to capture some video. [...]

We can’t all be Himalayan climbers
October 20, 2014
In the wake of one of Nepal’s worst trekking disasters, the rescue efforts are just beginning. Already, harrowing stories are emerging. Hundreds of tourists and Nepalis have been caught up in the recent snow storms and avalanches in the Himalayan mountains, killing more than 40 and injured nearly 200. [...]

What a difference a baby makes
July 22, 2014
As the globe-trotting Prince George celebrates his first birthday, Michelle Jana Chan - who has taken already her one-year-old on 50 flights - reflects on the challenges and rewards of travelling en famille. [...]

The French Antilles: where France meets the Caribbean
November 3, 2013
The approach to St Barths, seen from behind the open-door cockpit of a Twin Otter, becomes an instant favourite of mine. The plane flies low in the V between two peaks; as we head through the pass, the pilot pushes the joystick forward in what feels like a dive. At the last moment he pulls up and flares, squeaking down the wheels and pressing hard on the brakes. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally 2013: 'Let’s make a U-turn and do it all again'
July 6, 2013
It was a cold and wet afternoon somewhere between Saratov and Voronezh, Russia. As we drove around a corner, we saw an elderly couple standing on the side of the road in the rain. With one hand, the woman was pointing a camera at us; with the other, she was waving and cheering us on. Beside her the man was holding up a yellow banner. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally 2013: Highs and lows
June 28, 2013
Scariest moment? I do not think I was ever scared for our safety but there were many times I was afraid for the well-being of Shiner, our 1940 Ford Coupe. The worst moment was on Day 6 (Ulaan Baatar to Bulgan, Mongolia) when we ended up driving through a marsh. We had to keep up our speed but that meant violently porpoising for a hundred metres. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally 2013: fighting for victory
June 21, 2013
From time to time I indulge myself and recall how it felt to be leading one of the world’s longest and toughest vintage car rallies. Alas, the unfiltered joy lasted only a few days - although it was during some of the most challenging driving at the start of the rally in Mongolia. That is a long time ago. It is now day 24 of this 33-day competition. [...]

Death casts shadow over classic car rally
June 13, 2013
As we approached the end of the Wednesday’s stage, we heard the news: there had been a serious accident. All competitive racing was on hold. Everyone should head directly to our hotel in Tyumen, in south-west Siberia. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally: And they're off...
May 30, 2013
It was one of those signature murky days in Beijing. As we headed down to the hotel car park it started to drizzle. In the flat grey light of dawn, among the row of vintage Bentleys and classic Mercedes, was our car, a 1940 Ford Coupe nicknamed Shiner, ready for a journey of nearly 8,000 miles to Paris. [...]

Hot List Hotels 2013
May 2013
...more Himalayan lodge than French ski resort, incorporating wooden cornices carved with Tibetan script. [...]

Ice-driving in Val d’Isère
April 15, 2013
It had been snowing for 24 hours when we found ourselves at the ice-driving circuit in Val d’Isère. The light was the same eerie diffuse blue of a B horror movie. Nestled in the craggy valley among fir trees the track was lit only by the beam of headlights as a fleet of four-wheel drives hurtled around the track, slipping and sliding and sometimes fully pirouetting. [...]

Revving up for the greatest classic rally
December 29, 2012
It was 15 years ago when I was working as a news journalist in Beijing that I heard about the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge, one of the longest and toughest rallies undertaken in a classic car. The first race had taken place 90 years earlier in 1907 and was entirely off-road, participants travelling without passports or maps or recourse to garages en route. [...]

Hot List Spas 2012
May 2012
What: A cozy antidote to the Trois Vallées’ snowy climes. The 10,000-square-foot spa has saunas, hammams, an ice igloo, and a pool that extends into the snow. Treatments incorporate edelweiss, birch, and other mountain plants. [...]

Hot List Hotels 2012
May 2012
...there might be a bedside copy of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra for long, dark, thoughtful nights. [...]

The best (and worst) of 2011
WInter 2011-2012
After months of trying to get a visa into Myanmar, I finally found myself walking through the airport in Rangoon. It was raining outside but I was euphoric. I had long tried to visit Myanmar -- but even when applying for a tourist visa this is tough for a journalist. [...]

Hot List Spa 2011
May 2011
What: All-natural spa in a secluded hotel in the sleepy former royal capital. It offers pan-Asian treatments using acupressure, hot stones, stretching massage techniques, and locally sourced curatives like lemongrass, ginger, and green tea. [...]

Hot List Hotels 2011
May 2011
The city's former prison is now a pleasurable place to be locked up. Transformed into 23 smartly designed suites, this hotel has a central pillared courtyard and an elegant colonial feel—whitewashed walls, wilting eaves, shuttered windows in gunmetal gray. Only the two corner watchtowers suggest a penitentiary, though there is a whiff of institutional austerity [...]

We’re all explorers now
Spring 2011
A week under a palm tree doing nothing? Very last century – unless you’re recovering from a trip down the Congo or a trek across the Sahara. In a world where the extreme has become the ordinary, Michelle Jana Chan attempts three famous peaks in Tanzania, Kenya and the Alps.

Pick the world's new wonders
June 16, 2007
An ancient list is being updated, through a modern worldwide poll. Michelle Jana Chan looks at the 21 contenders. On July 7, there will be a new version of the Seven Wonders of the World, a list that has always captured the imagination of travellers. [...]