All of my recommendations are for products I have used, or places I have been. I want to introduce you to unique products I've come across in my travels and cool places I've found along the way, to help save you the time and hassle of doing the research on your own.

I have stayed at all the recommended hotels, usually with children. I recommend them because they have excellent service and unique niches in the market. For every trip we go on, my analytical husband does a spreadsheet (in his head) outlining the pros and cons of every hotel in every city we go to. To me this is a lot of wasted head space, but he has a lot of it (head space) so he can afford it. Whereas I would likely go with the first or second hotel I find online, he uses tripadvisor, plots the locations, compares rates and ultimately selects what he believes offers the best value for the money. They are not always the most expensive hotels but they are usually unique hotels in cool areas with great service.

Vintage Designer Bags

My friend Jennifer recently invited me to a show for her friend Dylan who is a Korean designer. I went for the show but I came home with the coolest new evening clutch ever. It’s a vintage Dior handbag re-designed and personalized by Dylan Ryu. She takes authentic designer handbags that she finds in antique markets in Paris, London and New York and re-designs them into unique pieces. I’ve had many comments and compliments on my new clutch wherever I take it.

Apparently, even Rachel Bilson is a fan!
check out Dylan’s line ‘History’ at dylanryu.com

Best Year of the Dragon Gift

As you may know I love Shanghai Tang, but you may not know that I also love Nespresso coffee. So, I couldn’t believe my luck when they put the two together into one beautifully designed, Asian-inspired coffee maker. I hopped on the Nespresso bandwagon this past summer. We rented a beautiful cottage in Muskoka, Ontario. The kind of cottage that offers espresso makers and t.v.’s in the fridge door. My kind of camping. I love to start my day with an exquisite cappuccino even when I am roughing it at the cottage. The Nespresso machine was fantastic. And I accepted being the brunt of my friends’ jokes for my rugged outdoors-y nature. (But they also enjoyed the lattes I made for them each morning)

In any case, as the Year of the Dragon begins, I realized this would be a memorable gift for a friend or for yourself, because life’s too short to drink bad coffee.

It’s available at selected Nespresso and Shanghai Tang stores starting on January 1, 2012 in HK, China, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, Kuwait and New Zealand (unfortunately not in North America). It’s a limited edition so there are only 3000 sets being made. It costs approximately 10,000 HKD ($1300 USD) depending on which capsule holder you choose, the inlaid Jade or the metal one.

Here is a link to the Nespresso-Shanghai Tang site.

http://www.shanghaitang.com/en/world-of-shanghai-tang/collaborations/shanghai-tang-nespresso/limited-edition-shanghai-tang-for-nespresso-dragon-collection

And for other gifts from Shanghai Tang click below.

Commune By The Great Wall

This is one of the most unique hotels we have ever stayed in, in one of the most amazing places on earth. We visited Beijing in 2008 for the summer Olympics. That in itself was an amazing experience (how did they get the sky so blue?). But when my husband told me we were going to spend a few days out of the city to visit the Great Wall of China I had no idea what awaited us. The Commune by the Great Wall is literally BY the Great Wall, so close you can almost reach your hand out of your window to touch this wonder of the world.

Set amid the mountains near the Shuiguan section of the Great Wall, the project was the brainchild of Zhang Xin, a prominent Chinese real estate developer, who gathered 12 architects from across Asia and asked them to design homes that would serve as lodging for people seeking a retreat from the urban sprawl of Beijing. Ms. Zhang was awarded a special prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale. Each villa has a unique and modern style and has between 4-6 bedrooms, which means if you are not with a large group you may end up sharing the communal living areas with strangers.

Commune by the Great Wall is approximately a 1 1/4 hour drive from Beijing Capital International Airport, 20 km away from the main train station (Qing Long Qiao station) and a 1 1/4 hour drive from Beijing’s city center. Once here, there is not much else around but if you are looking for a unique place to stay while you traverse the Great Wall, the location is perfect. Sitting on the deck, glass of wine in hand, staring out a the rolling hills and lush forests, it was not like the China I had imagined. In fact, it reminded me of the wide-open spaces of my home country Canada. It was such a contrast from the crowded city life of Beijing. As we sat there we were overwhelmed by the immensity of the country and how little we really knew about it.

The resort is closed for the winter from December 1st-March 31st, 2012.