A unique new ultra-luxury dual accommodation package incorporating stays on Lake Como and Switzerland’s second-largest city has been released by Mandarin Oriental.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is expanding its hotel collection in Europe, revealing plans for the luxury brand to debut in Vienna in late 2023.

The arrival road for Mandarin Oriental, Sanya, skirts around Yalong Bay next to a naval base. At the hotel’s single-height, flat-topped welcome door a posse of greeters waited (all wore loose-fit camel trousers and white overshirts). A deep maroon buggy went up and down what seemed like over the hills and far away, to Villa 13.

Mandarin Oriental, Munich has is offering a “Once-in-a-Decade – Oberammergau Passion Play” luxury accommodation package for visitors to the passion play festival. The package, available from 14 May to 4 October 2020, includes round-trip festival limousine transfers.

Mandarin Oriental, Milan has launched a luxury accommodation package for guests wanting to immerse themselves in the world of luxury designer, Fornasetti.

Kempinski Hotels will relinquish management of the fabled Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2019, with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group confirmed as the incoming operator.

To celebrate Christmas and New Year, Mandarin Oriental, Paris is offering a special accommodation package with the Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées. Available from 22 November, 2019 to 8 January, 2020, the Festive Shopping Season in Paris package includes a private session with a personal stylist, champagne and other treats for guests. The palace will be the place to be this party season, with festive menus and winter pop-up bar in its garden.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group says it will eliminate all single-use plastic, across its entire portfolio of luxury hotels, by the end of March 2021.

Mandarin Oriental will take over management of the fabled Hotel Palace Luzern. First opened in 1906 and positioned in the heart of the city on the shores of Lake Lucerne, the property is currently undergoing an extensive renovation. It will reopen as Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern at the end of 2020.

Mandarin Oriental, Geneva has launched its newest signature suite for guests seeking the ultimate in sumptuous comfort and spectacular views. Providing 325 square metres of contemporary elegance, the Royal Penthouse is one of the largest suites in Geneva. It features a 175-square-metre terrace with panoramic vistas of snow-capped mountains, the River Rhone and the city’s Old Town.

LTI – Luxury Travel Intelligence has revealed the top 12 luxury hotel brands in the world for 2019. The results are based on a rigorously defined algorithm, LTI says, that measures the performance and values of luxury hotel brands. That algorithm encompasses over 120 touch points relevant to the high-end hotel sector.

This is the classic London ‘town and country’ hotel that has just re-opened from a long repose and I wanted to see the Sleeping Beauty newly wakened, re-designed by Joyce Wang. I am escorted up in the elevator to the 2nd floor, and without over-use of the adjective ‘light’ this is what it now is, shades of pale green with a pale-browns carpet that apparently was even paler before GM Amanda Hyndman said it just was not practical.