The original Cullinan, launched in 2018, was the world’s first super-luxury SUV. The new Cullinan Series II adapts to changes in codes of luxury

More than half a decade after the launch of Rolls-Royce’s original Cullinan, the Cullinan Series II has unveiled in Ibiza. Codes of luxury have changed. And so has the model’s design, engine and character. Fabienne Amez-Droz takes a spin

Think a cross between a sky-scraper, a boat, and a (strangely civilised) wild boar. The Cullinan Series II is an animal with all the hallmarks of a Rolls-Royce classic. It flaunts a handsome large snout, crisp edges and clean geometry. Its muscles, though lean, seem somehow monolithic.

When Cullinan was first launched, less than 70% were self-driven: today, almost every Cullinan is driven by its owner

A versatile 6.75 litre V12 engine provides agility. While it could handle Ibiza’s coastal roads and narrow village streets with ease, it was unable to begin to flex its muscles, under the tame Ibiza sun. It’s wilder capabilities include off-road handling, equal to the most dangerous and hostile environments. I couldn’t say I was complaining.

The bumper lines form a shallow ‘V’ from the lowest point of the daytime running lights to the motor car’s centre point, recalling the sharp bow lines of modern sports yachts

Calmer drives between lunches and dinners, across the island and from the Six Senses Hotel, to a private dinner hosted by the Rolls-Royce team in the villa of the six senses owner, were more to my preference. As was the coastal path to Casa Jondal, the beachside restaurant serving laid-back luxury not dissimilar to the backseat of a Cullinan Series II. Naturally, a bottle of champagne, out of the champagne compartment, pairing perfectly with view of the horizon.

Reflecting clients’ desires for bolder forms of self-expression, new decoration and detail have been added throughout the interior of Cullinan Series II

But let’s hop from the backseat to the front. Codes of luxury have changed. People are starting to drive their own cars. Back in 2018, at the launch of the first Cullinan, less than 70% were self-driven; today less than 10% of clients retain the services of a chauffeur, and the average age of Rolls-Royce clients has dropped from 56 in 2010 to 43 today. And the Cullinan Series II reflects this. As Anders Warming, Director of Design for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the ‘statement and flourish’ built in this second series is undeniable.

Adapting to the desire of many clients to escape into nature, the interior is comprised of a palette inspired by botanicals. Cullinan Series II introduces Grey Stained Ash, a richly grained natural open-pore wood with a light shimmer

Flourish is the word. A pattern on them – reportedly evoking clouds – is suggestive, too, of something hovering between Japanese ink drawing, khaki, botanicals and cartography. Quite a range, but then so are Rolls-Royce’s design inspirations, from nautical to architectural matter. Oh, and with 107,000 individual perforations into the leather to create them, because why not?

This is a modern-vintage nexus that Rolls-Royce has harnessed for its newfound younger generation of customers. See its classically geometrical, Art-Deco style wheels, for instance: one feels one might just see Jay Gatsby through the rear-view mirror, but then spot Daniel Craig in the side-view one.

The new Spirit of Ecstasy Clock Cabinet is set inside a vitrine that displays both an analogue timepiece and an up-lit Spirit of Ecstasy figurine. The figurine is constructed from solid stainless steel and placed on her own stage with a matte black back panel

If craft is all the rage at the moment, Rolls-Royce are not new to the game. After four years of development, Rolls-Royce’s trademark Spirit of Ecstasy sits not only on its bonnet but inside the car, lit up and enhanced. And it even shapeshifts to become a technological item ­– ‘SPIRIT’ – a digital interface linking to a private members app, Whispers. The minds of analogue and digital craftspeople are meticulously stitched together, unsurprisingly well. And at the unsurprising price of not far off half a million pounds. Why compromise on craft?

Read more: Rolls-Royce launches new Boat Tail at Lake Como 

Fitting it is to have unveiled this car at the Six Senses hotel ­– aptly-named in relation to a car with the instinct and power of a wild boar, and the grace of a mercurial, siren-like Spirit of Ecstasy. To borrow the CEO’s phrase, let ‘magic carpet ride’ begin.

www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com

The Classic Fusion Mykonos is available in two versions, featuring titanium or king gold

Hublot’s latest series of classic fusion chronographs is a celebration of the laid-back Mediterranean lifestyle

Evoking the mood of luxuriously languid days on board a superyacht, Hublot has selected a nautical colour palette for their ‘Cruise’ collection, a new limited edition trio of classic fusion chronographs. The timepieces are named after, and pay homage to the Mediterranean islands of Ibiza, Mykonos, and Capri with varying shades of blue contrasted against striking white and metallic details.

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Hublot’s Classic Fusion Ibiza limited edition timepiece

Ibiza

The dominant colour of the model dedicated to the ‘White Isle’ is complemented by a blue ceramic satin-finished bezel and 45-mm case enclosing the chronograph movement, bound by a bi-material strap in cerulean blue rubber and white alligator leather. Characteristic of the brand’s innovative fusion of materials, these highly resistant and waterproof strap components are beautifully stitched in blue, alongside the polished and engraved back case and matte white dials.

The Classic Fusion Mykonos

Mykonos

Incorporating a similar combination of materials, but with the option of either king gold or titanium, the Mykonos model fully showcases the mechanisms of the watch, revealing the inner workings of the self-winding chronograph movement. Sapphire crystal sits at the centre of the dial, reflected in the Aegean blue lacquered small seconds hands and matching blue ceramic bezel and strap. The most striking element comes in the form of a small rotating windmill aligned at three o’clock, distinguishing the model with the island’s iconic attractions.

Read more: OMM’s Creative Director Idil Tabanca on creating an art institution

The Classic Fusion Capri

Capri

The most relaxed of the three models, the Capri watch is decidedly lighter in colour with a sky blue satin-finished dial housed in a ceramic case of the same bespoke blue. The white lined rubber strap adds a touch of sporty chic, bringing a different dimension to this easy-to-wear collection.

Chloe Frost-Smith

For more information visit: hublot.com

The entrance to recently opened boutique hotel, Mikasa.

Most luxury travellers know that the most beautiful corners of Ibiza are in the North, far away from the strip of infamous clubs, but the opening of new boutique hotel Mikasa in the centre of Ibiza Town is a game changer, says Digital Editor Millie Walton – and it’s open all year round

It’s early evening in Ibiza and we’re sitting on the rooftop terrace of the newly opened Mikasa hotel at the Lebanese restaurant. The surface of the sea is shimmering gold with the light of the setting sun and the super yachts loom almost spectral in the rosy hue. As it’s not yet 8pm, we’re the only ones on the terrace (in the Med, the evening begins proper at 11pm) and it’s almost completely silent apart from the occasional drift of voices from the street below and the call of seagulls. It’s hard to imagine that this is the heart of Ibiza Town, a stone’s throw from the infamous nightclub Pacha, in full swing of high season. Of course, it’s not all like this, Ibiza hasn’t miraculously transformed into a quiet paradise island, but Mikasa, somehow, has found a calm corner in the midst of the carnival.

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Mikasa’s rooftop Lebanese restaurant with views of the Marina and Ibiza Old Town.

The hotel opened earlier this year, by the same people behind Beachouse and Finca La Plaza, two of the island’s most exclusive venues, and it offers the same level of sophistication with 16 beautiful rooms, furnished simply with natural woods and linens. None of the rooms are enormous, but the best have their own balconies which catch the sun at various times of the day depending on which way you’re facing. Ours overlooks a small courtyard, whilst the other side benefits from glimpses of the sea.

Read more: Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar in conversation with Jean Cocteau

Downstairs, there’s a restaurant where breakfast is typically served and trendy looking freelancers perch throughout the day on their Macs, sipping freshly pressed juice. A famous blogging duo arrived earlier this morning to pose against the turquoise tiling at the entrance — you can tell that the design of the hotel has taken the Instagram culture into account without being gimmicky, but in the sense that there’s bright, photogenic colours and well curated ornaments. Even the food is presented to seduce the camera lens.

Mikasa’s 16 rooms are named after the monthly moons.

Our tasting Lebanese mezze arrives just as the tables around us begin to fill and within half an hour, the place is full. Mikasa is the group’s first hotel, and up till now they’ve been mainly known for exceptional dining with Finca La Plaza regularly being listed amongst the island’s top restaurants. Located in the gorgeously picturesque town of Santa Gertrudis (a fifteen minute cab ride from Mikasa), Finca La Plaza serves seasonal Mediterranean food in a secluded courtyard laced with fairy-lights. On a previous evening, we dined on fresh, oozing burrata with anchovies and baba ganoush, tender octopus with sweet kumquat confit and wild seabass with sautéed broccoli and sweet garlic.

So we have high expectations for tonight at Mikasa. Whilst there’s initially some confusion with our waiter on what we, as pescetarians, can and cannot eat, the meal is fabulous; rich creamy humous paired with a crunchy fattoush salad, falafel and tangy marinated prawns which are cooked to mouthwatering perfection.

Octopus with sweet kumquat confit at Finca La Plaza restaurant in Santa Gertrudis.

Beachouse is the group’s daytime venue (also a fifteen minute cab drive away), located on the far end of Playa d’en Bossa, far away from the crowded package hotels and the spill of tipsy tourists. We arrive early one morning for a dynamic beach yoga class, followed by a wholesome breakfast. The classes are held every weekday morning at 09.30am and are donation only – the proceeds go towards the keeping the sand and sea clean.

Read more: Wendy Yu on building bridges between the East and the West

Morning yoga on the sand in front of Beachouse.

The Beachouse is by far the most beautiful venue on this strip of sand with plush double or single sun-beds, waiter service and a cool, open sided restaurant. During our trip, there’s a party with a live DJ playing a set from 6pm whilst people sway on the beach and barefoot children race between legs. Unlike a lot of Ibiza’s party venues, which are essentially overpriced sticky clubs, Beachouse has a relaxed, hippie kind of vibe and attracts a high-class cliental.

Luxury double daybeds can be reserved at Beachouse with a minimum spend of 100 euros.

Our only gripe is that calling a taxi is tricky at nighttime in Ibiza Town. Even with the help of Mikasa’s reception, we have several cancel on us last minute. It would make more sense for the hotel to offer their own private transportation to and from their various venues, that way guests could drift with ease in a perfectly sealed bubble of luxury.

Mikasa is open all year round, to book a room visit mikasaibiza.com; for a reservation at Finca La Plaza – fincalaplaza.com; and for more information on Beachouse – beachouseibiza.com

All photography by James Houston

ME Ibiza Rooftop Pool

Why should I go now?

The summer family crowds have left the island and the weather is perfect, and less scorching.

What’s the lowdown?

The ME is in a quiet cove on the south side of the island; step through the open lobby on arrival and you are greeted with a view across the huge pool, across the bay, to the mountains beyond. It’s right next to Nikki Beach, but there’s no reason to go there when you have your own poolside and an even more exclusive and panoramic pool on the rooftop.

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The cuisine is Ibizan chic, grilled fish and meats, a little north African influence; there’s a cool but understated party scene at the Radio ME rooftop bar. This isn’t a hotel for the desperate aspirationals; more for those at peace with themselves. And there’s enough of a choice of hangouts that you don’t feel forced to party, or to chill; while the party was going on upstairs, we had a quiet meal by the sea downstairs.

The open lobby

Getting horizontal

Minimalist bedrooms

Décor is minimal white Ibizan but without suffering preciousness or impracticality; our room was on the small side, but the open-plan bathroom and a beautifully-selected array of materials made it comfortable, not over-designed.

Nitpicking

The food could have been even simpler, to suit the minimalist ethos; and the service was occasionally a bit laid-back, but this is Ibiza. The club scene at Ibiza Town is a 25-minute taxi ride, and the beach clubs at Cala Jondal a little further – but once you’re at the ME, you’re unlikely to want to leave.

Rates: From 240€ ( approx. $300/ £200)

Roof Terrace – A state-of-the-art stage boasts elaborate pyrotechnics and laser shows

The new Ushuaia Tower brings a whole new dimension of rave to Ibiza’s party scene, observes DARIUS SANAI on a flying visit to his favourite summertime island

It’s midnight on a July Friday night in Ibiza – the night is just getting going – and a thousand people are waving their arms and tanned bodies in front of uber-DJ David Guetta, who is on stage playing Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child”. The crowd has shaped itself around an enormous swimming pool, which is cordoned off for the night; beyond them, another crowd of onlookers is swarming on the beach; in the distance are the lights of Ibiza Town.

I can see all this because I am at a party of my own, on the roof terrace of the just-opened Ushuaia Tower Beach Hotel, where a competing DJ plays equally vibrant music. The crowd downstairs, where I have just come up from, is young, Hoxton-chic boys and girls delighted to get into the pool party, dressed in a mix of designer and carefully picked fast fashion: it feels like being in the moving heart of a particularly snappy Instagram feed: #gowildbaby.

Upstairs on the roof, it’s a little cooler, in every way. Brands have been pushed together with foresight. Partiers are a little older, a little more restrained: their wild days, you feel, are either behind them, or a couple of hours ahead. The moon reflected in the smooth Mediterranean would be almost romantic, if the DJ weren’t pumping out Avicii at the highest octane.

Welcome to the Ushuaia Tower. I have been invited as a guest to see the opening of the party island’s coolest new club, which sits atop a new luxury hotel tower between Ibiza Town and the airport, built for a new generation of highenergy, high-tolerance, new-gen guests-cum-ravers.

Pool Party – The Tower hosts renowned, exclusive daytime parties featuring top-notch live performances

Room categories sum it up: there’s the Anything Can Happen Suite, the Anything Can Happen Suite with Stage View (offering the same view I was catching), the Fashion Victim Suite, and the I’m on Top of the World Suite.

I was slumming it in a mere luxury double, with views of sea, beach, and mountains, a suggestive minibar, and a minimal-chic bathroom. Unlike some hotels, the room is just an accessory to your experience: a place to spend the morning and early afternoon recovering from everything you have come to Ibiza to do.

You don’t necessarily need to venture outside the hotel’s boundaries to do so, either.

The amorphous giant pool which is a backdrop to the likes of David Guetta at night is the pool terrace of the Ushuaia Beach Hotel – part of the same complex, and already in existence before last summer. The brand new Tower next door has a pool of its own; step onto the beach from either and you are greeted with an array of sun loungers and a beach bar belonging to the hotels. Here they serve an excellent club sandwich made with Jamon Iberico, as I discovered the next morning when indulging in my recovery brunch.

It would, however, have been a little coarse not to drop in on other favourite spots in Ibiza, and here the hotel also came into its own. The cool will tour Ibiza on a 1960s Moto Guzzi motorbike, raven-haired brunette hanging on, vintage Hermès headscarf pulled tight over vintage Cartier, shouting directions and admonishments from behind. I had no such option and opted for what must be the next best thing: a two-seater micro-Smart car, dressed in the hotel’s colours. I headed off for lunch to Cala Jondal, a hidden beach only accessible by a more or less unmarked side road, just two cliffsides away from the nearby airport but a different, secluded world of Ibiza.

The Ushuaia Tower Hotel with its poolside stage is a new concept on Ibiza’s Playa d’en Bossa beach

At Blue Marlin on Cala Jondal, I ate grilled local sea bream with a glass of Ibizan rosé. A supermodel I can’t name was having a discreet birthday lunch with some mutual friends at the next table, and I spent a relaxing afternoon with them before tearing myself away back to the hotel, where a symphony of DJs was warming up for the evening. I slipped into some light Margiela and Lanvin for the evening and made my way over to Lio across town – now an established joint but, with its live Cirque du Soleil shows, still the most glamorous restaurant on the island. The friend I dined with had a family engagement afterwards – only in Ibiza can someone go to their aristo mother’s 60th birthday party in a club, something I just didn’t have the mental range for – and I headed back to the Ushuaia.

Hotels as self-consciously cool as the Ushuaia Tower need to employ striking looking staff to keep themselves on brand. And it’s no secret that striking staff tend not to be excellent staff, as they are naturally en route to a career in modeling, acting, or headlining at the O2 in London, and have limited patience for the day job. It’s been a problem since Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell first opened the Morgans in New York and eye-candy staff of both sexes became the equivalent of contemporary art for a hotel.

Maybe I just caught them on a good day, but the Ushuaia Tower’s staff had plainly been drawn from a different modeling agency. The ravishing (male) concierge had almost burst out of his designer uniform in trying to get me a good table for two at almost no notice at Lio; the (female) receptionist was patience and efficiency personified in dealing with various airline bookings and IT tasks; even the housekeeping staff were fluent and efficient.

There is one proviso for anyone wishing to have the ultimate urban-Ibiza-clubbing experience at the thrilling Ushuaia Tower; no, two. First, while the views are striking, don’t expect gentle romance or trad luxury: this is the hotel equivalent of a Shoreditch superclub. And, if you expect peace and quiet after midnight, or indeed, more or less anytime, then you should probably be getting yourself to another part of the island: or, better, to another island altogether. Otherwise, get there while it’s hot – and while you are, honey.

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