Diving deep
Palau, Four Seasons Explorer, Aspen real estate, Parker Palm Springs, E. Dehillerin, best Hudson NY restaurants, MORE
GETAWAYS • Micronesia
In the window
There was a window, probably in the late nineties, when the Maldives still felt genuinely remote, genuinely otherworldly, and genuinely worth the effort.
Palau, in Micronesia, is in that window now. Go. But know what you’re signing up for.
The archipelago sits in the western Pacific, roughly four hours from Taipei. The sprawl of more than 300 rock islands rising from water is so blue and strange it looks digitally rendered. Somehow, it over-delivers up close.
To be very clear, this isn’t Mykonos. There’s no Nikki Beach, no thumping house music always off somewhere in the distance. Palau’s remote, soulful, and almost absurdly beautiful, but the luxury here is mostly the kind nature provides. This is, first and foremost, a place to dive. Certified divers will find the conditions, visibility, and marine density enough to justify the journey on their own; plenty come here as a kind of pilgrimage. Beginners can learn and get certified in conditions that will ruin them for almost anywhere else. It’s like learning to ski in Chamonix during an epic winter — spoiled from the jump.
The best way to see Palau is aboard the Four Seasons Explorer, a 39-meter catamaran “luxury floating resort” that spent its first 21 years in the Maldives before relocating to Palau in late 2024. What the vessel solves (beyond the obvious luxury question) is access. Palau’s most extraordinary dive and snorkel sites and its most remote islands are scattered across a large swath of ocean. True to its name, the Explorer can move through it, repositioning overnight to put guests on untouched reef systems and uninhabited islands most will never reach.
There are 10 staterooms for two guests each, plus a single, very plush Explorer Suite. The interiors are polished but not overdone: comfortable beds with the cult Four Seasons pillows, proper linens, a cozy library, a small bar, an al fresco dining deck, and sun loungers set up for stargazing. The food is well-executed, and the crew — Maldivians, Palauans, marine biologists, dive professionals, and other adventuresome people who seem to have chosen this life deliberately — has the right mix of warmth and competence.
For beginners, the onboard PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) instruction means a first certified dive can happen in conditions most dive schools never approximate. The presence of marine biologists also changes the tone of the trip. You aren’t just being shown pretty things underwater; you are being taught how to see them, and why they matter.
There’s plenty beyond diving, like kayaking through the southern Rock Islands, cycling the WWII sites on Peleliu, visiting village sites, island picnics, paddleboarding, birdwatching, and quiet hours watching the clear water undulate under the sun.
The conservation story is not incidental. Palau protects the overwhelming majority of its territorial waters, and the Palau National Marine Sanctuary remains one of the most ambitious ocean-protection efforts on earth. Every arriving visitor signs the Palau Pledge, printed directly in the passport, and the Green Fee helps fund protected areas across the country’s sixteen states.
To get to Palau, route through Taipei, which should be treated as a feature, not a bug. Stay two, ideally three nights. Eat well, explore the polished retail, and let the contrast with what follows build deliberately. China Airlines operates nonstop service from Taipei Taoyuan to Koror in under four hours with flat bed business seats, and United now runs service from Tokyo for those routing through Japan.
Palau isn’t close to anything. That’s the point. And for the right kind of traveler, unquestionably worth the trip. –Colin Nagy
→ Four Seasons Explorer (Palau) • Staterooms from $3200/night.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Bali’s Potato Head isn’t really a hotel. That’s why it works • Forthcoming Waldorf Astoria London - Admiralty Arch now taking reservations for next year • The best luxury experiences leave some slack in the system.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three for-sale properties in Aspen, CO, that came to market in the past 10 days:
→ 10 Popcorn Ln (Aspen, above) • 4BR/4.1BA, 4392 SF house • Ask: $17.5M • recast 1941 miner’s cabin on Roaring Fork River • Days on market: 10 • Annual tax: $14,944 • Agents: Lex Tarumianz & Ed Zasacky, Sotheby’s.
→ 115 Meadowlark Ln (Aspen) • 6BR/6.2BA, 8123 SF house • Ask: $24.5M • multi-structure compound on 9 actress w/ 250 acres of surrounding open space • Days on market: 11 • Annual tax: $38,480 • Agents: Joshua Saslove & Riley Warwick, Douglas Elliman.
→ 520 N 8th St (Aspen) • 5BR/6.1BA, 4210 SF house • Ask: $24.995M • recently redone in West End, will 360-degree rooftop deck • Days on market: 10 • Annual tax: $44,673 • Agent: Wendy Wogan, Compass.
GETAWAYS • Palm Springs, CA
Desert oasis
I downed a shot of cucumber vodka after a Swedish massage; learned how to play both croquet and petanque; splashed around in an empty adults-only pool under the stars; sipped wine with a bunch of cheekily dressed guests from Willamette Valley; ate a “Wagner’s Ring” made of watermelon and assorted fruit; and possibly — quite possibly — rediscovered my will to live at the Parker Palm Springs, the sumptuous, immaculately-landscaped 13-acre resort ideal for couples and close confidantes.
Located on the former Gene Autry estate, the whimsically Jonathan Adler-designed hotel has been one of the desert’s most sought-after premium lodging options since 2004. In spite of a handful of minor issues, the unbridled emphasis on hedonism is largely intact over two decades later.
Given the sheer number of fire pits, public hammock areas, the two swimming pools, the tennis and (relatively new) padel courts, I suggest staying at the Parker for the type of vacation where you have zero intentions of leaving the premises. This summer, the property will also unveil a third outdoor pool and exclusive guest-only performances in the newly built amphitheater, which seats 120. Consider me Parker-pilled. –Patricia Kelly Yeo
GOODS & SERVICES • Paris
Kitchen treasures
Steps away from the Bourse de Commerce in Paris’s 1st arrondissement, there is a place where professional kitchens, ambitious home cooks, and culinary history have been crossing paths for more than two centuries.
Stepping inside E. Dehillerin feels like stepping slightly outside of time. Staff dressed in green coats embroidered with the house name in yellow move briskly through the aisles, guiding customers through what is, at first glance, a wonderfully overwhelming maze. Finding what you are looking for is something of a treasure hunt. Laminated binders hang throughout the store, listing prices by category rather than displaying them directly. To know the cost of a knife, a copper saucepan, or a pastry mould, you first need to locate its reference number and then track it down in the corresponding catalogue.
The narrow aisles require a certain choreography. You negotiate passage around fellow shoppers to inspect a fish spatula, squeeze past someone comparing stockpots, or circle towering wooden shelves that rise nearly five metres high. Every available inch seems occupied by kitchen tools.
What makes Dehillerin so compelling is that it never feels curated for nostalgia. It remains, first and foremost, a working shop. Professionals come here because they need reliable tools. Home cooks come because they dream of becoming just a little more professional. You may arrive looking for a simple paring knife, and leave an hour later having considered an entire batterie de cuisine. –Candice Chemel
GOODS & SERVICES • Big Ticket
Select answers to the FOUND Routine query, What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
→ MEGAN MULROONEY, owner, Megan Mulrooney (LA): Paintings by Grace Bromley and RF. Alvarez, both artists whom we work with. I love living with our artists’ work.
→ MARINE GALY, chief brand officer, Riviera Dining Group (Miami): My Whoop 4.0. It’s been fascinating to better understand recovery, sleep, and overall wellness while balancing a demanding schedule.
→ ALEXANDRA TANGEN, owner, KABIN (NY): Our wedding. We’re incorporating a lot of very Norwegian elements throughout the weekend, including floating saunas on the Oslofjord, boat rides, and long summer evenings by the water. In many ways, it’s everything I’ve always wanted to bring to New York through KABIN, just on a much larger scale.
AROUND FOUND • Other Notable Intel & Recs
→ NY: Sitting 23 stories up, gazing across an open early-evening view of the New York skyline stretching from Wall Street to Midtown, I found myself living the city summertime dream earlier this week. A civilized rooftop scene? In Manhattan? Indeed, the secret isn’t yet out (and the masses not yet in) at Guardian, the new rooftop bar opened this spring at the remade W Union Square.
→ LA: It’s true: Seemingly every it-girl in Los Angeles has gone gaga for Spencer’s Spa, the New York City import that first brought approachable, refined massages and facials to West Hollywood at the end of last summer.
→ SF: The closure in January of Squat and Gobbl left a void in San Francisco’s sleepy West Portal neighborhood. Five months later, Tur swung open in its place: a restaurant with similar daytime service hours to S&G, but a decidedly different menu. Is the change-averse neighborhood ready for seven kinds of jook at 8a?
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Restaurants, Hudson, NY
The Nines are FOUND’s curated lists of the best.
Ambos, serious live-fire operation in new Pocketbook Hotel w/ cocktails curated by Arley Marks of Bushwick’s Honeys