First Class Magazine

Luxury in the Kimberleys with Melissa Hoyer The Kimberley: where the earth reminds you who's boss Melissa Hoyer heads to Western Australia's wild and wonderful Kimberley and comes home a different person. I'll be honest with you. I almost didn't pack the black-tie dress. It felt slightly absurd, carefully folding a black tie situation into a bag already stuffed with outback-y stuff - cowboy hat, boots, SPF (factor: a lot) and insect repellent - destined for the Kimberley outback.

Four Seasons is inviting travellers to rediscover Mexico, the divine, soul-soothing, spa-scented version. Think spiritually reborn via mezcal and 800-thread-count sheets. With six show-stopping hotels and resorts across the country, Four Seasons has you covered whether you prefer the humming chaos of Mexico City or the kind of beach so private it probably has trust issues.

Ruski by Jack Fenby courtesy of VOK The best nights don’t begin in bars. They begin on velvet. On someone’s sofa that looks like it should come with a mortgage. On cushions so plump they could qualify as emotional support animals. The music is curated, the lighting is soft enough to flatter every chin, and someone has arrived with a cheese plate featuring three types of truffle like they’re auditioning for MasterChef. This is the moment Ruski has returned for.

Long before martini glasses clinked and cocktail bars started charging extra for “clarified ice,” vodka was called “burning water,” and bread wine, because it was cheaper than actual bread. Yet over the centuries this fiery elixir has changed and bears hardly any resemblance to its humble beginnings. It’s been distilled, refined, re-filtered and re-imagined, somehow transformed from a peasant’s antiseptic to the socialite’s aperitif. Fast-forward a millennium, and vodka has evolved again.

Slovenia, sitting pretty at number 12 on Abercrombie & Kent’s Top Places to Visit in 2026, is the travel equivalent of that impossibly stylish friend who never has lipstick on her teeth, even at midnight. While Italy is busy crowd-managing gondoliers and Austria is running out of Sound of Music hills to twirl on, Slovenia has been quietly perfecting the art of being fabulous without fuss.

There are mornings when you tumble out of bed and genuinely wonder if breakfast is worth the trouble. You’re not even properly awake, you’ve got your hair scraped into what might be described as a bun if one were generous, and your mascara from last night is smudged to the point you look like an indie band’s album cover. And then, you get hit with the vegetarian panic. The what if everything on the menu has bacon, ham, or a rogue chorizo crumbled on top like fairy dust panic.

I’d like to formally apologise to my pyjama bottoms. After years of loyal service through Netflix binges, 3 a.m. toast runs, and that period I convinced myself tie-dye was chic, they’ve just been outclassed. And not just by any old tracksuit. No. By the Traxedo. Yes, a tuxedo tracksuit.

Beenleigh, the grand old dame of Australian distilling, keeping us all upright since 1884, is celebrating summer with a brand-new citrusy star, Hard Orange Crush. It’s fizzy, it’s fruity, it’s 4.5% grown-up fun in a can. Inspired by the flavours you loved as a kid (yes, we’re talking Sunnyboys, Zooper Doopers, and that weird orange cordial your aunt still swears by), Hard Orange Crush takes all that nostalgic joy and gives it an adult twist.

In a world gone mad with turmeric lattes, oat milk martinis and kombucha cocktails, it’s heartening to know that some things still deliver that old-world, chest-thumping satisfaction. Enter Beenleigh XO Rare Rum, a proudly Australian spirit that waltzes across the global stage like Errol Flynn in full pirate regalia, sword drawn and rum bottle in hand.

(Or, How Three Blokes, a Bootload of Gin, and an Overachieving Bottle Redesign Are Saving Civilisation One Martini at a Time) By all that is botanically blessed, Never Never has done it again. Australia’s gin-making trio of merry alchemists has not only upgraded their already god-tier spirit, but now bottled it in a vessel so dazzling it could cause a brawl in a Bondi back bar. Behold the new 700ml Never Never bottle. Taller. Sexier.