Heathrow is taking the art of the private lounge to a new level with an upgraded terminal where VIPs can peruse pieces from the likes of David Hockney, Tracey Emin, and Francis Bacon.

The Windsor by Heathrow, as it’s now called, is an exclusive VIP suite inside the London airport, that caters to high profile fliers from world leaders to A-list celebrities.

The private terminal has been refurbished to a startlingly luxurious degree, with prices starting at £3,812 (€4,575) for up to three guests, who must be flying first or business class.

“From our carefully curated interiors to our exceptional service, we provide our guests with an unparalleled experience that reflects the finest of British hospitality,” says Charlotte Burns, VIP lead at Heathrow.

Deep-pocketed passengers can also enjoy a private chauffeur service in an electric BMW from front door to plane door, a private butler service, and exclusive dishes from a Michelin-starred chef.

Heathrow has a rich history of luxury lounges

The Windsor by Heathrow signals “a new chapter in luxury travel” according to the airport – but a fair few chapters predate it.

Heathrow launched the world’s first airport VIP service in the early sixties, initially serving only royalty and diplomats.

The Windsor Suite came on the scene in 2008, and the commercial service was officially rolled out a year later, in time for the London 2012 Olympics.

Members of the British Royal family, the Pope, and celebs such as the Beckhams have all made use of Heathrow’s luxurious side, where all airport formalities are handled by the dedicated VIP team.

The luxury airport lounge-cum-gallery where you can add to your private art collection

The Windsor’s eight private lounges also double as a private art gallery, showcasing museum-worthy artworks from around the world. Modern British artists such as David Hockney, Tracey Emin and Francis Bacon, as well as American icons like Andy Warhol, feature on the walls.

These pieces won’t be hanging around for long though: guests can purchase them through a QR code, and the collection gets refreshed every two months so frequent fliers don’t get bored.

Fine dining is a given, of course Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton has curated the suite’s menu since 2016, and is marking its reopening with a signature dessert dish of English butter shortbread with praline cream, Earl Grey tea ice cream, custard sauce, and charred mandarin.

But other ‘personal touches’ may surprise outsiders.

For special occasions such as birthdays or anniversaries, the VIP team promises to go the extra mile, with chefs on hand to bake cakes for last-minute surprises.

The Suite accommodates family pets, particularly dogs, when asked. And bespoke menus are crafted for Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and even the quintessentially-British summer tennis championship: Wimbledon.

Then there’s the personal shopper, who will “navigate the back corridors of Heathrow” to take guests to their favourite stores in Terminal 5, such as Cartier, Burberry, Fortnum & Mason, Dior, and Rolex.

Europe’s other luxurious airport lounges

Heathrow has certainly pushed the boat out with The Windsor, but it’s not the only deluxe place the super-rich can await their flights in Europe.

Frankfurt Airport’s first-class lounge has its own terminal, where guests can make a day of it in private bathing rooms (one featuring a jacuzzi) before hitting the whisky-replete bar. A personal assistant is also assigned to each VIP to keep stress firmly at bay through the boarding process.

As a souvenir, first class passengers – who must be flying with Lufthansa – are reportedly gifted a collectible rubber duck.

SWISS Air’s First Class Lounge in Terminal E at Zurich Airport is also a destination in itself. Lounge guests have access to two hotel rooms with a double bed, a private bathroom, and panoramic views of the Alps.

The mountains also take centre stage on the 352 square metre terrace, where first class fliers can watch planes take off before their turn – champagne in hand.

Michelin-chef designed delights are on offer at Air France La Première Lounge at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, too, alongside complimentary spa treatments.

While off to the east of Europe, Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge at Ataturk International Airport was refurbished in dazzling style in 2019, serving high fliers at gastronomy stations.

A tourism project tied to Donald Trump in Indonesia is being halted due to water management and environmental issues.

The 130 square kilometre project is the brainchild of the US President’s Indonesian business partner, billionaire and politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington last month.

His association with Trump began in 2014 when his group company, MNC, was looking for an operator for sprawling “six star” resorts, one to be built on the tourist island of Bali and the other near Jakarta.

In exchange for a cut of the revenue, the Trump Organization would manage hotels, golf courses and country clubs that would cost about $700 million (€678 mn) for MNC to build.

The projects form the core of larger developments that the company plans.

Inside The ‘Trump Community’ taking shape in Java

In a January 2017 interview with The Associated Press, Tanoesoedibjo, better known as Tanoe, said that developing ‘Lido City’ would take more than a decade and cost up to $3 billion (€2.9 bn), of which the Trump properties would cost more than $300 million (€290 mn).

The company has been promoting the project for years. In 2023, then Indonesian President Joko Widodo gave it special economic zone status, providing MNC Land with tax breaks and leniency on permits.

A sprawling “Trump Community” has been built since 2014 in this pocket of Indonesia’s most densely populated island, with a new toll road leading to it, located in Gunung Gede Pangrango, about 60 kilometres south of the capital, Jakarta. It is home to a new Trump golf course, which started offering membership last year.

Though a private development, Lido City suits the Indonesian government’s ambitions to create more tourist destinations that it hopes will be as popular as Bali.

It’s part of broader plans, including a huge theme park, that have alarmed conservationists who fear development will overwhelm habitats for some of the archipelago’s most threatened species.

Environment Ministry takes a stand against Trump resort

The Environment Ministry said in a statement on Friday that mismanagement of rainwater at the resort had caused sedimentation in Lido Lake, making it shallower and halving the size of the body of water to 120,000 square metres.

“The mismatch between environmental plans and physical implementation is a serious concern in efforts to preserve natural resources,” said Ardyanto Nugroho, the ministry’s director of environmental complaints, monitoring and law enforcement.

He said that his team was still waiting for laboratory test results to determine further steps in the environmental law enforcement process.

“We committed to preserving the environment and will take firm action against violations that impact the ecosystem and surrounding communities,” Nugroho said.

Local media reports showed a board with a sign that the project was under “supervision” installed on one side of Lido Lake.

Vital water source threatened by tourism plans in Java

Gunung Gede Pangrango is one of the last virgin tropical forests in Java, where only 2 per cent of original forest remains. It nurtures a dazzling variety of flora and fauna: more than 2,000 species of ferns, mosses and flowering plants, and 250 species of birds.

Endangered species include the Javan slow loris – the world’s only venomous primate – the Javan leaf monkey, the Javan leopard, whose total population numbers less than 250, and the Javan hawk-eagle and Javan silvery gibbon.

The park has a rehabilitation centre for silvery gibbons that have been rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. The gibbons, known for practicing lifelong monogamy and their distinctively small, intense faces, number fewer than 4,000 in the wild.

PT MNC Land President Director Budi Rustanto denied that his company’s project had caused the sedimentation in Lido Lake, saying it also came from other projects, offices, housing and buildings in the surrounding area, including a government office compound and existing community settlements.

He said that his property firm had followed the criteria and prerequisites related to the environmental impact analysis, known as AMDAL.

“Since 2013, we have always tried to overcome the problem of shallowing of the lake, this is because 50 per cent of the lake area is in our development area,” Rustanto told Kompas news outlet, adding that a number of efforts will continue to be made to overcome the problem of shallowing of the lake, including dredging plans.

Environmentalists welcomed the government’s move as a sign that it was serious in addressing the failure of project management to consider the environmental impact near the land designated as a Special Economic Zone.

Executive Chair of Konservasi Indonesia, Meizani Irmadhiany, said the Lido area is one of the most important watersheds of the Cimandiri river and part of the landscape of Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, not only for the people of West Java but also for the residents of Jakarta.

“The slope contours serve as a significant water catchment area, and the area planned for the project is located on critical land,” Irmadhiany said. “It is time for the business sector to prioritise environmental principles which have direct impacts on the environment and communities, as well as business itself in the long run, before and during development.”

The maiden voyage of a night train from Brussels to Venice didn’t make it to its final destination yesterday due to issues at the Italian border.

Instead, the train stopped in Innsbruck in Austria, 313km short of its destination, and passengers were moved onto a different train to complete their journey to Venice.

Train operator European Sleeper had called the route a “significant milestone” for the company, saying their “mission is to reconnect Europe’s cities by night, providing travellers with more options for sustainable and comfortable.”

Innsbruck was intended to be a “prominent stop” rather than the train’s final destination.

‘It seemed that everything was settled’

Elmer van Buuren, one of the two founders of the Dutch private railway company European Sleeper told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, that the Italian railways gave them little notice:

“It took nine months, hundreds of phone calls and meetings to start this project. We have set separate appointments with five services similar to ProRail, in each country crossed. It seemed that everything was settled, when, last week, the Italians began to change their minds and called us to tell us that we could not go beyond Bolzano.

Now it turned out that we couldn’t even enter Italy. They did not provide any reason. It is a typical phenomenon especially of the railways in Europe.”

Why was the European Sleeper train stopped at the Italian border?

Train travel expert Mark Smith, who runs the website the Man in Seat 61, was on the train.

He reports that the locomotive engines needed to escort the train into Venice were not available. He says European Sleeper were only informed of the engine issue on 4 February, the day before the train left Brussels.

“The train was due to terminate in Verona as two locomotives are needed to ‘top and tail’ the train in and out of Venice, as the Italian network no longer allows light engine movements around Venice. They couldn’t get two for this departure, should be solved for later ones,” Mark Smith wrote on X.

“They then got a phone call day before yesterday from their Italian operator, unable to take the train south of Innsbruck. Again, ES [European Sleeper] hope to fix this for later departures. It’s not easy, running a train across 5 countries!”

The train had travelled from Brussels in Belgium to Breda and Eindhoven in the Netherlands before moving on to Cologne and Munich in Germany.

What is the advice to passengers booked on the Brussels-Venice night train?

There are currently Brussels-Venice night trains scheduled throughout February and March.

The service is scheduled to run twice weekly for six return journeys, with the company saying, “This unique route caters to travellers seeking winter sports getaways, city breaks, cultural experiences, and the world-renowned Venice Carnival.”

At the time of writing, it is not clear if European Sleeper can ensure that the locomotive engines needed to transport their train within Italy will be available.

European Sleeper and the Italian Ministry of Transport did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Cross-border train travel in Europe is tricky

Some are seeing the night train’s shortened route as reflective of wider issues with European cross-border train travel.

It has historically been difficult for authorities and train operators to coordinate their services to allow trains to pass seamlessly over borders, as flights do. This is seen as a barrier to travellers opting for trains over planes, despite them being much better for the climate.

A report by the European Commission found that the total number of long-distance passenger cross-border services in the EU remained the same from 2001 to 2019, and overall they make up only about seven per cent of train journeys in Europe.

To help boost these numbers, Victor Thévenet, rail policy manager at sustainable mobility NGO Transport and Environment, says that planning a train journey needs to be much simpler.

“People need to be able to combine different rail operators and for this, you need to have your different tickets in one single ticket,” he tells Euronews Travel.

Buying train tickets in Europe can be complicated but the EU has a solution

There is currently no Skyscanner equivalent for trains. This makes booking and managing international train journeys difficult and often more expensive.

The EU has a plan to remedy the situation in the form of the Multimodal Digital Mobility Services legislation. It was delayed last year but it is hoped it will be given another chance this year.

It would create a platform where you could buy one ticket for an entire cross-border journey instead of having to go through multiple national operators separately and give passengers stronger rights if they were to miss a connecting train.