Urbane Nomads' Great Wall of
China Dive, part of an 11-day tour.
Highlights: For the diving
enthusiast, the Panjiakou section of
the Great Wall was submerged when
the government flooded and dammed
the area to provide a reservoir of
drinking water for the nearby cities
of Tianjin and Tangshan. Now,
visitors can dive 35m down the
greenish water to view the section
of the Great Wall to see treasures
such as a Ming-era stone carving and
a guard tower.
On land, they will visit Chonghua
Gong, a palace in the Forbidden City
usually closed to the public. Guided
by conservationists, they will find
out how Emperor Qianlong, fourth
ruler of the Qing Dynasty, used the
palace to entertain friends over
poems and tea banquets.
Price: USD 2,500 a person,
inclusive of accommodation, selected
meals, dives and tours. Requires a
minimum of 8 to travel.
To book: Call Urbane
Nomads on 67288614.
South China Morning Post October 2010
Going to Extremes
For those looking for a different
kind of adventure, Urbane Nomads(www.urbanenomads.com)
offers what it calls the 'most luxurious trip in the world':
a horseback falconry trip to Mongolia, recreating the lavish
hunting expeditions of Kublai Khan. (...)
Throughout the journey guests are accompanied by a
private chef and butler, and stay in private gers,
which deliver a new and luxurious take on the nomadic
experience. Designed for minimum environmental impact, the
movable gers include a separate one that serves as a
library and business centre, a dining ger and another
offering 'in-ger' spa treatments.
Wall Street Journal, 28th Nov 2009, Weekend Edition
The Gift Guide
A Scuba Diving Tour of the Great Wall of China
What: A section of the Great Wall in Hebei province has been
submerged since the Luanhe River was dammed to create a
reservoir in the 1980s. Make an underwater visit to this
largely unexplored part of the Great Wall, built during the
Ming Dynasty.
Price: US$2,500 (includes accommodation and equipment rental
but no international airfares).
Straits Times' Life 23rd Nov 2010
Private and Luxurious Getaways
Urbane Nomads, a 2
1/2 year old company specializing in customized tours,
offers stays in Lemarti's Camp for four to twenty people,
from USD3,000 per night.
Instead of mass safari tours where there are many tourist
jeeps zipping around the grounds, the folks at the camp keep
it exclusive and the guests are the only people walking the
area for wildlife-spotting.
Straits Times' July 6 2010
Six Senses Phuket Raceweek
If you're interested in
attending the Six Senses Phuket Raceweek in Phuket from July
21 to 25, go to luxury travel company Urbane Nomads.
The 4-day international yacht racing competition is
televised worldwide and features five nights of beachside
parties at the five-star Evason Phuket and Six Senses Spa
Phuket.
Urbane Nomads, the official travel supplier for the
event, is offering special travel packages for the event
which start from a person for twin share hotel
accommodation.
Package include entry to all parties at the event and
four nights' stay with breakfast at the Evason Phuket hotel.
Airfare not included.
Call Urbane Nomads at 67288614 by July 16.
Straits Times' March 23rd 2010
Tailored Trips
People who hate group tours opt for
customized holidays with better food, hotels and exotic
venues.
Urbane Nomads: Since 2008 the company has been
customizing tours that range from a Kublai-Khan inspired
hunting expedition to a cruise and private jet to
Antarctica.
De Morgen- 12th December 2009
CHINA
Duiken langs de Grote Muur Wil je de Grote Muur in China op
een nog grootseremanier zien?
Trek dan het duikpak aan om de GreatWall Dive te doen langs
een vergeten deel van de Muur dat
sinds de jaren 1980 onder water staat.
Gediplomeerde scubasherpa’s brengen je bij de meest
bezienswaardige spots: muurgravures uit
de Ming-dinastie, tunnels en wachttorens.
Naast het duiken staat ook een bezoek aan de Verboden Stad
in Peking op het programma. Vanaf
ongeveer 1.700 euro per persoon voor vijf dagen, twee duiken
inbegrepen.
Interview: Immersion Not Optional. Urbane Nomads brings
fantasy and culture to life.
- Nina Sinatra
What is an “urbane nomad?”
Ask Hajar Ali. As founder of the Singapore-based luxury
travel firm, she specializes in crafting the breathtaking
and exotic into incredible getaways for her clients. Price
tag aside, Urbane Nomads is the premier architect to
transform any dream journey into a reality.
Of course, the company does cater to those with a more
unique getaway in mind. Ever wanted to explore sunken
portions of the Great Wall of China by SCUBA? How about heli-skiing
down Everest or taking an elephant-back safari in Nepal?
Wherever your global passion lies, it is entirely possible
that Urbane Nomads can help you can find it.
Yet why is Urbane Nomads refreshing as a travel bureau?
Carefully designed itineraries are ostensibly focused on
allowing guests to experience the pure beauty and culture of
a host country. Rather than sightseeing only around the
hotel pool and spa, Urbane Nomads encourages guests to get a
taste of the local culture. Private city and museum tours,
tastings at the finest and most exotic restaurants, and time
spent perusing village streets and busy city markets convey
the spirit of each culture in an unadulterated form. Ali and
her co-workers allow guests to experience a country not as
an observer, but as a participant.
The Edge 23rd November 2009
Travel: Nomadic Instincts
A travel planner who has
a penchant for esoteric places.
Retrace the footsteps of travel writer Wilfred Thesiger,
have a private dinner amid the sandstone splendour of Angkor Wat or mingle with the reindeer people (the tsaatans) of
Mongolia.
At Urbane Nomad, you can expect precisely such travel
itineraries and more. But rather than being another set-up
that professes to offer “unique” destinations and
experiences, Urbane Nomad is truly a travel agency with a
difference. Its name is already indicative of this fact.
Singaporean founder, Hajar Ali, says she chose the word
“urbane” because it came closest to summing up the
philosophy of Urbane Nomads in a single word. He adds: “The
word ‘nomads’ alludes to our state of mind and the reason we
travel — from Pico Iyer’s pejorative ‘full-time citizens of
nowhere’ in his book the Global Soul, to Bruce Chatwin’s
Nomadic Alternative, where he had expanded on Pascal’s
theory about ‘how all man’s unhappiness stemmed from a
single cause, his inability to remain
quietly in a room’.”
The Straits Times, Life, 20th Oct 2009
Luxury travel company
Urbane Nomads, which specialises in unique itineraries, is
offering a new series of trips.(...)
Conservation specialists will
also take you to visit unrestored portions of the Forbidden
City normally closed off to the public, and access private
areas of the Great Wall through a hidden path.
For details log on to
www.urbanenomads.com,
Al Ittihad, 2 October 2009
UB Post August 18, 2009
Most Luxurious Trip in
the World Comes in Western Mongolia
C.H. Sumiyabazar
The ultra-luxury travel
company Urbane Nomads has come up with a trip through
Beijing and western and northern Mongolia that combines the
themes of equestrian, falconry and hunting. To be launched
at ADIHEX, an exhibition in Abu Dhabi in late September this
year catering to equestrian, hunting and falconeering fans,
the trip has already been touted as
‘The Most Luxurious Trip in the World’ and comes with a
price tag of US$2 million upwards. Attempting to re-create a
little of the lavish hunting expeditions of Khubilai Khaan,
the trip puts together unique, once-in-a-lifetime
experiences, travelling through the western part of
Mongolia, amongst others, to experience horseback falconry.
Guests will be led by an award-winning filmmaker familiar
with the area, locals and the eagle hunters of Bayan-Olgii
in Western Mongolia.
Wealth Bulletin 12th
August 2009
Follow in
the Footsteps of Kublai Khan- for $2m
Singapore-based Urbane Nomads
has launched what it says is a 16-day package holiday based
on the hunting trips of 13th-century Mongol emperor Kublai
Khan.
The company says the holiday includes private jet travel
through western Mongolia and China, horseback falconry,
eagle hunting, and yoga sessions on the Great Wall of China.
Holidaymakers will also have their portrait painted by an
artist whose patrons include the Queen and members of Gulf
royalty.
A spokesman for Urbane Nomads said there would be demand for
the traditional values the trips represent, in spite of the
dent made by the downturn on the buying power of the
wealthy.
South China Morning Post
Jan 28 '09
Big deal
You still have time to book that romantic getaway and Urbane
Nomads, "the travel mixologists", have you covered.Stay at
the Tugu Bali, in a villa seemingly suspended above a
tranquil lily pond and dedicated to the memory of Belgian
painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur and his muse, the Javanese
dancer Ni Polok,...
Golden Triangle/Putao,
Myanmar tour
(March 28 to April 3, 2009)
www.urbanenomads.com
When it comes to remote
destinations, Putao, the capital of Kachin state, north-east
of Myanmar, is reachable only by air. It's one of those
ideal locations in travel specialist Urbane Nomads'
itinerary, as the agency has access to a private jet for
out-of-the-way destinations like this. Some of the tours Urbane Nomads is promoting for 2009
include a private jet tour covering Golden Triangle Thailand
and Myanmar; and at Putao, guests will stay in a luxury
resort designed by Jean Michel Gathy of Aman Resorts' fame.
The Straits Times,
Life!
Nov 25, 2008
Gal pals get rugged.
Former schoolmates
and gal pals
marketing executive
Crystin Chiam,
lawyer Kelly Fan and
advertising
executive Teo Minzi,
all 27 (from left:
Kelly, Minzi and
Crystin)
What the experts
suggest
Ms Hajar Ali,
founder of Urbane
Nomads
(tel:6728-8614,
www.urbanenomads.com):
"I'd recommend Sri
Lanka where you can
indulge in the
things mentioned:
affordable luxury,
bathing elephants,
camping under the
stars and watching
the sunset..
Life!
Singapore Straits Times 28th Oct '08
Splendours of Sri Lanka
Niche travel agency Urbane
Nomads is offering a
seven-day Sri Lanka package
next month with an
architectural twist.
For $3,300 (twin-sharing),
you get to stay at some of
Sri Lanka's top boutique
hotels and a hotel designed
by the country's pre-eminent
architect, Geoffrey Bawa.
Travel is on Sri Lankan
airways.
Tour Colombo and take in the
preserved splendour of old
cities in the Cultural
Triangle, a region
comprising ancient capitals
such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kandy.
Check out , too, the
southern town and Unesco
World Heritage Site of Galle,
with its colorful history
and colonial forts.
The price includes all
guides and entrance fees,
refreshments during day
trips, airport transfers,
land transfers and
accommodation.
For enquiries, call Urbane
Nomads on 67288614 or via
email.
