Before I moved here, my perception of Nashville was probably a naïve one,” says English-born singer and model Ms Karen Elson, who has lived in the capital of Tennessee since 2006 after relocating there with her then husband, Mr Jack White. “I imagined every man walked around town in a cowboy hat and boots, and ladies all had big blonde hair and were dripping with rhinestones singing Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn. Granted, you’ll witness some of that, but when you walk down Broadway, it’s mostly tourists living the Nashville dream.” I confess that when I have thought of Nashville in the past, I have come up with a similar sketch of the city – a bit reductive, heavy on the country music. Over the course of the past couple of years, however, the place has begun to nag at me. Why are people moving there from the coasts? Musicians, yes, but also world-class chefs, interior designers, curators, entrepreneurs and even Victoria’s Secret models. What is drawing people from New Yorkand Los Angeles to Music City? “It’s the food, the people, the lifestyle, our house that I love,” says the singer-songwriter Ms Michelle Branch, who recently moved back to Nashville from Los Angeles after nearly a decade away. “In Nashville, we have acreage, a vegetable garden, chickens, a huge recording studio – things you can’t get in NYC or LA.” That acreage and those things you can’t get elsewhere might also be why the city is in the midst of a development boom. A whole host of American companies such as Amazon and Oracle are building campuses in the area to join the international entities, including Bridgestone and Nissan, that have their stateside bases in town. But with all of that influx, how does a town of a little more than 500,000 people survive the surge in population, in density, in demands? Can it even actually thrive? How does it maintain its identity, especially when a figment of that identity is already attached to a primetime soap (ABC’s country music show Nashville, which ran from 2012 to 2018)? Also, how does a very Southern city contend with both a boom in tourism and a rise in inhabitants from the liberal capitals on the coasts?

Whoever came up with the hoary old cliché that it’s the journey and not the destination that counts has obviously never flown long-haul in economy. The days when members of the jet set flew from one exotic idyll to another in airplanes that resembled five-star hotels are well and truly over. At least, they are for 99 per cent of the population. Perhaps one day someone such as Mr Elon Musk will invent a Star Trek-esque teleportation machine to get us to the beach in Bali or the business meeting in New York at the press of a button. Until then, we’re going to have to rely on the following tips to get from A to B in style.

In 1974, the leaders of a tiny, little-known kingdom on the eastern ridge of the Himalayas between India’s northeastern states and China, made a drastic decision. For the first time, Bhutan would throw open its doors to visitors. In that year, just 287 foreigners discovered a mountainous land shrouded in mystery and Buddhist tradition. Almost 50 years later, Bhutan is firmly on the adventurer’s map. Yet, thanks to the singular approach of its government to tourism, even as it has grown, the country retains its almost mythical status. With hotel openings and a growing focus on sustainable – and luxury – travel, 2020 may be the best year yet to sample the delights of the world’s last Shangri-La. Here are eight reasons why.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me, in all seriousness, that he wished there were a spa he could go to – “Like, one for men.” I stopped myself from explaining that he could very well go to the same spas where his wife might go because I understood that, if he felt like he needed a place specifically catering to him, then other men might, too. So, with that in mind, here’s an answer for everyone who wants a men’s wellness retreat, for men, that men can go to. According to the Global Wellness Institute, the wellness economy is growing at twice the rate if the larger global economy, with wellness tourism also growing at twice the scale of the sector as a whole. And the fact that men are switching on is helping to power this trend. But it is not actually all that new: Golden Door, a glamorous Californian wellness retreat centre just north of San Diego, has been hosting men’s weeks since the 1960s…

Before I moved here, my perception of Nashville was probably a naïve one,” says English-born singer and model Ms Karen Elson, who has lived in the capital of Tennessee since 2006 after relocating there with her then husband, Mr Jack White. “I imagined every man walked around town in a cowboy hat and boots, and ladies all had big blonde hair and were dripping with rhinestones singing Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn. Granted, you’ll witness some of that, but when you walk down Broadway, it’s mostly tourists living the Nashville dream.” I confess that when I have thought of Nashville in the past, I have come up with a similar sketch of the city – a bit reductive, heavy on the country music. Over the course of the past couple of years, however, the place has begun to nag at me. Why are people moving there from the coasts? Musicians, yes, but also world-class chefs, interior designers, curators, entrepreneurs and even Victoria’s Secret models. What is drawing people from New Yorkand Los Angeles to Music City? “It’s the food, the people, the lifestyle, our house that I love,” says the singer-songwriter Ms Michelle Branch, who recently moved back to Nashville from Los Angeles after nearly a decade away. “In Nashville, we have acreage, a vegetable garden, chickens, a huge recording studio – things you can’t get in NYC or LA.” That acreage and those things you can’t get elsewhere might also be why the city is in the midst of a development boom. A whole host of American companies such as Amazon and Oracle are building campuses in the area to join the international entities, including Bridgestone and Nissan, that have their stateside bases in town. But with all of that influx, how does a town of a little more than 500,000 people survive the surge in population, in density, in demands? Can it even actually thrive? How does it maintain its identity, especially when a figment of that identity is already attached to a primetime soap (ABC’s country music show Nashville, which ran from 2012 to 2018)? Also, how does a very Southern city contend with both a boom in tourism and a rise in inhabitants from the liberal capitals on the coasts?

Whoever came up with the hoary old cliché that it’s the journey and not the destination that counts has obviously never flown long-haul in economy. The days when members of the jet set flew from one exotic idyll to another in airplanes that resembled five-star hotels are well and truly over. At least, they are for 99 per cent of the population. Perhaps one day someone such as Mr Elon Musk will invent a Star Trek-esque teleportation machine to get us to the beach in Bali or the business meeting in New York at the press of a button. Until then, we’re going to have to rely on the following tips to get from A to B in style.