If there’s one city that knows how to party, it’s Miami, Florida. Its iconic nightlife scene, year-round great weather, abundance of high-end cuisine, and lively atmosphere make it the perfect location for an epic 24-hour rager.
Get Lost music festival in Miami just celebrated its 15th Year Circus Celebration at Factory Town in Hialeah on March 26, 2022. The lineup included more than 70 unforgettable electronic acts, such as Carl Craig & Seth Troxler’s opening 5 a.m. performance and a three-hour set from Groove Jet legend Danny Tenaglia. Attendees also partied to music from some of the electronic scene’s biggest names like Major Lazer Sound System, DJ Tennis, Hot Since 82, TOKiMONSTA, Desert Hearts, Kevin Knapp, and more.
If you couldn’t make it to one of Miami’s hottest festivals of the season, you can still live vicariously through the sights, scenes, and styles that were found at Get Lost. Scroll through the slew of photos below for an instant mood booster.
During the 2016 presidential debates, then-GOP candidate Donald Trump proudly boasted—twice—that he doesn’t pay federal income taxes. Why? Because he’s “smart.” It was a bold, and frankly dumb, statement coming from a wannabe president. But it spoke to a larger truth in this country about billionaires and their money: Those who have the most of it don’t often like to part with even a penny of it. Which explains why, as Raw Story reports, so many billionaires are up in arms about President Joe Biden’s proposal to raise the richest one percent’s taxes.
Biden’s plan is to issue a minimum of a 20 percent tax on billionaires. It comes after a 2021 report by ProPublica that revealed “a vast trove” of leaked Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents that showed billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have all avoided paying any federal income tax for several years, despite raking in cash.
That report revealed that Musk’s tax rate was at 3.27 percent, whereas Bezos’ had just 0.98 percent.
If you’re currently thinking: Wait, that’s a hell of a lot less than I currently pay, you’re undoubtedly right.
While, from a logical standpoint, it would make sense that the more money you make, the more you’d pay in taxes, try telling that to the billionaires of the United States. As Insider reports, part of Biden’s plan would include taxing unrealized capital gains, or assets that are regularly increasing in value but are not taxed until they are sold off. When questioned about that part of Biden’s proposal specifically, billionaire investor Leon Cooperman didn’t mince words: “I would say it’s stupid,” Cooperman told Insider, adding that: “It’s probably illegal. It won’t pass… They should stop attacking wealthy people and attack the tax code. They’re so ignorant.”
While Cooperman said that he doesn’t “mind paying taxes,” he takes a philosophical view to it and says “we don’t need new forms of taxation just reform the existing tax code.”
If Biden’s so-called “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” proposal passes, Fox News reports that it will “would reduce the deficit by about $360 billion over the next decade, representing more than a third of the Biden team’s plan to trim the spending gap by $1.3 trillion.” Which sounds like a good thing—unless you’re the one who’s going from paying virtually zero dollars in taxes to 20 percent.
But Biden’s not ready to back down. In an official statement issued by the White House, the Biden administration noted that: “President Biden is a capitalist and believes that anyone should be able to become a millionaire or a billionaire. He also believes that it is wrong for America to have a tax code that results in America’s wealthiest households paying a lower tax rate than working families.”
In D Smoke’s new video for “Crossover” featuring Westside Boogie, good times go bad as a result of some bad decision-making. The video opens at an outdoor basketball game, where the Inglewood rapper puts the shimmy shake on a prideful player. With his feelings hurt, Smoke’s opponent goes to his bag and winds up clearing the court when he pulls out a pistol. Later, at a house party attended by both rappers, Smoke gets friendly with a lovely lady, only to have their “alone time” interrupted by a deeply unaware admirer.
“Crossover” appears on D Smoke’s 2021 album War & Wonders, the follow-up to the Rhythm+Flow champ’s debut album Black Habits. It’s the fourth video to be released from the project after “It’s OK,” “Shame On You,” and “Say Go.” The new album, which followed a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, featured 16 tracks and guest appearances from BJ The Chicago Kid, Fireboy DML, John Legend, Marsha Ambrosius, SiR (D Smoke’s real-life brother), Tobe Nwigwe, and Ty Dolla Sign.
Westside Boogie, meanwhile, has laid low since the release of his 2019 debut album Everything’s For Sale, but has released a handful of singles including “Float” while making occasional guest appearances on tracks with Dreamville rapper Lute and his LVRN family.
Watch D Smoke’s “Crossover” video featuring Westside Boogie above.
Good whisky costs good money. That’s especially true if you’re talking Scotch or Japanese whisky. The best stuff takes time and effort to make and that cost is built into the price you pay on the shelf. When it comes to great bottles of scotch (which is what we’re talking about today), paying $200 for a bottle isn’t that out of the ordinary. In fact, this price point is the high-end of the middle of the road, cost-wise. We’re not even into the classic 20-year-old and over bottles yet.
The ten Scotch whiskies below are all special bottles, even if they’re all under 20 years old. I’m diving deep into my tasting notes to pull out ten scotches I think are actually worth paying between $150 and $200 for. And while most of these are simple and delicious sippers, there are a few that might have a small collectibility factor, due to being one-off special releases.
Either way you slice it, all ten whiskies below are worth seeking out. That said, I did rank these according to taste. For the most part, I’d pay these prices for the top seven simply for the pleasure of drinking them. Numbers 7-10 are all great sippers too, but don’t quite grab my attention in the same way. Of course, all palates differ — so read those tasting notes and find your own path into the high-end world of Scotch whisky.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months
Islay’s Bowmore has one of the lowest peated levels of any whisky from the famed island. This whisky spends 18 long years maturing in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before those barrels are blended, proofed down with Islay’s soft groundwater, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is full of creamy toffee candies bespeckled with dried fruits — think cherry, grapes, plums, currants — that leads towards a light sense of bourbon vanilla next to an echo of smoked cherries and apricots with a hint of smoked candied almonds. The palate luxuriates in soft and almost creamy milk chocolate malts that form a foundation for spicy oatmeal raisin cookies, a whisper of dried roses, and a touch of dry wicker. The finish takes its time and cycles back through the chocolate and oatmeal cookie spice, leaving you with a sense of dried wicker that’s just been singed by flame.
Bottom Line:
This is ranked ten, sure. But this is stellar juice. That said, I generally use this more for a subtle Manhattan variation or Sazerac than a sipper. But that’s just me, because this is a very easy sipper — especially for a peated whisky.
The “Double Cask” of this The Macallan release is a sherry-seasoned American oak cask and a sherry-seasoned European oak cask. Both casks mature the whisky for 15 years before they’re married and that batch is brought down to a very drinkable 86 proof.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a smooth vanilla that feels a bit like it’s cut with honey, a touch of butter toffee, and a hint of stewed apple on the nose. The palate, on the other hand, has a deep dried fruit sweetness and dryness (think sultanas and prunes) next to a bit more of that honey, a whisper of dry cedar, and a spritz of orange oils. The end holds onto that orange and brings the vanilla cream back as it slowly fades away, leaving you with an almost caramel maltiness.
Bottom Line:
This has a lovely balance of dry and creamy with plenty of fruit and honey. It’s really easy to drink all around. That said, this is a bit of a crowd-pleaser that doesn’t quite hit the depths of some of the other whiskies on this list.
Craigellachie is the other whisky that helps make Dewar’s (the other main base spirit being Aberfeldy). This expression is made with old-school stills and stored in old-school warehouses. The juice is aged in ex-bourbon casks for 17 years and vatted to highlight the uniqueness of the brand.
Tasting Notes:
You’re drawn in by that familiar and deep vanilla note with some apple pie in there next to a dried and salted pineapple candy, a touch of smoked oats, and a savory fruit (almost a honeydew melon). That pineapple note holds on and intensifies to a pineapple and vanilla pudding on the palate as dry and woody spices arrive next to a hint of dry tobacco, cedar, and a billow of dry smoke. The end embraces the smoke through the filter of that pineapple pudding as it slowly fades out.
Bottom Line:
Like the Bowmore above, this is a solid sipper that works wonders in a cocktail. This makes for a great boulevardier or Sazerac base thanks to the boldness of the flavor profile.
The expression from Speyside’s Aberlour also uses old bourbon for its primary maturation and ex-sherry for its finishing maturation. Finally, it’s proofed down with soft Speyside water and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
You’re drawn in with a note of hard butterscotch candies next to a touch of chinotto (bittersweet Italian orange), butter toffee, and the slightest wisp of peach pits. The taste builds out from that peach pit layer with a note of ripe peach flesh and fuzzy skin while jammy blackberry leads towards a soft cedar. The finish really takes its time and leaves you with a silken texture next to a honeyed sweetness and a final roundness of vanilla cream.
Bottom Line:
This is where things get interesting. I really adore this as an end-of-the-day sipper with a single rock. That addition of water lets this one really bloom in the glass, releasing those deeper stone fruit, buttery, and jammy characteristics.
This is the younger of two special releases from Diageo last year. The whisky is built from juice aged in refill bourbon casks, meaning that the casks had already aged bourbon and then aged single malts at least once before this whisky was filled into them and left for 12 years. That whisky was then vatted and bottled at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with notes of air-dried sea salt mingling with nori wetted with sushi rice and a clear sense of green tea with a hint of dried florals that lead toward dry cacao powder, salted lemon peels, and a very distant line of sea-spray laced campfire smoke with wet sand lurking underneath. The palate takes that sea salt, nori, and lemon and tosses them together for a sharp yet dry and briny mouthfeel that leads back to now-sweetened tea with a hint of waxy saltwater taffy. The mid-palate rushes towards a big billow of dry driftwood smoke that’s emboldened by a handful of smoked and dried ancho chilis.
Bottom Line:
This is just straight-up delicious. It’s so complex, alluring, and different while still making sense from nose to finish. You really need to take your time with this one though and add a little water or a rock to plumb its depths.
This special edition Mortlach leans into the “beast of Dufftown” moniker the brand has earned by being bold and unique. The whisky in the bottle is a spirit that spent 13 years aging in both refill bourbon casks and new oak. Those barrels were vatted to create this beast of a whisky and it was bottled at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
This starts off very unexpectedly with a nose full of Thanksgiving dinner. The roasted turkey with sage, thyme, and rosemary leads towards a bowl of cranberry sauce cut with holiday spices and a touch of sweetness next to the bold tartness of the berries while candied fruits, floral honey, and varnished cedar round out the nose. The palate builds on that vibe and adds in a vanilla-chili note that attaches to a dry cedar box full of fruity and sticky tobacco. That spice really leans into freshly cracked black pepper as the fruitier notes from the nose return to mellow everything out on the long finish.
Bottom Line:
This is like a dose of nostalgia in whisky form. This whisky will take you home again. It’s powerful and deep while feeling like you’re being comforted in a warm blanket next to a crackling fire.
Oban is a tiny distillery that makes some of the world’s best whisky. This expression starts off like all Oban by going through their small, lantern-shaped stills twice before the juice is filled into used oak for an 18-year maturation. The best barrels are vatted and proofed down to a very sippable 86 proof.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a mild whiff of beach campfire smoke that leads towards a fruit salad full of pear, peach, plum, and something more tropical (not quite a banana, not quite a pineapple). The palate embraces the fruit to the point where it feels like a smoked fruit saltwater taffy next to a hint of mild eggnog spices. The end stays light as those spices kick up alongside a smoked salted caramel sweetness leading towards a final billow of that beach campfire smoldering a few camps down the beach.
Bottom Line:
Sometimes simple is all that you want. And by “simple,” I do not mean basic. This is a damn-near-perfect whisky that knows what it is and hits every note beautifully. This is a great slow sipper that pairs wonderfully with a full plate of raw oysters or a pile of prawns.
Ardbeg’s boilers breaking down led to this whisky. Instead of throwing out the mash until the boilers were fixed, Dr. Bill Lumsden (the mad-scientist distiller behind Ardbeg) decided to see what would happen if they let it be. The washback lids were opened and the mash was allowed to ferment with the sea-kissed Islay air for three more weeks. To put that in perspective, Ardbeg (and most whiskies) usually ferment for 72 hours before distillation. Once the boilers were back up and running, the whisky was distilled and then barreled in first-fill and re-fill bourbon casks. 13 years later, Dr. Bill decided it was ready.
Tasting Notes:
The nose starts off with this burst of fresh green grass just after the rain that melts into a summer herb garden (mint heavy), grapefruit seeds, and smoked butter with sweet lemon candy and orange trees that are underpinned with a dark and rich soil that’s been turned with manure. Going deeper on the nose, you get fresh tires, mossy fir bark, and maybe a hint of fennel-heavy focaccia. The palate starts off incredibly soft with a toffee note before veering into burnt scones, hints of absinthe, turmeric, and finally Marlboro Red cigarette ash. That ashiness builds on the palate as a slight Windex note pops in next to a hint of mint candy and some more mild toffee. The finish lets that sweetness stay while the cigarette ash builds towards a crescendo and leaves your senses feeling like you’ve licked an ashtray with a hint of minty toffee candies.
Bottom Line:
This is the wild child of the list. As with a lot of Ardbeg special releases, you’ll either love it or hate it with the passion of all the fires of hell. This is so outside the box and unique that I can’t help but love it. That said, you’re going to want to open this up with some water or a rock.
2. The Singleton of Glendullan 19 The Siren’s Song
This Speyside malt — which is getting pushed pretty hard on the U.S. market right now — is all about the honeyed and heather notes of the region. This expression rested in former bourbon barrels for nearly two decades before it was transferred to a cognac cask. After that final maturation, the whisky was bottled at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this is one of the fruitiest out there with strong notes of apricot next to dried figs, orange oils, old raisins, and candied fruits that lead towards a rummy fruitcake with a tube of marzipan running through it and a light flourish of fresh heather flowers. The palate really holds onto the fruit with the candied fruits and citrus rinds leading the way as apple cores and stems veer the taste towards a woodier note of cedar with a slight echo of white grape juice. The mid-palate holds onto the sweetness of that juice as the malts kick in with a slight tobacco spice that’s just touched with a hint of dried and candied ginger.
Bottom Line:
Floral, fruity, and honey-hued, this whisky rules. It’s so soft and inviting while delivering deep flavor notes that feel like summer in a glass. This is a stellar sip of whisky that’ll have you hankering for more the moment your glass is empty.
This Highland whisky is a local tradition of sorts, dating back to the brand’s origins in the 1820s. The whisky in the bottles is hewn from barrels of at least 18-year-old whiskies. The maturation is done exclusively in hand-picked Olorosso sherry casks from Spain.
Tasting Notes:
Old orchard wood, soft leather, dried orange peels, raspberry jam, and creamy dark chocolate gently mingle on the nose. That jam leans into a spiced cherry compote as stewed plums with plenty of allspice and clove lead to soft walnut cake with a malty backbone. The mid-palate takes that walnut and sweetness and moves the taste toward velvety malts and soft and sweet orchard wood, a dusting more of that dark chocolate, and dark berry silkiness.
Bottom Line:
This unpeated whisky is perfect. If you buy only one, let it be this one. The perfection of this one transcends styles. I’d drink this before I’d drink another bourbon, especially at this price point. It’s just that good.
Angel Olsen has been churning out a lot of music within the past few years, from the All Mirrors accompaniment album Whole New Mess to collaborations with Sharon Van Etten and Madi Diaz. Today, she announced that she’s releasing a new album titled Big Time on June 3 via Jagjaguwar. The celebratory, inspiring lead single “All The Good Times” is out now. It retains her signature sense of confidence and unbridled honesty, opening the ballad by lulling, “I can’t say that I’m sorry / when I don’t feel so wrong anymore.”
Big Time came after a storm of loss. She was writing the album while reckoning with her trauma and coming out as queer; she was specifically preparing to come out to her parents, and she was relieved when she did. “Some experiences just make you feel as though you’re five years old, no matter how wise or adult you think you are,” she writes of that time. “Finally, at the ripe age of 34, I was free to be me.”
However, three days after, her father passed away and his funeral became Olsen’s way of introducing her partner to her family. Two weeks later, her mother ended up in the ER, and she tragically passed as well. Olsen went to the studio there weeks after her mother’s funeral and recorded Big Time. Despite this devastating series of events, “All The Good Times” predicts a weightless, soaring sound that reverberates with hope.
Listen to “All The Good Times” above. Check out the album artwork and tracklist for Big Time below.
Angel Olsen
1. “All The Good Times”
2. “Big Time”
3. “Dream Thing”
4. “Ghost On”
5. “All The Flowers”
6. “Right Now”
7. “This Is How It Works”
8. “Go Home”
9. “Through The Fires”
10. “Chasing The Sun”
Big Time is out 6/3 via Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.
Nearly two days after the incident, Jada Pinkett Smith has issued her first reaction after Will Smith went on stage at the Oscars and slapped Chris Rock in the face after the comedian told a joke about Jada’s hairstyle. (The actress has previously shared that she shaved her head after battling with alopecia.) While Will eventually apologized to Rock on Monday night and publicly admitted that he was wrong for resorting to violence after previously stating he was defending his wife out of love, Jada has remained notably silent on the fiasco. That situation changed on Tuesday morning when Jada issued her first remarks following the incident, and saying her remarks are cryptic is an understatement.
“This is a season for healing and I’m here for it,” Jada wrote on Instagram.
On its face, Jada’s remarks could be as simple as moving on past the incident after Will publicly apologized and took ownership of his actions. However, there has been speculation aplenty out there, as with Whoopi Goldberg, who suggested (on The View) that Rock’s joke could have sparked some unreleased tension, or a “snap.”
It’s fair to say that Will and Jada have been extremely open about their marital issues. Some might even say to a fault, and some have noted that hitting Rock was out of character for one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel likened it to seeing Tom Hanks walk up to the stage and “crack[ing] somebody across the face.”
So could Jada’s message of “healing” suggest that more details will come on the next Red Table Talk? You know it might be coming.
It often seems like time and reality have been shifted over the past two years, with wild unexplainable events, and confusing celebrity outbursts (those have actually been over the last two days but the point still stands). But this is actually the case for Elisabeth Moss’ character in Apple TV+’s newest series, Shining Girls, which looks like a cross between The Invisible Man, also starring Moss, and Top Of The Lake, also starring Moss. Turns out she is very busy this year.
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, Moss stars as Kirby Mazrachi, a newspaper archivist who survives a gruesome and traumatic assault. When another case mirrors her own, she teams up with a troubled reporter (played by Wagner Moura) to help her solve the mystery, only to learn it goes a lot deeper than that, as Kirby’s reality starts to blur and time seems to shift, making it impossible to find the culprit. Spooky!
The series also stars Phillipa Soo, Amy Brenneman, and Jamie Bell, with Moss, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, and Michael Hampton as executive producers. The first three episodes of the series will debut Friday, April 29th on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday, which seems to be how most shows are debuting at the moment, just enough to keep you hooked!
One of the most anticipated games of 2022 was supposed to be the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. First teased in 2019, information on the Breath of the Wild sequel has remained scarce. While we did get a new trailer for the game during Nintendo’s 2021 E3 presentation, the game remained without an official name. All we knew was that a new game was on the way and that it would feature an even larger world to explore than the previous game.
Unfortunately, that lack of information may have been due to the game not meeting target dates. In what felt like an unfortunate inevitability, Nintendo announced on Tuesday that the sequel to Breath of the Wild would be delayed into the Spring of 2023. In an announcement video, producer for the game Eiji Aonuma announced the delay promising an even larger world with even more features that have yet to be shown off to players.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild sequel/Nintendo
While this is really unfortunate news, it’s most likely good news in the long run for those of us that loved the first game and want the next one to be even better. Nintendo has never been afraid to delay a game until it was ready and make sure it meets its quality standards before releasing. Some fans will remember that Breath of The Wild itself was originally supposed to be a Wii U game before it was delayed and turned into a Switch launch title alongside the Wii U version. Considering the result for that was arguably one of the best open world games ever made we think Nintendo probably has a good grasp on when a delay is for the good of the game.
You won’t have to go to Raleigh for one of the most promising hip-hop festivals of the year. J. Cole has partnered with Amazon Music’s Rotation to stream this weekend’s Dreamville Festival, returning to Dorothea Dix Park this weekend.
Boasting a lineup of acts like Blxst, Kehlani, Ari Lennox, and of course, Dreamville founder J. Cole, Dreamville Fest continues to bring some of the most acclaimed acts in hip-hop and R&B to Cole’s home state of North Carolina. As part of Cole’s partnership with Amazon Music’s Rotation, fans will be able to stream the festival, taking place Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, via the Amazon Music app, Amazon Music’s Twitch channel, and Amazon Prime Video.
“In just a few short years, J. Cole has made Dreamville Festival into one of the preeminent hip-hop moments of the year, hosting performances from the hottest up-and-coming artists and established talents,” said Tim Hinshaw, head of Hip-Hop and R&B for Amazon Music in a statement. “We at Rotation have worked to make Amazon Music the home for these kinds of activations and I can’t wait to bring Dreamville Festival into the homes of hip-hop and R&B fans around the globe.”
In addition to current acts, fans will be in for a throwback treat on Saturday with performances from Ja Rule and Ashanti, and on Sunday, with Wiz Khalifa performing his breakthrough mixtape Kush & OJ.
Check out the full line-up below.
Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While it’s fun to hit the road and see as much as you can in a short amount of time, find the best bars or restaurants, and pose at the perfect vistas for Insta, spending a day or more just relaxing with no phone or responsibilities is kind of the whole point of “vacation.” Makes sense, right? To that end, we’re calling out three great spas attached to three killer hotels in Scotland to take the edge off after all that restaurant hopping, whisky imbibing, and maybe a few too many rounds of golf around the country.
There are a lot of spa options if you’re touring Scotland, ranging from fancy hotel spas in the middle of bustling city centers to rural elite spas attached to some of the world’s best golf escapes (St. Andrews being the most luxe option there). We leaned into three spa/hotel picks that range from the main cities to the islands, giving you the best of Scotland’s city and country life.
While hitting a spa anywhere is always a rad play, hitting up a spa in Scotland does have its own luster. Thermal baths, unique massage therapy offerings, and seclusion are the main parameters I found as I toured the country this spring. From the seaweed to the wild florae, Scotland’s whole spa scene is geared towards “local” in every way. The Hebrides and rural Highlands are brimming with botanicals and salts that provide unique treatments native to Scotland.
One word of warning: Book far in advance if you want to actually get a treatment at one of the spas below. While you’ll be able to get a day pass for the big hotel spas (where you can swim, schvitz, and chill), most of the actual services are booked up a solid six to 12 (or more) weeks out. The spa industry in Scotland is still in recovery mode from both the pandemic and Brexit. There’s a pretty big shortage of staff at the moment. That rules out walk-ins even at the best spas around the country.
The Luxury City Escape — Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa, Edinburgh
Sheraton
The Hotel:
The Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa is exactly where you want to be in Edinburgh. The whole center of the city is walkable from the hotel, making this the perfect home base. Moreover, the hotel is a higher-end Sheraton experience from check-in to your room to breakfast every morning. Standard rooms with king beds have spacious bathrooms with huge showers next to deep bathtubs. The beds are comfier than the usual corporate matrasses you get from big-name hotel brands, which is a nice step up.
But let’s be real, you’re not in Edinburgh to hang out at a Sheraton, however nice it may be. You’re there to hit the quaint pubs, amazing whisky bars, and tour one of the coolest castles in the world. And all of that is a stone’s throw from this place.
The Spa:
Where you will want to spend time on this property is the spa. One Spa is a destination onto itself and very popular with both locals and tourists. There’s the main pool area that overlooks the hotel’s courtyard below. It’ll be loud and likely pretty full of people, which is the opposite vibe of “chill.”
If you’re in relax mode, you’ll want to head up to the rooftop hydro pool (which is outdoors). A soak in the hot and salty water will take off the edge of a long flight to Scotland the moment you sink inside. Post up near one of the swan neck water jets for an aqua massage experience that’s both refreshing and invigorating. After that, you can hit up the Therman Suite where you’ll have a selection of six sauna experiences from classic steam to dry rock heat to low heat to one with pink Himalayan rock salt walls. 90-minute access to this area will cost $65 if you’re not staying at the hotel.
At this point, you’ll probably be ready for a spa treatment. Just make sure you’ve booked about three months in advance since this place is very popular with locals as well. You can also head over to NOW at One Spa for any grooming treatments you might need from full body waxing to laidback manicures and pedicures (again, book well in advance).
The Essential Treatment To Get:
There’s a bounty of massage treatments and facials at One Spa. If you’re more on the conservative side, a classic Back of Body Aromatherapy massage is the way to go. It focuses on really taking away the stress via essential oils gently massaged into your back only for about 40 minutes.
If you’re a bit more adventurous, think about a 25-minute full-body scrub with local salts and oils, the 55-minute intensive facial that utilizes local Scottish products, and the 80-minute Swedish full-body massage. Add in a steam before and after, and you’ll leave One Spa renewed and jet lag free.
The Hidden Gem — Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel, Glasgow
Kimpton
The Hotel:
Kimpton Blythswood Square is a luxe property in the middle of Glasgow. It’s surprisingly secluded and truly feels like an escape inside the city. Part of that is due to a huge grassy square in front of the hotel, along with the generally swanky design of the place. The lobby and bar scene is a clash of mid-century, Belle Epoque, and modernism that really works.
When it comes to the rooms, you’ll be comfortable even though the standard rooms are on the small end. Again, you’re not in Glasgow to hang out in a hotel room. There’s a massive party scene literally outside of the door. That said, the rooms are nicely kitted out with soft beds, good bedclothes, and well-appointed bathrooms with high-end toiletries.
The Spa:
The Spa at Blythswood Square is a very popular destination for locals and hotel guests and is very purple (all the lighting and vibes lean into that color scheme). That means you’ll need to book your day pass at least a day before if you’re not staying at the hotel and an hour ahead of time if you are. If you are just planning to hang out, the spa has 10,000 sq. feet of space to do so.
Our recommendation would be to start with the Thermal Experience. This is a bit of a journey through hot steam rooms, ice-cold rooms and baths, dry heat, cold sauna, and more. The seven-stop experience is said to “increases blood flow, speeds up healing time, and improve your mood.” We can attest to the “improves your mood” portion of that promise. You will leave a hell of a lot happier than you came in, even if you don’t get a massage.
The Essential Treatment To Get:
You kind of do want to follow up the thermal experience with a massage though. The Ishga Invigorating Massage is 55 minutes of bliss ($105). The massage utilizes Ishga products that are made on the Outer Hebrides from wild seaweed and wild botanicals that grow out there. It’s kind of like getting massaged by Scotland’s wildest islands for an hour.
From there, you can get body scrubs that use the same locally sourced oils and salts, facials, and a litany of beauty treatments. Or you can go back through the Thermal Experience. Just make sure you book your spa treatments at least six weeks out.
The Full Getaway — The Machrie Hotel & Golf Links, Islay
Machrie Links
The Hotel:
The Machrie is both intimate and stunning. The Islay resort is all about the golf course that’s nestled against a seven-mile-long sandy beach. That’s the stunning part. The actual hotel/resort has views that never end while offering seclusion and complete isolation (you will not have phone service, though there is WiFi in the main building). There are only 47 rooms and lodges on-site and each one is classic and fairly luxe. The beds are phenomenally soft — to the point that you won’t want to get out of them in the morning. Everything in the rooms is well-appointed and bright thanks to white-washed walls and big windows looking out toward the sea.
It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a good bar and restaurant at The Machrie that draws in locals looking for a high-end night out along with guests who are visiting the property to golf. The menu is mostly wild produce and seafood mixed with the best Islay lamb, Scottish beef, and a selection of Islay whisky that slaps.
The Spa:
The spa here isn’t a big luxury experience like the last two entries. This is intimate. There’s a small gym, a small dry sauna, and one or two massage rooms. What we’re looking at with this pick for this list is a collision of local culture with true escapism. This is where sandy beaches, first-class golf, and beloved Scotch whisky collide with real seclusion. You truly feel like you’re over the hills and far away when you arrive at The Machrie.
The Essential Treatment To Get:
Here’s the play, spend the day golfing and then walking that seven miles of stunning sandy beach, grab a seafood-centric meal with a flight of Islay whisky back at the main house, then get your sauna on to sweat it all out. Finally, head in for a long massage. Wash, rinse, repeat. The best part is that your phone won’t have service during any of this, meaning you can focus on the experience unfolding around you.
Here’s the thing, you need to book a massage when you book the hotel. There are only a few masseuses on all of Islay (I was told there are three total at the moment) and they all rotate between the properties around the small island. That means you can’t just stroll up to the front desk and expect to be on a table the same day. You need to plan far ahead, but that’s all part of the charm if you ask us.
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