Shortcuts: Explora launches new expeditions and the ‘power-hour’ lunch comes to London

Santiago Thirty-one years ago, the Chilean company Explora opened its first lodge — a stylish white-walled retreat looking right up at the peaks of Torres del Paine in Patagonia. The only accommodation in the heart of the national park, it became wildly popular and helped pioneer the concept of upmarket, high-design lodges in the remotest of locations.

Explora itself expanded with similarly slick retreats in seven South American locations, including Easter Island, Chile’s Atacama Desert and El Chaltén in Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park. Last year it launched three new mini-lodges, each sleeping only eight, to provide comfortable accommodation for guests making a 4x4 traverse between Chile and Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats.

Now though, the company is looking beyond its core business of luxury lodge-based trips. Next month, it will launch Explora Expeditions, a series of small-group guided journeys “for individuals seeking a deep connection with places barely touched by man”, with accommodation in homestays, guesthouses or even camping. The first trips will be to Tierra del Fuego, at the continent’s southernmost tip, to see king penguins, hike along the fjords and stay at the lonely estancia of a settler family. Other destinations, including in Peru, will be launched later this year, to be followed in 2025 by the first trips beyond South America.

Though the groups will be hiking and exploring in remote regions, there will be a degree of comfort — the eight guests will be supported by a team of seven staff and chefs. The week-long Tierra del Fuego trip costs $10,500 per person. explora.com

London The return of office workers to the City, albeit often only for several days per week, is prompting Michelin-starred restaurants to launch “power hour” lunches that offer a full-blown dining experience without eating up too much of the day. Brooklands by Claude Bosi, the two-starred rooftop restaurant at The Peninsula hotel, has unveiled its “Concorde Lunch” (£58), with three courses guaranteed to be served within 60 minutes. Trumping that, Pavyllon, Yannick Alléno’s restaurant at the Four Seasons in Park Lane, has a “five course in 55 minutes” lunch — at £55.50 per head. Meanwhile, earlier this month Johnnie Crowe’s Restaurant St Barts in Smithfield debuted its three-course “lunch hour” menu (£55), including dishes such as mangalitza pork with homemade milk bread brushed with pork fat.

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