As if a stay in London’s absolutely fabulous Chelsea could get any more fabulous, the Draycott Hotel, a romantic town house property around the corner from Chelsea’s Slone Square, is currently offering guests an experience that combines personal shopping with a celebrity stylist. I mean does it get any better … Read more
Standing on the terrace of the Stift Goettweig monastery complex, you see the entire Wachau Valley unfolding beneath you. The Danube River wends its way through the valley where lush forests and vibrant fields lead to the river’s edge with the prized wine producing hills beyond. Just an hour’s … Read more
Getting from Point A to Point B on a road trip through Norway may end up taking much more time than you expected. Why? Because you’ll want to pull the car over so many times to take pictures and gawk at the spectacular natural beauty lurking around every bend and … Read more
Northern Finland is one of only a few places to catch the famous Northern Lights, which earns our vote as perhaps the best natural light show on Earth. If you can’t trek above the Arctic Circle to experience this mystical phenomenon, don’t fret. Just park yourself in Helsinki for a … Read more
Centuries of history, celebrated French cuisine, a towering cathedral on the river … Paris? No, I’m talking about Lyon, a city steeped in history and the home of Paul Bocuse, a culinary legend who changed French cooking forever. Compact and eminently walkable – you’ll need to burn off the calories … Read more
For decades, Antwerp has scored high for its coolness quotient. Situated in Belgium’s northwest province of Flanders, its second-largest city put itself on the map in the late 80’s when a group of fashion school graduates threw their designs into the back of a rented truck and headed to … Read more
There’s never enough time in Berlin to see and do everything but I thought I’d give it my best shot recently on a whirlwind weekend in the German capital. A friend told me about an interesting neighborhood that she likened to the “SoHo of Berlin” called the Hackesche Hofe in … Read more
“What’s your major? What year are you? What dorm do you live in? Standard questions when making friends in college. But as I cross an old stone bridge and meet a dozen travelers from Barcelona, I’m met with a different set of questions that I will hear over and over … Read more
It’s a summer evening in Fira, Santorini, after sunset. Music is booming out of every open doorway signaling that the evening has officially begun. Crowds of people are lining the narrow walkways of the largest village on the island. Climbing up the steps past the whitewashed buildings towards one … Read more
On my last visit to Florence, I made sure to see all of the city’s most famous attractions, from Michelangelo’s David in the Accademia Gallery, the Uffizi with its gallery upon gallery of Renaissance treasures from the masters like Botticelli and Titian, along with the city’s most famous landmark, … Read more
It’s been said that the island of Santorini was created by a famous earthquake about 1500 BC and that it may be a remnant of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis. While this is true, there is another side to the mysterious island. Writers throughout history have already dedicated countless … Read more
Copenhagen is very much having its moment. Its culinary scene, led by Chef Rene Redzepi of top-ranked Noma restaurant, is world-renowned, and its design scene is always at the forefront of setting trends. But there’s plenty more going on in the Danish capital to entice visitors, especially in up-and-coming … Read more
It’s become increasingly popular in recent years – so much so that it’s now spread out over two weekends instead of one — and there’s nary a celebrity who would dream of missing the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California. You name them, they’ve been: Twilight’s Kristen … Read more
It’s the perfect blend of east meets west. With the sounds and smells of the Middle East but the shopping of Western Europe, you simply can’t go wrong in Istanbul. Call it what you will – Byzantium, New Rome, Tsarigrad, Constantinople, or Istanbul – it’s a place where you can … Read more
In a country of extremes, where the Midnight Sun stays bright 24/7 in summer, and winter is grey for many long weeks, it’s no surprise that the inhabitants have devised a series of oddball activities to keep themselves amused, and possibly balanced. From culinary wackiness to one-of-a-kind crazy activities, Finland … Read more