Search results for

Choco–Story is located just 5 mins from the archeological site of Uxmal, so we decided to check it out on our way back to Merida. It looks a bit touristy (disney-ish) from the outside, but it turned out to be a well-executed, interactive museum, that is built around the Mayan culture and history of chocolate. A self-guided tour took us through various smaller huts chronicling the history of chocolate within the Mayan culture, and the best part? A delicious hot chocolate tasting at the end of it! Of course you can taste and buy hot chocolate powder and chocolate bars afterwards at their pretty gift store. My personal highlight though was a powerful demonstration of a Mayan rain ceremony in the forest, in honor of the god Chaac. It began with distinctive, booming sounds, alternating from different directions, from deep within the trees. It slowly traveled closer, until we saw 3 men walking towards the altar in front of us, while they continued to blow into conch shells. It was moving and allowed us a small glimpse into the mystical and majestic Mayan culture. There is also a small wildlife refuge there, with rescued Jaguars, deers, and spider monkeys, that can be fed through the chain link enclosure. OPEN EVERYDAY: 9am – 7:30pm ENTRY FEES (at time of publishing) Adults: $120.00 pesos Seniors(65+) / Students / Children (6-12 years) $90.00 pesos Children less than 6 years: free >>>A heartfelt thank you to Yucatan Tourism for an unforgettable 4 days in the Yucatan, my new favorite place in Mexico! @YucatanTourism #TravelYucatan

The most famous castle in Germany—and one of the best known in Europe—Neuschwanstein is renowned not just for its fairy-tale architecture (which directly inspired the Disney Castle) but also for its creator, “mad” King Ludwig II. Begun in 1868, it wasn’t completed until four years after Ludwig’s death, in 1892, but was very advanced for its time, with larger-than-usual windows, central heating, an elevator, telephones, and indoor plumbing. However, it’s the castle’s mountaintop setting and soaring towers that really impress. When visiting, be sure to check out the paintings inspired by the operas of Richard Wagner—Ludwig’s friend and the person to whom he dedicated the castle. Also take in the stellar views from the Marienbrücke, and if you want to visit in style, consider a horse-drawn carriage ride back to your car. There’s a restaurant on-site, but plenty of cheaper options are in the town below.

Royal Street is to antiques and fine art what Bourbon Street is to booze. This elegant urban thoroughfare is not only home to some of the best examples of the city’s early-19th-century Creole town houses, but is also loaded with high-end antiques retailers. These feature mostly ornate 18th- and 19th-century European sculptures and paintings, early furniture, chandeliers, and dinnerware used by the upper crust. Most of the inventory has a decidedly Continental air to it. Among the better-known shops are Waldhorn and Adler (343 Royal St.); Ida Manheim Antiques (409 Royal St.), run by the same family since 1919; and haute-upscale M.S. Rau (630 Royal St.), with its warren of hidden back rooms open only to serious customers.

Buenos Aires is a city of readers—it supports more bookstores per capita than any other place in the world. The crown jewel of the librerías here is the Ateneo Grand Splendid. Housed in a theater where music legends such as Carlos Gardel once attracted vast crowds, the store features shelf after shelf of tempting volumes on its rounded balconies. Italian frescoes on the domed ceiling and plush red-velvet curtains are from the theater’s original 1919 design. The four-story space carries over 120,000 books and a local-music selection, and there’s a café on the erstwhile stage.

Only a block from the beach on the south end of Ocean Drive, this local, family-owned shop offers some of the best treats under the Florida sun. Generous samples are provided as well as palm-shaded benches to enjoy them. Offerings include citrus, citrus products and snowballs, but the signature treats are the soft-serve and slushies made with the sweet juice of oranges and grapefruit sourced from the Banak family’s 2,000-acre grove in Indian River County. The soft-serve is soy-based and lactose-free--making it a treat that’s less than 100 calories. For a refreshing delight, swirl the icy orange slushie and creamy orange soft-serve. It’s creamsicle heaven. Coffee die-hards are accommodated with a special coffee slushie--perfect morning, afternoon or night.

A city of red-tiled rooftops, pine- and cypress-shaded hills, and sparkling turquoise waters, the Old Town of Dubrovnik stuns with both its architecture and scenery. Its surrounding stone walls, built between the 11th and 13th centuries to protect the city from war and epidemics, stretch for a full 1.3 miles, comprising an immense system of forts, bastions, and walkways that offer breathtaking views. Hike along them, then be sure to check out the Lovrijenac Fortress, built atop a 100-foot rock looking out toward Venice (Dubrovnik’s historic rival). The Old Town’s main street of Stradun, known locally as Placa, is also worth exploring. It’s especially nice in the late afternoon, when the sun shines off the historic buildings and swallows soar in the blue sky above.

In 1923, the artist Jacques Majorelle acquired a four-acre plot of land just outside the center of Marrakech. Inspired by numerous travels around the country to paint scenes of village life, and funded by painting more illustrious portraits such as that of Pasha Thami el Glaoui, Majorelle was able to build a small studio and house, with enough land to indulge his other passion: ethnobotany. As his career grew, he added a splendid villa, and the garden took on a life of its own, featuring innumerable exotic species from around the world; he added pools and fountains, and, of course, the now iconic, eye-popping Majorelle blue that was lavished on the architecture. The property became so expensive to maintain that the artist was forced to open it to the public until his death in Paris in 1962. The garden gradually fell into a state of disrepair and was slated for development by a hotel chain until French designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé happened upon it during one of their many trips to the Red City. In 1980, they decided to buy it and restore it to its former glory, adding irrigation and doubling the number of plants and gardeners to look after it. They moved into the villa and set about transforming other buildings into what is now the legendary Berber Museum and a boutique. The latter is especially noteworthy for creative director Stephen di Renza’s commitment to reflecting Majorelle’s lesser-known passion for the decorative arts (which is manifest in the exquisite artisanal pieces, leather goods, and jewelry) and Saint Laurent’s inspired use of traditional Moroccan dress, such as the kaftan and djellaba, in haute couture fashion.

Bến Thành market has been around Saigon in one form or another for over 300 years. At some points it neighbored bodies of water including a small lake. It is a monster, overwhelming at first. If you come to Saigon and you love to shop, this is the one-stop shop you are looking for. Personally nothing is more thrilling at Bến Thành than the art of “The Barter.” It’s a strategic game of wits of where you pit product desire against pocketbook ability and the house always wins. It’s not always easy, in fact it’s never easy. Hot, stagnant air ripe with the smell of fish and squid always seems to hang in the air right over that gift you can’t live without. You’re constantly walking that fine line between feeling like you got ripped off or feeling you’re further oppressing the local population. Bến Thành is the stadium packed with hundreds of thousands of pieces of clothing, jewelry, and art- and they’re all yours to play for.

Dining venues that really scale the highest of international standards are few and far between in Yangon. One such options, however, is the long-standing Le Planteur. Set in a mansion with a lovely garden, the restaurant specialises in intricate fusion creations with dishes running the gamut from foie gras to prime rib.

If you want a more back-to-nature romantic sleep, head off the main island of Providenciales and onto the less resort oriented Grand Turk and stay at the historic Grand Turk Inn. A charming bed-and-breakfast in a 150-plus year old Caribbean clapboard inn, it doesn’t allow children under the age of 16, and has an old fashioned allure, where time still feels like it moves slowly. In a prime Front Street location, it was originally build as the Methodist Manse, but today has been converted into a stately B&B with just five elegant, sunny suites and overlooks the beach and turquoise waters of the Columbus Landfall National Park. Despite the historic style of the inn, rooms are modern and have satellite TV and air-con, as well as full kitchens and West Indies colonial era furnishings made from rattan and bamboo. Don’t skip the huge rooftop sundeck facing the ocean and historic waterfront. The included breakfast is delivered to your room each morning based on your menu selection from the night before. There is also an on-site restaurant serving an Asian influenced menu. Also take a stroll down Front Street to explore more restaurants and listen to local artists playing nightly on the street.

A devastating fire on April 15, 2019, has closed the interior of the cathedral to visitors. Plans to rebuild and reopen the structure are being made, but at present, visitors are not allowed near the site.
For a first-time visitor to Notre Dame, investing in the audio guide is essential to understand this overwhelmingly significant Paris icon. There’s a lot to see and absorb—history, architecture, artifacts, theology—and the audio guide gives a much-needed sense of direction and context. Even without spiritual ties, the awe-inspiring grandeur of the cathedral is not to be missed from every angle—tour the naves, stroll around the entirety of the exterior, take in the city from the top of the towers, walk along Quai de Montebello to view it from across the water, or admire it from a river cruise down the Seine. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is everything everyone says it is and more.

Manhattan can, famously, feel like endless rows of apartment blocks and office towers for most of its length. At least above 14th Street, a regular grid of streets and avenues, bisected only by Broadway, has transformed the city into a dream for real estate developers. The green spaces interrupting the pattern—Union Square, Gramercy Park, Madison Square Park—are few and far between, with one enormous exception: Central Park. Running from 59th Street to 110th Street, and between Central Park West (Eighth Avenue) and Fifth Avenue, it is one of the world’s largest urban parks, measuring some 843 acres. It is the masterpiece of the 19th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted working in collaboration with Calvert Vaux. Inside its borders are stately allées and naturalistic scenes, ice-skating rinks (in the winter), an enormous reservoir, and a faux castle. The park is hugely popular, and so to call it an escape from the bustle of the city is often not accurate, especially on mild summer days and the first warm ones in the spring when thousands of residents head to its playing fields, bike and run along the road that loops the park, and enjoy picnics on the Sheep Meadow or one of its other lawns.

Welcome to Middle Earth in the South Pacific, and an ideal stop for traveling fans of the author J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies. Near the rural town of Matamata—itself a destination for its LOTR-inspired visitor center and a selfie-ready statue of Gollum along the main street—the re-created sets of Hobbiton offer a detailed and fascinating glimpse of the hobbit holes, meadows, and gardens of Bilbo and Frodo. An essential conclusion to the tour is quaffing an only-available-in-Hobbiton Oatbarton Ale at the leafy lakeside Green Dragon Inn.

One of the most popular day trips from Reykjavík, this dramatic and scenic rift valley is both the historical site of Iceland’s Viking parliament and a geological wonder in its own right. Among the highlights are the Almannagjá cliffs, where the island’s chieftains and most of the Icelandic population traditionally congregated for an annual Alþing (general assembly), the last of which was held as recently as 1798. Wooden walkways around the park lead to other sites of interest like the black-roofed Þingvellir Church and Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. There are also waterfalls, flower-filled valleys, and abundant wildlife. It is possible to organize a diving trip to explore the tectonic rift that divides the Eurasian and North American plates, and there’s a visitor center with great views and decent coffee as well as exhibitions and a gift shop.

Nothing is a more powerful symbol of the City of Light than the Eiffel Tower. Designed by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Paris Exposition, it’s one of the world’s most-visited monuments, with nearly 7 million people ascending the 1,062-foot wrought-iron structure each year. Glass elevators spirit you to the top—hardy souls can take the stairs part of way—where in addition to unparalleled panoramic views of Paris, you can toast your arrival with a glass of bubbly at the Champagne bar. Evenings there’s a grand light show: every hour on the hour, the tower sparkles for five minutes with 20,000 bulbs.