Search results for

A short drive south of Da Nang, Hoi An is a spellbinding UNESCO World Heritage site, with intact 16th-century architecture that celebrates its origins as a trading port that long welcomed merchant ships from China, Japan, and Europe. The Old Town on the Thu Bon River has a number of sights that visitors must check off their lists. These include the covered bridge, also known as the Japanese Bridge; gorgeous riverside French-colonial buildings; traditional merchant shop-houses; historic pagodas and temples; ornate assembly halls where Chinese immigrants would congregate; and the town’s tailors, for custom garments. But the greatest joy of Hoi An comes from wandering round its quiet streets—the town center is car-free and a blissfully pleasant place to walk, especially at night, when it’s lit by red lanterns strung on the exteriors of buildings.

Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity TV chef, has created a cult in Doha with his stately manor-decorated restaurant, Opal. From the carpet, to the food, to the servers, Ramsay’s establishment never fails to woo its patrons. True to its relaxed, bistro-style dining, Opal offers its guests a lavish Friday buffet with treats for everyone, live music, and breath-taking views from the Opal Terrace. QR 350 ($96) per person with soft drinks QR 450 ($123) per person with enhanced beverages Every Friday | 12:30pm - 4pm For reservations please call +974.4446.0105 or email [email protected] Overlooking the turquoise waters of the Arabian Gulf, Opal by Gordon Ramsay Doha is a restaurant where food is not meant to be simply eaten, but experienced. Friday Brunch aside, Opal offers an ever-changing menu influenced by Mediterranean cuisine, regaling its guest with a sophisticated and abundant variety of canapés on the house while the guests’ orders are being prepared. The menu is simple, fresh, flavorful, and the bistro-style space for the gourmet pizza station adds a traditional, yet sophisticated, flare to the place. Opal has turned hamburgers into works of art with classics such as the Opal Wagyu burger, which has become Opal’s signature. To accompany the menu, Opal offers an impressive Sommelier’s selection, one of the largest collections in Doha.

Christchurch excels at reinvention, whether in creative solutions such as the Cardboard Cathedral, or in the use of shipping containers to house shops and restaurants. So it’s no surprise to find a thriving vintage-and-antiques-shopping scene as well. Among Ferry Road’s secondhand shops, Vintage Wonderland lives up to its name, featuring carefully chosen and displayed retro design and home items and collectibles. Find your treasure here, perhaps an Art Deco travel clock or a New Zealand–made teacup—or someone else’s souvenir postcard from Victorian-era Christchurch.

Leave it to Disney to give visitors the chance to travel the world without leaving a theme park. At Epcot’s World Showcase, you’ll find several countries re-created to surprisingly realistic effect, all surrounding a centerpiece lagoon. Experience the landscapes, food, and cultural performances of such diverse lands as China, Italy, Canada, and Morocco, or embark on a “drink around the world” journey by grabbing a Hefeweizen in Germany, a vin rouge in France, a margarita in Mexico, and so on. The staff working in each area are natives of the country, so you can expect an authentic experience wherever you stop. Also worth visiting in Epcot are the 3-D rides, the Frozen-themed attractions, and the underwater coral reef. In addition, the park hosts annual events like the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival in the late fall, and the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival each spring, making it more than worth a visit.

Hyde Park Coffee Shop, located at the Radisson Blu Hotel, offers less in luxury and more in scrumptiousness. Every Friday, the coffee shop delivers a sizable brunch of Continental cuisine with a few cooking stations and a live band. With a variety of children’s activities under supervising staff, the adults can indulge in a brunch with sparkle for 235 QAR ($64) or with soft drinks and fresh juices for 170 QAR or ($46).

Iceland’s largest and most famous geothermal spa lies around an hour outside Reykjavik, quite close to Keflavik Airport. With a dramatic setting amidst large black lava boulders, the steam-filled, creamy-blue pool area is a striking and surreal sight. The Blue Lagoon has been open since the 1980s and today draws some 700,000 visitors a year. The pools are actually created by heated seawater that flows from the adjacent geothermal power station. The waters allegedly cure all manner of skin-related ailments (eczema, psoriasis), but whether these claims are true or not, it’s certainly an atmospheric place to unwind, with very comfortable (99 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures. The complex includes a small bar that dispenses healthy juices and beer, as well as a spa area for massages andbeauty treatments, and a very good restaurant; there’s also an upscale hotel if you wish to stay overnight.

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.

Much of this interactive museum is set underground in a volcano-like cone structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Hans Hollein. Its displays, films, and rides help educate visitors about earth sciences—and impart a better understanding of the natural wonders of the Auvergne region. You can catch a ride in the Volcanbul, a driverless, satellite controlled vehicle, or board a submarine to get a taste of exploring an underwater volcano. In summertime, Vulcania stays open late and hosts live performances and firework shows.

Travel back 1,500 years to see how Vikings carried out their everyday lives. The Iron Age Farm is a re-creation of a 350-550 C.E. farmstead—with longhouses and burial mounds—based on excavations conducted by the Museum of Archaeology in the 1960s. Storytellers in traditional attire teach kids how to spin wool and make fires with rudimentary tools, in addition to sharing Viking history.

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.

This unusual contemporary art museum is located in a series of dimly lit caverns and tunnels built into the side of a cliff in Berriedale, a Hobart suburb. Inside, mind-bending installations include a stinky model of the human digestive system that poops daily at 2 p.m. Founder David Walsh, a professional gambler turned art maverick, displays more than 400 edgy works from his private collection. The new Pharos wing that debuted in late 2017 is heavy on light spaces by James Turrell. MONA also stages two standout annual festivals: Mona Foma (which stands for Festival of Music and Art, sometimes further shortened to Mofo) in January, curated by Brian Ritchie of the rock band Violent Femmes, and Dark Mofo, the disturbing winter version held in June.

The Great Wall of China runs more than 21,000 kilometers (over 13,000 miles), not as one continuous wall but rather as fortified wall sections. Some of the sections date back more than 2,500 years, though only 8.2 percent of the existing wall is original. The Mutianyu Great Wall is one of the more accessible portions. Hike (because that is what you’ll be doing, even on the wall itself) up the Great Wall, then slide down the side of the mountain on a toboggan. Alternatively, explore the Simatai Great Wall, which retains a more authentic feel—save, of course, for the fake water town at the bottom. Even more remote is the Jiankou section, which is largely unrestored, so book with an experienced group like Beijing Hikers or Wild Great Wall.

Thai monkeys living in Lopburi, north of Bangkok, have a festival have not only in their honor, but one created specifically for them, each November. Begun by a local businessman hoping to boost tourism to the province in 1989, today the Monkey Buffet Festival attracts thousands of tourists. They come to watch some 3,000 local monkey’s gorge themselves on some 4,000kg of apples, bananas, cakes, and other sweets all served to them in a complex of temples dating back to the 10th century. It’s quite an experience, witnessing so many monkeys in what resembles a competitive eating contest, but offers fun for more than just the monkeys. The festival also features music and dancing for humans, and many people come dressed in monkey costumes.

This coastal outpost juxtaposes rugged beaches with refined living. You can walk for miles and not see another sign of human development, because the waters surrounding Kalaloch Lodge are part of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and the land sits within Olympic National Park. The only crowds on these windswept beaches are starfish in the tide pools. The weathered-wood lodge and cabins, meanwhile, are comfy-cozy nests, and many offer pinch-me views of the waves. The lodge’s Kalaloch Room feels like a ship’s prow, with a semicircular wall of windows looking out to the water. And the Bluff Cabins sit right above the beach, with nothing obstructing their views over the Pacific. Ashley Miller, a Certified Chef de Cuisine, presides over the kitchen and showcases Washington seafood such as Pacific cod, and local oysters (the ooey-gooey macaroni and cheese features Dungeness crab and locally-made artisan cheddar). Washington labels dominate the wine list—the Kalaloch Label White Blend of Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier pairs beautifully with the menu’s seafood items—and tables overlook a driftwood-studded estuary where the winding freshwater reflects the sunset’s golden hues.

Before there were art galleries in Santa Fe, there was La Posada. Built as a private home in the 1880s by wealthy local merchant Abraham Staab for his beloved wife, Julia, the elegant pueblo-meets-Spanish-style complex expanded in the 1930s, when new owners added adobe casitas to the six acres of lush, high-desert gardens—and then invited artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Will Shuster to stay and work. When La Posada became a hotel shortly thereafter, the walls were already lined with works by the many artists who continued to pass through. Even now, the lively lounge—a see-and-be-seen spot for artists of all kinds—and the high-ceilinged rooms—with their kiva fireplaces and traditional viga ceilings—are adorned with works by some of the foremost contemporary American artists. All works are available to buy, too, for guests who want to take home a piece of their trip. Or, you can make like most guests, and just keep returning to this refined retreat that has offered respite from the world for more than a century.