Search results for

There’s more to the Botanical Gardens in Denver than just the pretty face of its landscaped grounds and beautiful flowers. It’s also a world-class research center with a mission to connect people with plants (especially the plants endemic to the Rocky Mountains) and to encourage understanding of the ecosystems in which they thrive. The 23-acre location on York Street has a variety of gardens (many based on typically western climates like mountains and plains), popular exhibits, and a shop; it additionally hosts a summer concert series and nighttime events. The institution’s second main location, at Chatfield Farms on the southwest edge of greater Denver, focuses on native flora and agriculture; there’s a working farm on its 700 acres. Both spots offer extensive educational opportunities as well as incredible events like York Street’s Blossoms of Light holiday show.

The Carmel Market is the largest outdoors market in Tel Aviv and sells everything from toiletries, clothes, meat, fruit and vegetables and some delicatessen cheese. Like in a lot of outdoors markets, the fruit and vegetables are displayed in such a way you can touch, smell and sometimes even taste it before you buy. The outdoors markets (shuk) are busy, noisy and crowded but they are also a micro-cosmos sometimes of the country’s nation. Markets in Israel are opened quite early in the morning and close around 7 or 8. Friday before the Shabat, is mostly the most busiest days as people in a hurry to get food for the weekend. Saturday Shabat the markets are closed. Almsot every city in Israel has an outdoor market (shuk). Some of the well known ones are: Kerem Hateymanim, a a small neighborhood named after the immigrants from Yamen. The most famous shuk in Jerusalem is Machne Yehuda, which is quite a big outdoor place, very busy with a mix crowd of Jews, Muslim, Christians, Orthodox and seculars. In Haifa the shuk is in the arab quarter in Vadi Nisnas, the market has bakeries, fish and seafood stores and grounded arabic coffee. In recent years some main cities have Farmer markets, which take place mostly on Fridays.

The King Cole Bar is about as legendary as any bar in New York. Located in the St. Regis Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, it has been the place to go for a cocktail since it opened in 1932—Salvador Dalí, John Lennon, and Marilyn Monroe are just a few from a long list of famous names who have dropped in for a drink. The bar sits off the St. Regis New York’s lobby and is presided over by the famous King Cole mural painted by Maxfield Parrish, with John Jacob Astor IV playing the part of the king, jesters to each side of him. Today it is still the ultimate setting to start a celebratory evening, or end one with a nightcap; it cemented its place on most lists of New York’s top bars with an extensive renovation in 2013. While the bartenders can prepare anything you might be in the mood for, you may want to order a Bloody Mary. The King Cole Bar boasts that it was the first spot where the drink (then known as a Red Snapper) was served in the United States (a claim, it should be noted, that is disputed by some other bars).

This lake filled with giant, translucent chunks of iceberg is one of Iceland’s most distinctive and photogenic sights. Featured in high-profile movies, including two of the James Bond series and Batman Begins (as well as many local TV commercials), the sight is reached via a scenic drive along the country’s main ring road (Route 1). The icebergs originate at the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, which looms in the distance behind the lagoon, and look especially otherworldly when they reach the nearby black-sand beach. The area is also a paradise for bird lovers, with arctic terns and skuas nesting in the area (they may dive-bomb you if you get too close to their nests), and it’s possible to spot the occasional seal. A nearby visitor center offers simple fast food and drinks as well as souvenirs.

Swift streams and waterfalls continue to carve these vertiginous and rugged valleys as they pour into the sea. One of the most stunning wilderness areas on earth, it also contains ancient Hawaiian ruins of graves, temples, house platforms, and terraced fields. The fear factor increases past the initial two-mile path to Hanakāpīʻai Beach (best visited in summertime, as winter swells tend to wash it away). Only experienced hikers in good condition and with proper gear should venture further along the famous 11-mile Kalalau Trail. Check for path and park closures before making plans and don’t forget the $20/night permit to crash at a campsite. However long you trek, stay on the main path and pack out what you brought in.

The historic King George Hotel has the kind of glamorous gravitas found only in a royal residence. Open since 1930, the King George has hosted celebrities and dignitaries to Athens in grand style ever since, and became a member of Starwood’s Luxury Collection in 2013. Refined guest rooms and suites have herringbone wood floors and marble bathrooms, and might include a window seat or a private balcony. While the dazzling rooftop pool is private only for guests of the two-bedroom Presidential Suite, mere mortals can enjoy a similarly spectacular setting next door at sister property Grande Bretagne (guests can use both hotels’ facilities). The King George has a small gym with Finnish sauna, and the lobby’s exclusive Valmont boutique has high-end cosmetics as well as a perfumery. Emphasis at the award-winning Tudor Hall restaurant is on seasonal ingredients and slow cooking, with local wines carefully chosen to complement the dishes. With a location right on Syntagma Square, views of the Parliament and Parthenon are a matter of course, and all of Athens is within easy distance.

Walk through the foyer of Ojai’s Beacon Coffee and into this light and airy crafter’s paradise. When you emerge, you may have a new project or two in your hands. Beautifully curated by husband-wife team Kirk and Anna Nozaki (who have a background in fashion and graphic design, respectively) Cattywampus Crafts is filled with all-natural products that seem made for an Instagram or Pinterest feed. The store brings texture to life: inventory includes luxurious fabrics, books, plant dyes, ceramics, jewelry, and clothing. As you look, you’ll realize that they’re more than things to buy—they’re also ideas to inspire your own creativity. Go it alone with a book and materials, or choose an in-house craft class from a wealth of offerings that cover knitting, crocheting, macramé, weaving, stitchery, mending, and dyeing. Pro tip: Cattywampus sells objects by local artists. Don’t miss Margins’ beautiful moon calendars that are available in a variety of colors.

This restaurant-bakery combo was the first of its kind in the city and it definitely raised the bar for the dining scene. The menu, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, is inspired by neo-Nordic cuisine with a Czech twist, and the farm-fresh ingredients are brought in daily. The lunch menu made up of dishes such as spelt, red pepper, and cottage cheese, while on dinner menu you’ll find potatoes in ash, smoked fish, dried egg yolk, and kefir, or dry-aged beef tenderloin with onions and marrow. If you’d like to stay a while, opt for the chef’s selection of five dishes selected just for you, or the eight-course tasting menu. Set on two floors in one of the converted factories in Prague’s once industrial Karlin district, Eska’s has an industrial vibe with high ceilings, massive windows, and exposed pipes.

Yo, ho, ho and oh, my! Up on Government Hill, this watchtower, built circa 1678, is known as Blackbeard’s Castle and is literally the stuff of legends. Although it’s open for debate whether the notorious pirate ever used the five-story tower as a lookout, one thing is for certain: Its views are tops. Nearby the flower-lined 99 Steps (technically there are 103), built in the 18th century of ship-ballast brick, lead from historic Kongens Quarter to some more terrific views of the island.

Adjacent to the restaurant is a cheery boutique filled with gourmet products from all over Tuscany. Thanks to the restaurant’s long-standing relationships with many of the region’s top purveyors, you’ll find high-quality olive oil (tastings can also be arranged), cheeses, cured meat, preserves, breads, and more. Not all of it will make it through customs, but you can savor any perishables on a picnic to the Tuscan countryside.

The success of the TV drama Borgen has piqued international interest in the building that houses the Danish government. Christiansborg Palace (from which Borgen takes its name) is also the tallest tower in the city center, and it’s free to visit though you will have to go through airport-style security to get in. There’s a viewing platform or, better yet, go to the casual restaurant in the tower. One of the most unusual and memorable places to dine in Copenhagen, the belfry-like eatery has a Harry Potter–like charm, with casts of sculptures left over from the time the space was used as a storage room.

Atop Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond), at the city’s highest point, the Citadelle overlooks Old Québec, the St. Lawrence River, and the Plains of Abraham. There have been defensive structures here as early as the French period—in fact, the location of Québec City was chosen because Samuel de Champlain saw the strategic advantages that Cap Diamant offered. The fortifications you see today, however, date to the 19th century: They were built after a failed attempt by Americans to conquer Québec City during the War of 1812. Students of World War II history may be familiar with the Citadelle as the site of the Québec Conferences, when Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Canada‘s prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, met to plan their countries’ strategies during the war. The Citadelle is still an active military base; the museum inside is devoted to the 22nd Regiment, which makes its headquarters here.

The splendid neoclassical church of San Felipe Neri (commonly called “La Profesa”), whose present structure was completed in 1720, is a gem in Mexico’s bustling downtown that many visitors never see, with a balanced, harmonious main chapel in sober stone and glossy gold tones. Even fewer visit the church’s picture gallery, called the Pinacoteca, home to one of the city’s most complete collections of colonial-era religious art, imposingly arrayed in a handful of high-ceilinged chambers that seem not to have changed a whit since viceregal days. No such thing as gilding the lily here.

If chef David Barzelay’s Michelin-starred restaurant Lazy Bear is the dinner party, True Laurel is the after-party. Barzelay opened this cocktail bar just a few blocks from Lazy Bear, and while it’s touted as a drinking establishment, it’s hard to ignore the stellar food disguised as bar bites. And unlike Lazy Bear, which requires a hard-to-come-by ticket to get in, to score a spot at True Laurel, simply walk through the door. Barzelay teamed up with spirits-whisperer Nicolas Torres to oversee the bar program, and the cocktails go head-to-head with the food. Original, exotic concoctions such as the A-Dilla, which marries aquavit with makrut lime leaf, coconut, passion fruit, pomegranate, and dill, is just as complex and satisfying as the hen-of-the-wood mushrooms with a sour cream–allium dip. And while the entire experience is currently still first come, first served, keep an eye on the bar’s eerily analog website (or better yet, follow it on Barzelay’s preferred medium, Twitter) to find out when the eight-seat cocktail tasting bar, which is sure to be stocked with rare bottles, will start taking reservations.

Q: What could be better than soup dumplings? A: An order of fried soup dumplings; duh! Yang’s fills its sheng jian bao with the same juicy pork filling as the ubiquitous steamed xiao long bao, but the restaurant uses thicker dough so the dumplings can stand up to super-high temperatures. When they’re finished frying, the buns crisp up on the bottom, turning a beautiful shade of golden brown. Enjoy them with chopped cream onions and sesame seeds, but bite carefully: It’s too easy to get zapped in the eye with hot broth.