Search results for

This recently restored 18th-century Federal-style home and gardens was owned by General George and Katherine Marshall from 1941 to 1959, a time where he would experience his most illustrious achievements. One of only five men to receive the rank of Five-Star General, he was architect of the Normandy invasion during World War II, served as Army Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, Special Ambassador to China, and as Secretary of State created the Marshall Plan, the post-World War II economic rehabilitation plan for Europe for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tours of the home are provided where 90% of the furnishings, personal effects, and memorabilia are original belonging to the Marshalls’ such as Chinese paintings from friends General and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.

The Shockoe Slip in Richmond, Virginia has many quaint shops, good restaurants, and several upscale hotels. One of those hotels is the Berkeley Hotel. This boutique hotel is beautifully furnished. The rooms and bathrooms are richly decorated. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are offered in the hotel restaurant. Access to the Jamestown Center fitness club is included for guests. The attentive staff will be happy to assist you in any way they can. Nearby you will find the Richmond City Hall, the Virginia State Capital, the James River, and many other historic sites. A stroll down Cary Street is fun whether you are going to a restaurant or shopping or sightseeing. I have stayed at the Berkeley several times and have never been anything but pleased with the service and the hotel.

Zurriola beach is slightly off the radar, or at least as much off the radar as one of a city’s three beaches can be. The only tourists that typically venture over are of the surfing persuasion, and sitting to watch the sunset on the wall that borders the beach. Surf lessons are available from the stores that line the promenade. It’s the locals’ spot for hanging out, and the one beach that you should spend your days on if you are slumming in San Sebastián.

This sprawl of green—132 acres’ worth—is an oasis for urbanites. The park’s centerpiece, the Nashville Parthenon, is a full-scale replica of the Grecian structure and a physical testimony to Nashville’s “Athens of the South” nickname. The park’s bandshell hosts Shakespeare in the Park and occasionally serves as the site of the popular Movies in the Park, but because this is Nashville, a free live music series called Musicians Corner dominates the summer programming. On Saturday afternoons from May through September, music lovers, families, and pets gather to enjoy an impressive lineup of musicians, as well as local food trucks and a beer garden. Recent performers have included Preservation Hall Jazz Band and local favorites Rayland Baxter, Cale Tyson, and Langhorne Slim.

A short drive outside the town of San Pedro de Atacama, Tierra Atacama has wonderful views of fields and Volvano Licancabur. The hotel is part of the Tierra hotel group owned by the Chilean-American Purcell family (who also own Tierra Patagonia, Tierra Chiloé, and Ski Portillo). The property originally served as a cattle corral, but Chilean landscape artist Teresa Moller has transformed the grounds, preserving the ancient algarrobo and chañar trees and restoring the adobe walls.

The bedrooms are decorated in natural colors, with local touches like ceramics marching along the sills of the extra-large windows. Animal-skin rugs and alpaca throws provide a touch of warmth for the cool desert nights. You can see the incredible silhouette of Volcano Licancabur from all the rooms, but the Poniente rooms are slightly larger and have better views. There is a friendly communal vibe at the hotel, and upon arrival guests meet with the head guide in the main lounge to choose from the range of group activities on offer each day.

Former British prime minister Harold Wilson, who loved the Isles of Scilly and visited every summer (his wife, Lady Wilson, now 100, still does), is buried at the pretty Old Town Church in its atmospheric graveyard. The grave is modest compared to the grander tombs belonging to distinguished Scilly families, but not nearly as modest as the Wilsons’ nearby summer house, which is inconceivably tiny for a residence of one of Britain’s most important 20th-century statesmen.

Located in the heart of Bridgehampton, Topping Rose House occupies a grand old Greek Revival mansion, built back in 1842 for a local judge. The luxurious property features 22 guestrooms, including a number of cottages, with elegant décor like four-poster beds and glass doors that open onto verdant grounds. Also on site is a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, complete with a seasonal menu that incorporates ingredients from the property’s one-acre farm. Unusual for a small Hamptons hotel, Topping Rose offers a wide selection of amenities, including a lovely outdoor pool, a fitness center, yoga classes, and a spa with a range of massage and beauty treatments.

New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago get a lot of the good press when it comes to the arts and art museums, but the Detroit Institute of Arts helps Detroit give these cities a run for their money. The diverse collection is spread out over 100 galleries and includes African, Asian, Islamic, and modern and contemporary art (and the list goes on). But don’t ignore the local contributions to the art world. Make sure you take proper time to stand before Diego Rivera’s enormous Detroit Industry fresco to give you some historical context before exploring the rest of the city.

The nine-mile dirt road through Pike’s Peak National Forest is a properly isolated, remote, and grand driveway to Lost Valley Ranch, one of the few guest ranches in Colorado that is so close to Denver. (It is only about two hours by car from Denver International Airport, and a short drive from any other front range city.) The drive leads you through the still-recovering burn area of the 2002 Hayman Fire, then dips down into a green oasis, in a cozy corner of the Goose Creek drainage. Lost Valley is a traditional, medium-size ranch with plenty of history and a robust kids and teens program in the summer. It’s all about horseback riding in the morning and afternoon, a lazy schedule punctuated by the dining room bell and yelps of happy children and ranch dogs playing in front of the main lodge. Lost Valley Ranch books week-long, all-inclusive packages throughout the summer season; shorter stays are available in spring and fall. Rates begin at $3,020 per adult, and cheaper for children (how much cheaper depends on age), and include meals, lodging, horseback riding, evening entertainment, and children’s programming (Trap shooting, town purchases and massage therapy are extra).

In the spirit of going big or going home, Hakkasan Las Vegas is a nightclub that basically outdoes all other when it comes to size and entertainment. To begin with, there is a two-story restaurant, which has a contemporary design and offers the perfect place to warm up for an evening in the nightclub. The club, which encompasses levels three, four and five, has a variety of rooms, each with its own feel and vibe. Level three consists of the Ling Ling Room and Club, which are chic and, in the case of the lounge area, dark and sleek as well. The main nightclub is located on the fourth floor; this is where party goers can watch DJs like Calvin Harris, R3hab and Tiesto perform. The fifth floor houses the Pavilion, which has an outside-type of energy. Come for dinner and stay all night long, rotating between the many nightlife experiences to say you’ve done a little bit of everything in Las Vegas.

Hampden is known for beehive hairdos, cat-eye glasses, kitchsy decor like the pink flamingo, and ladies who call everyone “hon.” Now, though, Hampden is Baltimore’s hipster neighborhood with an array of thrift stores, antique shops, boutiques, and restaurants. It’s worth taking at least a half day to browse the many shops, grab a great meal, and maybe buy some Baltimore souvenirs. On First Fridays (of the month) many shops serve wine, stay open a little later, and offer special deals. John Waters’ Baltimore, from the musical Hairspray, manifests itself in Hampden, specifically on 36th Street, which is simply called “The Avenue.” The proprietress of Cafe Hon (featured on Kitchen Nightmares) has worked to maintain the John Waters-inspired vibe as a tourist attraction, which can really be seen during Honfest where beehives and kitsch take over in early June. Some favorites in the area include: Trohv for Baltimore souvenirs; Ma Petit Shoe for shoes and chocolate (can’t go wrong there); Wine Source for an impressive array of beers and wines; Daniela Pasta and Pastry (for pastries); Spro for coffee; and the Golden West, Grano (Grano Emporio and Grano Pasta Bar), Corner BYOB, or the Food Market for dinner.

Jimmy’s Corner is long and narrow, as if some great prophet looked at a hallway and said, I see a dimly lit saloon here, complete with an extended bar and walls plastered with photos of boxers. Opened in 1971 by erstwhile pugilist James Lee Glenn, Jimmy’s sits midblock on West 44th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan. Which is what makes this no-frills bar unique. It’s a classic American dive, and the only one around, a relic from when the Times Square area was more depravity than Disney. Bartenders, who can spot a near-empty glass with the eyes of a hawk, are friendly but gruff. Case in point: As a 50-something woman with spiky bleached blonde hair mixed me another whiskey soda, I nodded to the boxer-bedecked wall behind the bar and said to my friend, “They don’t really like boxing much here, do they?” The bartender looked down the bar, pointed her finger at me, and bellowed with a thick Russian accent, “He make feeble attempt at joke!” She might have been right. If you go to this watering hole, make sure you’re thirsty (drinks are cheap) and your jokes are not so feeble. This appeared in the August/September 2013 issue. Image courtesy of Shanna Ravindra

Every January, Tempe, Arizona, serves as the finish line for the thousands upon thousands of runners participating in the Arizona Rock’n’Roll marathon and half-marathon. And so, the question: “Where to eat after the race?” Mill Avenue is the main drag in this college-student-oriented downtown. (ASU’s campus is just a few blocks away.) Drinking-centric chain restaurants dominate, but if you want to find locally-sourced ingredients in a posh interior, check out La Bocca Urban Pizzeria and Wine Bar. Known throughout the Phoenix area for their sangria, they serve a mean plank of bruschetta—a great way to nosh while waiting for wood-fired pizzas to arrive. Perhaps not the clinically “perfect” runners’ recovery meal, but it worked for us! (The particular bruschetta in this photo: roasted baby beets with goat cheese and honey; smoked prosciutto with mascarpone, fig, and truffle oil...) And thank you thank you to fellow AFAR-posters who answered my query that led my friends and me to crash and refuel at this place yesterday afternoon! We DID shower beforehand; the interior is comfy-chic, with a lovely reproduction of a Renaissance portrait gazing out from behind the bar.

Two of Dominica’s top scuba sites snuggle together in southwestern Soufrière Bay: La Sorcière (Witches Point) and, just to its north, L’Abym (the Abyss). Both are dramatic wall dives, poised between steep topside cliffs and a submerged crater. While divers often see turtles here, you should also keep an eye out for frogfish, seahorses, and flying gurnards amid the orange elephant ear sponges, bright as prison jumpsuits.

The Bermuda Triangle and Kansas Rectangle may be places of mysterious disappearance, but Milan‘s Fashion Quadrilateral is a small area of style where you will definitely want to get lost. With Via Montenapoleone, Via Manzoni, Via della Spiga, and Corso Venezia defining the sides of the quad, the internal area is a fashion lover’s oasis. The best shops in the world fill up the area, and the Quadrilateral is considered the most important fashion district in the world.