Browsing: Accommodations

If you are bored with the uniformity of five-star hotels and prefer personalized treatment, a daily gourmet food experience, sport followed by wellness to recover, you want to read on.
The 89-roomed Grand Park, with its understated elegance and obliging service staff, is Bad Hofgastein’s only five-star hotel. Its location is perfection, in the midst of the Alps, the gateway to world-class hiking and skiing. The hotel itself, Georgian in style, is located well for …

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Keane is an international super-group who herald from East Sussex. Bexhill, Hastings and Battle are the towns that will forever be remembered collectively as ‘Strangeland’, the name of the band’s fifth consecutive number-one album, which speaks of places that influenced their lives. Now, a local initiative together with Keane, share a geographical and emotional journey that helped shape the Strangeland album via an intuitive and well informed website that connects the lyrics with the actual …

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The name Rick Steves has become synonymous with savvy, frugal, no-nonsense travel. He’s established a veritable European travel empire, including dozens of guidebooks, tours, apps, travel products and even the beloved PBS series, complete with its own theme song. But in the case of Rick Steves, “empire” isn’t really the right word, not with his emphasis on meaningful cultural exchange and the publication of his award-winning manifesto, Travel as a Political Act. In a …

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From sticky toffee pudding and gastro pubs, to farmers markets and heritage meat farms, our editor Cindy-Lou Dale rekindles our national love-affair with Cumbria, seeking out purveyors of fine food and taste-testing her way across the Lake District.

If you’re an inquisitive cook you’ll no doubt like exploring new tastes which is why you need to begin your Cumbrian Food Trail at the Cartmel Village Shop – an artisan handmade pudding company and home of …

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If you come away from Venice thinking, “It’s too crowded and it smells,” you’re doing it wrong. Sure, the labyrinthine city’s glory days are long gone, and many of the palazzos along the Grand Canal have been converted to restaurants or left to rot, their first floors already reclaimed by the sea, but the city is more than just a shadow of its former self. There’s a reason, after all, that the tourists still flock …

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Can you imagine heading to the mall and having your family begging to come along? The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, is more of a city than a shopping mall. It has a selection of attractions which include an indoor amusement park and an aquarium. It also has its own hotels, tax free shopping, and restaurants to please every palate.  Consider it more of a vacation than a shopping experience.

A Full-Size Amusement Park

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Nashville may have been getting all the attention with a television show, but it’s not the only place you want to go to for the history of southern music and family fun. Memphis offers a look into the birthplace of the Blues, civil rights, and major attractions.

1. Graceland
You don’t have to be an expert on Memphis to know that Graceland is the top attraction in this city. The former home of Elvis Presley …

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Fairy tale-like Chester is considered one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. The old town’s collection of quirky stores housed in Rows (a fully-functioning medieval version of a shopping mall) is reminiscent of sepia toned Grimm’s tale.

What is truly striking about Chester is its dramatic architecture. It has a Victorian movie-set air to it with cobbled streets and narrow alleyways, grand old black and white Tudor buildings which stand shoulder-to-shoulder with slightly skewed half-timbered Victorian …

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I arrived at Parambikulam, a government run Tiger Reserve in Kerala, and paid Rs300 to gain access, Rs70 for the car, plus another Rs300 for my camera. At the main office, where I’m to book in for the night, I’m told I need to pay tourist prices, not the fee I was quoted online – that’s for Indian citizens. So I forked out Rs8,800 which, I was assured would give me two great safari experiences.…

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Key West is described as the southernmost city giving visitors a taste of the Caribbean without even leaving the US. The tourist board even states Key West is a “unique tropical island city.” However it is defined, Key West is alluring, entertaining and peaceful all at the same time with sightseeing tours conducted on conch trains down roads lined with Colonial houses.

The Conch Train

One of the coolest things to see is the conch …

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Dreams Riviera Cancun

Riviera Maya, Mexico
Just outside of the hustle and bustle of Cancun is another world in Riviera Maya. Among the resorts nestled in their own private kingdoms, Dreams Riviera Cancun is one that offers something for everyone. Tropical gardens align the land while the Caribbean lays in front of you. Everything here is all-inclusive, with buffets, grills, six a la carte restaurants, and even Coco Café, where you’ll forget all about Starbucks …

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How does it feel?

A little breezy, actually. Standing on a modest hilltop overlooking the Hull-Rust open pit iron mine, where Bob Dylan, then Bob Zimmerman, used to ride his bicycle with his friends, it is easy to see how his youth in Hibbing, Minnesota influenced Dylan’s work. This endless iron mine pit is the largest in the world. Locals refer to it as the man-made Grand Canyon.

When it was determined about a century …

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Santorini, Mykonos, Ios…The top spots in Greece’s Cyclades are definitely must-stop destinations on any itinerary through the islands. However, after a period of time you may find yourself burned out on cruise ship crowds or incessant partying groups from Italy, Australia etc.

So how do you get a taste of a real Greek Isles getaway without the crowds? Head for the southern shores of Paros to the little fishing village of Aliki for an idyllic …

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Scotland’s west coast is synonymous with excellent seafood with miles of coastline to fish and cultivate and fresh catches landed every day and taken straight to the region’s finest tables. Its hills, glens and pastures a natural larder to farm and harvest.

On the Isle of Bute, in Rothesay’s town centre, is a small craft brewer – Bute Brew Company, established in June 2014 by Aidan Canavan, formerly a biology teacher. Sitting in the main …

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