Grain Silo Transformed into Breathtaking Museum and Hotel
Within a year of its breathtaking reincarnation, Cape Town's historic Grain Silo has already been named one of the world's top 100 places. When it was originally constructed in the 1920's, the Grain Silo on the city's waterfront was the tallest building in Sub-Saharan Africa, and a symbol of connection to the rest of the world.A century later, after the Grain Silo was decommissioned, rejuvenation efforts could easily have seen it imploded to make way for bland new builds. Instead, the visionary...
Champagne Vending Machine at this NOLA Hotel Makes Every Day New Year's Eve
The motto of New Orleans is 'Let the Good Times Roll'. Nowhere is that more true than at the local Ritz-Carlton, which now boasts the area's first permanent champagne vending machine.This classy, tongue-in-cheek interpretation of lobby fixtures in sadder hotels holds 320 'piccolo' (mini) bottles of liquid celebration, and blends right into the hotel's festive seasonal décor and events.A nearly life-sized gingerbread NOLA streetcar dominates the lobby, with festive gingerbread making and decorating events throughout advent for the young and their...
Monaco Mystique: 5 Things You Didn't Know About the World's Most Glamorous Destination
It's been featured in no less than two James Bond movies. Not to mention To Catch a Thief, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Grace Kelly. Filmed on location in glitzy Monaco, it's where she met a prince and then became Princess Grace.Monaco – and Monte Carlo – have established and maintained an allure as one of the world's most glamorous destinations. Casinos and royalty, yachts and racing. Fast cars and beautiful women. Tuxedos and champagne all hours of the day. But...
Searching for 'Hygge' in Copenhagen - and Happiness at Home
It's a global buzzword and cultural phenomenon. And today, more and more of us are in need of Denmark's signature recipe for happiness: 'hygge'.Danish 'hygge' (pronounced 'HOOG-uh') is sweeping the world – everyone wants in on Denmark's famously convivial way of life. The Danish are the happiest people on the planet – even during the long, dark days of winter - and it's all about hygge.So much so, hygge has actually been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status. It might be the...
Discover Dazzling Winter Evenings at Hong Kong's New Light Festival
For a city whose nighttime skyline overlooking Victoria Harbour is already a global icon of urban lighting and signage, a light festival might seem like overkill. But the new Hong Kong Pulse Light Festival expands the effects of Hong Kong's famous neon signs and lit-up skyscapers to a street-level playground of luminous artworks during the darkest months of the year.Debuting in 2018, the Pulse Light Festival runs from the last week of November through late February. Not only does the artistic light...
This City Gets Another Designer Parking Garage - Yes, 'Park-itecture' is a Thing
Architecture is the calling-card of a city. Some destinations are made famous by cathedrals or castles, towers or temples, statues or skyscrapers… in modern-day Miami, it's all about the designer parking garage. They even have a name for it: 'park'-itecture.In this glittering city, there's an expanding list of chic places to park your car and gaze on the work of some of the world's leading architects – or 'star-chitects'. In other cities in the world, the likes of Frank Gehry, Herzog &...
4 Local Markets You Can Go Shopping with the Chef on a Seabourn Cruise
It's a long-standing tradition and one of guests' favorite experiences of a Seabourn cruise. And it doesn't even take place on board the ship.Seabourn's Shopping with the Chef complimentary shore excursions to landmark local markets in ports of call are legendary, and a signature of the luxury cruise line.It's no surprise to find Seabourn chefs shopping in local markets. Take a Seabourn cruise. Then take another. No two Seabourn cruises are quite the same. You'll realize how much effort Seabourn chefs (and all the...
Video: A Canadian Veteran of DDay Explains Why You Should Visit the Juno Beach Centre
There are fewer and fewer veterans of the DDay Landing Beaches to tell their stories, but Canada's Juno Beach Centre introduced us to Jim Parks, who shared his memories of landing on DDay as a young soldier, and why he believes all of us should travel there today.DDay remains the iconic symbol of Allied unity and sacrifice to end World War 2. Thousands of soldiers from the US, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations landed on the beaches of France...
Video: What Happens on a Visit to the Juno Beach Centre?
The Juno Beach Centre is Canada's WW2 DDay Landing Beach war memorial and museum, right on the site where Canadians joined British, American, French and Allied Forces on a fateful day in 1944 that was the beginning of the end of the War.Veterans, their families, anyone interested in history, or the sacrifices of ordinary young men on an extraordinary moment for the world, all Canadians as well as citizens of all the nations who fought or were affected by these...
Fact or Fiction? 3 Things You Need to Know About 'Dracula's Castle'
Before every travel destination had a ghost tour and haunted hotels, there was Dracula's Castle.Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel 'Dracula' popularized the vampire genre of fantasy fiction that today is more popular than ever.And although the character of the undead Transylvanian Count is fictional, the Romanian national monument known all over the world as 'Dracula's Castle' is real. 14th century Bran Castle is about a hundred miles from Bucharest and has long been considered the 'home' of...