You may already know that I am largely based out of Luxembourg, a tiny little country in the heart of Europe just 82km by 57km – the only Grand Duchy in the world!
Although controlled at some point by just about everyone in the vicinity, Luxembourg has actually been around for over a thousand years; its first recorded history was in 963 AD.
Photo: Wikipedia
One of the things I really look forward to every summer is the Schueberfouer, the annual funfair situated in the enormous open-air Glacis car park in the centre of town. It was founded by John I of Luxembourg, better known as John the Blind, King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg, on 20th October 1340. The founding document stated:
It will begin on the eve of the feast of St Bartholomew and will last a full eight days.
Even today the fair remains linked to the traditional opening date of St Bartholomew’s day, 24th August, although it now goes on for nearly three weeks.
The name Schueberfouer is thought to originate from the name of the market place where it was first held, the Schuedbuerg – now the “Plateau du St Esprit” (Luxembourgish: Helleggeescht-Plateau), which today serves as the residence of the courts of justice of Luxembourg. “Fouer” is the Luxembourgish word for “fair”.
Photo: A Murphy
Another unconfirmed theory links the term “Schueber” to the old German word “Schober” (in English: barn), which would refer to the original agricultural role of the fair. Indeed, for almost 450 years, the fair was mainly a large and regionally very important market for everything from agricultural products and livestock to cloth, pottery and other household items. There’s still a wide aisle that runs the whole back length of the fair where you can buy leather goods, kitchenware, tee-shirts, jewellery, toys and glass ornaments. During the 18th century, shows and games were slowly introduced, but it was not until the early 20th century that a Ferris wheel and a rollercoaster first appeared. Today you’ll find such devilish rides as the Catapult, the Wild Mouse and the supremely awesome Hangover Tower.
I have been to the Schueberfouer twice already this year and am bound to go again before I leave on my next trek to………(watch this space guys!) The weather has been fantastic, the local Bofferding beer freely flowing, the Mettwurst and Gromperekichelcher utterly delicious; and I even managed to throw a couple of mean darts and win a cuddly toy for the missus lol . 😀
Europe is one of those dream destinations that everyone has on their mind when they think about travel. When I graduated, the idea of a Eurotrip was the only thing we considered but as you can imagine, we didn’t have a lot of money back then so we had to figure out how to do it on the cheap. Even today, I’m sure the idea of a trip to Europe flashes dollar signs across your eyes. So how do you get that trip of your dreams while keeping the costs manageable? Let me breakdown a few tips that you’ll want to keep in mind as you start planning your itinerary.
Consider Different Parts of Europe
Bilbao Guggenheim: Image via Flickr by tchacky
Europe is a large continent that spans a lot of different countries. While most of us will gravitate to Western Europe and big cities like London, Paris, and Rome, consider cities and countries that are cheaper to cut costs.
The reason why big cities are expensive is because there are a lot of people living there which drives up the standard of living for locals and because it’s heavily touristed, businesses know they can command a much higher price. So one big tip is to incorporate lesser known, but not necessarily less interesting or beautiful places in Europe. For instance, Bilbao, in northern Spain is somewhere that is not along the main tourist path but is one of those not-to-miss cities being the home of the titanium-clad Guggenheim and the successful mix of traditional Basque culture with modern design.
Book Smart Rooms
Besides transportation, the other big cost to any trip is going to be your accommodations so naturally, you’re going to want to see if you can save money here. When you’re travelling Europe, there’s really no reason to splurge because you’re never going to be in your room beyond sleeping. Whether you’re looking for a room in a big city or somewhere smaller like Yaiza, Bordeaux or Luxembourg, make sure you do your research and consider all of your options.
Hostels aren’t only for young backpackers. There are plenty of private suite rooms available if you’re worried about sharing rooms with someone else. An added benefit of hostels is that there are lots of people to get travel suggestions from and breakfast is often included.
Airbnb is becoming a popular option these days as well especially if your’e going to be in one place for multiple days. You can find some great deals here if you’re travelling with a larger group and in prime locations as well.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
There are a ton of different ways to get around in Europe. It all depends on how spread out your travels are and how fast you need to get from one place to another.
What I love about Europe is that there are so many low cost carrier airlines that often times, flying becomes cheaper than any other option. I always make sure I check the list of airlines when I plan things out since not all search engines have every single one. The only disadvantage of flying is that you end up spending extra money getting to and from the airport as well as the time wasted going through things like checking in, security, and boarding.
Depending on how you link things up, it may make sense to look at trains as a way to get around. This is never a bad option because train stations are always central in cities and the network is so vast that it can take you anywhere you need to go. If you’re considering trains, make sure you check out the Eurail passes that you can buy beforehand to save lots of money.
Recently, there’s been more tourist-friendly buses made available. Megabus offers numerous routes within the UK with prices as low as £1. Another unique option is a new venture called Busabout which provides hop-on and hop-off flexibility, perfect for the independent traveller.
Look for Deals
If you’re flexibile in where you want to go, stay on top of travel deals that come up. For instance, Iceland Air has been making a massive push for travel to Reykjavik, Iceland and they’ve been promoting budget-friendly prices from North America that also allow you to hop into Europe after you’re done your tour there.
How do you stay updated on deals? Check my own deals page to get the latest promotions!
Timing is Everything
Last thing I’ll mention is that when you go in the year plays the biggest role out of anything and this applies to anywhere you go in the world. Travelling when everyone else is going is both expensive and not as fun. If you’re able to schedule your trip during low-season when prices are less inflated and businesses are pushing offers to attract travellers to come, you’re going to save a lot more money.
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About Will Tang
Will is a travel blogger writing for Going Awesome Places. Since quitting his consulting job in 2012 he’s been travelling the world and along the way writing about his epic adventures and taking amazing photos. His true passion lies in telling stories, inspiring others to travel, writing detailed trip itineraries for others to follow and providing helpful tips and tricks to travel better. Also the founder behind Travel Blog Breakthrough and freelance writer for Hipmunk and currently working on the #HipmunkCityLove Project.
As this is about one of my “home” towns I thought I’d drop the feature in – just for a bit of nostalgia ofc!
Brock‘s another of the travel bloggers I like. Took him 69 countries before he made it to little ol’ Lux so was curious to see what he made of it…
Luxembourg, I Finally Got You – Country #70
I was trying for a few years to get to Luxembourg. Every time I headed to Europe I thought: ‘This time, I’m going to Luxembourg!’ Then I’d look at a map, and my calendar and would eventually be pulling my hair out because I once again wasn’t going to be able to work it into my itinerary.
Finally just over a year ago, as I was heading back to the continent and running out of ‘new’ countries to get to, I made Luxembourg a priority and found a route using my Eurail pass that would allow me to visit friends in Amsterdam and Zurich while stopping over in the Lux on the way.
Before my train pulled into the main station I had 69 countries under my belt making Luxembourg my 70th country! Whoa!
As per tradition, I celebrate when I achieve a multiple of five, so I recorded this little message to announce my arrival, and thank you all for joining and supporting me through so many countries.
Watch through to the end because honestly, the bloopers might just be the best damn part! (Filming yourself usually requires a few takes.)
And there you have it. Luxembourg has officially been visited. It honestly wasn’t what I expected (far better) and because of the rain during my stay, I didn’t get to see quite as much as I wanted, but I suspect I’ll be back – now that I know how to get there.
While I took the train, I also discovered you can fly pretty cheaply from London if you book far enough in advance.
Now, with over two-thirds of my 100 by 30 complete, it’s home stretch time and only two years to do it in! Brock better get a move on, right?
Is Luxembourg a place you have thought about visiting? Had you even heard of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Special thanks to Luxembourg Tourism for helping to make this visit possible. As always, thoughts and opinions are my own.
Since Luxembourg has been my base for many years I was interested to come across this review in the Los Angeles Times. LAT reporter Claudia Capos and her partner Doug came here last summer and apparently had a great time. 🙂
Our requirements for a European city in which to celebrate a milestone birthday were simple: It needed to be walkable. Old-world charm was a must. And a sense of history and culture was imperative.
In the Old City of Luxembourg, cliffs whose tunnels shielded defenders overlook the former prison Neumunster Abbey in the Grund, now a trendy cultural area. (Claudia Capos)
The Old City of Luxembourg, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994, checked off all the boxes for my partner, Doug, and me.
We booked a three-night stay at the Hôtel Vauban on Place Guillaume II, or William Square, and asked for the Vauban room, overlooking the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Luxembourg.
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a 17th century French military engineer and marshal, extended and reinforced the imposing fortifications surrounding Luxembourg City, a.k.a. the Gibraltar of the North, so we felt immersed in history from the moment we unpacked.
Church bells awakened us every morning, and we threw open our French windows to see what was happening on William Square.
When we arrived, the city’s Portuguese community was hosting an all-day festival, with couples in traditional costumes dancing the vira and boisterous vendors serving fried dough filhóses and beer. On Wednesday morning, local farmers arrived with crates of oranges and fresh produce to sell at the weekly market.
Couples dressed in traditional costumes dance the Vira during the annual Portuguese festival in Luxembourg City’s William Square. (Claudia Capos)
Every afternoon, we stopped at the Palace of the Grand Dukes on Rue du Marché-aux-Herbes to watch the changing of the royal guards, who strutted with a stiff military gait and presented arms with rifles held in white-gloved hands.
We always looked to see whether the palace flag was flying, which signaled Grand Duke Henri Albert Gabriel Félix Marie Guillaume, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and their children were in residence. His royal highness, who became grand duke in 2000, is quite a celebrity, and formal pictures of the grand ducal family appear on postcards sold at gift shops.
We discovered the city’s breathtaking views on the Chemin de la Corniche, dubbed the “most beautiful balcony of Europe.” From the serpentine walkway along the edge of the upper Old City, we gazed down at the Grund, once an infamous penal colony and now home to trendy bars and restaurants as well as arts and entertainment venues.
To the northeast, we admired the Bock promontory, the natural fortification where Siegfried, count of Ardennes, erected his castle of Lucilinburhuc in 963, laying the cornerstone for the country. The rugged cliffs harbor the Bock Casemates, a network of man-made tunnels and chambers that sheltered the city’s military defenders and residents during wartime.
After shopping at posh boutiques along Grand Rue, we joined the evening crowd on historic Place d’Armes, also called the Parlor of the City, to listen to contemporary bands performing in the central pavilion.
On our last night, we splurged on a gourmet French dinner at Le Bouquet Garni, a favorite of the grand duke. Seated at a table beneath 500-year-old wood beams, with a window overlooking the palace, we felt a little like royalty ourselves.
Walk in the cliff tunnels that shielded the city’s defenders from attackers
No visit to Luxembourg City’s Old Town is complete without a couple of tours, which carry visitors back in time:
The casemates were originally a 14-mile network of underground passages and chambers built inside the city’s rock cliffs in the 17th and 18th centuries to protect thousands of defenders and house equipment, horses, artillery workshops, kitchens, bakeries and slaughterhouses.
A vintage cannon similar to those used to defend Luxembourg City from invaders stands near an artillery opening, or “loophole,” in the Bock Casemates, a labyrinth of man-made tunnels hewn through the rock cliff. (Claudia Capos)
Today, the Bock casemates are open to the public. You can enter the Bock Casemates on Montée de Clausen at the Bock Cliff. Visitors can roam through the eerie labyrinth, descend into claustrophobic caverns and peer at the Grund through “loopholes” once used by artillery gunners. Adults $4.50, students $3.35 and children $2.50.
The Wenzel Circular Walk covers 1,000 years of history in 100 minutes. The well-marked walking tour wends around the Bock Casemates, the Bock promontory, Upper and Lower Old Town, the Wenceslas ring wall, the Alzette Valley and the city’s unique fortifications.
The Luxembourg City Tourist Office (www.lat.ms/1FntAAy) on Place Guillaume II has a leaflet describing the walk and sells tickets for organized tours at 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Adults $16.75, students $14.50, children $8.40.
5 spots to check out in prison-area-turned-arts-hot-spot the Grund
Several decades ago, the Grund, or Luxembourg City’s Lower Old Town, harbored two prisons and enjoyed a less-than-stellar reputation as an enclave of the poor and newly arrived immigrants.
But today, the village-like quarter, crisscrossed by cobblestone streets, has reinvented itself as an up-and-coming arts and cultural hot spot where funky pubs and half-timbered houses overlook the meandering Alzette River.
An elevator at the Justice Quarter on Plateau du Saint-Esprit descends through the cliff to a cavernous opening leading into the heart of the Grund. The highlights of this quarter include:
Neumünster Abbey, built by Benedictine monks in 1606, served as a police station and prison for male inmates after the French Revolution. The Nazis used it during World War II to imprison resisters of the German occupation, including Luxembourg sculptor Lucien Wercollier. After extensive renovation, the massive cream-colored abbey reopened in 2004 as an ultramodern cultural center with a cloister displaying Wercollier’s works.
St. John’s Church, recognizable by its black steeple, is a familiar landmark in the Grund. The shrine is worth seeing for its decorative Baroque interior, 1710 organ and painting of the Black Madonna.
The National Museum of Natural History has undergone a redesign of its 10 exhibition rooms, which present the natural history of Luxembourg’s people, regions and landscapes. Temporary exhibitions change periodically. Closed Mondays.
The Stierchen footbridge, a medieval stone structure across the Alzette, is one of the most photogenic historical features in the Grund.
Scott’s Pub (www.scotts.lu) embodies the old-world character of the Grund with its wood-beamed interior and pleasant outdoor terrace overlooking the Alzette. It’s a great place to relax over beer and brats.
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If you go
THE BEST WAY TO LUXEMBOURG
From LAX, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Swiss, British and Delta offer connecting service (change of planes) to Luxembourg City Airport. Restricted round-trip fares from $1,230 to $2,008, including taxes and fees. From the airport, take a taxi (approximately $35) or bus No. 9 or 16 (approximately $3.50) to the Old City.
TELEPHONES
To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 352 (the country code for Luxembourg) and the local number.
GETTING AROUND
Public city buses (www.autobus.lu) operate from 6 a.m. to midnight on routes in and around Luxembourg City. Bike rentals are offered at Velo en Ville, 8 Bisserweg, Luxembourg City; 47-96-23-83. The Petrusse Express (a little green tourist train) and City Sightseeing Luxembourg (a full-size tour bus) offer daily tours from Constitution Square. www.sightseeing.lu.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Vauban, 10 Place Guillaume II, Luxembourg City; 22-04-93, www.hotelvauban.lu. Doubles from $160 per night, including breakfast.
Hotel Francais, 14 Place d’Armes, Luxembourg City; 47-45-34, www.hotelfrancais.lu. Doubles from $160 per night, including breakfast.
Hotel Le Royal, 12 Boulevard Royal, Luxembourg City; 24-16-161, www.leroyal.com/luxembourg. During the week, doubles from $477 per night without breakfast; $522 with breakfast. Weekend rates are less expensive.
WHERE TO EAT
Le Bouquet Garni, 32 Rue de L’Eau, Luxembourg City; 26-20-06-20, www.lebouquetgarni.lu.
Michelin-starred chef Thierry Duhr uses seasonal produce, meat and fish to create unique dishes with a French flair.
Restaurant Pizzeria Bacchus, 32 Rue du Marche-aux-Herbes, Luxembourg City; 47-13-97, www.resto.lu/restaurant/luxembourg/1728-luxembourg/11828-bacchus. Arrive early to beat the crowds at this popular Italian restaurant specializing in gourmet pizzas and veal dishes. Entrees $11-$35.
Café Francais at Hotel Francais Restaurant (see above). Enjoy regional specialties on the outdoor terrace overlooking Place d’Armes. Entrees $20-$35.
TO LEARN MORE
Luxembourg City Tourist Office, 30 Place Guillaume II, Luxembourg City; 22-28-09, www.lcto.lu
Have you already checked off the world’s top cities? Sunk your feet into your fair share of spectacular beaches? Then feast your eyes on these incredible destinations that you most likely have yet to visit…
The icy caves of the Mendenhall Glacier, Southeast Alaska
Why it’s special Bright blue domes of ice as well as flowing streams of cold water running over rocks in the caves of the Mendenhall Glacier. The other-worldly site has caught the attention of the world in recent years because as it’s melting increasingly fast due global warming.
When to visit Tours run from 1 May to 22 September 2015, dependent on glacier conditions.
How to get there While the caves are located only 12 miles from downtown Juneau in Southeast Alaska, the journey is not for the faint-hearted. It’s an adventure in itself involving at least six to eight hours of trekking over rocky terrains. Alaska Tours offer day trips for $228 (£148) per person, which allow you to walk past crevasses, ice caves and moulins. Unfortunately, visiting specific ice caves such as the west flank of the glacier (pictured) cannot be guaranteed due to the melting and constantly changing nature of Mendenhall Glacier. Read a guide to frequently asked questions here.
The ‘mirror’ salt plains of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
Why it’s special At 10,500 square kilometres, the world’s largest salt plain is one of the most striking natural wonders of the world, resembling the vast empty landscape of the moon. But after a couple of centimeters of rainfall the plain and thanks to zero wind, it becomes a breathtaking giant mirror reflecting the skies and anything else in its vicinity.
When to visit Unfortunately, rainfall in this region is very low – even in the rainy season, it can rain less than five days per month. You best chance of seeing the giant mirror effect is in January when precipitation is at its highest.
How to get there A number of companies offer one to four day tours from San Pedro, Tupiza and the town of Uyuni to Salar de Uyuni which includes basic accommodation, meals and transport. However, bear in mind a number of tourists have complained about uncomfortable journeys, late arrivals, broken down jeeps, a lack of toilet paper and no drinking water. The three largest tour companies are Cordillera Traveller, Atacama Mistica and Estrella del Sur who charge from 70,000 chilean pesos (£73), excluding the 150 Bolivianos (£14) national park entrance fee.
The pink-coloured waters of Lake Retba, Senegal
Why it’s special Although it looks a little bit like an accident with some food dye, Lake Retba, really does have pink-coloured water. Its distinct hue is caused by the bacteria in the water which produce a red pigment that helps them absorb sunlight, thus giving the lake its pink appearance. This phenomenon also occurs in Australia’s Lake Hillier – also known as the Pink Lake – located off the south coast of Western Australia.
When to visit The pink colour is especially visible during the dry season (which lasts from November to June), particularly from February to April. It’s recommended you visit on a day that isn’t windy.
How to get there The Lake Retba is located about less than an hours drive from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on the Grande Côte (a stretch of coastline).
The blue walls of Chefchaouen, Morocco
Why it’s special Looking like somewhere that has fallen out of a Picasso painting from his infamous blue period, Chefchaouen has existed since 1471. Its medina, or old town, has been painted blue since the 1930s, when Jewish refugees arrived in the town. Believing blue to represent the sky and heaven, they began painting some walls blue. The trend quickly caught on when it was found that the blue appeared to repel mosquitos.
When to visit The weather in Chefchaouen is at its best in spring (mid-March to May), when the country is lush and green.
How to get there There here are daily CTM coach buses travelling to Chefchaouen from main destinations such as Casablanca (takes six hours), Tangiers (takes four hours), Fes (takes four hours).
Ned’s Tip: For the best hotel in Morocco, stay at the historic and wonderful Grand Hotel Villa de France in Tangier. Along with the slightly larger but equally sumptuous El Minzah, it is part of the Hotels & Resorts Division of the General Mediterranean Holding group founded by millionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Nadhmi Auchi.
The remote Fenyan Ecolodge, Jordan
Why it’s special
Deep in the heart of the mountainous Dana Biosphere Reserve, is this idyllic candle-lit lodge. The 26-room hideaway boasts 360 degree views of glorious desert and mountain landscapes. Guests tend to embark on hiking and biking trails in the day and settle around and go stargazing in the night, before settling around the campfire with a few board games.
The best time to visit Feynan is a place of low rainfall and high sunshine and there are plenty of things to do all year around. However Spring (April to May) is the most popular time of year to visit with temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s (Celcius).
How to get there Jordan is a relatively small country and Feynan can be reached in 3 hours from Amman and 2 hours from Aqaba or Petra by car. Visit ecohotels.me for full directions.
Ned’s tip: Treat yourself to one night at least at the sumptuous Le Royal, Amman
The glowing Luminous Lagoon, Jamaica
Why it’s special At night, the Luminous Lagoon comes alive with microscopic organisms producing an eerie glow around fish, boats and any other objects in the water that disturb it, including yourselves. Tour operators let you jump in the water and create the glistening blue light for yourselves. It’s said to be the largest and most brilliant of four similar lagoons in the world.
When to visit Jamaica’s driest season is from mid-December to mid-April
How to get there Every night, tour boats depart from the Glistening Waters Marina in Falmouth – located on the North Coast of the island – for a 35-minute ride around the lagoon.
Why it’s special Rolling ridges, thousands of peaks and dramatic rocks make for a spectacular view. Visitors say pictures fail to capture the depth, vastness and sheer size of the natural spectacle located in Zhangjiajie in the Hunan Province of China. Visitors can walk down the winding hills, past deep valleys and try to spot plunging waterfalls.
The best time to visit The best months to explore the mountains are April, May, September and October
How to get there Zhangjiajie Central Bus Station has regular tourist buses to Sinanyu Ticket Station and the bus journey takes about 80-90 minutes. Then take battery car inside the scenic area. Visit travelchinaguide.com for more information.
The surrealist gardens of Las Pozas in Xilitla, Mexico
Why its special Amid the tropical plants and orchids of Mexico’s Xilitla is an abandoned estate full of fantastical sculptures, winding staircases that lead to the treetops and waterfalls that fill hidden pools. Las Pozas was built by the eccentric British millionaire, poet and patron of the Surrealist movement, Edward James, between 1949 and 1984 and is considered one of the least known artistic monuments of the 20th century. Visitors are free to wander the massive grounds – 80 acres – and climb through fascinating structures of the three-story building.
The best time to visit The site is open all year and Mexico’s dry season falls between December to April.
Where to find it Fly to Tampico via Houston, Mexico City or Monterrey and rent a car and driver in San Miguel de Allende to drive up to Xilitla. For detailed directions visit xilitla.org.
The colourful Danxia landforms, Zhangye City, China
Why it’s special The multi-coloured rock formations in China’s northwestern Gansu province give the Grand Canyon a run for its money with 400-square-kilometers of dramatic peaks and valleys. The unusual colours of the rocks are said to be the result of red sandstone and mineral deposits being laid down over 24 million years.
When to visit The colours are said to be most vibrant during sunset.
How to get there The Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park is located near the city of Zhangye in China’s northwestern Gansu province. There are four viewing platforms in the park which offer the best views. Visit chinahighlights.com for detailed directions.
The ‘Stone Forest’, Tsingy de Bemaraha, Madagascar
Images: wildjunket.com, Rex FeaturesWhy its special Madagascar’s labyrinth of stone spikes is unlike anything in the world. In the past, it was a real challenge for humans to move through the razor-sharp vertical blades, cliffs, sinkholes and deep underground tunnels and access was often only granted to professionals (it was named Tsingy, the Malagasy word for “walking on tiptoes”, for a reason). But a project funded by the European Union has opened it up to the public, with eight trekking circuits of varying difficulties for tourists.
The best time to visit The Park is only opened during the dry season from April to November, since it is inaccessible during the rainy season (mid-end November to mid-end May). The Grand Tsingy are only accessible between June and the beginning of November.
How to get there The access to Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park is not an easy one, but several tour operators in Morondava (where most of the organised trips to the Tsingy start off) offer 4×4 vehicles for hire such as Madaconnection and Remote River Expeditions. The park is generally divided into two parts – the Petit (small) and the Grand Tsingy (big) – based on the area and the height of the pinnacles and most visitors usually stay over three nights to explore the region. Camping and affordable hotels, such as Hotel L’Olympe du Bemaraha, are available near the site. Travelmadagascar.org is a good website for more information on this relatively unknown and untouched wonder.
The French capital may be the obvious place to propose but there are plenty of other memorable destinations where couples can declare undying love for each other…
A couple snuggle up on a chair in the North Frisian Islands
I spent almost a week in Antarctica with an engagement ring in my pocket, waiting for the opportunity to propose to my fiancee, but as we spotted whales, penguins and enormous icebergs, I couldn’t find the right moment. Not until, that is, we docked at the (unfortunately named) Deception Island on our final day. We trekked to its rim, to an area known as Neptune’s Bellows, and there, finally, I popped the question. I’m not sure she had much option other to say yes by that stage – but she hasn’t changed her mind since.
Antarctic cruises set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina. For more details visit adventurelife.com. Lufthansa (lufthansa.com) offers return flights via Frankfurt and Buenos Aires from £952pp.
What is more romantic than being with a loved one under a sky bursting with stars? A three-day journey in a 4×4 vehicle from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile to the salt plains of Uyuni in Bolivia involves climbing to more than 16,000ft above sea level. At such altitude and hundreds of miles from any significant city, the sky is illuminated brilliantly. If that doesn’t seem like the right environment, nothing will.
Kanoo Tours (kanootours.com) is one of several companies offering the trip to Uyuni – prices vary throughout the year. Iberia (iberia.com) has return flights from London to Calama in Chile, via Madrid and Santiago, from £956pp.
A group of penguins is pictured on the beach on Deception Island in Antarctica
Cruise the Tanon Strait between the islands of Negros and Cebu in the Philippines and your chances of seeing dolphins are almost guaranteed. Not only are they abundant, but the most common species in this stretch of water is the ludicrously playful spinner dolphin. The only trouble may be finding a peaceful moment to propose between their corkscrewing leaps and flips.
Asiana Airlines (flyasiana.com) has return flights from London to Cebu, via Seoul, from £796pp. For information on tours of the Tanon Strait go to www.godumaguete.com.
If you’re worried about having to propose in front of a crowd, the over-populated Machu Picchu is probably not for you. Instead, embark on a five-day trek to the far less visited Ciudad Perdida (Forgotten City) in Colombia. At times it’s an incredibly tough slog, but it is rewarding. At one time Ciudad Perdida was home to as many as 8,000 people, but now the only things looking on will be toads, birds and the odd snake.
Turcol Tours (turcol.i8.com) offers tours to the Forgotten City. Avianca (avianca.co.uk) has flights to the trek’s starting point, Santa Marta, from London via Madrid from £755pp.
Japanese macaques on the island of Yakushima
They say it rains ’35 days a month’ on the Japanese island of Yakushima, but don’t let that put you off. It lies on the edge of two tropical zones, giving it an unusually fertile climate. Some of its 80ft cedar trees are thought to be 2,000 years old, while on the ground, people are outnumbered by skittish deer and bold, thieving monkeys – if you have a ring with you, hold on to it tight.
Return flights to the nearby island of Kyushu are available with Lufthansa (lufthansa.com), via Frankfurt and Nagoya, from £594pp. Ferries operate between Yakushima and Kyushu.
On Germany’s North Frisian Islands, winds blasting off the North Sea create ‘champagne air’ – a heady mix that might increase the chances of getting a Yes response to the big question. Afterwards, celebrate in one of the Michelin-starred restaurants on Sylt, the largest and most developed of the islands. The North Frisians connect to Hamburg by a typically efficient train network.
Visit bahn.de for details on the rail service between Hamburg and Sylt.
A view of the Monastery in Petra, Jordan
Featured in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, the enormous sculpted cave known as the Treasury in Petra, Jordan, is often awash with tourists. Better, then, to trek further into the ancient stone city to the Monastery, where the views are breathtaking. Just don’t get too close to the edge of the cliff face at such a nervy moment.
EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies from Gatwick to Amman from £147pp return. Jordan Select Tours (select.jo) has dozens of holiday options.
The Turkish resort of Marmaris may be light on romance, but head a little north to Sedir Island and you could find yourself a spot shared by two of history’s greatest lovers. Legend has it that Cleopatra refused to set foot on anything outside of Egypt, so when Mark Antony wanted her to visit Sedir Island he imported tons of Egyptian sand to coat the beach. Locals insist the same stuff still covers the island today.
Sedir (or Cleopatra Island) is 55 miles from Dalaman airport. EasyJet (easyjet.com) offers return flights to Dalaman from Stansted from £121pp. Tours to the island from Marmaris cost from €27 (£22). Visit easymarmaris.com.
Read this post for more on fascinating Jordan. And for a wonderful place to stay, treat yourself to Le Royal Amman, part of the Royal Hotels & Resorts Division owned by Sir Nadhmi Auchi‘s GMH.
Christmas Day in Jordan. The sun shines on the Dead Sea, glittering but somehow sinister, while the grey shape of the West Bank looms on the horizon. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan seems like a haven of peace and friendliness surrounded by countries at war. Waves of invaders have swept over this area, leaving stunning traces of their passing: desert castles, Roman ruins, Byzantine mosaics.
‘Half as old as time’: The Treasury in Petra, carved out of the rose-coloured rock
The best way to understand the country’s archaeological and artistic history is to visit the Jordan Museum in Amman, a superb modern building designed by a local architect.
The collection covers 1.5million years, beginning with the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic). There are weird, baby-faced Neolithic statues like something out of a science-fiction horror film, and a baby’s skeleton gruesomely crammed into a jar. There are two handsome Greek-looking heads of Nabateans, founders of Petra, with straight noses and chiselled chins but disconcertingly empty eyes.
One room houses copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Copper Scrolls found in a cave overlooking the Dead Sea. Outside the building, a battered-looking wagon is a memento of the old German-Turkish Hejaz railway attacked by Lawrence of Arabia riding with his Bedouin and Arab forces through Jordan down to Aqaba on the coast.
Lawrence spent the winter of 1917 in one of the still-impressive desert castles, Azraq. He later wrote: ‘The blue fort on its rock above the rustling palms, with the fresh meadows and shining springs of water, broke on our sight.’
Enigmatic: Peter O’Toole as T. E. Lawrence in the 1962 film Lawrence Of Arabia
Sadly, traffic has long dispelled the unfathomable silence’ which Lawrence described when he made Azraq his headquarters. That silence, however, is one of the things that first strikes you about Jordan away from its towns, as you travel along the King’s Highway through folding bare hills and desert uplands, black with basalt pebbles, and uninhabited except for Bedouin settlements with donkeys and the occasional camel.
Have you ever seen a bear sitting cross-legged on a chair playing a guitar? I have. He is depicted in an 8th Century fresco on the wall of a delightful Arab bath house, Qasr al-Amra, built by the Umayyads, a Bedouin dynasty from the Hejaz who won the Caliphate in 661AD. Qasr al-Amra is now surrounded by desert, but back then it was fertile countryside.
The Caliphs clearly had a very jolly uninhibited time: the guitar-playing bear is featured on the same wall as some well-endowed women, while a hunting scene features a pack of salukis chasing deer into a prepared ambush of nets.
Other historically important portraits feature Roderick, the last Visigothic King of Spain, King Chosroes of Persia, and the Negus of Abyssinia, a mixture that illustrates the cultural crossroads which the area represented in ancient times.
I have a weakness for crusader castles inspired by a visit three years ago to the most spectacular of all, Krak-des-Chevaliers in northern Syria. Romans, Crusaders, Mamelukes and Saladin, the greatest Arab warrior of all, built forts and castles to maintain their power and restrain the marauding Bedouin.
One of the most impressive is Shobak/Montreal, built by Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, which held out against Saladin for a remarkable 18 months in 1187-89. On the day we visited, friendly castle staff dressed as Saracen warriors offered a helmet complete with chainmail to my husband to try on.
The headquarters of the Lordship of Oultrejourdain was transferred from Montreal to the great castle of Kerak, or Karak, under its unpleasant lord, Reynald de Chatillon, a particular enemy of Saladin. Kerak has been described as one of the great monuments of medieval military architecture from which its lord could dominate all the traffic between Syria and Egypt.
Path to glory: The column-lined Roman Cardo Maximus in Jerash
Saladin attacked Reynald as a wedding feast was being held at the castle. According to a charming story, the Lady Stephanie, mother of the bridegroom, herself prepared dishes from the wedding feast which she sent out to Saladin.
In return, Saladin asked which of the towers was to be occupied by the newlyweds and gave orders that it should not be bombarded by his siege engines.
For all his gallantry, Saladin could not breach the walls and retired towards Damascus. The end for Kerak came when an Egyptian army laid siege. After more than a year, the defenders were close to starvation, the women and children were turned out to fend for themselves or sold by their menfolk to the Bedouin in return for food, and it was only when the last horse had been eaten that the castle surrendered.
But we had come to Jordan to see Petra. ‘The rose red city half as old as time’, created by the Nabateans around the 2nd Century BC, remained hidden for 1,600 years until rediscovered by a Swiss traveller, J.L. Burckhardt, in 1812.
Ships of the desert: Young boys riding camels in ancient Petra
Its beauty and mystery are almost impossible to describe. You enter it by an increasingly narrow gorge, the red cliffs closing above your head against a deep blue sky, and you arrive in a small plaza dominated by what looks like an Italian baroque church but is in fact a Nabatean masterpiece known as the Treasury, carved out of the rose-coloured rock.
Crowds of Arab Bedouin children mill around the tourists offering silver bangles and bracelets, fake coins, hideous scarves, and camel and donkey rides. People say you must be there by 6am to avoid the crowds, but in December the sun would be too low at that hour and the light is an important part of the Petra experience.
One boy, 11-year-old Abdullah, who spoke remarkably good English, took a photograph of us but refused to accept a tip. Embarrassed by his good manners, we bought a bracelet from him instead.
English is relatively common in Jordan, as I learned to my cost when I commented on the ugliness of one stallholder’s offerings and was told off for my rudeness by the owner.
Exhausted by the end of an afternoon’s trekking over stones and sand, we hired a horse and carriage back from the restaurant at the end of the track and suffered a Ben Hur experience when our driver chose to liven up his afternoon by racing his mate in another chariot with wild cries and swerves.
There is much more to see at Petra for the energetic: the High Place, where Nabateans worshipped and offered their sacrifices, is up some 365 worn steps, and even further up is a temple known as the Monastery. Both sites offer infinite views of stone ridges coloured all shades of pink to dark red, streaked with basalt. Magical.
We also travelled to Jerash. Its golden age came under the Romans; then for centuries it was hidden under sand, which is why its long, column-lined street with paving marked by chariot wheels is still so well preserved.
Sublime: A mosaic at the Chapel of Saints Lots and Procopius
As I sat panting on a stone towards the end of the main street, the Cardo Maximo, there was a sad reminder of the ongoing tragedy of the region – a Syrian boy, a refugee from Deraa, came up to beg. Just a few days before, the excellent Jordan Times reported that on Christmas Eve, 600 refugees had crossed the Jordanian border and nearly 400 people had been killed in the massive air campaign around the city of Aleppo.
Yet despite the tensions in the region, Jordanians seem the most friendly and cheerful people you could hope to meet. Their battlegrounds consist of terrifying traffic jams on the streets, where the Ben Hur technique of muscling each other out of the way still reigns.
Next we headed for the town of Madaba, which lies on the King’s Highway – the main artery of Jordan. It is known for its famous but disappointing 6th Century Byzantine mosaic map of the world in which a colonnaded Jerusalem is represented as its centre. Far more beautiful mosaics can be seen in the ancient Chapel of the Memorial of Moses at Mount Nebo and the nearby Chapel of Saints Lot and Procopius.
We spent nine days in Jordan on a tailor-made tour arranged by Original Travel. We had well-informed drivers and guides, and stayed in hotels that varied from top-class to not so good. The food was delicious and healthy, the wine excellent but expensive. Now, back in a grey, cold London, the experience seems like a wonderful dream.
Jordan is one of the unusual places featured in this article. And for a wonderful place to stay, treat yourself to Le Royal Amman, part of the Royal Hotels & Resorts Division of the GMH Group founded by Sir Nadhmi Auchi.
By John GimlettePublished: 18:18 GMT, 16 March 2015 | Updated: 18:18 GMT, 16 March 2015
A Rif you’ll want to hear forever: The Rif mountains are a beautiful – yet less known – part of Morocco
On Ahmad’s country walks we see mountain women wearing wide-brimmed hats festooned with pom-poms. One minute we’re clambering through gorgeous terraces of onions and fruit, the next we’re in a paddock of cannabis (or kif).
‘Just for the farmers,’ says Ahmad airily. ‘The long-haired ones don’t come any more.’
But strangest of all is our first town, Chefchaouen. The old parts are all a bluey-purple, as if the entire medina has been flushed with ink.
To my daughter Lucy, aged ten, this is enchanting, and we tour every alley and knobbly passage, poking our heads into all the old caravanserais. There are no cars in this beautiful labyrinth of mauve, and in the mornings everyone rushes out to the public taps.
We stay at the Lina Ryad, a little bit of the 21st century dropped in among these dreamy scenes. It even has a modest swimming pool, in a town where most people think a traffic jam has hooves.
This is not a place for ordinary shopping. We somehow end up with an old pair of slave’s manacles (£7), a large flag (£6) and a very battered silver headdress (£30).
Most of the time it is enough just to wander.
From the kasbah (or citadel) we can peer down into people’s lives. As the day warms, housewives head out to the stream to rinse out their carpets.
After a few days, we head north.
A woman from the Rif region in traditional dress
The Rif may not be Morocco’s tallest range, but it’s thrillingly wild. Great rivers burst through the boulders, and we can just make out tiny villages perched high up in the valley walls.
Then, suddenly, we tumble out into Tangier. This fabulous antique city feels only half-African. For a long time, it was ‘The International Zone’ (1923-1956), and Europeans appeared in droves. They left cafes, cannon, art deco, a long corniche and a whole cemetery of kind hearts and baronets.
Some came for the view, and we tour the celebrity roosts.
There’s still a piano bar at The El-Minzah (Churchill and Rex Harrison), although the Hotel Cecil (Tennessee Williams) now has palm trees growing through the roof.
the back streets of Tangier
Meanwhile, at Grand Hotel Villa de France, you can visit Matisse’s bedroom (Number 35) and gaze out at the scenes he painted. Others came to misbehave, particularly the Beat poets.
It’s fun trying to find their old haunts around the medina. Although Dean’s Bar was wreathed in dust and padlocks, you can still get a whiff of the Fifties at Cafe Baba.
However, for Lucy, the best moments are when we head for the souk.
One stall sells huge blocks of nougat (which have to be chopped with a cleaver); another has only magic charms and musket balls.
Captivating: Tangier – with its medina to the forefront – has long tempted European travellers to Morocco
Deep in the medina, little alleyways turn into grand Arabian palaces (like Al-Makhzen), or perhaps the house of Barbara Hutton, once the richest woman in the world.
My favourite is the old American legation of 1821. From the outside, it looks typically dusty and medieval, but step inside and a glorious Georgian residence appears.
Such excitement requires a cosy bolthole, and we have La Tangerina. Hidden in the ramparts, this tiny hotel has been lovingly restored. There are log fires and almond cake for tea, and time seems to have paused at 1956.
Enjoy this mad city, walk everywhere, do everything and then retreat to the hotel’s roof.
In one direction lies Spain (only eight miles away, across the Med) and in the other lies the Rif, now looking pink and mysterious and deceptively tame.
I can heartily recommend the stunning Grand Hotel Villa de France and gorgeous El Minzah – I’ve stayed at both. These historic Tangier properties are part of the General Mediterranean Holding group owned by Iraqi-born British businessman and philanthropist Sir Nadhmi Auchi
With 4 percent of the earth’s wildlife species, vast tropical rain forests and live volcanoes, it’s no wonder this former backpacker’s haven in Central America is no longer a secret.
Here are some great articles to get you started on one of my favourite places in the world.
Sarah Spagnolo -March 16, 2014
A few winters ago, my family and I checked into a restored 17th-century estate in the tiny town of Lower Monferrato, in Piedmont, Italy. Our bay window looked out onto rolling hills covered in grapevines and, far, far in the landscape, the snow-topped Alps. No cars passed the cypress-dotted landscape; each morning we sat down in total tranquility to a breakfast of fresh-baked bread, soft cheeses, and blood orange juice. The experience was one that many modern travelers are searching for: a few nights hidden away in a European village, experiencing the traditional culture and soul of a destination.
Viscri, Romania
What is the allure of these small towns with their meandering streets, lunch-only cafés, and intimate shops? “Perhaps it is the scaled-down size, the greater ease of catching a shopkeeper’s eye, the colorful flowers hanging in a window,” says Travel + Leisure A-List travel agent Marjorie Shaw of Insiders Italy, a Rome-based agency. Writer David Farley agrees: “In a time of creeping globalization, villages offer a look into the past as well as a clearer sense of the country or region, including its food.”
So for your next European getaway, take a detour to a tiny town. Ullastret, in Spain’s Baix Empordà, is a notable Slow Food mecca: at the four-room Hotel El Fort, owner Lola Puig serves locally grown vegetables, homemade bread, and organic goat’s cheese on a lantern-lit terrace that overlooks a field of mulberry trees.
Arild, Sweden
Further off the beaten path, in Arild, Sweden, the artist Lars Vilks built Nimis, a public art installation with a maze of 300-foot aboveground tunnels and a 45-foot-high climbing tower. The fishing village itself is just a two-hour drive and ferry ride from Copenhagen.
This type of experience can fulfill many expectations. According to writer Sylvie Bigar, who researched these secret places to come up with the best ones, “A tiny town offers adventure, novelty, beauty, as well as a sense of history. Knowing that some of these gems have been there for so long and have not been ‘discovered’ yet calms the spirit and brings a sense of peace.”
St Mawes, Cornwall, England
A plugged-in agent can help to coordinate this type of getaway. Or just put the guidebook aside, head into the countryside, and explore on your own. The return on your investment? A rewarding and unique experience and, once you return home, priceless memories and bragging rights.
Who needs Provence or Portofino when there are still so many places left to explore? Good tips this article from Travel & Leisure:-
Reported by: Stephen Bayley, Rachel Felder, Adam Graham, Marti Buckley Kilpatrick, Alexandra Marshall, Nicola McCormack, Shane Mitchell, Anja Mutić, Debbie Pappyn, Brandon Presser, Evan Rail, Peter Schlesinger, Ann Shields, Valbona Twerdahl
Seaside hideaways, new culture capitals, neighborhoods on the rise—all spared the EasyJet hordes and summertime tourists. From Ireland to the Greek isles, T+L uncovers 16 destinations to visit now.
Ardmore, Ireland
Setting off through southeast County Waterford feels like stumbling upon County Cork 15 years ago, before its farmers’ markets and country house hotels became part of Ireland’s established culinary circuit. Ardmore’s Cliff House Hotel (doubles from $246) is the perfect base from which to explore the area’s craft brewers, artisanal distillers, and cheese makers. It has 39 sea-facing rooms with chairs upholstered in Donegal tweed, campaign trunks, and glassed-in double showers; there’s also a light-filled indoor pool and outdoor stone tubs at the spa. At chef Martijn Kajuiter’s Michelin-starred dining room, you’ll taste locally sourced sea vegetables, lamb, and whiskey. Just up the coast in Dungarvan, chef Paul Flynn rethinks Irish staples at his restaurant Tannery (entrées $29–$31), which also houses a cooking school. Nearby, Dungarvan Brewing Co. recently teamed up with nearby newcomer Blackwater Distillery for some ambitious collaborations—fancy a pint of cask-aged oatmeal stout?
Dijon, France
Long known for its wine and annual Gastronomic Fair, this ancient city—the provincial capital of Burgundy—can now lay claim to a vibrant contemporary art culture. Leading galleries include Interface, which hosts experimental installations by the likes of Benedetto Bufalino, and Le Consortium, where the work of conceptualist Oscar Tuazon is on display. Visit in July to catch the Dièse Festival, when the city’s Renaissance-era palaces are taken over by avant-garde theater and musical acts. The food scene has also had a modern makeover: while Stéphane Derbord (entrées $40–$52) and Jean-Pierre Billoux (entrées $36–$59) still carry the torch for traditional Burgundian fare, David Zuddas adds North African flavors to the boeuf bourguignonne at his informal DZ’envies (entrées $16–$23), and Restaurant So (15 Rue Admiral Roussin; 33-3-80-30-03-85; entrées $19–$39) fuses French and Japanese culinary styles. Dijon’s hotels have also taken a design-focused turn: the new Vertigo Hôtel (doubles from $166) is housed in a Haussmann-era apartment building with furniture by progressive designers like Eléonore Nalet and Didier Gomez.
Bibbona, Italy
At the 16-room Relais Sant’Elena (doubles from $233), a centuries-old farm off the main oenophile trail of southern Tuscany, days start with oven-fresh bread and honey from local beehives. After tasting Ornellaia in nearby Bolgheri, you’ll return to find an Italian nonna picking rosemary for that night’s beef stew.
Poitou-Charentes, France
On the fringes of the Périgord-Limousin national forest—a region famous for its rich butter and foie gras—the 12th-century château Domaine des Etangs (doubles from $402) has 23 rooms and six cottages decked out in natural stone and antique timber, as well as a library and a Gallo-Roman spa. Activities on the scenic 2,100-acre grounds include fishing, horseback riding, and farm visits.
Noordwijk, The Netherlands
For years, well-heeled Dutch urbanites have enjoyed the anonymity of this laid-back coastal village less than an hour outside Amsterdam. Now the Vesper Hotel (doubles from $157), a refashioned 1904 inn, is catching the eye of the international design crowd. The 27 Scandi-inspired rooms feature neon-bright accents and handmade beds, while the glass-ceilinged bar is ideal for watching the sun set over the North Sea.
Somerset, England
More than 85,000 people have flocked to the West Country outpost of Hauser & Wirth (doubles from $576) since it opened last July. Set on an 18th-century farm, the contemporary art space—which has branches in Zurich, London, and New York—tapped Piet Oudolf, who landscaped Manhattan’s High Line, to design its garden. This year’s debut of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion added a dazzling shell-like structure to the grounds. Plan ahead to score one of the six art-strewn rooms in the farmhouse.
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
The 2019 European Capital of Culture is riding a wave of popularity. The second-century Roman amphitheater is now a live music venue; Ottoman manor houses have become galleries like City Gallery Plovdiv, which promotes Bulgarian painters, including Encho Pironkov and Zlatyu Boyadzhir. Philippopolis has a compelling collection of Thracian antiquities.
Not long ago, most Lisboans steered clear of this former red-light district north of Martim Moniz square. But redevelopment has brought in artists and artisans and Joana Vasconcelos’s Kit Garden, a sculpture that now sits in the heart of the neighborhood. Behind the dazzling façade of a former tile warehouse, an outpost of A Vida Portuguesa carries vintage brands and local wares: hand-wrapped tins of Tricana tuna, Ach Brito soaps, hats from the Azores. On sunny days, locals pack the esplanade tables outside O das Joanas (28 Largo do Intendente; 351-218-879-401; entrées $6–$11) for Mediterranean dishes like béchamel-smothered cod, then head to the 19th-century town house Casa Independente, which hosts screenings and concerts on its patio.
Gros, San Sebastián, Spain
While the old town remains touristy, cheap rents and a dynamic surf culture have created a lively scene in Gros. The bookstore Garoa puts on literary-themed concerts and alternative poetry readings, while at Essencia Wine Bar y Store, wine consultant Dani Corman pairs an extensive collection with fresh anchovies and heritage Basque pork. And the owners of the gin-focused hangout La Gintonería just opened a tiki bar, Shaka & Shake (5 Calle Zabaleta; 34-943-271-912), right across the street.
Karlin, Prague
Witness this leafy district’s road to renewal after a 2002 flood at projects like Karlín Studios, a warren of ate- liers and conceptual galleries in a refashioned factory; Můj Šálek Kávy, a café that serves weekend brunch and Latin American roasts; and Veltlín, poet Bogdan Trojak’s emporium of natural wines from Central Europe.
Belleville, Paris
Chic creative types are the latest settlers in this diverse, multicultural neighborhood that is getting more sophisticated by the day. Don’t miss cult coffee brewers like Cream (50 Rue de Belleville; 33-9-83- 66-58-43), which makes the best flat white in town, and the art space Galerie Balice Hertling, a magnet for international talent.
Western Wales
With its pretty fishing villages rimming Cardigan Bay, cute shops, and deserted beaches, this picturesque region looks like the setting of a Masterpiece Classic series. In Aberaeron, the harbor is lined with pastel Regency houses and backed by lush green hills. It’s home to boutiques like Seld, which sells handcrafted housewares, and cafés such as Naturally Scrumptious, where you can try traditional seaweed laverbread. The Harbourmaster (doubles from $170) has 13 stylish rooms with Frette sheets and a restaurant serving fresh crab cakes. And the skiffs bobbing in the marina out front lead day trips to glimpse bottlenose dolphins. Down the coast, the windswept shores of Aberdovey recall the ones in Massachusetts, as do stores like Sweet Shop (2 Sea View Terrace; ), popular for its housemade ice creams—try the peanut-and-honey. Farther south is Aberystwyth, marked by an 1865 pier and a surprising food scene: Spanish tapas at Ultracomida (tapas $15–$30) and Welsh pheasant wrapped in treacle bacon at Gwesty Cymru Hotel & Restaurant (entrées $20–$29). A few minutes away is Penbryn Beach, a favorite with surfers for its glassy waves.
Westfjords, Iceland
Even Icelanders think that the Arctic Circle peninsula, 123 miles northwest of Reykjavík, is pretty far out. Getting there involves either a white-knuckle drive around deep-water fjords or, more easily, a ferry ride from Stykkishólmur. Stop for the night on Flatey Island at Hotel Flatey (doubles from $190). Continue on to Ísafjörður, where in summer you can pick crowberries under the midnight sun, kayak next to seals on placid bays, and dine on fish chowder at the dockside Tjöruhúsið (354-456-4419; entrées $15–$44).
Albanian Alps
Perhaps its nickname—the Accursed Mountains—keeps this range development-free. But in-the-know hikers have long come here to see lynx, bears, and Alpine wildflowers. Stay at Rilindja (doubles from $40), a four-room inn run by a Brooklyn native and her Albanian partner. At night, the couple puts on a feast of shepherd’s salad, spit-roasted goat, and slow-cooked tomatoes and eggplant from the garden.
Astipálaia, Greece
Few travel guides mention this speck in the Aegean Sea, and its rawness is the reason to go. The main town is Chora, a white ziggurat with two great hotels: Tholaria (doubles from $123), a homespun stay with driftwood accents, and Pylaia (doubles from $96), which has Philippe Starck design touches. At the Livadi beach café Astropelos (30-224-306-1473), there’s only one task at hand—eating spinach pie while gazing at the wine-dark sea.
Ned’s Tip: I would add another great city that’s much overlooked – Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. A bubbling university town, it is just as attractive for its Romanesque architecture and quaint cobbled streets as for an eclectic range of shopping and a vibrant social and cultural scene.
For great value accommodation in the area, check out Resideal.com, part of the GMH group owned by Sir Nadhmi Auchi. They have super apartments in la Grande Motte and also further along the coast in buzzing Cannes and Antibes.
The pros of an all-inclusive vacation are pretty straightforward: you don’t have to lift a finger, carry a wallet, or make a single decision more difficult than “pancake or waffle?” And the trade-off for that luxury? Well, unfortunately, it often means you’re drinking cheap booze, eating at stale buffets, and fighting a hundred other guests for the last two beach chairs.
Lucky for you, though, not every all-inclusive resort is created equal: in fact, some single-price spots rival the most luxurious five-star properties. And we found 11 of them.
This is a surf school with a twist — as in, you’re not sleeping in a dirty hostel and getting pummeled by waves while a distracted instructor flirts with the hot girl in class. At Kalon, when you’re not on the water or waxing your stick (it’s a surfing term!), you’re enjoying an ocean-view room, a massage, and a locally sourced meal. That or studying their video analysis of your surfing skills.
Formerly an abandoned 19th-century ghost town, Dunton was transformed into a luxurious all-inclusive resort by an intrepid German businessman. The property features 12 stylishly rustic cabins — some which were originally miners’ digs — as well as a restored saloon, a spa, and some of the best indoor and outdoor hot springs in the world. Typical activities include fly fishing, horseback riding, and hiking/biking in the summer, and snowshoeing, dog sledding, and skiing in the winter.
It’s the rugged life of a cowboy, minus the rugged. This upscale, Western-style dude ranch and spa caters to those who want to spend their days horseback riding through the desert, and their evenings getting a deep-tissue massage. Dinners are communal and sometimes themed, as in Mexican Fiesta Night, or weekly BBQ and live tunes. And not only are the rooms TV-less, you can even ask them to turn off the wifi if you really want to go off the grid.
In Cancun, all-inclusive resorts are as common as Spring Breakers doing tequila shots. But you won’t have to deal with any of that at Nizuc. The swanky resort has two private beaches and only 274 rooms — practically a B&B by Cancun standards — many of which rock their own private infinity pools. And forget the tasteless buffet: there are six different upscale restaurants on the property to choose from.
Flanked by an ochre desert and towering cliffs, this resort for sporty types features an army of health gurus, a holistic spa, and fitness classes ranging from Tai Chi to Bootie Beats, which is of course where all the ladies will be shaking their tail feathers. Maybe? And, because RMR’s all about living strong, breakfast/lunch buffets are designed to boost energy while dinner is mostly low-cal.
These five resorts span Bhutan, the last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom. Some are perched on 7,000ft peaks, others nestled in lush valleys, but getting an all-inclusive deal at any one allows you to hop between them all. Their minimalist digs are the height of luxury, and to prove it, stay for seven nights and they’ll even throw in a private car and driver. Which, you can ride around in when you’re not hiking to temples and monasteries, playing golf, whitewater rafting, or practicing your archery.
Hot tubs, gourmet meals, and adrenaline pumping thrills, all in the heart of a Biosphere Reserve? Sign us up. In fact, stay at the Explora Lodge and you’ll be signing up for one of 50 different hikes, horseback rides, or boat outings. The hotel features only 49 rooms, most with views of the Paine Massif and Salto Chico waterfall, but none with TV or wifi. This place is all about experiencing the “real joys of life,” so consider yourself warned.
If you feel right at home here (you’re encouraged to grab whatever you want from the kitchen), it’s because American expat Howie and his wife built their dream home, and only later turned it into their dream resort. You and your group will have the private villa, which was featured in Architectural Digest mind you, and its four bedrooms entirely to yourself… except that Howie will be there as your caretaker/host/chef/guide. So, not at all to yourself.
The term “glamping” is pretty awful but, unfortunately, it’s probably the best way to describe this private game reserve. Swanky suites (only 26 people can stay here at any given time) come with Nespresso machines and champagne-filled minibars, as well as private terraces and outdoor showers. Some even have pools. Expect gourmet meals, daily game drives, walks in the bush, and sunset cocktails at the Tree-House Pub. Just, whatever you do, don’t use the word “glamping.”
Known as “Cloud 9” to the surfing elite for its amazing waves, Dedon Island has become just that for travelers in search of the luxe life. The nine-villa property — owned by former Bayern Munich goalie Bobby Dekeyser — features an outdoor cinema, yoga and surfing classes (among a ton of other outdoor activities), and a spa, as well as meals prepared by a private chef with ingredients from the resort’s own organic farm.
Set on 9,200 acres at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains, this 69-room working farm has its own creamery, bakery, charcuterie… and brewery! Yep, they brew small-batch craft suds like the Classic Saison, Farm Ale Pale Ale, and Screaming Cock Dubbel. Wait, it gets better. Elaborate farm-to-table meals are all homegrown and served in a converted barn (seriously, this place is a hipster’s paradise!) paired with an inordinate number of wines. There are also cooking and cheese making courses and beer/whiskey/wine tastings. Plus skeet shooting!
In this episode of MUNCHIES Presents, we introduce you to Steven Spurrier, possibly the single most influential living figure in the world of wine. If it weren’t for him, the industry would still be run by French aristocrats, and none of us would ever have heard of the Napa Valley. From his personal cellar to a tasting of Spain’s greatest wine to the Dorset vineyard where he’s making English bubbly that upstages Champagne, we’ll find exactly what it means to be a world-class wine expert and hear the story of how Spurrier changed wine forever on one day in 1976.
We were around fifty miles northwest of Guantanamo Bay, driving through brambly hillsides along a winding country road. José, my driver for the day, had no idea how to get us where we were going. He’d asked for directions nine times already. He kept calling it “Bacardi beach.”
“Daiquirí beach,” I’d correct him, from the passenger side.
No one we’d spoken with knew where Playa Daiquirí was either. José didn’t care. He was twenty-three with a wife and kids; as long as he was getting paid, José and his beat-up red Lada would happily take me anywhere in Cuba. José had never even heard of Playa Daiquirí before. But when we met at the taxi stand outside Holguín airport a few hours earlier and I told him where I was headed, he assured me he could get us there—115 convertibles for the day—if it really existed.
Playa Daiquirí is real, I assured him, unsure.
It had to still be there, didn’t it? After all, it’s the birthplace of that famous cocktail. A classic daiquiri is a deceptively simple thing: a jigger of white rum, some lime juice, half a teaspoon of sugar, and crushed ice, all shaken vigorously together until blended into frothy frostiness. The name Daiquirí, originally a Taino Indian word, is also a place—and I was headed there, to the source, to find out what’s shaking at Daiquirí Beach today.
We were a long way from Havana or Cayo Coco. Tourists don’t often stray into the country’s interior, let alone down to its whale-tail shaped bottom. The road from Holguin to the southern coast brings you into deep Cuba, the heart of what they call the patria, or homeland. “To die for the patria is to live!” trumpet the billboards. “¡Patria o Muerte!” Instead of garden gnomes, people here have guerrilla gnome lawn ornaments: long-bearded, brown-skinned, knee-high terracotta freedom fighters, right fists permanently raised in defiant solidarity.
José drove slowly to avoid all the potholes and manure. Next to the road, skinny-ribbed cows grazed on disconsolate grass beneath mango trees paisleyed with fruit. An old Russian ZIL limousine passed us, carrying skillet-faced men in fatigues. There were Viva Fidel! signs everywhere, as well as placards urging residents not to lose faith in “their” revolution. La revolución, now in its fifty-sixth year,began right here in the lush Sierra Maestra mountains surrounding us. What would happen now that a détente with the United States seemed to be on its way?
House with garden gnomes
We coasted into a field with thousands of butterflies zigzagging through the air. “Mariposas!” exclaimed José, over the CubanFlow reggaeton on his car radio. Cubans pride themselves on their resourcefulness, and José seemed convinced that the volume knob could activate the car’s non-functional AC, as though the musical air rippling out of the speakers might have a fanning, cooling effect. The sweatier the day became, the higher the decibels went. Now, just after noon on an early summer day, it felt meltingly hot, and correspondingly loud. This is the hottest part of the island—the countryside around Santiago de Cuba is unrelentingly tropical. People stroll down the street with parasols in hand. A sheen of mildew covers everything. The humidity slowly liquefies the pages of a reporter’s notebook, reverting them into damp pulp.
“We’re getting closer, I think,” yelled José, cranking the music up even louder.
I wished we could stop somewhere for a daiquiri. In his 1948 classic, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, David A. Embury, ranked it as one of the six basic cocktails. The daiquiri, he wrote, “is a cocktail that is difficult to improve upon. It is dry, yet smooth. The reaction time is short.”
A fast-reacting, dry yet smooth—and ice cold—daiquiri would have been a paradigmatic improvement over the lukewarm bottles of water I’d brought along for the drive. Done right, a traditional daiquiri is infinitely superior to the high-fructose artificial strawberry or banana-flavored slurpee-slushee bile most people are familiar with today. Still, one thing all daiquiris have in common, whether trashy or classy, is temperature. A daiquiri is literally and by definition cool. “Must be drunk frozen or is not good,” summarized Basil Woon, in 1928’s When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba.
Bartender at El Floridita Bar in Havana, Cuba, making daiquiris
A daiquiri can be made equally well with a blender or with a shaker, on the condition that you follow Embury’s instructions to “shake as if you were suffering a super-acute attack of ague and Saint Vitus’ dance combined.” Doing it correctly should result in a frappéd upper layer with a liquid body that Ernest Hemingway (a profligate daiquiri connoisseur) compared to shallow ocean water. “This frozen daiquiri, so well beaten as it is, looks like the sea where the wave falls away from the bow of a ship when she is doing thirty knots,” as he noted in Islands in the Stream.
When Hemingway lived in Cuba, he drank daiquiris at Havana’s El Floridita bar. He liked them unsweetened and supersized: four ounces of white rum pulsed in a blender with shaved ice, lime juice, grapefruit juice, and six drops of maraschino cherry liqueur. He once drank 16 of these Papa Dobles in a single sitting. El Floridita, known as La Catedral del Daiquiri or La Cuna del Daiquiri (The Cathedral / The Cradle of the Daiquiri) still exists, although it is such a tourist trap today that it feels more like a wax museum than an actual bar you would ever want to hang out in. Nevertheless, as woeful as the bronze statue of Hemingway is, they do make mas o menos decent daqs—and a visit remains worth it, at least for the history-appeal, if not for the drinks or the bogus atmosphere.
Daiquiris at El Floridita Bar
As El Floridita’s bartenders will tell you, there are two main creation myths behind the cocktail—and both of them go back to Daiquirí Beach. One of the stories involves an Italian mining engineer named Pagliuchi (or Pagliucci) who was visiting an American mining engineer named Jennings S. Cox at the iron mines of Daiquirí in the late 1800s. Cox mixed him up a drink that his miners would throw back each morning at the Venus bar in Santiago—a cocktail they christened the daiquiri. Cox’s original recipe has survived, and it includes the juice of six lemons, six teaspoons of sugar, six ounces of Bacardi Carta Blanca, two small cups of mineral water, and plenty of crushed ice, all shaken together in a cocktail shaker. (The handwritten formula can be seen here.)
The other origin account concerns an overweight American general named William Rufus Shafter who was too heavy to ride a horse and “had to be transported in a cart pulled by a team of horses,” according to El Floridita’s website. Adept at the finer sides of life, Shafter arrived during the Spanish-American war of 1898, just as the US was taking control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, as per the Treaty of Paris. Shafter, bonvivant that he was, supposedly discovered the possibility of adding ice to a rum sour—in retrospect a rather obvious idea given the sweltering heat enveloping him.
However it really happened, the daiquiri became a thing, eventually attaining hallowed cocktail status alongside the martini, the Manhattan, and the sidecar. But what about Daiquirí Beach itself?
The autopista took José and I past vast fields of sugarcane, goatherds with their flocks, and farmers whipping yoked oxen to plow the land. Somewhere on the way toward Guantanamo province, a sign for Playa Daiquiri took us off the two-lane highway and we ended up on a smaller road. Horse-drawn carriage seemed to be the preferred means of transport in these parts. The Sierra Maestre mountains loomed above us. At one point, some giant green mastodons appeared on the horizon—they turned out to be statues from a theme park called Prehistoric Valley (Valle de la Pre Historia).
The roadside was lined with tombstones and ornamental testimonies to the fallen revolutionaries who fought alongside Fidel Castro and Che Guevarra in the 1950s. These white stone monuments sit in tall grass that stray sheep and horses munch on in the noonday heat. Every few minutes we came across billboards plastered with jingoist slogans or paintings of Communist leaders then and now.
The road to Daiquiri Beach was not in good condition
The revolution wasn’t easy (although it was televised: after Fidel took control, he gave a seven hour-long speech on national TV). The 26th of July Movement originally got underway with a failed coup attempt in 1953, when Fidel was just 26 years old. The combatants made another go of it from 1956 to 1958. In the wake of workers’ strikes, they seized control of Santiago de Cuba, and then the whole country. By the first week of January, 1959 Fidel had become el jefe, and things have essentially stayed that way ever since. The people in power today are the same commandantes who expropriated, and then nationalized, all non-Cuban owned businesses after the revolution.
In 1959, the Americans who’d turned Cuba into their tropical getaway were forced out (including Hemingway, who killed himself a year and a half later). Fidel’s Declaration of Havana condemned “both the exploitation of man by man and the exploitation of underdeveloped countries by imperialistic finance capital.” There is something profoundly romantic, inspiring, and idealistic about his vision—despite the reality of his accomplishment having ended up becoming such an immense autocratic nightmare.
As we approached Daiquirí Beach, I wondered if the world would ever see the likes of Fidel again, and whether the exploitation of human beings and underdeveloped countries will ever be replaced by something better, fairer, kinder. Fidel loved talking about what could be—not that his Cuba ever came close to getting there. Still, there was an infectiousness to his way of seeing, of thinking, and of speaking. As Gabriel García Márquez wrote: “It is inspiration: the irresistible and dazzling state of grace, which is denied only by those who have not had the glory of experiencing it.” Márquez asked Castro what he would most want to do in this world? “Just hang around on some street corner,” he replied. That’s what Cuba is today: not a utopia, but rather a place where there are always people on the streets, hanging around, talking, surviving. What effects Obama’s efforts at rapprochement will have remain to be seen.
Butterfly thoughts were flitting through my mind as we came to a fork in the road. “Which way?” José asked. I shrugged and suggested we go left first. A few minutes later, the road became a sandy dirt road, and then it ended completely next to a tranquil little building. The sign out front said that it was a therapeutic institute. José opened the door to ask for directions to the beach. An attendant came out and said that we definitely had to go back the other way, although cars are no longer allowed down to the beach. We might be able to walk down there, he said, but we should ask at the other end of the road.
“What sort of therapeutic institute is this?” I checked, before we drove off.
It was, the attendant replied, a rehabilitation center for heroin addicts and alcoholics.
“For Cubans or foreigners?”
“Mainly for tourists,” he answered, “who fly here to deal with addiction. Why do you ask? Would you like to check in?”
I shook my head and laughed, somewhat apprehensively, still processing the fact that I’d found a rehab clinic at the end of the road to Daiquirí Beach. We got back in the car, and drove back the way we’d come, taking the other turn when we got back to the fork in the road. That street ended shortly thereafter as well, at a fence that said “Zona Militar.”Some large, oddly-shaped monolithic slabs of concrete stood there, serving no apparent purpose. José told me to stay in the car, because the military might not take kindly to journalistic inquiries. He approached the fence, and pretty soon a soldier came out to speak with him.
Pineapples and garlic for sale on the roadside
There was evidence (such as piles of rocks) that this had once been a mining region, and it turned out that the big formations nearby used to be the base of a concrete bridge that allowed a railroad to connect the mine to Santiago. As José and the official chatted, I sat there, listening to the sound of crickets as loud as trucks. It wasn’t even hot anymore; it was equatorial. We were on the wrong side of the Tropic of Cancer. I looked out at the mine, and imagined typhoid-weary miners sweating in malarial pits around here, wishing they could have a cold daiquri, or at least jump in the ocean just over the ridge.
José got back in the car and informed me that there was no way for us to go forward here. “Playa Daiquiri is now a vacation spot for military personnel,” he explained.
“A what?”
“A resting area for members of the Cuban military,” he continued. “A hotel for Cuban soldiers, whether they can go rest and recover.”
One of the roads took us to a rehab joint, and the other to a military R&R resort. I asked if we could at least walk down to the beach. José shook his head. “I asked,” he replied. “It is off limits to tourists and civilians. No one else is allowed there except military. And definitely no foreigners.”
We drove back the way we came, and then reconnected with the main road. At my insistence, we found a way to circle around along another road down to the ocean. A few minutes later, we came to a parking lot attached to another beach, which I assumed was the beach next to Daiquirí Beach. Who knows? It could have also been part of Daiquirí Beach. José pointed out a sign that said the bay here was called “The Bay of Uncircumcised Pigs.” “Not just the Bay of Pigs?” I asked, as in the famous bay from the missile crisis. No, that one was way up the coast, José said, closer to Havana. As though on cue, an enormous, hairy black pig sauntered across the road in front of our parked car. “Must be uncircumcised,” José said, with a laugh.
The beach looked pretty much deserted, other than a couple of guys sitting around in the shade of tree. It was sweltering. I was pining for a daiquiri, but there was nothing resembling a refrigerator, let alone an ice-box, anywhere nearby. Maybe once the regime changes, there will be Daq Shacks all over the place here. Some people probably think that would be a good thing. For now, given the many all-inclusive dumps littering the Cuban coastline, it’s a relief to know there are still wild, undiscovered places left here.
View onto the Bay of Uncircumcised Pigs next to Daiquiri Beach
An old man in rags approached and asked if we were hungry. “Do you want to eat some fish?” he asked. José shook his head. I considered it, looking out at the ocean. Was the fish freshly caught? There didn’t seem to be any electricity anywhere around here, so it couldn’t have been refrigerated. “Can we see the fish first?” I inquired. The man nodded. “But we’ll need to go over to my house to see it,” he stipulated. “It’s a few miles away.” We declined; the idea of driving into this heat in search of unrefrigerated fish felt far too adventurous.
I walked out to the waves, breathing in the briny marine air, content knowing that wherever we were, this was, if not the Daiquirí Beach, then at least a neighboring beach that must be pretty much identical to it. I put my hand over my forehead to shield the sun from my eyes and gazed up into the Sierra Maestra mountains, looking for a sign of what had sparked the revolution. Palm fronds rustled in the blue of summer.
“Let’s go?” José asked, wondering how much more we needed to endure in this Playa Daiquiri quest. “Yes, let’s go,” I agreed, patting him on the back. As we turned to head back to the car, our shoes filled with sand. I couldn’t wait to get to Santiago, to see if I could find the Venus bar, and finally order a proper daiquiri.
“The perfect combination of a somewhat aged exotic character, a wonderful view over the town, and a very high standard of service”, is how one Trip Advisor reviewer succinctly describes the historic Hotel El Minzah in Tangier.
“A grand old lady”, “iconic, 1940s atmosphere”, “an oasis of calm in a bustling city”, “bags of character!”, enthuse others.
Of all the hotels in the magical port of Tangier, I found El Minzah without doubt the most sumptuous and the most elegant. This historic property, full of charm and wonderfully located near the Kasbah and the centre of the old town, first opened its doors in 1930 at the command of John Crichton-Stuart, the 4th Marquis of Bute – a Scottish aristocrat and businessman with extensive interests in what was then dubbed the “International Zone”. It is one of the very few five-star establishments in the city and has long been a favourite with dignitaries, politicians and Hollywood stars: Winston Churchill, the Comte de Paris, Rex Harrison, Rita Hayworth and Yves Saint Laurent all enjoyed its splendours, and it is still considered one of the most distinguished hotels in North Africa. Along with the nearby smaller but no less beautiful Grand Hotel Villa de France, El Minzah is part of the prestigious Le Royal Hotels and Resorts division of the multinational General Mediterranean Holding group, owned by Iraqi-born British businessman and philanthropist Sir Nadhmi Auchi. GMH also has a number of five-star properties in Luxembourg, Spain, France, Hammamet, Sharm el-Sheikh, Amman and Beirut.
El Minzah is set on a hill in what was once the prominent diplomatic quarter of Tangier. It is close to the beach, the port, the shops and the main train station, but being elevated it enjoys magnificent views of the Bay of Tangiers, the Straits of Gibraltar and the Rif Mountains, against which backdrop is set the old medina and Cap Malabata. Of the 140 tastefully furnished, air-conditioned, en-suite bedrooms (including 15 suites) most have a south-easterly aspect, affording plenty of sunlight and uninterrupted views of the hotel’s gardens and the Bay. The gardens themselves are stunning: nestled among the luxuriant lawns are beds of sweet roses and giant geraniums, lilies, hibiscus and other exotic plants, all shaded by palm, orange and eucalyptus trees.
El Minzah’s architecture and fountains will transport you instantly into the mysterious delights of old Tangier – in fact Humphrey Bogart’s Rick’s Café in the iconic film Casablanca was modelled on the hotel. Original Arabesque woodwork, oriental carpets and arched doorways greet you around the lobby area, where you can enjoy traditional Moroccan tea and almond sweets. A large Andalusian courtyard forms the heart of the hotel, with a magnificently carved sandstone portal, iron studded wooden doors and plenty of old world-charm. This paved enclosure is exceptionally beautiful and offers alfresco dining options in the morning as well as in the evening.
There are several restaurants and bars in the hotel, offering international cuisine that will appeal to all palates as well as Moroccan specialties such as Couscous and Tagine. Caid’s piano bar is a lovely evening option for cocktails on the terrace, but there is also The Wine Bar with its chic-bistro atmosphere and excellent selection of fine wines. With a lovely view of the pool and gardens, the Misbah serves lunch on a daily basis for a true North African experience and is ideal for galas or events too.
El Minzah Wellness*, a sophisticated health club offering fitness activities and spa treatments, will transport you to another world of well-being and relaxation. Guests can unwind at the sauna, steam room or Turkish bath after a dip in the pool, or pamper themselves in the beauty shop and Venus bar. For the more adventurous, the hotel is also close to the Royal Golf Country Club, as well as stables for horseback riding and tennis courts.
I have trekked around Cambodia: a very beautiful country, rich with history and wonderful warm people. This makes unpleasant reading. Reported by the BBC.
By Kevin Doyle,Phnom Penh – 27 May 2015 Additional reporting by Phorn Bopha
Angkor Wat
Take a one-way ticket out of a Pacific island detention centre and you could start a new life in a country where you are told jobs are waiting, quality medical services are available, and there are no problems with violent crime or even stray dogs.
Free accommodation is provided, along with monthly income support, health insurance, complimentary language classes and more.
Sound a lot like Utopia?
Try Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Re-settling migrants in Cambodia has proved controversial
Or, welcome to a version of life in Cambodia promised to four refugees – two Iranian men, an Iranian woman and a Rohingya man from Myanmar (also known as Burma) – for agreeing to resettle in Cambodia instead of Australia.
When they arrive in the capital Phnom Penh from Darwin, the four will be the vanguard of a controversial deal in which Cambodia has agreed to resettle Australia’s unwanted refugees.
Hundreds of them are detained on the Pacific island of Nauru. In return for receiving those who volunteer to resettle, Cambodia has been promised A$40m ($31m; £20m) in aid money.
Refugee groups have attacked the deal, accusing Tony Abbott’s government of abrogating Australia’s responsibilities to refugees and paying off an impoverished Cambodia. Members of Cambodia’s opposition party have accused Australia of using their country as a dumping ground.
The plan has also been ridiculed for providing a standard of living to refugees – initially at least – that many Cambodians could only dream of. Around 18% of Cambodia’s 15 million people survive on less than $0.93 (£0.61) a day.
Initially, the four refugees will be housed in a villa in the south of Phnom Penh. They will receive income support, health insurance, classes in the local language, cultural and social orientation, and assistance in finding work or educational opportunities, said Leul Mekonnen, chief of mission of the International Organization for Migration in Cambodia.
Due to intense scrutiny of the refugees’ transfer and to ensure privacy, their identities are being kept confidential, as is the amount of financial support they receive, Mr Mekonnen said.
“There will be initial assistance which may be considered higher than local standards. But they need it,” he added.
An agreement was signed between Cambodia and Australia last year
‘So sad’
This has caused resentment among some in Cambodia which saw protests in 2014 when the re-settlement deal was agreed.
“I am amazed that refugees will be accommodated in villa-style houses and will have teachers coming to give them Khmer lessons and others, when our own Khmer population are kicked out from their own land and have to survive on their own,” one Phnom Penh resident wrote in a Facebook post.
“Australia paid millions to resettle those refugees, compared to our population who have nothing to give in exchange… So sad.”
The Australian government has paid the first Nauru migrant volunteers lump sums of up to A$15,000 ($11,500; £7,500), national media have reported.
More than A$15.5m ($12m; £7.8m) has been allocated to the refugee resettlement plan in Cambodia, on top of the A$40m ($31m; £20m) promised to the Cambodian government, the Australian Senate Committee has been told.
A “fact sheet” on life in Cambodia given out on Nauru, serves to act as an inducement.
It paints an implausibly rosy picture of life, describing the country as “rapidly developing” with “all the freedoms of a democratic society”, as well as “a high standard of health care with multiple hospitals”, and no “violent crime or stray dogs”.
Australia’s unwanted refugees are detained on the Pacific island of Nauru
What Australia tells its own citizens about Cambodia is rather different.
“Health and medical services in Cambodia are generally of a very poor quality and very limited in the services they can provide,” Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs says on its website.
“Outside Phnom Penh there are almost no medical facilities equipped to deal with medical emergencies”, while “hospitals and doctors generally require up-front payment in cash. In the event of a serious illness or accident, medical evacuation to a destination with the appropriate facilities would be necessary,” the website warns.
And, crime is a concern: “The level of firearm ownership in Cambodia is high, and guns are sometimes used to resolve disputes,” the department notes.
Kem Sarin, director of the Cambodian government’s refugee office at the interior ministry, declined to comment on the veracity of the fact sheet, apart from one claim – that Cambodia has no stray dogs – for which he gave this opinion: “There are dogs in all countries.”
The country’s main employers are minimum-wage garment factories where hundreds of thousands of young women from rural areas toil for long hours for relatively little pay – around $50 (£33) a week.
‘Rich is okay’
Breast-feeding her sick daughter on the street outside a children’s hospital in Phnom Penh waiting to see a doctor, Moeun Srey Lin, 32, paints a picture of the kind of healthcare, education and work opportunities available for her and the 70% of the population who are farmers.
She spent two hours on a bus to get to the city from her village. Her eight-month-old daughter has been sick for three weeks with a persistent high fever, cough and runny nose. She went to local, private health clinics three times in the past three weeks, spending her meagre income on treatments that have not been effective.
Asked about life in Cambodia, Srey Lin says it is hard to find work and educational opportunities. Healthcare is, as you can see, not very good, she says.
“If we are a poor family, our kids don’t get a good education. If we are rich, it is okay because our kids won’t have to work to help the family.”
Lucrative jobs, skilled doctors and good schools do exist in Cambodia. But they are only accessible to a tiny percentage of this country’s population.
Staggering wealth evident in Cambodia in the last few years says more about widening inequality, and endemic corruption, than an abundance of opportunities, or a rising tide raising all boats.
“Welcome to a little piece of paradise on the Mediterranean,” beams the Le Royal Hammamet website, “where manicured gardens, sandy beaches and Moorish architecture conspire to give you the ultimate hospitality and leisure experience.”
I’d go along with that. As a travel writer and long-time fan of Le Royal Hotels & Resorts properties, I spent a week there earlier this year and would happily go back for more.
Le Royal Hammamet lies directly on the beautiful blue beach of Yasmine Hammamet, just a short hop from the awesome marina. (Sadly I can’t yet afford the yacht yet.) Nearby you’ll find the Medina, the Casino, the cultural centre and two beautiful golf clubs. I played the championship eighteen-hole Golf Yasmine designed by award-winning Californian architect Ronald Fream. It offers deliciously large tees, dramatic bunker shapes and an imaginative use of water, and the whole course has a sophisticated irrigation and drainage system designed to keep it in pristine condition. This is a highly enjoyable par 71 that is open all year round and was easy to book through Le Royal’s helpful concierge service.
Le Royal Hammamet is part of the Le Royal Resorts & Hotels division of GMH, the group founded by British entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Nadhmi Auchi. Like all GMH’s five-star luxury resorts, Le Royal offers guests top-class facilities throughout.
There are four outdoor swimming pools on the resort – two close to the private beach – and a covered heated pool. You can also enjoy a knockabout on one of the two floodlit tennis courts, and there are loads of other sporty activities to try such as beach volleyball, boccia, basketball, water polo, mini golf and archery. Various water sports are available too, from pedal boating to water skiing, banana boat and jet ski, and you can also organise overland tours by camel, horse or 4×4.
Kids will enjoy the Fun Club and amusement arcade, and after a hard day’s sunbathing the Shehrayar Nightclub is guaranteed to keep the adults entertained into the early hours.
The Royal Med Spa is “a great architectural success where the contemporary and baroque merge to create a wonderfully soothing atmosphere”, and where you can get first-class treatments and cures like massages, body wraps and facials; it also has a heated swimming pool, Turkish bath, fitness hall and hair salon.
If you fancy a day out, many of Tunisia’s fascinating towns and cities, including the capital Tunis, are just a short bus or car ride away.
El Djem
This town is home to some of the most impressive Roman structures that still exist in Africa today. Almost as large as Rome’s Coliseum, El Djem’s amphitheatre looms dramatically over the horizon of olive trees, but contrary to popular culture it was not used in the filming of either Ridley Scott’s epic Gladiator or Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Carthage
Founded by a Phoenician princess, Carthage grew to become the capital of one of the world’s greatest ancient empires. Good places to explore are the Salammbó Tophet, the Punic Harbour and the Roman and Palaeo-Christian Museum, as well as the archaeological park and the thermal baths of Antoninus Pius, the largest outside Rome.
Antoninus Pius thermal baths, Carthage
The Great Mosque of Uqba Ibn Nafi Kairouan is the most sacred city in Tunisia and Islam’s fourth most important centre after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Covering a total area of over 9000m2, the 9th century Mosque is a truly awe-inspiring structure. Inside it contains 414 marble, granite and porphyry columns and the Muslim world’s oldest pulpit, with over 300 individually carved wooden pieces.
Sidi Bou Said
A waterfall of pretty houses cascades steeply down Jebel Manar and beckons visitors into its web of cobbled alleyways. The village takes your breath away with its white-washed walls and blue carved stone doorways, interrupted only by bursts of magenta bougainvillea. You will find plenty of little cafes and restaurants overlooking the gulf of Tunis as well as markets selling local crafts and pastries.
Sidi Bou Said
International Cultural Centre/Sebastian Villa
This elegant mansion, designed and built in typical Tunisian style by Romanian millionaire George Sebastian between 1920 and 1932, was described by architect Frank Lloyd Wright as one of the most beautiful places he knew. It has a central colonnaded swimming pool, a huge black marble dining table and a baptistry font-style four-seater bath surrounded by mirrors. In the summer months it hosts Hammamet’s annual International Cultural Festival, with entertainment ranging from classical theatre to Arabic music.
The Bardo Museum
Tunisia’s National Museum is home to the country’s rich archaeological finds and is particularly renowned for its mosaics. Apart from the exhibitions of Islamic art and ceramics, the building itself is also of great architectural interest. The collections are housed in the old Beylical Palace, and its 18th and 19th century interior decorations are an intriguing combination of Hispano-Moresque and Ottoman Rococo.
The Island of Djerba
Djerba is known as “Land of the Lotus Eaters” because of its intensively cultivated farms. Dotted with palm, fig and olive trees, the island seems luxuriant in comparison to the mainland. Its traditional architecture includes a large number of white-washed mosques and renovated weaver workshops, and there are some exquisite sandy beaches. Take a picnic basket and some boukha.
It’s been called the Paris of the Middle East, and today you’ll find Lebanon’s capital is a dynamic, buzzing metropolis that sits proudly and comfortably between the East and the West. For millennia, the city has consistently managed to reinvent itself after numerous natural and man-made disasters; few other world capitals welcome visitors like this one, and its eternal optimism and genuine hospitality make it a very special place to visit.
Beirut has survived a rough history, falling under the occupation of one empire after another for more than 5000 years. It was originally named Bêrūt, “The Wells” by the Phoenicians, referring to the underground water table that is still tapped by the local inhabitants for general use. Excavations in the downtown area have unearthed layers of Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman, Arab and Ottoman civilizations. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the country’s largest and main seaport. The first historical reference to it dates from the 14th century BC when it is mentioned in the cuneiform tablets of the Amarna letters, and the city has been inhabited continuously ever since.
The attractions in this Mediterranean metropolis are numerous, be they cultural, casual or culinary. World-class local and international restaurants sit side-by-side with jazz bars, night clubs and narghile coffee shops. The new Downtown Beirut, glistening with its high-end shopping and unique architecture, contrasts with the busy business centres and splendid seaside corniche a few minutes away. This is a city of sunshine, cultural events, beautiful people, respected tradition and absolute modernity, all rolled into one.
You can get by pretty much everywhere in English or French: this will make shopping a doddle and museum visits a pure delight. Beirut is very culturally diverse, and thus multilingual. Shop signs are in Standard Arabic, English and French, and most restaurant menus and event listings are also in English. Road signs, however, are only in Standard Arabic and French.
Most Beirutis are very sociable and love going out. If you fancy a night on the town, dressing up a bit will most certainly earn you some respect: the locals like to see that foreigners are doing what they can to fit in. Expect to be offered a drink or a cigarette. Alcohol is very cheap in the shops and supermarkets, but in the night-time venues expect prices to rise closer to European levels.
Places to visit include the Pigeon Rocks, a monumental natural arch jutting up from the Mediterranean, and the beautiful Jeita Grotto in the Valley of Nahr al-Kalb just north of the city, a compound of crystallized caves which boast the world’s longest stalactite. In Beirut itself, check out the ABC open-air mall in Ashrafieh, the nightlife of the Bohemian Gemmayzeh and Hamra neighborhoods, some glamorous shopping in Verdun, the rebuilt Downtown Beirut with its chic restaurants and shops, and the old souks of Jounieh and the Armenian quarter for a great bargain. Don’t forget to haggle!
I stayed in September 2014 in the marvellous Le Royal Beirut, over looking the Med. It’s part of the General Mediterranean Holding group owned by Iraqi-born British businessman and philanthropist Sir Nadhmi Auchi. GMH is a strong and diverse multi-national organisation with activities ranging from banking and finance, construction and real estate, to hotel and leisure, telecommunications and aviation, and its Le Royal Hotels and Resorts division also has a number of other gorgeous five-star establishments in Luxembourg, Madrid, Hammamet, Amman and Sharm-el-Sheikh.
For a load of fun in the sun, Le Royal Beirut boasts the largest water park in the Middle East!
If you’re single, have a family or are travelling on business and looking for hot five-star fun in an all-inclusive luxury environment, you need look no further than the recently-refurbished Le Royal Holiday Resort in Egypt’s popular Sharm El Sheikh. I was there just a few months ago writing some travel pieces.
Le Royal, Sharm el Sheikh
The Resort is spectacular: it took over two years to complete and was officially opened in late 2013 by the Prime Minister of Egypt at the time, His Excellency Hazem Al Beblawi. I found out it is part of the General Mediterranean Holding group owned by the Iraqi-born British businessman and philanthropist Sir Nadhmi Auchi, whose activities range from banking and finance, construction and real estate, to hotel and leisure, telecommunications and aviation. GMH’s Le Royal Hotels and Resorts division also has a number of five-star establishments in Luxembourg, Madrid, Hammamet, Amman and Beirut – so plenty of choices for your next holiday too.
The glitzy website of Le Royal in Sharm says it offers 426 spacious and modern guestrooms, “nestled in an ocean of lush gardens and inspired pools, providing a perfect base for both leisure and business travellers during their stay in Sharm”. I’d certainly go with that. A choice of deluxe Twin, King, Family and Family-Themed Rooms – the kids’ beds are designed as cute little cars – plus Junior Suites are available, all with carefully chosen high-spec amenities including a marble bathroom with designer toiletries, individual climate control, free high-speed wireless internet access and a massive flat screen TV. “A combination of exclusivity, comfort and intimacy with attention to details are the characteristics of the accommodation,” murmurs the website. I was in a twin room overlooking the pools and it was certainly very pleasant. Further luxury was guaranteed with sleek contemporary furnishings, sumptuous fabrics, plush memory foam mattresses with custom-made Egyptian cotton bedding, comfortable seating and work areas and – perhaps most importantly – “the fluffiest bath linen”. It really was too!
The cool Sky Bar
As I would expect from a top five-star resort, there are plenty of delightful indoor and outdoor restaurants and bars to choose from, each offering an individual theme and ambience and lots of good things which kept me well fed and watered from daybreak till nightfall.
To ensure you look your absolute best during your Red Sea stay (I am a bloke so I really didn’t care), you can go and enjoy Le Royal’s Naama Bay Spa, with an on-site beauty salon to pamper your every whim and, for those who just can’t sit still – certainly not me in that heat! – an air-conditioned fitness centre with elliptical trainers and state-of-the-art cardiovascular and weight training equipment and accessories; not forgetting the sumptuous Wellness Centre – “a sanctuary of indulgence and relaxation” where skilled therapists offer rejuvenating treatments for body and mind and “the imperceptible magic of Western and Eastern approaches”. I didn’t try any of these but I did overhear one lady singing their praises.
But I found the best bit of this luxurious resort was the spectacular water park. For young and old, novice paddlers or experienced extreme water-sporters like myself, there is a fabulous selection of slides, rides and splashes for everyone. It’s an aquatic paradise boasting 18 features including the Zebra tube and Aqua Tower, the Space Boat slide, Pirates of the Mediterranean and the Octopus. And while the intrepid younger holiday-makers relish the exhilaration of the slides, the more sedate among you can relax in and around the various pools or the outdoor Jacuzzi, or just enjoy a different kind of splash at those cool poolside bars.
Thinking of taking a short-term job contract in Brussels? Read on…
Belgium’s capital is a highly cosmopolitan city that is full of expat workers, many from the UK. Although not one of Europe’s most beautiful or well-kept cities, it nonetheless boasts many interesting buildings, museums and palaces. However, it is one of the best places in Europe for eating out, with a huge abundance and variety of restaurants; bars and clubs are also plentiful. But one of the best things about Brussels is its location: not too far from London, Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne, Luxembourg – even the Alps.
The city is mainly francophone, although Flemish is also widely spoken. A familiarity with the local languages always helps, but many of the large corporations in Brussels now acknowledge English as the premier language, especially for documentation. Even if your French is rusty-schoolboy like mine, the locals are generally very receptive and friendly towards foreign workers and they are easy to integrate with.
Accommodation is varied but there are loads of relocation and estate agents who can assist you with finding property. Avoid the notorious areas of Schaerbeek or Molenbeek on the northern side of the city, especially if you are intending to bring a car and leave it parked on the street. Those in the know tend to stay around the Ixelles and St Gilles areas near Avenue Louise, or right in the centre of the city. Expect to pay upwards of €1,500 a month for a good apartment with secure parking facilities. If a house and garden is more your scene the Waterloo area might be worth a look, where you can expect to pay a similar amount for a large detached house with gardens. Be warned, though: as with all the major cities, commuting can be a problem. Parking can prove an issue during the day, but is not too bad later on in the evening. Belgian driving is renowned for being very erratic and takes a while to get used to, so be very careful! The metro and tram systems are generally acceptable for getting about.
The Hairy Canary
Thursday is the big night out in Brussels. Many contractors tend to leave the city over the weekends, so they party on Thursdays. The Wild Geese pub-restaurant in the European Parliament area is a great establishment, but turn up early as it gets super busy. For those who want a good British pint after work, try Sean O’Casey’s pub or The Bank located around Avenue Louise. The Hairy Canary and O’Reilly’s can also be personally recommended. These pubs are great for meeting like-minded people and you’ll find fellow expats on just about every day of the week.
On top of all this, Brussels has well-stocked shopping centres, large parks, plenty of culture and an English Bookshop (Waterstones) that is as good as any in the world.
Cinquantenaire Park
For more information, look at agenda.be or the very excellent be.home
Ned’s Tip: check out this post for loads more interesting stuff to do in Belgium
The city of Luxembourg is one of the main financial centres in Europe – largely due to the country’s banking and privacy laws. Tax rates are lower than pretty much anywhere in the EC. Situated about 230km south of Brussels, the city is tiny by capital standards: the population is not much more than a hundred thousand people. It is very beautiful, very clean and well worth seeing. It is spread across a deep gorge – the Grund – and the views are quite breathtaking.
Read the story of Luxembourg’s beautiful Pont Adolphe
For those who don’t know (I didn’t), the country has its own language, Luxembourgish – largely a melange of German, French and Flemish but quite distinctive nonetheless. The Luxembourgers will warm to you if you make an effort to speak in their native tongue, and although any company worth its salt will deal in English, French and German at the very least, many of the staff in the city centre shops are French and may not like speaking English!
If you’re staying in hotels, you’ll find them on a par pricewise with most capital cities around the world. Do find time to check out Sir Nadhmi Auchi’s Le Royal, Luxembourg’s premier five-star hotel. It’s currently undergoing a major refurbishment to the tune of some 40million euros, but you’ll still find the best service in town from the wonderfully friendly and attentive staff, proud members of the International Association of Hotel Concierges known as the Golden Keys. If you’re self-catering, a decent one-bed apartment will set you back from around €70 a night, but budget for €150 and upwards if you want a two-bed inside the city.
Luxembourg is a great place to go if you have a family as crime is low and the standard of living high. The country has plenty of parks, playgrounds and forests to explore and dozens of castles and Roman ruins. There’s also loads of local fairs and fetes and well-organised activities for the kids to get stuck into. If you’re on a fixed-term job contract and don’t fancy the local education system (many don’t!), for expats and wealthy ‘Burgers alike the city boasts two International Schools – one running the British curriculum with IGCSEs and A Levels and the other the International Baccalaureate – as well as the vast European school, which caters primarily for the EU Commission workers’ families, and numerous polylingual crèche facilities. The public transport system is good, with excellent bus and train routes from the city centre and the main station to the further reaches of the country and on to the rest of the continent, plus a small but very busy international airport. Car rental is not a problem and fuel is the cheapest you’ll find in western Europe!
For the best night out in buzzing Luxembourg, you’re really spoilt for choice. Urban, The Tube and Konrad are great places to meet people and have fun near the main shopping streets in the centre or for the coolest clubs in town try Melusina, Apoteca,Bypass or if you’re feeling upmarket The White House. For those who just want to sit and enjoy a good beer, go down to the Grund and check out such pubs as the Britannia and the Pyg, or try Oscar’s, Maybe Not Bob’s and Scott’s for more English-speaking fun. And when you’ve worked up an appetite, you’ll find more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else in the world, plus a Chinese in almost every town.
Gromperekichelcher utterly delicious; and I even managed to throw a couple of mean darts and win a cuddly toy for the missus lol . 😀
Will is a travel blogger writing for 
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