Five, four, three, two, one…HAPPY NEW YEAR! Cue the traditional song of Auld Lang Syne to usher in the dawning of another New Year. From Times Square in New York to Trafalgar Square in London, voices ring out, accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display on the stroke of midnight. So, where should be heading this year for the most dazzling New Years Eve experiences? Here are some of the best free world-class events around the …
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Just 100 miles south of mainland Britain and 45 minutes from London is Jersey, the warmest and most southerly of the British Isles. Jersey also has its fair share of celebrity millionaires: Formula One racing drivers, musicians, artists, writers, movie stars, inventors… however, the famed Jersey residents I came to meet were of the four-legged variety – its prized dairy cows.
Darren Quénault of Classic Herd is the island’s only independent dairy farmer producing award …
Now you and your pet can take a European vacation together as several North American and European carriers are offering a Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) whereby pets and their owners can journey together.
Your pet checks in with you at the passenger terminal and rejoins you on arrival at the baggage hall at the destination airport. Pets are loaded aboard into the cargo hold, directly below the passenger cabin. This hold is temperature controlled and …
Cape Town is South Africa’s holiday city. Few urban centers could match its picturesque setting along the mountainous Cape Peninsula spine, which slips into the Atlantic Ocean. The most striking of its sights is Table Mountain, rearing up from the centre of the city and often draped in white clouds. Standing on the tabletop, beyond the mountainous Twelve Apostles, the drop to the ocean is sheer with Africa’s priciest real estate tacked to the slopes. …
Heading northwest, towards the Mozambique border, we left Wonderboom Airport (near Pretoria) via a chartered Cessna. Ninety minutes later we arrived at Cheetah Plains, a privately owned game reserve located within the 65,000 hectare Sabi Sands reserve, which itself shares a 50km border the Kruger National Park. Sabi Sands is world renowned for Super Seven* viewing, with Cheetah Plains the hot spot for Big Cats. There are no dividing fences, which sees game moving freely …
Descending the steep, narrow plank, inch by inch, hand over hand along the long pole, I thought: “This better be one hell of a cave!” Exploring the other-worldly interior of Hang Trong Cave was to be one of many surreal experiences I was to have traveling along Ha Long Bay in northeast Vietnam.
In the 1992 movie Indochine, credited with putting Ha Long Bay on the map, Catherine Deneuve describes it as “the most remote
To most Westerners, Africa is a place of witchdoctors, demons and prehistoric creatures, but those who’ve travelled there know it as an ancient continent steeped in primal cultures yet one that’s wild, raw, in your face and utterly exciting. It’s a land of blistering heat, amazing sunrises and more animals than you ever believed existed. Multiply all this by ten, throw in a UNESCO World Heritage site plus one of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders …
Just as New Orleans celebrates its Mardi Gras on the day before Ash Wednesday, the streets in down town Port of Spain, Trinidad erupt into one of the largest street masquerade parties in the Caribbean. It takes place, not in one, but two whole days–known as Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday–before Ash Wednesday. It sees people frolic in the streets dressed in sequins, feathers and bright sunshine colored costumes. The dancing doesn’t stop as they …
As Ireland’s national holiday approaches, visions of all things green will sweep over the island, as well as fill the minds of Irish descendents spread across the globe, many of whom make pilgrimages back to their motherland on the ever-popular St. Patrick’s Day. Green everything in all shades is usually the order of the day, especially for those visitors looking to make their visit to the Emerald Isle, well, extremely emerald. Green beer, green clothing …
Where’s all the hype? Where are all the people? Where’s the best-selling expat memoir called ‘My Rioja Year’ or ‘A Casa in Rioja’? While La Rioja’s wines are acclaimed around the Iberian Peninsula and internationally, there isn’t much shaking in La Rioja, the region. This was brought to my attention by two sun-kissed Swedes who I was tasting with at the extravagant bodega Eguren Ugarte in Páganos, just a couple miles from Laguardia. Páganos is …
It’s always fun to come back from a trip with incredible stories — not only for the fond memories, but also (of course) to be able to leave your friends and family in awe of all the exciting details. Exaggeration won’t even be necessary if you decide to partake in any of the following excursions that are possible in Iceland, because they are already so unbelievable as they are. You may even need to somehow …
As the summertime approaches, the Spanish find reason to celebrate. Mark these festive dates for the best bashes on the Iberian Peninsula:
June – Welcome Summer in Mediterranean Spain
June 21, or thereabouts, is generally considered to be the summer solstice in the western world. In Spain, the official spring-to-summer jump is the 23rd of June on Sant Joan’s Day (San Juan in Spanish). The change of the season is celebrated with wild all-night shindigs …
Europe is known for having an extensive and impressive array of Christmas markets, but the seasonal merriment doesn’t have to stop there. In springtime, when flowers, trees and hibernating critters begin to come out of winter hiding, new markets also start to pop up across the continent. Some are devoted mainly to Easter, and all the fuzzy lambs, cheerful bunnies and religious traditions that come with it, while others are more widely in celebration of …
Museums sometimes seem to fall into the same old categories and might not always be very enthralling, even if a particular museum has a good reputation. At the museums featured here, they don’t have such problems, because their collections are anything but ordinary — and they really can’t even be categorized, as far as museums go. How often do you come across a series of exhibits devoted solely to ghosts, dentistry, shoes, hair or funeral …