Here’s
a Top Ten Travel List guaranteed to lift you out of the doldrums
If you’re a Margaret Mead wannabe, Papua,
New Guinea should definitely be tops on your bucket list. With untouched
wildlife, a diverse culture and stunning scenery, you might also be the first
to discover an indigenous new species of bird. Mountain Travel Sobek has
a special April departure where you will experience, first-hand, a unique
festival of 8 different clans. With a live volcano, as the backdrop, the Duk Duk festival cannot be missed.
http://www.mtsobek.com/
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Picture:
Courtesy of David Kirkland |
When it comes to travel, ‘boutique’ no longer applies to hotels. With only 74 flat-bed seats in an all business class cabin, La Compagnie flies from New York to Paris and London. In- flight service includes individual Samsung Galaxy Pro tablets, chilled champagne, rare wines and French delicacies, anti-allergenic pillows and a glam crew. Who said bigger was better?!
https://www.lacompagnie.com/en
Photo-tourism is the newest trend in Africa and beyond. Wild
Eye will guide you from the plains of the Serengeti in Tanzania to the bushveld of the Sabi
Sands in South Africa
to Svalbard, Norway, the
white world of the polar bears. You’ll enjoy the moment while Wild Eye records
your adventure of a lifetime.
http://www.wild-eye.co.za/
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Standing
with the owners of Wild Eye: Gerry van der Walt & Marlon du Toit
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National Parks are becoming popular again,
but no need to worry about crowds since Capitol Reef National Park is
the best kept secret! It’s the least visited of Utah’s National Parks, but
one of the best and a photographer’s paradise. Henry Mountains is the
last major mountain range to be mapped by the U.S. Government and the world’s
largest herd of free-ranging bison can be found here. Utah is for real
cowboys!
http://utah.com/national-parks
Stockholm is oh-so sophisticated, progressive
and underrated. Their bakficka or ‘back-pocket’
restaurants are the bistro versions of a more gourmet/fine dining restaurant -
same chefs, same owners, similar menus, but a more casual atmosphere and pocketbook
friendly. They are usually next door to each other (Speceriet is the
back pocket restaurant of Gastrologik), but, as in life, there are
exceptions: the back pocket Erik Bakficka is located in Östermalm
with the main restaurant, Gondolen in Södermalm. If you’re a 1-percenter or
a millennial foodie, Stockholm
should be on your bucket list!
http://speceriet.se/?lang=enhttp://www.eriks.se/
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| Picture: Courtesy of Eriks |
The Ida Blue Hotel, situated on the slopes of Mount
Ida in Western Turkey, is a beautifully kept secret..until now.
Located in the 4000 year old Adatepe village which dates back to
the Greeks and Ottoman Empires, the hotel is comprised of 3 stone houses with a
total of 9 rooms that have been lovingly restored to its original
splendor. The gardens have over 120 species of plants and flowers , all
the food is suplied by local farmers , the nearby villages are authentic and
untouched and the surrounding mountain and sea make for a truly
intoxicating journey. According to ancient
mythology, the gods charmed, seduced, tricked, married and betrayed one another
in Mount Ida—is that where ’Housewives’ got their inspiration ?!
http://www.idablue.com.tr/en  |
| Ida Blue Hotel |
’Luxury’ and
’all-inclusives’ don’t have to be an oxymoron! Family friendly and fabulous, a
new Grand Velas Resort will be opening in Los Cabos, Mexico in
Fall 2016 near Las Ventanas al Paraiso. Rumor has it, they are working
on a swimmable beach (we all know that swimmable beaches in Cabo are few and far between), but the
project is hush hush!!! This is
one brand that doesn’t disappoint!
You can’t go to Peru
without visiting Machu Picchu, but, for a truly authentic experience, it
doesn’t get better than Lake Titicaca. There are 42 floating
islands where the Uros tribes pre -date Incan civilization and
continue to hunt and fish the way they used to. They use totora reed roots to
construct their foundations, boats and homes and each tiny island is approximately the size of NYC’s new ’pod’ apartments! For the sheer beauty and luxurious setting, stay at the 18 room Titilaka
which gets my vote as a ’Wonder of the World’ hotel!
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I had the
pleasure of meeting some of the Uros people |
There’s a new frontier in the Wild West and it ain’t in Wyoming! Jackson Hole is a resort community in China replicating the American dream—everyone lives in timberframe homes with large back yards (some with year round Christmas trees). Their clubhouse is decorated with Navajo art and wagon-wheel chandeliers and the dress code for Sunday is American casual; flannel shirts, sweatpants and sneakers .Their car of choice is the Buick Excelle, the Volkswagon Jetta and the Ford Focus. Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day are celebrated and they even have a boy scout , baseball and knitting club or ’dream-gathering’ tribes as they call it. If you happen to be in Beijing and you get homesick, Jackson Hole is only 90 minutes away!
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| Jackson Hole, BEIJING! |
I would be remiss if I didn’t include Havana,
Cuba on this list. There have been so many articles written about what
to see and do, but to get a real sense of what this vibrant city is about,
there are neighborhoods and private access experiences one does not read about
and these are the things that make Havana so special: go to Lanchita
de Regla and explore the other side of the bay rarely visited and still
undiscovered, experience a genuine Santeria ceremony,
not only visit a private villa that was built before the Revolution, but stay
in one , lunch at one of the best, and local, paladars. Travel is sometimes about not what you know,
but who you know!
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| I'm cruising in Cuba! |
