The Little Provencale Hotel with More Important Art than Most Museums

Paris has the Café Flore, Venice has Harry’s Bar, New York had the Stork Club. There are some places that just had that “je ne sais quoi“, a power to lure in the world’s most fascinating people where legendary conversations, untold flirtations and scandalous altercations took place at candlelit tables in the corner by the bar. Nestled in the…

We Found a California B&B that Might be Madder than the Madonna Inn

As unabashed lovers of the more-is-more mantra, we were destined to fall in love with “The Victorian Mansion at Los Alamos” – which is anything but Victorian, in a way. It can be a 1950s drive-in, or a Parisian escape; a pirate’s lair, or a gladiator’s delight. The last Victorian estate in the area, this mansion-turned-B&B…

Amsterdam is Turning its Bridge Houses into Tiny Hotels

Well that’s it for me. I’ll never stay in a normal hotel in Amsterdam again now that 28 of the city’s bridge houses have been transformed into charming little hotel rooms. For over a century, these canalside gate houses accommodated the storied bridge keepers whose task it was to conduct the city’s water traffic and allow…

My Little Portobello Road in Paris

“Stoooop!”, I howled from the backseat of the scooter as we whizzed through the side streets of Gare de Lyon. I had just caught a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye; something strangely familiar, something that no matter what, we were going back to explore. And as we rolled the wheels of…

The Kitschiest Hotel in the World

Imagine a place where caveman bedding, lime green carpeting and hotel rooms named after cultural ethnicities went unquestioned; where the sound of electric waterfalls and squeaking plastic leather seating was welcomed. My friend, you don’t have to imagine anymore, now that you know there’s a place where your inner-kitsch can be free. Welcome to the…

Camping like Wes Anderson: The Real Moonrise Kingdom

Since 1899 (that’s long before Wes Anderson ever made Moonrise Kingdom), this charming campground has been welcoming travellers to Yosemite National Park with its picturesque tented accommodation and cinematic backdrops. This place my friends, is the real Moonrise Kingdom. Formerly known as Camp Curry, until a trademark dispute with a private concessions company of the same name saw…

B&B of the Month: The Wander Inn

They’re the Renaissance women of the wild, wild west, and today Amie and Jolie Sikes are giving Messy Nessy a taste of their little haven in Round Top, Texas: The Wander Inn. It’s the stuff of southern fairytales, a bed & breakfast where the longhorns graze and the fireflies glow, where folks “can see the…

So in Albania, the Number of Abandoned Bunkers is Kind of a Problem

Once upon a time, during the Cold War, Albania’s paranoid dictator Enver Hoxha forced his country to build 700,000 bunkers, one for every four citizens. Today, the country is still trying to figure out what to do with his concrete mushrooms that have become synonymous with the landscape. A number of them have been creatively…

Exploring Tommy Suharto’s Ghost Hotel

Of all the stories of crazed dictators and corrupt regimes built on nepotism, the Suharto legacy might just be the most scandalous. The youngest son to one of the most brutal leaders in recent history, Tommy Suharto’s tale fits somewhere on the same shelf as Pablo Escobar’s and Kim Jung Un’s. Playboy embezzler, convicted murderer,…

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The Greatest American Train Journey that Time Forgot

It was “the grandest scenic trip on earth”; an enchanting and world-famous mountain railway journey to a vast resort where champagne and caviar was served along with panoramic views over southern California as far as the Pacific Ocean. I first learned of the Mount Lowe railway when I stumbled upon this old postcard map above. My first thoughts were: wow,…

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