Can hungry sharks be trained? You’ll find out, if you watch my video. Check out the video for a bit of sun, sand and crazed shark feeding. Cartagena de Indias is Colombia’s biggest destination for international tourism. And one of the most popular side trips from this vacation hotspot is to the Islas Rosario, a…
Tag: hotels
VIDEO: Islas Rosario – Sun, Sand & Shark Feeding
Can hungry sharks be trained? You’ll find out, if you watch my video. Check out the video for a bit of sun, sand and crazed shark feeding. Cartagena de Indias is Colombia’s biggest destination for international tourism. And one of the most popular side trips from this vacation hotspot is to the Islas Rosario, a…
Beach Day in Acapulco, Mexico
A Bali-style day bed at Playita Santa Lucía, the new beach club. It’s Saturday afternoon, and a group of five Djs, most from Mexico City, are huddled over their shared table on the beach, as well-oiled vacationers sip micheladas on white-curtained Bali day beds. I’m in the adjacent open-air restaurant, slicing up a fresh whitefish…
HOTEL REVIEW: Relaxed Retro Chic at Boca Chica, Acapulco
Yesterday afternoon, I checked into a hotel where several decades earlier a Hollywood starlet named Rita Hayworth slept. That was back when Acapulco was becoming Mexico’s first jet-set resort destination, and celebrities were flocking to small, independently owned hotels in the hills by the bay. Today, Hotel Boca Chica — which opened in March 2010…
HOTEL REVIEW: El Encanto, Acapulco
After some nine years with no new openings, the city of Acapulco has welcomed no less than three new upscale properties within less than a year’s time: The villa-style Banyan Tree Cabo Marques, the retro-chic Boca Chica (which is where I’m staying now — more on that later) and El Encanto. So even as Acapulco has…
Sun and Sand Take on New Meanings in Chile’s Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert in Chile offers postcard-perfect photo opportunities. On Wednesday, I flew from Santiago de Chile to Calama, the main airport serving the most tourism-friendly region of Chile’s northern deserts. After the two-hour flight, we took a one-hour van ride to San Pedro de Atacama, where a growing number of luxury desert resorts have been…
HOTEL REVIEW: W Santiago
It’s late night at the rooftop bar at the W Santiago, and a woman who claims to be a baroness is tugging on my hair, telling me that it was destiny that she would meet my colleagues and me tonight. “No really,” she says when I laugh. “It was destiny, and I am so happy…
HOTEL REVIEW: Grand Hyatt Santiago
Walking into my guestroom at at the Grand Hyatt Santiago was a rather impressive experience. The gently curved windows provide a wide-open, sky-high view of the soaring modern towers that populate the upscale Las Condes district in Santiago de Chile. The Grand Hyatt Santiago is, in fact, one of the areas most recognizable modern towers…
HOTEL REVIEW: The Aubrey, Santiago de Chile
I’m staying for four nights as a guest at Santiago’s hottest new boutique hotel: The Aubrey. Set in a mansion built in the 1920s in Santiago’s now Bohemian Bellavista district, the Aubrey (which just made Conde Nast Traveler’s 2010 “Hot List“) sits at the foot of the Parque Metropolitano’s funicular railway and just around the…
Arriving in Santiago de Chile, and all is well
Santiago’s airport is up and running fine. It’s 8am, and I’m sitting on a private balcony at the foot of the Parque Metropolitano, a verdant, hilly city park in Santiago de Chile. I’ve just checked into the Hotel Aubrey, a new luxury boutique hotel set in a former private mansion. I’ve just landed in Chile’s…
My Guatemala feature, in Business Traveler Magazine
Interesting angles at the recently refurbished La Aurora International Airport, in Guatemala City. If you’ve been following my blog since I started it earlier this year, you know that I spent several days in Guatemala back in January, on assignment for multiple media outlets. I posted several stories, photos and videos about Guatemala right here on…
7 Interesting Hotels in Uruguay
During my recent visit to Uruguay on a trip with Borello Travel & Tours, I checked out a bunch of noteworthy and interesting small hotels set in various interesting locations — many in and around Punta del Este, the chic, sun-drenched getaway that’s sometimes called the St. Tropez of South America. Here are a few…
Montevideo’s Architectural Treasures: Headed for Landmark Status?
The glistening tower of the Comando General de la Armada, with the Mercado Central in the foreground. Uruguay’s capital city may be smaller than Buenos Aires and carry less of a jet-set image than Punta del Este, but it’s laden with interesting and diverse architecture that some feel should warrant UNESCO World Heritage ranking. Peek…
HOTEL REVIEW: Trompe L’Oeil at the Novotel Buenos Aires
You’re not seeing things: Patio 378, the restaurant at the Novotel Buenos Aires. If perhaps you’ve had a few drinks at the hotel bar, you might be forgiven for thinking that you’re seeing things when you stroll over to Patio 378, the restaurant at the Novotel Buenos Aires. But what you see is what you…