[ALAMOSA, COLORADO] — Here’s an overview of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. A little bit of the Sahara in Colorado. What to do Great Sand Dunes National Park. ________________________ The U.S. has lots of natural wonders, but few compare to the incredible Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado. Here in a sparsely populated agricultural valley, flat as a pancake with mountain ranges ringing on all sides, these dunes are one of the coolest natural wonders in the United States. It was thankfully quarried away as a national monument in the 1930s by Herbert Hoover and later turned into a national park. Despite its remote location in the middle of nowhere, over 400,000 people make their way here each year to ooooh
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[PLAN DE CORONES, ITALIAN DOLOMITES] — Here’s my overview of the Messner Mountain Museum Corones designed by Zaha Hadid. An amazing mountaineering museum by Reinhold Messner, the greatest mountaineer ever. Set on the Kronplatz (Plan de Corones) mountaintop it has amazing views of the Dolomites and Südtirol. You should go here. ____________________________ When I first saw pictures of this amazing museum, I told my friends “We have to go see this cool Messner Mountain Museum. It looks insane.” Being the idiot I am, I thought there was just one Messner Museum. When we were hiking in the Dolomites I saw the name Messner Mountain Museum on the map and dragged my friends there. It looked nothing like the pictures I’d seen, it was more like
[BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA]– I’ve stayed in Buenos Aires three times now, sometimes for nearly a week, other times just for a night or two on the way for some beach time in Jose Ignacio Uruguay or some exploring in Salta and Jujuy provinces of northwest Argentina. Here’s my overview of the best things to do Buenos Aires. What to do in Buenos Aires. Where to stay and eat in Buenos Aires. And all the cool things to do I could find. Not everything under the sun, just the best things I’ve experienced and would recommend. I mostly omitted the typical stuff, except some of my favorite things to do. Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America Most people don’t have a visual in mind
[ISTANBUL, TÜRKIYE] — I was in Istanbul many years ago and never got around to sharing tips. But Istanbul is more than 2,500 years old, so it never gets old, all the top sites live forever! I was there over the American Thanksgiving holiday in winter, so my stay was only for a few days — and it rained half the time — but it was a lively as can be… there are 15 million people that live there after all. Istanbul has really been on everyone’s radar lately, so here are the best things to do in Istanbul. And what to do in Istanbul over a winter weekend. Some of the top sites in Istanbul. A Very Quick History of What Makes Istanbul So
[PROVENCE, FRANCE] — I spent more than a month hanging out in this gorgeous corner of Provence, staying at three different places — two rented villas and a famous gourmet hotel — and scampered about each day, exploring some quaint village, hitting the rotating Market Days, hiking or seeking out a destination restaurant. It was a glorious month. These are the great places I found to go in the Luberon in Provence. The best villages and the best things to do in the Luberon. If you have some suggestions on what I missed, leave them in the comments below. My stay in Provence was conjoined with about another scattered month traipsing about all over rural France, visiting only small towns and natural wonders, no large
[ROME, ITALY] — Here’s a post all about my favorite things to do in Rome after studying there for a year and over a half-dozen other trips. Here are the best things to do in Rome. What to do in Rome and the Top sites in Rome. It’s not everything, other guides do that throughly, just my favorite sites. I studied in Rome my junior year of college way back in 1981. Those were different days then, Italy had yet to join the EU, the city was falling apart, everything was broken, trash was everywhere, communist street protests every week, the lira was 1000 to the dollar and everything was cheap. The city was a mess back then, but it was Our Mess to explore
[LISBON, PORTUGAL] — Way back in 2012, NY Times writer Frank Bruni got me with his game-changing article on Lisbon. “Lisbon??” I thought when I read the headline way back then. “Who goes to Lisbon?” At the time, everyone called Lisbon ‘the old grandmother of Europe.’ But his writing and insight was so fantastic, by the time I reached the end of his article I was like “I need to go to Lisbon!” and added it to my list. I finally booked a flight the next July. He was right. I fell in love. I was like, “Holy cow, I could live here.” How’s that for a turnaround? I came back to Portugal again a couple years later for a longer two weeks in 2015,
[PUEBLO GARZÓN, URUGUAY] — A review of Francis Mallmann’s restaurant and hotel in Garzón Uruguay. One of the best restaurants in Uruguay. And one of the best hotels Uruguay. _______________________________ About 14 miles or so miles inland from the surf of Jose Ignacio Uruguay — the world’s best beach town IMO — is a sleepy little town called Garzón. There, in the middle of rolling green hills of gaucho country, Francis Mallmann (my favorite restaurateur in the world) has created a true destination place, El Garzón. In fact, he bought up a whole town around it. Francis Mallmann’s restaurant Garzón is one of the best restaurants in Uruguay. Only a few people realize that it’s also one of the best hotels in Uruguay. I’ve been
[VAL GARDENA, ITALIAN DOLOMITES] — Alpe di Siusi (also called Seiser Alm in German) is one of the coolest and easy hikes in the Dolomites. It’s a giant plateau, a big bowl actually, scooped like an amphitheater around the stunning Sassolungo (also called Langkofel) — the big shard of a mountain that shoots up like a shark tooth and central focus and spiritual rock-center for all of Val Gardena. So as your work your way around this big bowl, your hike is like a Disney seat-on-a-swivel that always rotates to face the main stage. What makes hiking here so great is the unrivaled views of Sassolungo and the endless rolling carpet of hay fields that flank this big wide bowl-in-the-sky. You can walk for hours
[VAL DI FUNES, DOLOMITES] — I haven’t spent much time in Val di Funes, but I kept seeing pictures of this rifugio 👆 several times and I was dying to get here, I’d just never been over to that valley. For the longest time, I just couldn’t figure out where it was. Now I know. It’s called Geisleralm and it’s one of the best hikes in Val di Funes. When I started going to the Dolomites in 2015 and on, there just wasn’t much information or guides written in English, most of it was written for people who already knew where everything wass and were already familiar with all the three-way interchangeable naming of things in Italian/German/Ladin. It took me forever to realize that the
[MÜNCHEN, GERMANY] — There’s so much cool design and architecture in Munich. Here at the best things to do in Munich. What to do in Munich. Best places for design in Munich. I stopped in Munich for a quick overnight in the summer to catch a flight the next day and loved it so much I vowed to come back and explore it more. So I did for a week over Christmas in 2022. Amazing how different it is compared to when we backpacked to Oktoberfest in the 80s. 🤣🤣. As if. I combined both of those trips into this single post about the cool architecture and design all over Munich, so you’ll see some summer and winter scenes. I just scratched the surface. So
[MUNICH, GERMANY] — I’d been in and out of the super cool Munich airport — which in itself, looks like a super clean Apple store — because of direct and lovely Lufthansa flights from Denver. But coming back from the Dolomites, I decided to do a day and a half in Munich during a rainy July weekend. I loved it so much, found so many cool things, I decided to come back over a Christmas break to spend nearly a week. Wow. I was blown away. This is a combined post of both of those trips of all the cool places I found to eat. There were other meals that were just meh, so I didn’t include them here, but these are the great places
[MÜNCHEN] — The Louis Hotel, a fabulous boutique hotel in the perfect Munich location, is my new favorite hotel. And I think the best boutique hotel in Munich. Understated and elegant, the insides are just as calming as a Japanese onsen. Warm woods welcome you in the lobby, with brown-on-brown-on-brown colors covering almost everywhere except for the windows and a stunning painting of the sky. I had no idea this hotel opened in 2009 — when I was last there in 2022 it felt like it had just opened. Everything was sparkling clean, felt brand new and the style, timeless cool. They have 72 rooms, which surprised me because I rarely ran into other guests — probably because the nondescript elevator from a short cove
[LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA] — We were on a two day shoot to the Louisiana swamps to get some b-roll footage for a client brand video we were making. We were in the middle of a Louisiana swamp, a boat ramp actually, between two roaring bridges, mirror images of each other and straight as an arrow, disappearing into the distance like railroad tracks. The boys were setting up their big cinema camera, attaching giant lenses and splaying a heavy tripod. The rhythmic thumping of trucks and cars over expansion joints made us almost have to shout to each other. I was hypnotized at this place — one I’d found by zooming in on in Google maps — and wanted to get this amazing shot. I took out
[PARIS] — I’ve been to Paris a bunch of times over the last several decades, sometimes for a week, sometimes just a couple of days in/out. Several times over a quick Thanksgiving or Christmas bop-over. Sometimes I didn’t take any pictures, other times I just roamed around shooting everything. These are my favorite things, You Should Go Here in Paris. The best things to do in Paris. What to do in Paris. There are lots and lots of Paris guides, so I won’t go into much detail here, just think of this post like an old postcard rack at the train station, look for places that look good, then go find them. These are all my favorite places in Paris. I won’t go into much
[TORRES DEL PAINE, CHILE] — If you’re going to Patagonia the Tierra Hotel is the perfect base to explore Torres del Paine national park. Tierra Patagonia is one of the best adventure hotels in Torres del Paine. It’s actually inside the park, with stunning views of the steep granite mountains called The Towers. Tierra Patagonia–The best adventure hotel in Torres del Paine Okay, here’s the deal: the Tierra Hotels have an awesome setup, there are several in all the cool places of Chile, all built around the adventure side of travel. One is in the Atacama Desert in the north, another on the coast near Chiloé and this beautiful hotel, Tierra Patagonia, inside the incredible Torres del Paine national park on the Chilean side of Patagonia.
[SCANDOLA NATURE RESERVE, CORSICA] — An overview of a boat tour through the Scandola Nature Reserve in Corsica. The best things to do in Scandola Nature Reserve, one of Corsica’s great natural wonders. _____________________________ Okay, who’s been to the Scandola Nature Reserve in Corsica? Non? Strap in. You’re about to see something really amazing. You gotta gotta go do this. A huge natural preserve in the northwest of Corsica, with the most dramatic rock formations, canyons and wildly shaped rocks you’ve ever seen, plunging right into the sea. Dwarfing everything in their midst, namely you. Scandola is like being in a one-armed Grand Canyon, with the deep blue Mediterranean sea on the right side, and every color and shape of rock you’ve ever seen on the left. The
Brantôme is a sleepy little village in Périgord. A gorgeous little town on a u-turn bend of the river, originally built on an island, surrounded on all sides by the calm rolling waters of the river Dronne — which is why it’s called “Venice of Périgord”. This would be a great fort. It’s a great central base to explore Dordogne. Here’s a giant related post I made on exploring Dordogne. It really is one of the cutest list villages in France, I loved it. There’s only about two thousand people that live here and the immediate surroundings. Just loved walking into town in the morning to pick up the International Herald Tribune and a cafe au lait and sit by the river. It has all
[DORDOGNE & PERIGORD, FRANCE] — Here’s my overview on what to do in Dordogne France. The best things to do in Dordogne that I’ve found. The best villages in Dordogne. Where to stay in Perigord. And some of the best prehistoric sites in Dordogne. It’s not everything there is, just what I found to do one week in western France. _______________________________ You don’t read much about Dordogne in the U.S. travel press. But the French & English know about it, almost keep it all to themselves. In fact, this was one of the great battlegrounds of the Hundred Year’s War between the nobles of France and England. Now wealthy Brits have snapped up a lot of the incredible houses and chateaus. I spent a week there
[MOUSTIERS-SAINTE-MARIE, FRANCE] — Moustiers in eastern Provence is the gateway to the great Gorges du Verdon, The Grand Canyon of France. (see my post on the Gorges du Verdon here). It’s an Adventureland of fun, with trekking, boating, canyoning, climbing and just plain gawking at all the natural beauty. Here’s my review of Alain Ducasse’s incredible gourmet Michelin-starred hideaway La Bastide de Moustiers in the beautiful town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, high in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Bathe in Lavender on the Valensole Plateau Driving up from southern Provence, you first drive over the high and flat Valensole plateau, home to some of the largest and most stunning lavender fields in France. Miles and miles of sweet purple flowers, as far as the eye can see. If you’re in Provence