A Hike in Bhutan, Kingdom of the Hills
THIN
AIR, an upset stomach, aching feet—these are a few of my least favorite
things. My wife had pitched my two daughters and me on an “afternoon
hike” in the Himalayas. By her telling, it was something any Girl Scout
worth her weight in Thin Mints could handle.
Little did we know that we’d be trekking to an altitude of 13,000 feet and camping out in a snowstorm.
My wife, designer Cynthia Rowley, likes to book a family adventure for every spring break. We feel it’s important to open the minds of our daughters—Kit, 15, and Gigi, 9—to the wonders of the world before we lose the girls entirely to the wonders of technology. Over the years we’ve traveled to 35 countries, including France, Brazil, Japan, Peru and India. Last year we went on safari in Kenya and Tanzania. This year we opted for 10 days in the Kingdom of Bhutan. We were trying to top our African adventure, but Cynthia also wanted our kids to witness a culture that hasn’t changed substantially in 1,000 years.
We were based at the Uma by Como, Paro, a 29-room luxury resort with a cool, contemporary aesthetic. It is located on a 38-acre site atop a gently sloping, tree-clad hill, overlooking the rich Paro Valley—one of the main cultural centers of Bhutan, near its western border.
We spent most of our time there visiting local dzongs—the region’s distinctive fortress-cum-monasteries—and practicing archery, locally called kit, on the resort’s groomed lawn. Encouraging the whole family to participate somehow felt very “Hunger Games,” but hey—it’s Bhutan’s national sport, its only Olympic event and a common pastime. But after two days of architectural touring and arrow aiming, we decided to mix things up with an overnight camping trip.
The hotel drove us up a nearby mountain via a winding dirt road that delivered incredible Himalayan vistas. We connected with our base team—a couple of guides and a cook, who were waiting with pack donkeys, tents and other supplies. The plan was to hike for two hours, break for lunch, then continue for another 2½ hours to the peak.
It all started very jovially, as we traversed a well-worn path through the trees and underbrush. Our walk, I thought to myself, felt like a mix between the finale of “The Sound of Music” where the family escapes across green mountains and the scenic, mirthful start of “The Blair Witch Project.” Unfortunately, the rest of the latter movie soon became relevant, too—I realized fairly quickly that I might be in over my head.
One of our guides had offered me a walking stick before we set out, and initially it felt rather decorative. Twenty minutes into the trek, I was using the stick as a crutch, and deeply regretting my decision to wear Converse sneakers to hike in poorly-packed snow. I’d taken a Diamox, which prevents altitude sickness, “just in case” but hadn’t actually expected the trip to be taxing—mostly because my grasp of the metric system is fuzzy. I later discovered that 4,000 meters, which hadn’t struck me as an especially challenging altitude, was 13,000 feet. When the guides told us afterward that they’d never had a 9-year-old at the top before, I understood the trepidation I’d spotted in their eyes earlier; they were no doubt questioning whether Gigi had the goods to go the distance.
As we ascended above the tree line toward the peak, I had to stop chatting so I could conserve my energy for walking. I wore a lightweight jacket, as did the kids, and I began to wonder if they were dressed adequately for the conditions.
About an hour into the climb, we began to see meditation caves dotting the hillside. Our guide explained that, in Bhutan, monks are sponsored, much the way professional athletes are in the West. What the monks do may be even tougher than making it in the major leagues, though—they meditate for extended periods, sometimes remaining in caves for five to 10 years. (The sponsors pay to have basic supplies delivered once a month.) It was hard for my children to wrap their heads around that level of sacrifice and commitment. It was hard for me, too.
The staff on these kinds of trips can be intimidating. The man who followed us up the trail effortlessly carried a 50-pound satchel of food and supplies, including a fire starter and a carton of eggs for our breakfast the next morning. He hadn’t broken a sweat by the time we stopped for our lunch of salad and yak burgers. At that point we had started to ascend into the clouds, and yet caught a cool glimpse of a commercial airliner landing at Paro Airport.
We set off for the last leg of our journey up the rugged mountain side, spotting colorful prayer flags hung here and there; we could hear our donkeys catching up to us on an adjoining trail. The last hour of hiking was less vertical—the trail cut across the mountain tops, where forest gave way to rocky meadows because there wasn’t enough oxygen for trees. The guide who was carrying the eggs said he’d once seen a tiger there in the summer months (a tidbit I didn’t share with my daughters until we’d all returned home safely the next day).
An advance team had preceded us up the mountain to erect our tents. By the time we arrived, exhausted, tea and cookies had been set out. As we nibbled, we marveled at the expanse of the Himalayas before and below us; our guide asked Gigi how she felt being the youngest visitor they’d ever had there. She smiled and then vomited, probably due to the altitude.
We watched the cook prepare dinner in a yak-hair tent, which, we were told, is preferable to nylon because it allows smoke and steam to escape, but becomes watertight in rain. After dining on soup, salad and traditional Bhutanese dishes, we made a big bonfire. We were each given a hot water bottle to cozy up to in our sleeping bags, ensuring we would stay warm through the chilly night.
We awoke around 6 a.m. to find that 4 inches of snow had fallen. My sneakers had undeniably been a rookie move. The plan was to descend via a different trail, which would take us to Taktsang Lhakhang, or the Tiger’s Nest, perhaps the most scenic of Bhutan’s temples, built into the wall of a cliff, some 2,900 feet above the Paro Valley.
For the first hour we slogged through snow. Eventually the trail got muddy, but the weather mercifully warmer. Gigi tossed her cookies again, and we took turns carrying her down the slippery path until she insisted on walking on her own. As we neared Tiger’s Nest, we passed other campers who had bunked down at lower altitudes.
We were worn out from the trek, but knowing it was almost over gave us an extra kick of energy. Being able to see the iconic temple, a multilevel white structure with pagoda-like roofs, also provided a boost. As we hiked back down to our van below, we passed a steady stream of tourists en route to see the Tiger’s Nest. The path they were on entails two hours of steep hiking, and their faces pleadingly asked us if they were near their destination. I looked at my girls, proud they’d made the trek in one piece, albeit with plenty of nausea along the way.
“Just a few steps farther!” we told them. Soon we were driving back home—and by home, I mean an extended massage.
GETTING THERE: Bhutan has only one airport, located in Paro. The national airline, Drukair, offers flights from Kolkata; New Delhi; Katmandu, Nepal; and Bangkok. The government requires visitors to book their trips through a registered tour operator, and visas are required for U.S. citizens. Plan at least a few months in advance.
STAYING THERE: The Uma by Como, Paro, has 29 rooms and suites featuring local woodwork and other artisanal touches (from $450 a night, comohotels.com). Rooms have sweeping views of the Paro Valley and Mo Chu River; amenities include a spa offering Asian-inspired holistic therapies and an indoor pool.
EATING THERE: Bukhari, the hotel’s restaurant, serves Bhutanese-Indian and Western cuisine. It offers enough variety that you could eat there repeatedly and still enjoy every meal.
TREKKING THERE: This hike was arranged by the hotel and was included in the nightly rate.
A Thanksgiving inspired by the Biltmore
The Bilmore Estate/MCT The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.
In the bustling, modern kitchen of a farm near Asheville, preparations for Thanksgiving dinner are in full swing, providing a perfect snapshot of a farm-to-table movement taking root in western North Carolina.
The 25-pound Bronze turkey simmering in a water bath on the stove, to be later roasted in a wood-fired oven, came from the farm’s poultry yards. So did the eggs being hard-boiled and grated for the bird’s corn bread dressing. The on-site dairy produced the milk, butter and cream from the farm’s Golden Lad Jersey cows. The Queen sweet potatoes, White Plume celery, parsnips, onions and pumpkins getting peeled, chopped, boiled, roasted or pureed were grown in fields below the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. Spinach and lettuce were pulled from the property’s glass-roofed greenhouses.
Or so I imagine. This Thanksgiving dinner, in my mind’s eye, takes place not in 2014 but in 1902. The farm is Biltmore, a 125,000-acre estate, and the house a 250-room French Renaissance chateau. “Many novel dishes were set before the guests, the ingredients for which came from the good things raised on the estate farms and which were the original product of Biltmore’s astute chef,” the Asheville Citizen reported about that day.
Today, Biltmore — on much less land — is considered one of the nation’s premier examples of Gilded Age architecture. The home, still the largest privately owned residence in the country, is also Asheville’s biggest tourist attraction. What I didn’t realize until I investigated, though, was just how visionary its owner, George Washington Vanderbilt II, was. His goal that the house be self-sufficient, like the European manors he much admired, made it an early example of a back-to-the-land focus that we now take for granted. Vanderbilt’s influence, in fact, changed Asheville’s landscape and even provided the backdrop for its current culinary boom.
When I toured Biltmore in July, my guide noted how seriously the Vanderbilts took special occasions and mentioned that George’s favorite meal was roast turkey and corn bread dressing. That set my wheels in motion. I decided that as Biltmore approaches the 120th anniversary of the house’s completion, I’d develop a Thanksgiving menu as a tribute.
First, some background. Vanderbilt was the last of eight children born to William Henry Vanderbilt, whose father, Cornelius, had amassed a fortune in railroads and shipping. Upon William Henry’s death in 1885, George’s two eldest brothers ran the family’s business affairs, leaving George free to pursue pastoral interests.
On a trip to Asheville with his mother, Maria, in 1888, Vanderbilt, then 26, was captivated by the Blue Ridge Mountains and decided to build a country home there. Construction took six years, from 1889 to 1895. By the time Biltmore was finished, the locals, skeptical about a millionaire New Yorker turning wilderness into manna, had been won over.
“Vanderbilt the farmer,” wrote the Asheville News and Hotel Reporter in 1887, “has shown the Carolinians the productive capacities of their Virgin Soil . . . by the scientific drainage, the improved machinery, the importation of fine stock, the . . . lavish use of fertilizers, and the most up-to-date and scientific methods . . . .”
Vanderbilt employed the most talented people he could find, including experts in forestry, road building, horticulture, agriculture and general management. Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., who designed New York’s Central Park, was the landscape architect, but he was more than that.
“A land use planner, really,” says Ted Katsigianis, Biltmore’s vice president of agricultural and environmental sciences. “He convinced Vanderbilt that most of the land had to go back to forestry and managed sustainably like a crop, because everything else east of the Mississippi that was accessible had been logged.”
Pretty much everything was grown and raised at Biltmore: grain crops, forage crops, field crops, fruits, vegetables, poultry (hens, brooders, turkeys, ducks, game birds), Berkshire swine, lard hogs, Jersey cattle, sheep, goats, bees. What couldn’t be produced there was bought from Asheville vendors or brought in by rail from the Northeast. In turn, the estate was selling enough products to be commercially viable by the beginning of the 20th century.
Biltmore was cutting edge. Greenhouses (called forcing houses) supplied produce such as asparagus, melons, tomatoes and lettuce in the winter. The dairy, Vanderbilt’s pride and joy, was tiled in white enamel for easy cleaning and had cold storage, ice and electric plants. Its three cattle barns were temperature controlled in winter and turned into open-air sheds in the summer.
In 1898, Vanderbilt married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, who was taken with Biltmore and involved herself in the lives of the farm families, says Leslie Klingner, Biltmore’s curator of interpretation. She advocated literacy, created Biltmore Industries so locals could earn money making furniture and handicrafts, and established a School of Domestic Science for African American women. She promoted agricultural reform and set up agricultural fairs and competitions.
Biltmore House was the apogee of modernity at the turn of the century. It had electricity, hot and cold running water, a bowling alley, a 70,000-gallon indoor swimming pool, a gym, freight and passenger elevators, dumbwaiters, forced-air heat, an in-house telephone system, a centrally controlled clock system, an icemaking plant and refrigeration that used compressed ammonia gas to chill brine water
What is striking about Biltmore’s basement-level kitchen, preserved in its original condition, is how brilliantly it was planned. With a bit of updating, you can easily picture a cadre of today’s chefs happily working there. It has a walk-in cooler and three reach-in refrigerators. The dry goods storage room was lined in steel to keep it rodent-free. The spacious main kitchen, with its batterie of gleaming copper pots and pans hanging over the work space, features a large coal-and-wood-fired stove and a wood-burning grill. Separate rooms house a fruit and vegetable pantry, a root cellar for preserved foods, a pastry kitchen and an enormous wood-fired rotisserie with an electrically operated spit for roasting meat.
All the better for producing a special dinner like Thanksgiving’s. Although we don’t know what the house served in 1902, we do know that the guests numbered 18, and many arrived in Vanderbilt’s lavish private rail car, the Swannanoa, just in time for the holiday. Some of the guests had been at Biltmore all month. The meal was served in the banquet hall, 70 feet long and 42 feet wide with a 70-foot vaulted ceiling, adorned with flags of the 13 original states, moose and big-game heads, 16th-century Flemish tapestries, a triple fireplace and a pipe organ loft.
Seating for the dinner was in the French style, with George and Edith facing each other at the center of the table and the guests of honor, noted architects Thomas Hastings and Charles McKim, at either head. The writer Edith Wharton, who frequented Biltmore, sat to George’s right. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., a successor to his father’s architectural firm, also attended. Olmsted Sr. died in 1903.
The oak dining table, 12 feet wide, could extend from 7 1/2 feet to 40. It was always set, says Klingner, with a white damask tablecloth and napkins, all made by hand and most embroidered with the GWV monogram. The Vanderbilts’ burgundy-and-gold-bordered china was made in England by Minton and Spode Copeland. Silver flatware featured an engraved Old English pattern from Frances Higgins, London, 1894. The delicate, feather-light crystal was Baccarat.
Dinner was always served at 8 and was always formal dress. There were seven or eight courses, up to 10 for special occasions. Oysters on the half shell were a favored starter, followed by soup (often consommé), fish (bass and Spanish mackerel were popular choices), an entree (often an elaborate variety-meat dish), a relevé (a roasted meat joint or bird, plus multiple vegetable and starch side dishes), salad and black coffee, considered an aid to digestion.
I developed my Biltmore tribute dinner mostly from one historical gold mine: a diary describing 14 weeks of menus for luncheons and dinners served between Sept. 27 and Dec. 31, 1904. In addition to turkey, the Thanksgiving menu that year included oysters, consommé, broiled Spanish mackerel, calf’s brain cutlets and Virginia ham. Many of the menus contain notations and changes added by Vanderbilt or his wife, Edith.
You’ll notice one major difference between my tribute menu and those served at Biltmore: I trimmed mine to four courses, keeping in mind that you are unlikely to employ an English chef, a French assistant and 12 other cooks, as the Vanderbilts did. (The 12 cooks were women, 11 of them from Western North Carolina.)
The first course is something I’m calling Oysters Biltmore, bivalves on the half shell with bits of country ham and a lemony scallion Mornay sauce that broils into browned, bubbling, cheesy perfection.
The second is a Waldorf salad update from Asheville chef Katie Button, owner of Curate and Nightbell. A “salade” was always served before dessert at Biltmore dinners. The course was popular among wealthy people in the early 19th century because lettuce, being so perishable, was a delicacy. That the Vanderbilts served lettuce grown in their own greenhouses in the winter would have impressed guests.
The preparation George Vanderbilt liked most for roast turkey and dressing was that of Ellen Davis, a cook from Avery Creek, a few counties over, who came to work at Biltmore in 1899.
As it turns out, her turkey recipe, sent to me by Klingner, results in a terrific bird. In a covered pan on top of the stove, Davis first simmered the bird in water covering its thighs, basting it regularly to keep the breast moist, then roasted it in the oven until golden brown. That method produces braised thigh meat that is tender and flavorful without overcooking the white meat: two hours for a 14-pound turkey. I added extra touches, including a two-day dry-brining and butter under the breast skin to eliminate the need to baste.
A pencil notation added in George Vanderbilt’s hand to a luncheon menu for Nov. 25, 1904, reads, “Give me puree of parsnip sometimes as a vegetable,” so I did, topping it with bruleed sweet potato disks as a riff on sweet potatoes with roasted marshmallows.
Fried hominy appears often in the 1904 menus, usually as an accompaniment for duck. I fashioned cakes from grits, hominy, spinach, bacon and Parmesan cheese and sauteed them to golden brown crunchiness.
Charlotte russe, a molded dessert of Bavarian cream surrounded by ladyfingers, was popular on the Vanderbilt table. My version is a showstopper: pumpkin Bavarian cream encased in strips of gingerbread and topped with caramelized pineapple, a fruit often served at the Vanderbilt table.
There’s another reason to pay tribute to Biltmore this Thanksgiving: This year is the 100th anniversary of George Vanderbilt’s death, after an emergency appendectomy. So raise a glass to him, and to his continuing influence.
Soon after her husband died, at age 51, Edith sold off 85,000 acres of land to the U.S. Forestry Service, ensuring that the land would be protected, as he had wished. In 1930, the Vanderbilts’ only child, Cornelia, and her husband, John Cecil, opened Biltmore to the public. After World War II, farms became more specialized and Biltmore concentrated on its dairy operation.
In the 1950s, the Cecils’ two sons took over the estate’s operations. George oversaw the dairy, his brother William the house. The present-day historic site of Biltmore, still owned by the Cecil family, includes 8,000 acres. The balance of the land was inherited over generations by members of the Vanderbilt and Cecil families.
When the dairy was sold off in 1982, William Cecil decided to return to his grandfather’s original vision of a varied, food-producing estate. In 1983, he replaced the dairy with a winery and hired Katsigianis, who has a PhD in animal breeding, to establish a beef cattle operation.
“We started with Angus, added sheep in the early ’90s, then a poultry program based on George Vanderbilt’s breeds and free-range pigs,” says Katsigianis. “Seven years ago we started experimenting with Wagyu genetics and now have a small herd of Angus-Wagyu crosses.”
The World Archipelago, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Only in Dubai. This vast engineering project sought to replicate the globe as a series of artificial islands. The thinking was that the islands would be bought for use as resorts and playgrounds for the rich. The lowering clouds of the global financial crisis put the brakes on construction, and the project has lost momentum, although reports that the islands were sinking back into the sea are apparently unfounded. From the air it's an impressive sight, albeit a wacky one. It's as if a Bond villain has turned his megalomania to more benign schemes.The World Archipelago, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Walt Disney World is the most-visited vacation resort in the world. Yet as magical as it is, it can also be extremely overwhelming for parents, grandparents, and even children themselves.
For over 20 years, Fodor’s Travel has helped families travel smarter to Disney with its annual Walt Disney World with Kids guidebook. The authors of the book, Kim Wright Wiley and Leigh C.W. Jenkins, are the ultimate Disney World Experts: they've been there over 100 times combined, and Leigh even worked there for three years. Here are their top 10 things not to do at Disney World.
SLEEP IN AND ARRIVE AT THE PARKS WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT
Ordinarily, one of the perks of going on vacation is getting to sleep in—but not at Disney! The number one mistake first-time guests make is thinking they can arrive at the parks at 11 a.m. and see everything in a couple of hours. The park is least crowded in the first hour after opening, so this is your best chance to get on the big-name rides without long waits. Later you can have an afternoon siesta.
EXPECT TO DO IT ALL
A fact to ponder: Walt Disney World is twice the size of Manhattan. With four theme parks, two water parks, and countless sporting, shopping, and dining options, it's impossible to see everything in the course of one vacation. (In fact, they designed it that way to make sure you'll come back.) Rather than treating the vacation like some military assault, consider the age, stamina, and risk tolerance of everyone in your party and prioritize accordingly. Reading up on the parks in advance will give you a good sense of which attractions are "must dos" for your family, which are nice if you have the time, and which are skippable. And you don't have to do everything together: strapping Grandma onto Space Mountain against her will or hoping a three-year-old sits still through The Hall of Presidents is a recipe for disaster.
MAKE THIS A TOTALLY PARENT-PLANNED TRIP
Parents often plan a vacation for their kids without consulting the very people they are trying to entertain. Besides helping the kids get excited about the trip, letting them in on the decision-making will prevent temper tantrums and fighting while you're on vacation. One strategy is to let each family member choose three must-see attractions in each park and then agree to honor those choices. (This can also help you create the basis of your FastPass+ list.)
“WING IT”
Thanks largely to FastPass+, the My Disney Experience app, and the ever-expanding size of the parks, gone are the days where Disney can be tackled without a plan. If you're thinking, "We'll just show up, get a map, and see what everybody feels like doing," you're likely to find yourself shut out of the best restaurants and most popular attractions by families who made advance reservations. This is especially true if you're traveling during summer or over a major holiday.
STAY ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF ORLANDO
There is a reason good deals can be found at hotels on the eastern side of Orlando (I-4, exits 80 and higher)—they're the farthest away from Disney. Staying in this area guarantees you'll be fighting Orlando rush-hour traffic every morning, on top of the traffic Disney itself draws. If you plan on spending most of your time in the parks and not on the highway, make sure to stay in hotels that are off exits 79 and below.
EAT NOTHING BUT FAST FOOD
Not many people associate Disney with culinary delights, but you should! Disney goes to great lengths to provide an array of dining choices to its guests, with both variety and quality increasing steadily every year. One of the best ways to find out where to go? Ask a cast member where their favorite place to eat is. No one knows the parks—and its food—better!
KEEP THE FAMILY TOGETHER 24/7
It may seem counterintuitive to split up—this is a family vacation, after all—but little breaks will make the time together better, so schedule time apart to explore or just to relax. Older kids can split off from the group to ride a favorite over and over, or one parent can take the younger kids to Fantasyland while the other tackles the coasters with the older ones. Babies, older family members, and anyone who has just plain had it can go back to the room while the teens stay in the parks. (Granted, this is easier if you're staying on-site at a Disney-owned hotel and can use their transportation system to come and go whenever you please.) Parents, look into in-room babysitters or the kidsitting programs provided at most hotels so you can enjoy an evening at one of Disney's upscale, adult-centric restaurants.
HAVE TUNNEL VISION
The Disney parks are full of wonderfully creative details. While walking down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, look up to the store windows to find the names of people who have influenced the Disney Company. In the Animal Kingdom, spend time studying the Tree of Life and its more than 300 animal carvings. Hollywood Studios has some of the best Streetmosphere performers—actors and actresses who walk around like they're in 1920s Hollywood, interacting with guests and putting on small shows. Epcot has shows going non-stop around the World Showcase in the afternoon and many, like the young acrobats in China, are especially fun for kids. And the number one thing to notice? The cast members! Many guests report that the highlight of their trip was getting to know the men and women who make Walt Disney World the magical place it is.
GIVE YOUR KIDS MICKEY-PHOBIA
Many toddlers and even a few older kids will find the experience of meeting Mickey Mouse and friends to be intimidating. If your kids seem overwhelmed when they get through the gates and find that the main mouse is actually five feet tall, start them off slowly by meeting the face characters—those like Aladdin or Cinderella who don’t wear a mask. And instead of forcing kids into the picture, allow them to watch the characters before approaching. Employees have been trained to be sensitive around nervous children and are good at slowly inviting them to participate on their own terms. If you schedule a character meal, save if for the last day. By then, even the most cautious kids usually will have warmed up.
ASSUME ALL RIDES ARE APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES
Sure, Disney is for families, but some of the attractions can pack quite a wallop. It’s easy to figure out that a ride called Tower of Terror might be terrifying, but keep in mind that Disney does scary atmospheres as well. The Haunted Mansion, It’s Tough to be a Bug, Stitch's Great Escape—all of these are tame rides with elements that might frighten some youngsters. When in doubt, let a parent ride first and come back with the verdict, or do a baby swap.
What to Do in Paris in the Winter
At
this time of year, many of us find ourselves daydreaming about a
holiday in the sun. There's another way to get through the winter
months, though: embrace them. Escape for a short holiday without having
to go long haul by exploring the winter wonderland that many European
cities offer, not least Paris.
It's more affordable in winter, for starters; hotels offer their lowest room rates, and many museums offer free entry on the first Sunday of the month
in the low season. It's the time of year when "Paris is for Parisians",
and it's a blessed relief not to deal with crowds everywhere you go.
Below are some suggestions on how to make the most of a mid-winter
stay, along with some hotel recommendations. We've highlighted three below that will place you close to the action.
1.The City of Lights
The greyness of winter vanishes as soon as it gets dark, as the City of Paris illuminates around 125 streets throughout the city, and from late November to early January over 200 trees on the Champs Élysées are festooned with lights stretching from the Place de l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. Walk down the avenue, admiring the lights as they change colour in turn, and end up at the large Christmas market, which has little chalets selling handmade gifts and specialties from all over France. The department stores on Boulevard Haussmann, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, are also lit up spectacularly, and have incredible window displays and indoor decorations.
2.The January Sales
London is famed for its January sales, but the Paris sales aren't exactly shabby. The winter sales last five weeks (from January 8 to February 11 in general this year) and include small boutiques as well as the larger department stores. It's a great time to get a designer item at a good price and again, there are far less crowds than during the June/July sales.
3.Ice-skating
The
main space of the Grand Palais exhibition complex (above), with its
Beaux-Arts iron, steel and glass barrel-vaulted roof, has been
transformed into France's largest and most impressive rink, the Grand Palais des Glaces,
running from December 13 to January 6. There's a special area for
children and novices, and it's open until 2am on Thursdays, Fridays and
Saturdays, with DJs playing dance music.
The most well-known ice-skating rink in Paris is outside the Hotel de Ville
and runs from December 21 to March 17. It especially comes to life
after dark - again, the lights! It's the perfect way to get some
exercise, young or old.
Another, the Patinoire des Cinq Continents
(or "The Five Continents"), is located right in the Christmas market on
the Champs Élysées; a 60 metre long winding path leads you past over
300 animated animals and there's a special track for speed skaters. It
runs from November 15 to January 5 this year.
Where to stay:
Hotel Mansart
Some rooms at the Hotel Mansart overlook the elegant Place Vendôme, which is lit up spectacularly in winter. You're located right behind the Ritz and a ten minute walk from the department stores on Boulevard Hausmann, as well as being close to the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. Most of the rooms are spacious by Paris standards and are decorated in elegant, soothing neutrals. Breakfast includes bacon, eggs and sausages as well as fruit and cereals, perfect for filling up before hitting the wintry streets. Double room start at €145.
Hotel Cambon
The Tuileries Gardens are only 50 metres from the Hotel Cambon; perfect for a brisk walk after a heavy lunch (and even more magical if it is snowing while you visit). You're in the heart of a great shopping district, too - the very first Chanel boutique to open is on Rue Cambon. A couple of metro stops or a short taxi ride will get you to ice-skating at the Grand Palais. This hotel bills itself as an "art hotel", and the hotel has an extensive collection of sculptures and paintings on display, and rooms decorated in bright cheerful colours.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Beach lovers flock to the idyllic coasts of Punta Cana and Semana, but many of them make it a point to avoid the island’s bustling capital city of old Santo Domingo. It has a rep for having a gritty stretch or two, so I was surprised to find a breezy colonial town that’s chock full of old world charm (it's actually the oldest European city in the New World.) Tucked along the historic quarters of Zona Colonial are long leafy boulevards, grand European-style squares like the Parque Colon, elegant restaurants, churches dating back to the 1500s, and quaint little shops. It has a few boutique hotel options, too—go for the ideally located Hostal Nicolas de Ovando , which is housed in a former 16th-century Spanish estate. I felt as completely at home sitting around its pool overlooking the Caribbean as I did strolling around the city’s main streets—which were safe to walk even at night. —Lindsay Talbo
People visit ice sculptures illuminated by colored lights during a
trial operation ahead of the 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow
Festival in the northern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China,
January 4, 2015
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