Stories and Ideas

Bouchons, canuts and traboules - tale of two rivers in French.

It is half-way between anything and everything: from Paris to Marseille, from North to South, from the peaks of the Rhone Alps to the Mediterranean Coast. Ask anyone anywhere in the world to name the main city in France and their likely answer is indisputable: Paris. Well, anywhere else in the world, maybe, but here in Lyon the response might not be so obvious.

Island created by Gods.

In the ancient times this island was called “Mai Te Pora” - created by Gods. Its modern name is Bora Bora and it’s one of the South Pacific most famous gems. Whoever created it though should be held accountable for the crime against humanity: once you’ve seen Bora Bora you are unable to admire anything else as nothing can be compared to its stunning beauty.

King's Palace with the room for the rest of us.

Santorini - pearl on the edge of volcano.

Chances are that you have seen the sky in unbelievable shades of blue before. You have tried Baklava and smelled real Greek coffee. You have admired sugar-white houses hanging on the cliff above the sea. However, if you have ever experienced it all at once, you know it can be at only one place on the Earth: Santorini.

Celetravel - special trips to celebrate and remember.

Meet me on the Chapel Bridge.

When I say Switzerland you say… wait, let me guess… Swiss cheese and chocolate? Maybe even Swiss watches and Swiss Army Knives?

But if you've been lucky enough to visit this beautiful country, the first thing your brain will recall is the sound of church bells. Every Swiss town has its own church with a bell tower.

The church bells ring every quarter of an hour and on the top of the hour with a different bell. They also ring at wedding arrivals, ceremonies beginning, wedding departures, on Christmas Evening, Christmas Day, New Year, Easter, Swiss National Day, during function check, in case of civic emergency, at every baptism and funeral… and often for no reason at all.

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King's Palace with the room for the rest of us.

You may have noticed that in my travel stories I rarely mention a specific hotel - unless, of course, it is so unique that it can be considered a destination onto itself. In this case, this particular hotel might be worth traveling over the pond to experience it personally. Allow me to take you there for a short tour and you might agree with me after all.
First, let's set the place and time. Place - the heart of Madrid at Plaza Neptuno, close to the iconic Plaza de Cibeles and just steps away from the legendary Prado Museum. A truly privileged location by any guide book's standards. Time - between October 1912 and today, choose any day from the more than 100 years of its glorious history.

Come with me through the entrance, unusually positioned at the corner of the building, to the lobby, which is gracefully understated yet still manifests old-world elegance with its finest quality furnishings and delightful fresh-flower arrangements.
As we walk through, don't look surprised if we see someone famous passing by. This hotel has hosted so many celebrities, stars, and luminaries, it feels like you can still see them - as a spirit or the real person, depending on your luck and imagination.
Over there is a mustachioed gentleman that looks so much like Mr. Albert Einstein. Indeed, the scientist stayed here while giving lectures at the University of Madrid. That group of excited young gentlemen with flowers? It is Serge Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes dancers having just returned after their performance at the Teatro Real. And the lady of exotic beauty that just passed us… You probably did not recognize her face, but you may have heard her stage name: Mata Hari.
Take a quick peek through the door leading into the bar. It is the best place for a cocktail in Madrid, but that is not the reason I show it to you. Those three young men seated at a table discussing, perhaps a bit too vigorously for such a high-status place, principles of Surrealism? They are Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Bunuel.
Legend has it that one day the hotel guests were treated to the sound of a voice singing "Nessum Dorma" as if it was coming from Heaven itself. Close, but not quite - it was from the Royal Suite on the fifth floor, which has been a favorite place to stay for Luciano Pavarotti.
As we go further into the interior, we'll arrive at La Rotonda - a famous restaurant with a spectacular stained glass dome that would be at home in a cathedral or concert hall. And while you admire the magnificent cupola and the Flemish tapestries on the walls, I'll read you more names from the guest books. In no particular order : Josephine Baker, Rita Hayworth, Orson Wells, Carry Grant, Maria Callas, Mick Jagger, Sofia Loren, Antonio Banderas , Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen...

I know, some of us don't care as much about history, lavish interiors, or famous names, and that can certainly be understandable. However, there is one thing that we, travelers, all care about: how we are treated or what goes by the official name of 'the customer service.' When staying in this hotel, it's not just like feeling at home, it's like being treated by gracious host offering incomparable hospitality. As far as hotel management is concerned - I'll quote - "the level of service afforded to the hotel guests should be restricted only by limitations of the law." Just a quick example: Michael Jackson requested that a wooden dance floor will be installed in his suite. The floor was ready for him when he arrived. Another guest booked a room conjoining to his suite and asked for the furniture to be removed in order to make room for an extensive - Royal, in fact - wardrobe. It was done with no questions asked. One aristocratic polo player got sick and had to stay in bed for days. He requested that two mares that he had come to Madrid to buy be brought to his room for inspection. The horses were walked through the building and up to his room without incident.

Yours truly had a chance to interact with a concierge and other front desk personnel. While my needs were way less extravagant, I was still impressed by the pleasure - no less - of those interactions. I observed that it takes a scant few seconds for a guest to stop in the lobby, with even the dimmest puzzlement across their features, before someone from uniformed hotel staff will immediately materialize right next to him or her and ask how they can help.

So, there is only one thing left to do - to give out the name - and I'm happy to do it. It's Westin Palace Madrid, and while you'll stay there, I'll be thinking of you with env

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Santorini - pearl on the edge of volcano.

Santorini is regarded as the most spectacular of all the Greek islands. With its submerged caldera (crater), postcard images of whitewashed churches and bougainvillaea-clad houses set against blue sea and sky, it truly deserves its other fond name - the Pearl of the Aegean. Where else you can dine, drink and admire the sunset on the edge of a volcano?

This sleeping giant is actually an active volcano that erupted in 1956 and may do so again one day, though probably not in our lifetime. Proof of the life that still exists within this giant, water-filled hole is the island of Nea Kamini, in the center of the bay which emerged in 1707.

One of the most charming and well preserved of all of villages of Santorini is Oia located along the caldera edge, 12 km from the main town of Fira. The sunsets here are the most famous on the island, and there are plenty of fine dining restaurants where you can relax while watching the setting of the sun. Oia is home to artists and writers from around the world, who are drawn to its aura of serenity and beauty. You will find countless art galleries offering the creations of its inspired inhabitants.

Santorini has been photographed many times, but it is still better than any picture. No matter how many images you might have seen or how many emotional stories you might have heard, nothing can prepare you for the uniqueness and beauty of this island.

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Celetravel - special trips to celebrate and remember.

Among the countless reasons my clients travel, one reason clearly stands out: to celebrate a distinctive - once in a life time - moment or event that deserves recognition. After many years as a Travel Professional it finally became my forte and a favorite genre.

There is so much in life to be celebrated: milestone birthdays, personal achievements, wedding anniversaries (this one automatically qualifies as a personal achievement after 5 years), and so forth, and travel provides the perfect mood and scenery to make the celebration worthy of the event. Just try to add to that special dinner the soothing sound of Pacific waves, the smell of the tropical flowers, the colors of a Hawaiian sunset... Isn't it the kind of moments we live for?

I hardly invented the concept - just coined the word - as many of you have tried and enjoyed Celebration Vacation. Nonetheless, I've had the honor and pleasure to arrange for my clients celebration trips on many occasions, so I feel qualified to comment on the phenomenon. To work on the celebration packages for my clients is both greatly exciting and incredibly challenging.
Why is it so different from the ordinary vacation? Because people often wait for it for so long and put so much into it - time, thoughts and efforts. There is so much at stake and even more involved in the process. You are creating a life time of memories and want everything to be perfect and everybody happy and nice to each other. But what if Aunt Lucy can't stand the heat and Uncle Ben can't stand Aunt Lucy? What if John had always dreamed about Costa Rica, and Bob had been there, got bitten by monkey and swore never to come back.
I'm not saying it's impossible to do, I'm just saying it takes skills and - more often than not - a hospital size jar of the headache medicine. Cruises or all-inclusive resorts are still the universal favorites for many occasions that involve the whole family. Most cruise lines have entertaining programs for all ages, so even a long day at sea can be very busy for Little Pirates and very relaxing for their parents and grandparents (spa or round of golf anybody)? Think about a family gathering where nobody would have to cook and wash dishes for 20 people, or painstakingly wait for one's turn to take a shower. That's what really creates the genuine family bonds.

But what if even an exotic cruise or an all-inclusive resort vacation seems to be too ordinary? Let's say you want to show somebody very special how much he or she is really loved and admired. What if you decided to arrange the birthday or anniversary trip to match the purpose? Since the travel industry has finally recognized the trend and started to come up with new options every year, we have plenty of creative ideas to explore. Would she not feel like a princess at a candle light dinner in her honor in a Irish castle? Would he not consider the sunset over Machu Picchu that he has spent a long time dreaming of a really thoughtful birthday present? How about a "Look who is 40" all-girls spa and shopping trip? Or the African Safari journey for your teenager-turning-into-a-young-man ? Or a week long Mediterranean yacht cruise with the dearest friends? Can you imagine all of you looking through the photos and videos in ten years?

So, whatever you are ready to celebrate - personal triumphs, much deserved retirement or promising new beginnings - give me a call. Everything is possible, so let your imagination - or mine - run wild.

Island created by Gods.

A large coral reef with motu - small islands - surrounds Bora Bora as a strand of pearls. Between the main land and coral reef lies the shallow lagoon of indescribable shades of blue with water so clear you feel like you are swimming in the mid-air. Mount Otumanu towers majestically over the main island as a medieval castle. It is the long loved capital of honeymooners, celebrities and celebrities on honeymoon. If you want something out of the ordinary for your wedding day or something romantic for your anniversary or just want to impress somebody special - Nature here is on your side as a set artist and stage manager and it will not disappoint you.

If you never stayed in over-water bungalow before, Bora Bora is the perfect place to try. You can jump into the turquoise sunlit water right out of your private deck and join the sea turtles race and manta ray’s ballet. Or you can lay in bed and watch the tropical fish schooling around the coral beneath you through a glass floor (my husband enthusiastically prefers the later).

If the word of mouth is the best advertisement, for the French Restaurant it might work even better if this mouth is full of Beef Bourguignon. The French cuisine wizard Jean-Georges Vongerichten recently opened on Bora Bora the Lagoon - his newest endeavor. What the star chief creates there is much closer to an art than to meal and has to be enjoyed as such.

With out of this world sense of tranquility and scent of Tiare flowers to rival the designers perfume this place is as close to haven as you can get to it without doing anything extreme.

Ia Orana and Welcome to the place created by Gods.

Bouchons, canuts and traboules - tale of two rivers in French.

It is half-way between anything and everything: from Paris to Marseille, from North to South, from the peaks of the Rhone Alps to the Mediterranean Coast.

Ask anyone anywhere in the world to name the main city in France and their likely answer is indisputable: Paris. Well, anywhere else in the world, maybe, but here in Lyon the response might not be so obvious. Residents of Lyon are certain that their city would give Paris a dose of healthy competition.

Lyon has its own Notre Dame, called the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, and its own smaller version of Eiffel Tower, modestly named Metal Tower here.

If it looks like a tie so far, that is because we have not counted the rivers yet. While most European cities have at least one, Lyon is blessed with two: the Rhone and the Saône.

While Paris is the official, political capital of France, Lyon is known as its gastronomic capital. Lyon has enough Michelin stars to form a small galaxy, and more restaurants per capita than any city in France. If you happened to sample all of them and got fed up with their "three molecules and a drop of a sauce" portions, try the bouchons - small, often family-run bistros that serve decidedly unpretentious food. Or patisseries, world-famous cakes and pastries shops, where everything looks so tantalizing I had to fight the urgent temptation to seek asylum for a few days in one of them.

In 1540, the King of France, noted art patron Francis I, granted a monopoly on silk production to the city of Lyon and so the Capital of Silk was born. Fabrics from Lyon became well known and treasured throughout Europe and later graced the walls of Marie-Antoinette's rooms in Versailles and the palaces of the Russian Empress, Catherine the Great.

However, there is more to Lyon that meets the eye of an unsuspecting visitor. If you know the right doors to open, you can get into magic world of the traboules - narrow secret passageways that connect longer avenues and are burrowed literally through the hearts of the houses. Scattered throughout the Old Lyon, they're capped with vaulted masonry ceilings to create galleries, ancient wells, and even a spiral staircase carved out of the stone - a miracle of medieval engineering. The first traboules were built in Lyon in the 4th century, but played a role throughout the history of the city. Renaissance silk weavers - canuts - appreciated the idea because covered corridors protected the fabric from the rain and allowed it to be carried quickly from the workshops to the textile merchants. It became even more handy during World War II, when the secret alleyways were used by the Resistance to escape from Gestapo raids.

While painting on the walls might be a pretty ancient French tradition (science dates the Lascaux cave images as far back as 40,000 years old), the artists of Lyon definitely took their skills to a new height. Nearly 60 enormous outdoor murals decorate the city, some of them covering the façade of entire buildings. Out of all the tall tales that the wall murals convey, the Fresque des Lyonnais is easily the most all-encompassing. It depicts all of the famous people from Lyon: Roman Emperor Claudius; the pioneers of film-making, the Lumière brothers; silk weaver and inventor of the Jacquard loom, Joseph-Marie Jacquard; founder of the science of classical electromagnetism, Andre-Marie Ampere; and the author and aviator, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, all on their balconies as if they still lived in this house by the Saône River. Down below, the famous chef Paul Bocuse stands in the doorway of a typical Lyonnais restaurant.

In the end, even with all of its charm, history, and atmosphere, it still may be Lyon's central location and variety of transportation options that makes it the ideal base from which to explore the many regions of France. Just make sure that, before you will travel farther by train, plane, car or boat, try to spend a few days taking in the vibrancy of Lyon. It'll be a stopover that you will not only not regret, but will also treasure.

Meet me on the Chapel Bridge.

When I say Switzerland you say… wait, let me guess… Swiss cheese and chocolate? Maybe even Swiss watches and Swiss Army Knives?

But if you've been lucky enough to visit this beautiful country, the first thing your brain will recall is the sound of church bells. Every Swiss town has its own church with a bell tower. The church bells ring every quarter of an hour and on the top of the hour with a different bell.

They also ring at wedding arrivals, ceremonies beginning, wedding departures, on Christmas Evening, Christmas Day, New Year, Easter, Swiss National Day, during function check, in case of civic emergency, at every baptism and funeral… and often for no reason at all.

Let’s take a journey across the lake and I guarantee you’ll hear the bells again before we reach the other shore.

In case you’re wondering… This seemingly infinite shimmering blue sea of serenity and tranquility with Alpine mountains towering in the distance is called Lake Lucerne – or the tongue-twisting Vierwaldstättersee to the locals. The lake is actually a water-filled valley that was formed by ancient glaciers.

To get to the other shore of the lake we have plenty of bridges to choose from - five to be exact. The one we are currently walking on while trying to avoid being trampled by the crowd of tourists is called The Kapellbrücke or Chapel Bridge. If it looks familiar that’s because it’s Lucerne’s most prominent landmark and a popular background for visitors’ “look where I am” Instagram photos.

Built initially as a way to link the Old Town on the north bank of the Ruess river to the new town perched on the south bank, Chapel Bridge is a one-of-a-kind wooden walkway that serves as the symbol of Switzerland. It’s also Europe's oldest covered bridge and the world's oldest surviving truss bridge.

When we get to the center of the bridge, you can’t miss a tower of unusual shape that appears to be a part of the structure. In fact, this octagonal stone turret called the Water Tower is almost a hundred years older than the bridge. It was built around 1300 as a part of the city wall and in its roughly 700-year history was used as an archive, treasury, prison, and torture chamber - at times simultaneously.

The Chapel Bridge and the Water Tower are not the only part of the city's defenses that are still standing. Lucerne’s City Wall and its nine turrets are among the few Swiss medieval fortifications which have survived. One of the watch towers, the Zytturm Tower, has a clock dating back to 1535 and, of course, a bell which rings every hour.

Can you hear its sound now? If you just did and were surprised to find that it’s slightly ahead, don’t adjust your Swiss watch. The Zytturm Tower clock has the privilege of first stroke, and strikes exactly one minute before all other clocks in Lucerne. That’s what I call a fierce competition!