6 Tips to Survive - and Enjoy - an 'Obli-cation'
When your 'vacation' is really an obligation, you're taking an 'obli-cation'. You've taken these trips: cross-country to the in-laws' for the holidays. A family or friend's destination wedding. The mandatory winter break or summer holiday family reunion/group vacation.When you take an oblication, the usual steps you take that ensure fun travel may no longer apply.On any of these occasions, you may find yourself spending priceless vacation time traveling to a destination you wouldn't choose, spending time with some people you wouldn't choose. But an...
Where's the Best Place to be on National Cake Day?
If it isn't on your calendar already, get out a red pen and mark November 26. That's National Cake Day, and although we don't need any excuses to enjoy the star of any birthday, wedding, or Tuesday afternoon, it got us thinking: where is the best travel destination for a day dedicated to celebrating cake?Our conclusion: Austria, with not one, but two flagship cakes.Linzer TorteLinz is the home of Linzer Torte. Since it's said to be the world's oldest cake recipe,...
4 Local Markets You Can Go Shopping with the Chef on a Seabourn Cruise
It's a long-standing tradition and one of guests' favorite experiences of a Seabourn cruise. And it doesn't even take place on board the ship.Seabourn's Shopping with the Chef complimentary shore excursions to landmark local markets in ports of call are legendary, and a signature of the luxury cruise line.It's no surprise to find Seabourn chefs shopping in local markets. Take a Seabourn cruise. Then take another. No two Seabourn cruises are quite the same. You'll realize how much effort Seabourn chefs (and all the...
Video: Seabourn Chef Celebrates Quebec's Harvest: Cooking with the Chef
Seabourn specializes in culinary memories. This luxury cruise line has long been famous for its tradition of 'Shopping with the Chef'. In Quebec City on a Seabourn fall colors cruise from Montreal through Canada and New England, we took Shopping with the Chef one step further – to its natural conclusion, in a delectable Seabourn dish.Shopping with the Seabourn Quest's Executive Chef Jes Paskins at the Old Port Market just steps away from the ship, we returned laden with the bounty...
Fact or Fiction? 3 Things You Need to Know About 'Dracula's Castle'
Before every travel destination had a ghost tour and haunted hotels, there was Dracula's Castle.Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel 'Dracula' popularized the vampire genre of fantasy fiction that today is more popular than ever.And although the character of the undead Transylvanian Count is fictional, the Romanian national monument known all over the world as 'Dracula's Castle' is real. 14th century Bran Castle is about a hundred miles from Bucharest and has long been considered the 'home' of...
Discover Dazzling Winter Evenings at Hong Kong's New Light Festival
For a city whose nighttime skyline overlooking Victoria Harbour is already a global icon of urban lighting and signage, a light festival might seem like overkill. But the new Hong Kong Pulse Light Festival expands the effects of Hong Kong's famous neon signs and lit-up skyscapers to a street-level playground of luminous artworks during the darkest months of the year.Debuting in 2018, the Pulse Light Festival runs from the last week of November through late February. Not only does the artistic light...
Searching for 'Hygge' in Copenhagen - and Happiness at Home
It's a global buzzword and cultural phenomenon. And today, more and more of us are in need of Denmark's signature recipe for happiness: 'hygge'.Danish 'hygge' (pronounced 'HOOG-uh') is sweeping the world – everyone wants in on Denmark's famously convivial way of life. The Danish are the happiest people on the planet – even during the long, dark days of winter - and it's all about hygge.So much so, hygge has actually been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status. It might be the...
Four New Shows Onboard Seabourn
The new evening entertainment experiences debut on the Seabourn Odyssey alongside updated popular 'An Evening with Tim Rice' and coincide with an upgraded Grand Salon.Time your enjoyment of Seabourn's delectable dining on the Odyssey so you'll be comfortably seated in the Grand Salon with an after-dinner drink for the evening's entertainment. Four new shows are joining a revamped 'An Evening with Tim Rice' in a Grand Salon that's been updated with new LED screens, lighting, and redesigned stage. Expect evocative music, original...
This Ship Has a Magic Carpet - And 8 Other Things You'll Love About the New Celebrity EDGE
The Celebrity EDGE has launched and is turning heads at every port. Its standout sleek, urban resort styling and game-changing technology have a high point: the Magic Carpet.You'll see what we mean in the video above. But the Magic Carpet isn't the only showstopper on the EDGE. You'll also fall in love with: 1. The Resort Deck, encompassed by an outward-facing, untraditionally asymmetrical terraced pool deck nearly 22 feet high that makes the ocean views and landscapes the focal point while lounging...
Video: What Happens on a Visit to the Juno Beach Centre?
The Juno Beach Centre is Canada's WW2 DDay Landing Beach war memorial and museum, right on the site where Canadians joined British, American, French and Allied Forces on a fateful day in 1944 that was the beginning of the end of the War.Veterans, their families, anyone interested in history, or the sacrifices of ordinary young men on an extraordinary moment for the world, all Canadians as well as citizens of all the nations who fought or were affected by these...