Floating Hotel in Sweden Set to Open in 2018

A pot of birch sap simmered on Eva Gunnare’s stove. It was an early morning in May in Jokkmokk, a small Swedish town in the Arctic Circle, and outside the snow was melting. On the table sat a plate of cookies made with dried bilberries, a native fruit that Ms. Gunnare had foraged the previous season.

Public transit systems are rarely top of the list when considering attractions to include in your travel itinerary. But that’s the case in Stockholm, where stations on the city’s metro system double as an art gallery.

The main kitchen at the Westin Copley Place Boston is very busy — vast and filled with industrial-size equipment to serve the hotel’s guests and extensive banquet facilities. But once a month, when the bakeshop section is quiet, a group of amateurs gathers in that kitchen to learn from Le Cordon Bleu-trained Chef Roy Kaler.

In recent years, hotels around the world have promoted a flowering of fine art in their typically enormous spaces. Owners might put their private collections on display, while in many cases, acquisitions are curated to reflect and pay homage to the host city’s history and local color. For its part, The Leading Hotels of the World group of some 400 properties prides itself on cultural elements being one of the primary motivations for membership.

Time to start thinking ahead. In a mere few months, you can be enjoying the services of a fireplace butler to warm up your soul. Maybe we should more accurately call them fireplace sommeliers, since, like their wine brethren, they will select just the right wood—oak, cherry, maple, or birch?—aged just the right time to your taste preference. All you need to do is book one of 42 suites at the completely remade and rebranded Newbury Boston hotel.

While most people deliberate for weeks, if not months, over moving to a new city or state, Thomas McEntee decamped to Stockholm from New York City practically overnight.

In much of Europe, summer 2023 will be remembered as a season of bad news for the travel industry. Wildfires have brought a new kind of danger to many southern resorts already suffering from a heatwave, forcing the British government amongst others to issue travel warnings at the height of the summer vacation period.

The eight year old didn’t know what to make of it when she was handed an oversized brass key and told to place it near the swans on a mural behind the reception desk of The Four Seasons Hotel Boston. After a few tries, though, there was a clicking sound and the door opened leading to a bright blue closet crammed with toys, stuffed animals and games from which she could choose. As if it isn’t exciting enough to be a child at a grand hotel, this pushed her over the top to jumping up and down.

With their chic cities, dramatic landscapes and high quality of life, the countries of Scandinavia remain objects of worldwide fascination. Yet if you’re looking to dip your toe into Nordic waters, where do you begin?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about discount airlines providing low-fare flights to European cities. London, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen are now an inexpensive Wow Air or Norweigan Air flight away from the U.S.—that is, if you’re willing to forego an in-flight meal and deal with a layover. But many business travelers and membership-savvy flyers aren’t looking for a cheap, lengthy flight sans free food.

New air routes by low-fare airlines promise great deals for budget-minded travelers across the globe this year. Here are the 11 most-exciting air routes low-fare lines are launching in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

If you’re planning on visiting any of these destinations, you should read up on how to spot bedbugs in your hotel room (and what to do about it). Pest control company Orkin just released its list of the top cities for bedbugs, using data from both residential and commercial (i.e., vacation rentals and hotels) calls. Orkin noted which destinations had more bedbug outbreaks (Los Angeles, for example, moved up two spots on the list), and which had fewer (good job, New York, dropping four places).