As summer holidays come to an end, 50 Best has compiled its list of the World’s 50 Best Hotels in 2023.
01.09.2023 - 14:31 / cntraveler.com
Even far before the pandemic, a large wedding was not in the cards for Biljana Bartulac and Sam Erskine. “I would see people spend a lot of money on their weddings, and actually not enjoy them at all because they were too huge, and the couples too stressed out,” says Biljana. “Then the next day they’d wake up and ‘Oh, that’s it.’ They spent so much money for that one day.”
The pair liked the idea of giving their guests—and themselves—an experience that lasted a bit longer than a day. Plus, their well-traveled backgrounds meant that no one location was an obvious fit: Biljana is from Slovenia, and Sam from the United Kingdom; they first met at a work conference in Basel, Switzerland before reconnecting at another work event the following year, in Berlin. The couple decided on a destination celebration on the white sands of Zanzibar because of its gorgeous beaches, low-key hotels, and proximity to safari adventures. Despite the November 5, 2020 event’s guest list of 35 being slashed down to just ten people when the pandemic hit, it was still a celebration to remember. Here are some of the lessons they picked up about planning a Zanzibar destination wedding along the way, and how they made it their own.
Biljana and Sam chose the Zuri Zanzibar Hotel and Resort on the northern tip of the island for their wedding.
The couple wanted a small, barefoot beach event—and loved the added bonus of tacking on a mainland safari after the event.
Because the couple’s number one aim for their wedding was keeping it as stress-free as possible, vows beside the ocean was a clear choice. “I wanted a barefoot wedding, super relaxed,” says Biljana. “We explored a lot, from Hawaii to the Philippines to Malaysia, the Maldives and the Seychelles.” Hawaii proved to be too far and too expensive for their European families, and in some other places—namely, the Maldives—it wasn’t possible for their wedding to be legally binding. Others had seaside hotels with event packages dictating that their guests stay on premises, and they felt guilty about asking their families to stay in such costly rooms. Ultimately, Zanzibar worked out "based on other destinations not fully meeting our needs,” says Sam.
But it was also chosen thanks to some insider connections. “My best man and I both had local contacts on the island,” he says. And the Tanzanian archipelago had another big feature they loved: the option of going on safari in mainland Tanzania afterwards. “If we’re already there, let's make it more meaningful and throw in something special, a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Biljana says. The couple and some of their family members tacked on time in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and more.
Zuri Zanzibar's open-air,
As summer holidays come to an end, 50 Best has compiled its list of the World’s 50 Best Hotels in 2023.
In Lonely Plan-It, we take you step by step through how we planned some of the most complicated travel adventures. Below, Mary Fitzpatrick shares tips on how to explore Tanzania’s Swahili coast.
A moonscape of volcanic craters, lava fields and belching thermal pools, northern Iceland is as starkly elemental as the country gets. The region has remained little known to UK visitors, partly due to its remoteness — until now, reaching it usually meant a five-hour drive from the capital Reykjavík or a 40-minute connecting flight. This stretch of the country’s wild coast is coming into the limelight this autumn thanks to scheduled direct flights with EasyJet, set to take off on 31 October.
For generations, designers have adopted towns, villages, and other enclaves as second homes and visited them again and again, imprinting a touch of their own sensibility on their chosen place—and importing something of its essence into their own work. It’s the kind of symbiosis that Coco Chanel and Le Corbusier, who summered in neighboring homes, enjoyed with the Cote d’Azur’s Rouquebrune Cap-Martine, or Yves Saint Laurent with Marrakech and Tangier. More recently, Christian Louboutin popularized the Portuguese village of Melides, eventually opening Vermelho Hotel there earlier this year. Here, five designers on the places they go, and why they continue to be pulled back.
Like the slow twirl of a winged seed falling from a maple tree, autumn camping can be a remarkable thing: sharp, bright mornings around the embers of the campfire and crisp nights spent stargazing. Autumn is a time to notice the plump berries that grow on the bushes and the swallows that swoop overhead before making their way to warmer climes. As more campsites stay open past summer — legislation passed in July 2023 allows landowners to operate pop-up campsites for 60 days, rather than the previous 28 — autumn presents ample opportunity to immerse yourself in the golds, coppers and bronzes of the new season. Here's all you need to know to plan a prime UK autumn camping trip.
If you’ve looked enviously at those tricked-out camper vans laden with bikes and kayaks heading out for some fall fun after a long, hot summer, you don’t need to drop tens of thousands of dollars to join them.
The small island of Ikaria, with its 164km (102 miles) of undulating coastline, sits serenely in the midst of the Northern Aegean islands, just a hop from the much larger Samos.
Ultra-cheap flights could be banned in Europe if a forthcoming proposal is approved by the EU: Officials in France want to set a price minimum on airfares across Europe to help reduce carbon emissions.
A Swiss International Air Lines plane arrived at its destination without a single checked bag onboard.
Looking for cheap flights for your next getaway? Error fares could be your best bet.
The French government announced that it hopes to bring in a minimum price for airline tickets to eliminate the possibility of low-cost flights. The French transport minister, Clément Beaune, said in an interview with business magazine Obs that it was no longer feasible in a time of environmental crisis to buy tickets that cost just $10.
For the first time, a nation is allowing travelers to cross its border with a digital passport on their smartphone instead of a physical passport. While the trial is happening in Finland, the European Union wants at least 80% of citizens in the 27-country bloc to be using a digital ID by 2030.