Clarksville, a historic district of Austin, Texas, has lately emerged as a stylish dining and shopping enclave. Among the area’s most compelling new businesses is La Embajada, a design shop housed in a 1923 Craftsman bungalow. Combining the hospitality and interiors expertise of its founder, Raul Cabra — who has designed tableware for some of Mexico City’s most celebrated restaurants, including Rosetta and Pujol — La Embajada presents a refined, regionally diverse selection of Mexico’s artisanal offerings. A series of small rooms display vintage and contemporary furniture, from stately midcentury armchairs and 1970s glass sconces to a minimalist agave fiber rug by the Oaxaca-based textile artist Trine Ellitsgaard. The house is also an actual residence. Cabra often stays in the bedroom up the creaky stairs, and he’s recently made it available for short-term stays (bookings include a daily basket of baked goods from Austin’s Swedish Hill). Guests can purchase the room’s handmade décor, such as a pair of sleek bedside lamps in milky white onyx, a 1960s La Malinche dresser and a bedspread from a Michoacan manufacturer that once supplied Herman Miller. Downstairs, glassware, candles and gifts fill a section modeled after a typical general store in a small Mexican town. But La Embajada’s heart is its inviting kitchen, where visiting chefs cook elaborate meals and staff prepare ice cream and coffee. In another twist, every bespoke detail — including a hammered copper sink, caramel-colored tiles and waxed pine cabinets — can be custom-ordered for one’s own home.
Philip Lim Traveled to Sri Lanka Just for These Midcentury Modern Hotels
27.08.2024 - 16:57 / cntraveler.com
“I tell my friends that I'm now midcentury modern,” the New York–based fashion designer Phillip Lim quips about turning 50. “And like the furniture, hopefully better with age.” Joking aside, Lim, who launched his 3.1 Phillip Lim label in 2005 and now sells his signature clean-lined clothing in shops around the world, saw the landmark birthday as a chance to take stock. “I heard somewhere that, with 50, you get a second dawn. I took that to heart.”
Designer Phillip Lim
Bell-covered doors lead from the courtyard to the interior of the No. 5 house at Lunuganga
For starters, he sold the Manhattan apartment where he'd lived for 16 years and turned his 1940s bungalow on the North Fork of Long Island into his primary home. But the weekend place needed renovating, which was one of Lim's reasons for booking a trip to Sri Lanka, a destination he'd long dreamed of visiting. “The colors, the flavors, the energy—I always feel creatively inspired by Southeast Asia,” says Lim. He'd previously traveled throughout Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, “but Sri Lanka was on my bucket list because of Geoffrey Bawa.”
The renowned Sri Lankan architect helped pioneer tropical modernism, a movement that adapted mid-20th-century design principles for the hot, steamy climates of Latin America, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, weaving in local materials and building vernaculars.
“I've loved Bawa's design for ages,” Lim says, “but now that I'm sort of playing architect with my bungalow, I really wanted to see his work in person.” Bawa designed dozens of homes, public spaces like Colombo's parliament building, and hotels across Sri Lanka, displaying a characteristic sensitivity to the landscape and a tendency to blur the line between indoors and out. When Lim learned that Lunuganga, Bawa's personal estate two hours south of Colombo, was open to overnight guests, he took it as a further sign that it was time to visit.
With only a week in Sri Lanka, Lim built his itinerary around visits to two of Bawa's most important projects: The first was Lunuganga, near the beach town of Bentota, the second was the inland Heritance Kandalama Hotel.
The wood-beamed eastern terrace at Lunuganga
Before Bawa purchased Lununaga's 15-acre estate in 1948, the year Sri Lanka declared independence from Great Britain, it had served as both a cinnamon and a rubber plantation. Bawa spent decades turning the colonial-era structure into his private home and planting a sprawling, mostly endemic garden as a way to rehab the land after centuries of monocropping.
“There's Bawa's main house, where you can sleep where he slept and sit at the desk where he worked,” Lim says, “but also bungalows scattered around the grounds where you can see him experimenting with
The Most Exciting Hotels in London Right Now
London is in its global hotel brand era: In the last year, it’s added a Raffles, a Peninsula and a second Mandarin Oriental; a Waldorf Astoria, a St. Regis and a Six Senses are on their way. This new guard is taking over historical icons and throwing up gleaming towers, and it’s upping the ante on amenities, too. A posh afternoon tea is no longer enough, it seems; now, five-stars come with signature scents, subterranean spas, museum-worthy art and long-stay residences. Rooftop bars, a rarity here a decade ago, are now seemingly obligatory (Bar 33 at the Emory wins for views, with everything from Big Ben to Battersea Power Station in its sights). But there’s still room for the occasional independent hotel, like the Broadwick, a maximalist love letter to the owner Noel Hayden’s hotelier parents and the creative Soho of the ’90s in which he came of age. “It’s a bit of a sensory overload,” Hayden says. Naturally, there’s a rooftop bar there, too.
Five Years Since Opening for Tourism, Saudi Says it Is a Destination 'For All' in New Campaign
“An unexplored territory….Untouched. Uncharted.” That’s the message in Saudi Arabia’s new global tourism campaign to attract overseas travelers to the kingdom.
Travel Innovators, Parks Vs. Overtourism and China's Senior Travelers
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, August 28, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
JetBlue's Latest Sale Has $49 Flights to Nashville and Dozens of Other Discounts for a Limited Time
As the summer travel season comes to a close, travelers have a new way to save on fall getaways. JetBlue recently announced the «Game On» fare sale, which offers flights as low as $49. The promotion is a nod to the fall football season, however the fares can provide an affordable options for early fall vacations, or last-minute trips. As an example, JetBlue shows a fare of $49 one-way from New York's JFK airport to Nashville, Tenn. for travel in both September and October.
Sri Lanka Adding Visa-Free Program for Travelers from US, Other Countries
Government officials in Sri Lanka announced that citizens from 35 countries—including the United States—will be granted visa-free entry into the Asian nation, according to the Times of India.
Frontier Airlines Unveils New Routes for Fall
Frontier Airlines unveiled 11 new routes across 15 airports that are scheduled to launch in October and November.
Sri Lanka Rolls Out Free 30-Day Tourist Visas for 35 Nations
Sri Lanka is set to launch a six-month pilot program on October 1, offering free 30-day tourist visas on arrival to citizens from 35 countries, including the U.S., UK, Russia, India and China. The initiative, which temporarily waives the typical $50 visa fee, aligns with the island nation’s peak travel season, lasting from December to mid-April. This move is part of a broader strategy to revitalize tourism, a sector crucial to Sri Lanka’s economy.
I've been a student in the UK for 6 years. But my family in the US is getting older, and I'm torn about moving back to be with them.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Scarlett Kiaras-Attari, a marketing executive and education content creator who moved to the UK for her studies. It has been edited for length and clarity.
The 8 best destinations for an RV or camper van adventure
Aug 23, 2024 • 7 min read
Sri Lanka Announces Free Visas for Travelers From These 35 Countries
Between Sri Lanka’s eight UNESCO world heritage sites, its thriving wildlife, and pristine white sand beaches, the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean” has enough glimmer for everyone—and now, visiting the South Asia island nation, located off the coast of India, is about to get easier (and cheaper) for travelers from 35 countries.
The TSA is expecting its busiest Labor Day travel period on record. Here's how to prepare
If you plan to travel this Labor Day weekend, you are far from the only one.