A bellhop opened the door to the Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo, and I was transported out of Panama City's humidity and into a chilly hotel lobby brimming with excitement.
14.05.2024 - 15:39 / insider.com / Taylor Swift
If you've ever read or seen "The Great Gatsby," you know 1920s New York was home to extravagant mansions with owners who hosted lavish parties.
One of those owners was financier Otto Hermann Kahn, who built Oheka Castle — named after its owner (Oh-He-Ka) — on Long Island in 1919.
Kahn's wife used to call the home "Otto's zoo," and that seemed to be an accurate description. A-listers of the time used to party at the 109,000-square-foot home, with Kahn as a Gatsby-like figure entertaining all his guests.
But Oheka's journey didn't end there. After Kahn's death in 1934, the property changed hands numerous times until it was abandoned in the '80s. Fires, vandalism, and theft devastated it.
According to Oheka Castle, land developer Gary Melius then purchased the estate and spent $40 million restoring it to its former glory.
Today, it's the second-largest private home in the US, behind only Biltmore House in North Carolina. It's a popular venue for weddings, a restaurant, and a hotel, and has been featured in movies, TV shows, and music videos. Taylor Swift even filmed the "Blank Space" video there.
You can also tour the grounds for $30.
I took the tour and was astonished by the beauty of Oheka Castle. Here's what it was like to visit.
A bellhop opened the door to the Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo, and I was transported out of Panama City's humidity and into a chilly hotel lobby brimming with excitement.
I hesitate to share this information because I think my friend and I would be perfect for the job but GetYourGuide, in partnership with On Location Tours, is kicking off a search for a couple of Swifties to lead Taylor Swift-themed tours in two major cities.
Mike Leigh’s brilliant 1976 Dorset-based comedy Nuts in May begins with Keith and Candice-Marie taking the chain ferry from Sandbanks across the mouth of Poole harbour to the Isle of Purbeck, where they camp, visit Corfe Castle, walk along the mighty Jurassic coastline and end up in an altercation with a young Brummie couple called Finger and Honky. For me, watching Nuts in May is an annual tradition, as is visiting the peninsula where it was filmed. Most of us have places for which we feel a particularly strong pull; one of mine is Purbeck. And since this peninsula’s recent status as England’s first “super” nature reserve, I’m beginning to understand why.
The carved face of a cateran stares out of the waymarker before me. Deriving from the Gaelic word ceatharnach, meaning a lightly armed warrior, “cateran” later came to denote the cattle raiders particularly active here in Strathardle, Glenshee and Glen Isla up to the 18th century.
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I'm not exactly what you would call a Swiftie — so why did I fly 11 hours each way from Los Angeles to Paris for a couple of days just to see Taylor Swift on the opening weekend of the latest leg of her record-shattering Eras Tour?