Last October, I hopped in the front seat of a campervan and set out to explore America's West.
20.12.2023 - 22:28 / cntraveler.com / Madison Flager / Megan Spurrell / Matt Ortile
Of the many conveniences that hotels offer, few are as welcome as the in-house breakfast. Whether you’re raring to go or still slumped over after that early morning wake-up, there’s no better reward for having made it out of bed at all than the sumptuous spread that awaits. Here, we’ve rounded up the most sublime hotel breakfasts our editors have enjoyed this year, comprising national dishes, pastry repasts, snow-day bread baskets, and so much more.
At Hôtel Lutetia, a basket of buttery croissants among other things awaited associate editor Matt Ortile upon his early morning arrival.
I arrived in Paris on a wet gray Tuesday, exhausted and injured. I had just been hit by a car two weeks before (no broken bones, but a fairly debilitated left foot and ankle) and, as such, was especially sensitive to kindness; when a friend offered to pick up my pain meds from the pharmacy, I was so touched that you’d think that he had offered his hand in marriage and his good health insurance. So it was par for the course when, upon checking into the plush Hôtel Lutetia and hobbling into my room (already pressed and primed upon my 8:30 a.m. arrival) only to find a basket of fragrant, buttery croissants, a bottle of freshly-squeezed orange juice, and a warm jug of coffee waiting for me, my immediate reaction was to weep. It was the simplest of breakfasts, no different from what I’d grab on any other wet gray Tuesday at home in New York, but it was also a thoughtful expression of care. Little touches like this throughout my stay (e.g. being escorted to the restaurant, receiving a pedestal at all meals on which I could keep my foot elevated, even getting a pillowcase at turndown service personally embroidered with my initials) are what will make me remember this palatial hotel—and its ambrosia of a jus d’orange—for a very long time. —Matt Ortile, associate editor
I’m entering the new year dreaming of my mornings at Jua House on Kenya’s Lamu Island. The bed-and-breakfast, in the beachside village of Shela, has a breezy terrace with ocean views and in-house bakery. The two meet every morning, with an included breakfast feast—there are eggs, fruit, fresh juices, yogurt, but also your choice of Swahili baked goods. It’s the type of breakfast that is delightfully simple and yet totally decadent. Sitting up there in the morning, as the sun got stronger and the chatter from the street rose up, was the kind of luxury that is so hard to pin down. (But, if you are looking for luxury in the most traditional of senses, the breakfast buffets at Tivoli Doelen Amsterdam or Immerso Hotel in Ericeira, Portugal, were two other hotel breakfasts I can’t stop thinking about.) —Megan Spurrell, senior editor
Madison Flager enjoyed Casa del
Last October, I hopped in the front seat of a campervan and set out to explore America's West.
Rather than a city with a single, unified style, London is a collection of distinct neighborhoods, each with their own unique character. One walk around the British capital and you’ll discover the distinction is marked by the architecture of each—from the pastel flat facades of Notting Hill to the stately, stark white townhouses of Kensington to the 19th century, industrial brick buildings of the South Bank.
Havana's cultural calendar is full of visit-worthy events every month, with the more prestigious festivals taking place between October and April.
In the 19th century, Boston was nicknamed ‘The Hub of the Solar System’ such was its importance at the heart of the young American nation. Ask any of the passionate locals — especially Red Sox baseball fans — and they’ll say it’s still an accurate description. The star at the centre of this particular galaxy is a compact 400-year-old downtown, home to a collection of historic sites that form the core of the Freedom Trail, and the harbour where the Boston Tea Party protest took place 250 years ago. You’ll find most of the best hotels in the Back Bay or South End areas, both flanking the downtown and close to the culinary and cultural action.
It was 2:38 p.m. on August 21, 2017, when day turned to night. That was the precise moment in Greenville, South Carolina, when the moon, passing between the sun and Earth, fully blocked our view of the sun.
For the third year running, Delta has been named the carrier with the best on-time performance record in North America by the airline analytics company Cirium, which crunches data for 32 million global flights annually. Delta also won Cirium’s Platinum Award, determined by evaluating timeliness alongside the overall breadth of an airline’s operations.
Ask a New York City regular where to stay in Manhattan and they’ll tell you NoMad is the coolest downtown neighborhood. The clue is in the name: NoMad, or Madison Square North, bounces right off the north end of Madison Square Park. A recent revival has brought a surge in luxury hotels, inventive bistros, and voguish bars to this historic 30-block nook. NoMad hotels are close (but not too close) to Times Square while Chelsea and the Flatiron District are on the doorstep. The “North of Madison Square Park” neighborhood is ripe with luxury hotels for sightseeing and nightlife in NYC, and the new INNSiDE by Meliá New York NoMad leads the pack.
As midnight approaches, dark groups huddle on the freezing slope of one of the seven hills overlooking the soft yellow lights of the city of Edinburgh.
It is often said that the world is a great book, and those that do not travel only read one page. What if you read books as well as travel? You would be quite the literary sort, indeed. Here at Condé Nast Traveler, our journeys take us to places near and far, and we don't always have other humans along for the ride with us—but books are good friends to keep in our suitcases for company.
If, somehow, you’re still looking for a spot to spend Christmas or the final week of 2023, the personal-finance website WalletHub’s latest report has some important insights for you. It reviewed data on the nation’s 100 largest cities to find out which are simultaneously the most festive and affordable for celebratory getaways this Christmas season.
Passport processing times have once again returned to normal, pre-pandemic levels.
It’s been a busy year for the capital’s luxury hotel scene. A string of high-profile, and often high-priced, openings was crowned this autumn when the long-anticipated Raffles London at the OWO flung open its doors, taking over the building that once housed the Old War Office. Beyond such headline-grabbing launches, the accommodation offering in the city remains in rude health, with plenty of character available for travellers looking beyond the very top end of the market. There are boutique hotels squirrelled away in Georgian townhouses, budget pads in the midst of Piccadilly and huge complexes offering a world of bars, restaurants and entertainment across multiple floors.