Art tips

Look up and it will be hard to miss the towering, slightly undulating, 101-story St. Regis Chicago. Designed by the female architect Jeanne Gang and perched on the easternmost edge of Chicago’s Downtown Loop area, the gleaming structure, the city’s third tallest building is making a splash in the hotel world.

Auckland has enough to fill even the most demanding traveler’s itinerary – but New Zealand’s largest city isn’t the cheapest place to visit. Dining out and cultural activities are often on the pricier side, yet Auckland has a wealth of natural beauty including parks, beaches and native forests that are all free to visit.

Although Taipei is one of Asia’s most compact capitals, it’s still surprisingly easy to get lost when exploring this beautiful city, famous for the forested hills that surround it, and the sky-scraping buildings that tower over its temples, night markets and museums.

Dancing palms, lush hilly landscapes, and sunrises worth getting up for are not the only reasons to visit Ubud, a hippie-friendly destination in Bali made popular by Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling book, Eat Pray Love, and the blockbuster movie with the same name, starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem.

From a rodent’s optic nerve and the venomous fangs of a small tarantula to auto-fluorescing hairs on a leaf, the images winning the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition are luminously colorful works of art revealing the artistic side of science.

There are many reasons to love Chicago, the nation’s third largest city sitting on Lake Michigan and beloved for its iconic skyline, deep dish pizza, Italian beef and top-notch museums. These days however, with more travelers feeling stressed, lonely, and anxious (a recent World Travel Protection survey noted only one third of business travelers are happy traveling for work), finding relaxing activities and sleeping well has never been more important.

Botswana is famous for its remarkable wilderness areas.

An underwater art exhibition, known as the ‘EDP Art Reef’ is available to visit off the coast of Portugal.

It’s too modern. It’s too fashion-focused. It’s fast-paced, devoid of la dolce vita, it doesn’t feel Italian. Milan has had the same old criticisms levelled at it for decades, and for decades Italy’s business capital has shrugged them off. Because anyone who really knows the city knows it’s not like that at all. The difference between Milan and the rest of the country is that where most Italian cities put their heritage on blousy display, Milan stands back, willing you to discover hers gradually. 

With its highlands draped in sub-tropical rainforest and its Caribbean coastline cradling the world's second largest barrier reef, Belize is a cornucopia of natural beauty. It’s also at the heart of the ancient Maya kingdom, one of the most influential and established Indigenous societies of Mesoamerica, reaching its peak in 250 to 900 A.D. 

In 1949 Pablo Picasso created "Dove of Peace," also known as "La Colombe". This simple yet profound artwork was designed for the World Peace Congress in Paris and has since become an iconic symbol of hope and unity.

Hyatt doesn't have the biggest footprint when it comes to the major hotel groups, but it has grown steadily over the last several years — focusing on luxury properties, its European expansion, extended stays and all-inclusive resorts. Hyatt also recently acquired Mr & Mrs Smith hotels and is about to get into the vacation home rental market.

This fall, airlines continue to invest in the passenger experience. The effort to draw business, in the wake of major loyalty program news from carriers like Delta Air Lines (which sent many of its top-elite SkyMiles members fleeing for alternative airlines), has never been stronger. Wooing customers is also an important consideration as the holidays near, and travelers begin to make busy travel plans. Here are some of the latest updates and changes in the airline industry you should know about to be more informed for your next trip.

Some 400 years ago, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi — whose family would produce two popes, more than a dozen cardinals, and a smattering of statesmen — bought what became known as the Villa Aurora from Italy's Orsini family. A sprawling estate on the outskirts of Rome, it included an art collection that drew admirers from across Europe and, most notably, Caravaggio's only ceiling mural.

Autumn in London is always a cultural explosion. October kicks off with the annual art fairs Frieze and Frieze Masters, the brilliant 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair,plus the BFI London Film Festival, followed in November by the EFG Jazz Festival.

With the narrow spire of Tokyo’s Skytree in the distance, the view from Yokohama’s waterfront never seems to escape the clutches of its more prominent neighbour. Yet, Japan’s second-largest city is coming into its own as an artistic haven. This creativity is set to be showcased in style in March 2024, when the Yokohama Museum of Art reopens after a two-year renovation — just in time for the Yokohama Triennale, an art festival that turns the city into a creative stage every three years. 

On the edge of the tropics, east of China and southwest of Japan, the small island of Taiwan drips with promise – and a fair bit of traveler sweat.

Princess Cruises has officially revealed Spellbound by Magic Castle, a new collaboration with the famed Hollywood clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, The Magic Castle, set to launch onboard Sun Princess when the new ship debuts in early 2024.

New Zealand is one of those destinations best explored by car or campervan. Public transport is limited outside cities, and so much of what you'll want to see and do is off-the-beaten-track, immersed in New Zealand's incredible natural environments. Road tripping means touring at your own pace, stopping for stunning walks, cycle rides, wild swimming or wildlife spotting.

Now through Oct. 22, 2023, you can catch Cirque du Soleil ECHO in the Big Top tent at Lerner Town Square at Tysons II, just a 30-minute drive or Metro ride from Washington, D.C. in Tysons, Virginia.

On first sight, The Bahamas is not the most natural home for boutique hotels. Often dubbed the ‘Las Vegas of the Caribbean’, most of the popular properties (on the main hub of New Providence, at least) are all-singing-and-dancing sprawling boltholes boasting multiple restaurants, water parks and casinos. Yes, look a little deeper and there are a scattering of smaller, charming boltholes to be found – such as The Cove on Eleuthera Island and The Abaco Club on Great Abaco – but, until a recent opening made its mark in the sand, small and intimate was not typically the way you stay in The Bahamian islands.