Art tips

“People will tell the same old story until they hear a better tale,” says Ahmed, an elder I meet by chance in Tangier's casbah—a Cubist jumble of white buildings beneath circling gulls that cry out over the morning call to prayer. We're chatting, perched on the high ramparts of the old Portuguese citadel, our heels in Africa, Europe on the horizon like a giant seabird gliding toward us. “Birds go back and forth without borders,” muses Ahmed, his words flying just as freely among Darija (Moroccan Arabic), French, and Spanish. Tanjawi—or Tangerines—are sociable polyglots who speak in a meze of languages. Ahmed's hair is as silvered as Moroccan sardines, his green eyes drizzled with amber like the olive oil in bissara pea soup.

On the southern cusp of the Lysefjord, in southwest Norway, Stavanger is where the country’s coast begins to splinter into a thousand islands, skerries, waterways and inlets. It’s little wonder, then, that this city — the fourth largest in Norway — should have been defined by water, both geographically and culturally. It first made big bucks in fish canning, then in North Sea oil, as two of its main museums recount. Yet, today, it surprises visitors with newfound urban cool. 

Set on the east bank of the River Cam, Cambridge is surely one of England’s most storied medieval cities, its cathedral and various colleges imbuing it with a grandeur on par with that of Padua, Siena or Salamanca. Synonymous with its world-famous university — not to mention the writers, thinkers and scholars who studied there — it comes as no surprise that this age-old centre of learning is home to a plethora of marvellously idiosyncratic museums and art galleries.

Anyone who has stayed in an exuberantly designed hotel in Asia has most likely experienced the designs of Bill Bensley: the Bangkok-based designer is the creative force behind The Siam Hotel Bangkok; Rosewood Luang Prabang, Shinta Mani Angkor and Capella Hanoi among others. Apart from his hotel designs, though, Bensley is also an artist and philanthropist and those three interests combine in the first Bensley Art Trail, a 12 day tour for those interested in art, design, luxury and conservation from November 28th-December 10th. Bensley will lead it, taking 12 guests behind the scenes of several of those hotels as well as his home, with itinerary details constructed by the Bangkok based luxury, bespoke travel company Smiling Albino. Proceeds will go to the Shinta Mani Foundation which is based in Cambodia to fund 32 scholarships for students of the Shinta Mani Foundation Hospitality School, Class of 2024.

Each year around this time, more than 80,000 people from all corners of the world make their way to Nevada's Black Rock Desert to temporarily populate Black Rock City. There, they enthusiastically participate in the eccentric, art, music and offbeat desert camping event that is Burning Man.

Flying high now is better than ever aboard VistaJet. The global business aviation company has announced its partnership with one of the finest seafood restaurants in the world, estiatorio Milos, famous for offering exquisite fish. The restaurant has passionate fans all over the world.

In the U.S., history is taught in a wide range of pedagogical approaches, from centering learning around textbooks that skim — or even evade — the more sinister aspects of this nation’s past to documentary-style narratives of the lived experience of oppressed people. It’s fair to say that children in grades K-12 get a haphazard and inconsistent, at best, version of U.S. history.

With the soaring Andes to the east, the pounding Pacific to the west, Patagonian fjords down south and an immense desert up north, Chile is the kind of diverse natural playground that adventure lovers dream about.

Philadelphia is the ever-evolving City of Brotherly Love. While it will forever be the “birthplace” of the United States—and that is a great attraction—we've come a long way from the Liberty Bell. The vibrant feel of this historical city is undeniable, legendary, and on the rise.

As long as people have been traveling, they’ve sought mementos and souvenirs. Ancient Egyptians and Romans brought spices, animal skins, and gold back from foreign trade missions or conquests. Modern travelers hunt for handicrafts or traditional art, tangible reminders of other places to use in their own lives at home: a Moroccan rug splayed across the living room floor, a gleaming Venetian glass vase to fill with wildflowers.

Museums are among the most visited locations around the world, with the world top’s 100 art museums attracting 71 million visitors in 2021 — a 31 percent rise from the year before. They’re also lucrative as museums contribute annually an estimated $50 billion to the U.S. economy alone.

Elizabeth Stenne’s career painting bespoke pieces of art for some of the world’s most luxurious hotels spans more than three decades.

Skift Research reported in 2013 that the role of hotels had evolved along with a booming interest in experiential travel. A growing number of hotels were promoting themselves as a travel experience instead of simply a place to sleep.

The cost of listing a new home on the luxury short-term rental platform Plum Guide has decreased 85 percent in the past year because of implementing new AI tech.

The views from my car window are a Nordic cliché: long stretches of farmland that give way to thick forests of birch and pine. Rustic farmhouses painted a deep, punctuating red. A freshly thawed stream shimmering in the sunlight. I leave Finland's southern coast, fringed by islands and inlets, behind as I cut northwest through its lake-dotted interior. It's a beautiful landscape—though not one that traditionally draws the design lovers who flock to this country.

So you want to visit the best places in Texas? Then get prepared to embrace the open road because the Lone Star State is far from small!

Exploring Japan's capital is a mind-blowing experience, but it can also blow your budget. Don't despair – there’s an abundance of things to do and see in Tokyo that don’t cost a single yen. From gardens and temples to contemporary art, sumo practice and a world-famous fish market, here's a list of Tokyo's best free attractions.

“It’s almost like a beacon,” says tour guide and artist Ray Bonner (also known as FGB), who shows visitors Belfast’s contemporary street art for local business Seedhead Arts. The striking piece by artist ADW portrays a diver in an old-fashioned diving suit carrying a mermaid against the backdrop of a setting sun. It’s visible from the M3 and A2 that run through the city, beckoning traffic towards a changing Belfast. 

Growing up, Borneo seemed like the wildest corner of our planet: a vast, far-away island where orangutans swung through the rainforest and remote tribes hunted with blowpipes. It was the sort of place that stoked the imagination; if you were a kid spending a rainy afternoon writing a story of adventure and exploration, you couldn’t start with a better backdrop than the jungles of Borneo. Four decades on, I find myself on the island, on a 10-day tour of the forested Malaysian region of Sarawak, which lies along the northwest shore. Strolling along the bustling waterfront of Kuching, the region’s capital (home to its international airport), I realise the real Borneo is more varied and textured than the Borneo of my boyhood visions: a place with modern, urban attractions as well as the tangle of nature beyond.

Toyko is the megacity that other world capitals look up to. Nowhere else has quite the same mix of timeless history and space-age tech, of strict tradition and up-to-the-second fashions, of bewildering crowds and moments of utter serenity. It's the past and future wrapped up together into one thrilling package – and understandably, it's one of the top tourist destinations on the planet.

Even for the most experienced travelers, the actual process of getting to your destination is hardly ever the fun part. Unforeseen inconveniences aside—think flight delays and last-minute cancellations—there are certainly travelers who enjoy the aviation experience (myself included), and have fine-tuned the art of packing for a strenuous long-haul flight.