Castle tips

Jul 24, 2024 • 7 min read

Jul 25, 2024 • 8 min read

Jul 25, 2024 • 6 min read

Balmoral Castle's 167 rooms and lavish grounds have long been kept away from the prying eyes of the public, but for the first time in history, the royal property is now open to visitors.

Jul 22, 2024 • 7 min read

Jul 18, 2024 • 11 min read

Jul 16, 2024 • 7 min read

Jul 12, 2024 • 7 min read

Luxury hotel brand Rosewood has a picture-perfect new property outside of Salzburg, Austria, one of the best places to travel in July 2024.

There are many mansions scattered across the North Shore of Long Island, New York, that date back to the Roaring '20s.

Jul 2, 2024 • 5 min read

There are classic river itineraries — the Danube, the Rhine, the Rhone and the Nile — that anyone who appreciates the ease and camaraderie of river cruising can book with most of the top cruise lines. But those aren't your only options.

The castles of the German and Austrian Alps are known for their fairy-tale quality. The iconic turreted silhouette in the background of the Disney logo was, in fact, modeled after Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II’s Bavarian palace near the border of the two countries. Schloss Fuschl, located on an evergreen-ringed, emerald-hued glacial lake 20 minutes outside of Salzburg, is no exception. Constructed in 1461, the sprawling stone manse served for four centuries as a luxurious hunting lodge for the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, who ruled the area under the Holy Roman Empire, as well as their royal guests. After World War II, the schloss (“castle” in German) was converted into a hotel that operated mostly seasonally, from April through October, until 2022, when Rosewood Hotels & Resorts bought the property and embarked on a restoration. On July 1, Schloss Fuschl will reopen with 98 guest rooms including six stand-alone chalets. There are six restaurants and bars on-site; indoor and outdoor infinity pools; a spa with three saunas and eight treatment rooms; and access to Lake Fuschl: Fishing expeditions, boat trips and herbalist-led nature walks can be arranged. While the schloss was never home to the likes of Cinderella or Rapunzel, it did host a movie princess: Fans of midcentury cinema might recognize the place from the German-French actress Romy Schneider’s “Sisi” films — a historical trilogy about the young Elisabeth of Austria — which were shot there in the 1950s. Today, the Sisi Teesalon bears the character’s name and will offer afternoon tea service with a wide range of homemade pastries including the Schloss Fuschl Torte, a chocolate-hazelnut truffle cake first created in the house kitchen more than 30 years ago. Rates from about $695

Jun 19, 2024 • 7 min read

Jun 12, 2024 • 8 min read

Jun 11, 2024 • 5 min read

Jun 10, 2024 • 12 min read

Cruising down a quiet, traffic-free river, surrounded by scenic riverfront views is an ideal way to see Europe. You can sip your wine while watching picture-perfect scenery breeze past – taking in castles, medieval villages and fields of flowers. 

As you gaze awestruck through the window at a skyline of jagged, ice-capped peaks or point excitedly as a world-famous landmark looms ahead, it hits you — epic views like these are meant to be savored, and there's no better way to do that than from the window of a train.

Any list of European gardens must begin with Italy, even though their immaculate form, symmetry and reliance on non-flowering evergreen structure might jar with the modern yearning for pollinator-friendly naturalism. The Italian garden reached a peak during the Renaissance and has barely changed since. Its fundamental principles remain elegance, charm and decadent relaxation. Giardino Giusti, in the northern city of Verona and once well known among the influential families of 16th-century Europe, exemplifies this timeless artistry. Drift along its green cypress alley past the commanding statues of Apollo and Adonis, get lost in the 18th-century labyrinth and breathe in the heady aroma of citrus blossom. giardinogiusti.com, adult €15, child €9

It’s a boiling summer’s day in Prague and I’m staring into the austere face of Franz Kafka. Not the real Kafka, of course – he died exactly a century ago, which is why I’m here – but a cast-iron plaque on the wall of his birthplace. The house, a replica as it turns out, sits pretty much on Old Town Square, which as usual is thronged with tourists snapping pics of its fairytale architecture, sipping drinks on terraces and gawking at its 15th-century astronomical clock. It’s impossible to imagine Kafka – 6ft tall and skinny, with dark, intense eyes – in this vibrant, carefree milieu. But then the Prague that Kafka was born into, in 1883 – the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire – was a very different city. And Kafka himself, alienated both as a Jew and a minority German speaker, had a sensitive imagination that interpreted the city’s narrow, winding streets as claustrophobic and its looming spires as threatening.