Category: Wanderlust

As if I needed another reason to want to go hang out in Brooklyn, the NY Times just posted a new travel article about NY’s hippest borough in their popular “36 Hours” series.

Villa Amanzi is for rent in Phuket, Thailand.

Want more? Check out Welcome Beyond, the rental agency, “showcasing the most beautiful and unique vacation homes & boutique hotels in the world.”

Drool.

[via Desire to Inspire]

Ian and I went to Tofino, British Columbia a few years ago, and were impressed by how beautiful it is there.  It’s at the end of the road, and its remote location is part of its charm.  Mountains, beaches, islands, fog, pine trees… it’s the Pacific Northwest at its best.

Not far from Tofino is the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort.  Last week I read in the Globe and Mail that the resort used to be a pretty rustic place, but now they’ve gone all “eco-luxury”.  Just look at those photos!  Aren’t those tents amazing?  They have in-floor heating, flush toilets, and indoor-outdoor showers.

Of course, this place isn’t cheap (oh, did I mention the private plane that flies you in?  Or the 5-star dining and spa services in addition to the luxury accommodations?) but for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I bet it’s worth every penny.

Budget Travel just published a roundup of the World’s Weirdest Hotels (the 2010 list – you read the 2008 list here and the 2009 list here).  The list includes Palacio de Sal, a hotel made entirely out of salt in the expansive salt-flats of Bolivia, Hotel Utter Inn, a hotel room that’s 10 feet underwater in a lake in Sweden, and La Villa Hamster, which features a hotel room modelled after a hamster cage in France, which includes a water fountain that comes through a tube in the wall.

If those aren’t weird enough for you, how about sleeping inside a giant beer can in Denmark?  Or bedding down in a circular pod suspended in the trees of Vancouver Island?  My favourite has to be the Hotel Kakslauttanen (pictured above) in Northern Finland, where you can sleep in a glass igloo, offering a complete view of the Northern Lights from the comfort of your bed (complete with zebra-striped bedding).

You all know I LOVE to travel.  So when Ian and I sat down to decide our winter travel plans, we thought of many options.  Should we go on an all-inclusive resort holiday to Mexico?  Drive to Florida and stay at the Postcard Inn for a few nights?  Go to some far-flung locale for one last travel adventure as a childless couple?

But then reality set in, and we realized we don’t want to spend too much money (gotta save for when the baby arrives), and I also realized that in January and February I’m going to have a baby bump, and I don’t want have to buy warm-weather maternity clothes (I already have to get enough cold-weather maternity clothes).  Oh yeah, and we kind of forgot for a moment that we’re undergoing a massive kitchen renovation in the New Year.  And we should probably be around for that.  It all put a bit of a damper on our dreams for a grand trip.

We’ve come up with a new travel idea – or at least, new to us.  Instead of taking a big trip, why not take a few little trips?  I’m going to Las Vegas next weekend with my girlfriends to celebrate a birthday.  Then Ian and I are going to Chicago for 4 nights in between Christmas and New Years – we found amazing deals on hotels on Expedia (we’re staying at the Omni, which is on the Conde Nast Gold List – ooooh la la!).  We’ll drive to Chicago to save on airfare, bring our warmest clothes, and have a little break away from work and post-holiday burnout.  I’m looking forward to eating good food, visiting a few museums, and enjoying Christmas in another city (I’m a sucker for holiday window displays and ice skating).

Then in late February we have a weekend trip to Montreal planned with Hilary and Tristan.  Tristan and Ian are huge Montreal Canadiens fans, so we’re all going to a hockey game.  Again, Montreal in February will be as cold as Chicago in December, but that’s why we have warm clothes, posh hotels, and wonderful restaurants to visit.

My favourite part about our plans is that we know we have a few different things to look forward to. We will return for each mini-break, knowing there’s another one coming up!  I think we’re on to something with this weekend trip idea…