If you could go anywhere in the greater Caribbean area, where would it be? Barbados? Caracas? Any particular hotels?
Kauai Recommendations!
I’ll be staying in the Poipu area … anyone have any hot tips for me?
Best hotel bars: LA’s classiest lobby lounges
The bar scene in Los Angeles is aces right now, thanks to all-night bar hopping and bartenders’ inventive cocktails. Even tried-and-true hotel bars, from staid classics to new additions, are serving some of the tastiest libations from lemon drops to single malt Scotch. Here, our favorite hotel bars from beachside Santa Monica to ritzy Pasadena.
I wrote this for the new Time Out Los Angeles. Please to enjoy.
I’m going to Zihuatanejo
Any tips for me? Food to eat, beaches to visit? Places to buy local art?
The Sikh Coalition’s new FlyRights app lets users lodge complaints about air travel discrimination with the TSA and DHS in real time via smartphone. Right now, the TSA makes it impossible to file discrimination complaints via web.
I’m off to Colombia! Bogota and Cartagena, specifically. Anything I can’t miss?
The man next to me started this flight by reading the bible. He is now listening to his discman and reciting passages or verses or something out loud while raising his hands in praise. Is this normal for planes bound for Florida? (Taken with instagram)
Today in travel news. Also: great pic.
This is me on KPAM’s weekend travel show.
I talked about foreign laws travelers should be aware of. It’s sort of drivetime-friendly, goofy stuff, but I was super excited to do it. Never been on the radio before!
Also super exciting: the fact that I remembered to modulate my voice, and don’t sound like I normally do. (Fullback with a bad attitude.)
Please give ‘er a click!
Hotel Normandie in L.A.’s Koreatown to get $5-million makeover: The inn’s new owner plans to turn the 1928 building with a checkered past into a 100-room boutique hotel for travelers who want to stay in the middle of town.
Photo: Hotel Normandie is a squat brick structure built in 1928 at Normandie Avenue and Sixth Street in L.A.’s Koreatown. Credit: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
But in recent years, with the drug cartels under control, and security and prosperity reigning, Cartagena has blossomed into a stunningly well-preserved colonial marvel (it’s a Unesco World Heritage Site) that’s an extremely safe (for all people) stop for travelers on the South American circuit. And though it is certainly a romantic city – think salt-weathered buildings in bright Caribbean colors, flowers spilling from balconies, and shady plazas for passing languid afternoons – its sizzling nightlife also makes it super sexy. Cartagena is, in a way, three cities. There’s El Centro, the historic core surrounded by 16th century walls; Bocagrande, a peninsula filled with high-rise condos and brand-name fashion boutiques that approximates Miami Beach; and the three-million-strong sprawling modern city that surrounds the other two touristy areas. Aim to stay in El Centro, which is so clean, safe, and quaint that you’ll almost feel like you’re in Disneyland. Plus, that’s where all the action is. And many of El Centro’s colonial mansions have been restored and transformed into stylish boutique hotels – perfect for a hot weekend getaway. You could easily spend your entire time in Cartagena getting lost in the twisting, cobbled streets. While you should definitely do your share of idle wandering, here are some must-hits along the way: (I’m gonna go there. Soon.)
Cartagena, Colombia, may never live down its associations with Romancing the Stone. Set in the turbulent 1980s, the film crystallized the image of the Caribbean seaport as crawling with narco-trafficking kidnappers and incubating syrupy romances (à la Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas).
