One thing I loved about my trip to Sonoma Wine Country was seeing the vineyards during leaf changing season. I’d flown up from Los Angeles, the evergreen city with palm trees and summer weather even in December, and a short 90-minute flight later I found myself in fall weather again, just like in Seattle six weeks earlier.
I’d never seen grapevines with changing leaves – I am not sure I even knew they were changing colors! – and loved the bright red and yellow colors in each winery I visited and every vineyard I passed in my car.
The wine tastings I did were fantastic, too – at the Korbel Winery for example, where I sampled California champagnes, or Virginia Dare Winery, recently purchased by Francis Ford Coppola. I got to tour the wineries and see the entire production line from wine making to corking and labeling the bottles which was incredible, got to sample wines that aren’t available anywhere but directly at the winery, and learned so much about wine in those few short days that I feel inclined to do some further studying now.
By Dani – Full Story at Globetrotter Girls
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Cibeles Palace in Madrid is a lovely, neo-classical structure to admire when you’re from afar. In the afternoon, when the sun is setting, the facade is bathe in shimmering gold. From dawn to dusk, the palace is a thing of beauty in Madrid’s downtown core. Every time I passed by here last summer, this colossal architecture didn’t fail to make me stop and take a shot.
Don’t just stare at its facade. Go inside and up the terrace to see the the 360 degrees view of Madrid. But, don’t expect a spectacular view from up there. Just like any other building around here, this is not tall enough to see the whole city panorama.
From any angle outside, Cibeles Palace is a very photogenic edifice. In front of the palace is the Cibeles Fountain with a goddess sitting on a chariot being pulled by two massive lions. The view from above isn’t really impressive (because it’s not that tall) but it’s still worth checking out.
Last year, during my 3 months long trip around Southeast Asia, I visited the Capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.
In all honesty, while the rest of Malaysia is definitely beautiful and full of charm (you have already read about my love for Pulau Langkawi, where I spent New Year’s eve 2016), Kuala Lumpur was not my favorite city. Maybe it is my fault, but I could not find the real soul of the city. Although there is one thing that impressed me very much: the way the Malay Capital celebrates the happiest time of the year, the most gay feast of them all, Christmas.
In December, the whole city of Kuala Lumpur is in full swing for Christmas celebrations: a joyous triumph of lights, trees beautifully decorated, buzzing shopping malls full of Santa Clauses… the Malays know how to throw a big party in honor of Xmas! Even the gigantic airport of Kuala Lumpur, KLIA2, was full of decorations where even the Peanuts were invited to participate to this gay feast!
Looking for gay friendly Uruguay hotels?
Well look no further – ’cause after 2 weeks travelling around this super gay friendly country, we’ve come up with our 10 best gay friendly hotels to stay in Uruguay:
GAY FRIENDLY HOTELS IN MONTEVIDEO
#1 Sofitel Carrasco
Description: overlooking the Rambla beachfront, this glamorous former casino palace was built in 1821. It boasts a mix of French classic architecture with a modern twist. Check out the Philip Starks horse lamps in the grand, impressive lobby. Their suites offer amazing views over the Rio Del Plata, and have 2 huge walk-in showers. The indoor swimming pool and spa are particularly inviting after a day cruising down the Rambla.
We celebrate our 8 years anniversary in a few months. Each year we always make a point of doing something special to celebrate, usually going somewhere exotic and of course, romantic.
Our most memorable anniversary will always be our first year, when we visited Venice as this was our first trip abroad together. Of course Venice is a place you will instantly fall in love with, even if like us you visit out of season in February.
When it comes down romance generally, gay Italy is the ideal destination. We’ve travelled around the country before, but only Venice we’ve been to as a couple. We’ve teamed up with Quality Villas Hotels to showcase our 5 bucket list romantic activities to experience as a couple in Italy.
This past week was one of the busiest travel weeks since returning from Italy in September – I admit it, I am exhausted. After a long weekend in L.A. (where I was amazed by the still oh-so sunny and warm weather!) I flew up to Santa Rosa in Sonoma Wine Country for a week of wine, art, good food and hiking.
One of the highlights of the week was an afternoon spent hiking in the Armstrong Redwoods. The Redwoods are home to the tallest trees in the world, which live to be 500-1,000 years old, grow to a diameter of 12-16 feet, and stand from 200-250 feet tall. Walking through the forest where these imposing structures were towering over me, with moss-covered trunks of fallen trees on the ground, made me feel like I had entered some fairy tale world.
I wouldn’t have been surprised had a fairy appeared in front of me, asking me to make a wish. Because of the height of the trees, barely any sun rays make their way through the branches, keeping the forest darker and in deeper shade than most other forests I’ve hiked through, which only added to the mystic aura.
It’s December – and Christmas is just around the corner! For the third time, I’ve put together a gift guide for the travel lover in your life – 13 gift ideas that I put together with travelers in mind, but you might also find a couple of things in here that make great gifts for family members or friends who aren’t globe trotters. I am also aiming to keep my gift ideas affordable, so most of these gifts are under $30.
I also recommend you check out my previous two gift guides, because many of the gifts I recommended in previous years are still products I use all the time and love, like the scarf with the secret pocket or my pickpocket-proof underwear, the scratchable world map and the cool airport merchandise from Airport Tag for frequent flyers.
To be completely honest: I didn’t want to spend my last few days in Mexico in Puerto Vallarta. I wanted to stay in San Pancho or in Sayulita, which are both smaller beach towns north of Puerto Vallarta, and where I had spent my birthday. But because the season was just about to start in San Pancho most cafes were still opening at unreliable hours (if it all), and I needed wifi to get work done.
In Sayulita, there were a few places I knew I could work at (with okay wifi, but still not great speeds) but struggled to find decent accommodation. Since I had several deadlines looming over me, I decided to do what seemed the most reasonable: to return to Puerto Vallarta, which I knew had a much bigger selection of available accommodation and great wifi. As much as I loved the vibe in the smaller beach towns, sometimes the digital nomad has to put work first, especially after a slow month in November.
And after a couple of days back in Puerto Vallarta I realized how much I actually liked the town that had seemed like a big resort town at first. Yes, there are casinos, golf clubs and cruise ships. Yes, there are giant all-inclusive resorts. But there’s also the Old Town, the Zona Romantica, with cobblestone streets, with ornate churches and bright pink bougainvillea trees that form a perfect contrast to the whitewashed colonial houses.
What’s the first country that comes to mind when you think of tango? We’re guessing Argentina, right?
You’d be half right. Back in the 1880s, the tango was invented by the urban lower classes in the Rio de la Plata basin, which includes both Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
As such, both Argentina and Uruguay claim equal ownership of the tango. In 2009, they made a successful joint application to have tango listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
We attended the Uruguayan LGBT Chamber of Commerce conference in September 2016, where tango was showcased. To our surprise, two extremely handsome gay Uruguay boys, Juan and Rodrigo, took to the stage and blew us away.