With its title alone, Wes Anderson’s new film, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” conjures up a vision of Old World elegance. Though the movie is set in a fictionalized European city, hotels play starring roles in the Hungarian capital, headlining a blockbuster renovation sweeping from Castle Hill in Buda to newly brightened Kossuth Square in Pest.
Traveler Editor at Large Christopher Elliott is the magazine’s consumer advocate and ombudsman. Over the past 15 years he has helped countless readers fix their trips. Here’s his latest advice.
Beyond the Seven Summits
The Seven Summits are the highest peaks on each continent. The term also describes the mountaineer’s quest to summit all seven–a concept that has captured the imagination of climbers and tourists alike and drawn huge crowds to these peaks. But, much to my surprise, reaching the summit of the highest mountain in South America…was the most anti-climactic event of my life.
When it came time to choose a college, Philadelphia native Jeremy Albelda traded in those northern winters for endless summer in Miami Beach. The city hooked him, hard, and he’s been a proud resident ever since. Though Jeremy’s gig as a travel blogger means he spends a lot of time abroad, the MIA always finds a way to reel him back. Here are some of his favorite things about the coastal gem he calls home.
#NGTRadar: Travel Lately
The Radar–the best of the travel blogosphere–is a regular feature on Intelligent Travel every other Wednesday. Follow us on Twitter @NatGeoTravel and tag your favorite travel stories #NGTRadar to help us find the crème de la crème on the Web. Here are our latest picks.
Pancras Dijk, a senior writer for National Geographic Traveler’s Dutch edition, goes in search of the roots of Roma music in a nation on Europe’s edge.
I’ve been snowboarding for 17 years, but am a complete novice when it comes to skiing—just above the beginner’s ski school lesson of forming a “pizza wedge” to slow down, and straightening out to “French fries” to accelerate. Unfortunately for me, my snowboard boots were in baggage limbo along with the rest of my luggage and…
The colonial towns along Route 7 in western Massachusetts are quintessential New England any time of year. Summer festivals bring out cultural crowds, while late September swarms with leaf-peepers. Here’s a guide to this American classic, no matter when you visit.
In Naples perhaps more than anywhere else in Italy, craftsmanship is the fruit of ancient knowledge, handed down through the centuries.
When you’ve traveled very far and weather conditions aren’t what you were expecting, you can’t pack up your camera and go home. As frustrating as bad weather can be, you can end up with images that are far more special than anything you could have captured had the weather been “good.” Here are five tips to get you started.
I wanted to introduce my two sons to the concept of Carnival. But was there a way to do it without subjecting them to the lewd drunkenness and nudity that often accompany such celebrations? And with so many world-class cities hosting bucket-list worthy festivities, where would we go? Venice.
Too often, we travelers let good old fashioned guilt seep into the decision-making process when we’re building our itineraries. Rather than following our inherent interests (canoes, Rococo, hockey), we let the expectations of friends and family–or what we’ve read in some magazine–serve as some proxy “travel conscience,” guiding us toward things we should or shouldn’t see.