The LiBearty Bear Sanctuary in Zarnesti, Romania, will possibly be the most memorable experience of a trip to Eastern Europe for families and animal lovers. For starters, Zarnesti is located half an hour southwest of Brasov, a lovely historical town in the middle of the country. It boasts great hotels and restaurants and a lush …
Belgrade, with its relaxed attitude, friendly residents and incredible food and drink, can also be sadly short on charm. Outside the historic center, districts tend to run together, and in New Belgrade, indistinguishable rows of apartment buildings seem to stretch for miles. But the city has at least one neighborhood that can be considered distinctive …
Tirana, Albania From Despair to Hope An energetic and progressive Tirana is what we see. Fine places to dine, vibrant shops, parks for strolling, traffic chaos, buildings undergoing facelifts, new structures taking form under a flourish of cranes. Locals tell us Tirana has changed beyond belief from its once austere and dull grey of past decades. …
You’ve done Paris, you’ve seen Rome but when’s the last time you’ve dug for vintage treasures in Budapest? Or shopped off-the-runway furs in Vienna? For true shopaholics looking to welcome 2015 with a (fashion) bang there’s no better place than Central Europe. With local Christmas markets popping up across the region, from big cities to …
If you leave Budapest without soaking in a Hungarian thermal bath, you have cheated yourself of a memorable experience. Last visit, I found myself floating naked in a body-temperature pool under a 500-year old Ottoman dome pierced by jewel-colored glass “eyes”. The Rudas (ROO-das) bath experience left me as relaxed as I’ve ever been in my …
We’re just going to cut right to the chase on this one. If vintage fashion makes your heart beat a little faster, if you’re a treasure hunter, if you’re crazy for antiques, Budapest is THE shopping destination for you. What is a rarity in other parts of Europe, what takes painstaking research and relentless digging, …
Praha (Prague) is arguably the most charming city in Europe. Small, cobblestone streets make way for sprawling renaissance squares and ornately sculpted buildings in creamy hues leading to dramatic bridges that link two sides of the city together. What could make a day strolling on the Charles Bridge followed by a decadent lunch of crispy duck, …
I arrived in Poznan, Poland, armed with a bunch of historical facts, figures and questions: how, for example, was this area the cradle of the Polish nation, how was it that the Germans fortified the city but were, nonetheless, overrun by the Red Army in 1945, and what promted the citizens to rise up in revolt in 1956. I …
If Prague’s carousing stag parties wore you out, Vienna feels too much like a museum, and Budapest seems too sprawling, the cure is Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. It is a charming, compact city, rich in architecture and history, buzzing with energy and seriously underrated. It is also cheaper and much less crowded than the other …
“If Moscow and St Petersburg were sisters, Moscow would be serious and businesslike, compared to this relaxed, light-hearted sibling,” I say with a flourish to my husband Rick. The main street, Nevsky Prospekt, bustles with chattering people strolling arm-in-arm relishing the day. The historic area side-streets with imperial classical architecture in pastels of coral, opal, …