October, 2004
WORTH A TRIP: Poem, poem on the range . . . Every January, Cowboys & Indians magazine says, folks descend on Elko, Nev., with "guitars, heads full of classic cowboy tunes, handwritten lines of rhyme and a fierce love of the West and its lore." It's the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and there's plenty of song and dance, too. Last year's hit was a group of virtuoso "Asian cowboy" musicians from Mongolia.
WORTH A FLIP: Get a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth's splendiferous "working wardrobe" at London's new Kensington Palace exhibit -- or in the pages of Royalty ("Your mirror on the world's Royals") . . . "Quebec is one of the most bike-crazed regions on earth," Bicyling claims. Even better, its superb Route Verte trail is strewn with cheese shops, chocolatiers and vineyards . . . A hot stone massage and a colonoscopy? SpaFinder reports that spas are taking wellness to new depths with high-tech medical evaluations and counseling . . . Spiffy new mag Urban Climber conquers the heights of Rat Rock in (of course) New York City, along with other Big Apple ascents . . . Greed! Lust! Revenge! 18,000 square feet of gold leaf! Read the truly operatic tale of how Venice's La Fenice ("The Phoenix") opera house rose from its ashes, in Conde Nast Traveler.
WORTH A GAWK: Hey, kids, let's go to the Striptease Hall of Fame -- er, the World's Largest Ball of Twine! Frommer's Budget Travel hits the wackiest roadside attractions in every state. Can you say "jackalope?"
September, 2004
WORTH A TRIP: "In Peru, the spectacular is quotidian," Joe Kane says in Conde Nast Traveler. You'll find "the world's biggest river, deepest gorge, driest desert, and richest rain forest." Improved lodging and transportation have "opened up the cloud forest and the Amazon basin." Kane hops a mountain bike, dropping "nearly three vertical miles" through terrain that is "calisthenics for the imagination."
WORTH A FLIP: Brit mag the Sunday Times Travel is packed with goodies, from a spa with glass-walled underwater treatment rooms at Huvafen Fushi (www.huvafenfushi.com) in the Maldives, to the real places that inspired kids' tales like Harry Potter . . . It's like porn for leaf-peepers: Yankee Magazine Seasons has stunning photos and insider tips for finding fall foliage, plus updates at www.yankeefoliage.com . . . Fireplace butlers (Ritz-Carlton, Boston) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on silver platters (Le Pavilion, New Orleans) help define "hotels we love" in National Geographic Traveler . . . Real Simple touts www.fuelcostcalculator.com as a way to figure gas costs for your next road trip . . . You thought they'd rate beds? Modern Bride picks the "Most Luxurious Bathrooms" (Four Seasons Resort in Hualalai, Hawaii, takes the prize).
WORTH A GAWK: How do you top a cover story about a guy who sawed off his own arm to survive? Outside does it with a batch of survival tales including avalanches, poisoning, grizzlies and an ice-spewing, tree-hurling volcano.
August, 2004
WORTH A TRIP: Weary of Athens's nail-biting marathon to the Olympics? Design mag Wallpaper* says that Turin, Italy, host of the 2006 Winter Games, is already transforming itself. The home of Fiat is a "car town to the core . . . a heady mix of industrial mass product and the glamorous styling of Giugiaro, Pininfarina and Bertone." Old factories are re-tooling as hipster hangouts, light installations brighten the streets, and the Olympics hospitality center boasts the "largest ever sofa" -- 600 square feet of snake-shaped green leather.
WORTH A FLIP: Napoleon crowned himself emperor 200 years ago, and to celebrate, France magazine devotes itself to the petit one, including a delectable visit to Corsica . . . Partied too hard at the Viper Room? Hollywood Life suggests Home James (www.homejames.com), a service that dispatches glam guys on scooters to drive you and your car to your hotel . . . Tour California's wine country by boat, Porthole says, on small ships on the Napa and Petaluma rivers, so there's "no need to struggle with the winding roads after a full day of tastings" . . . Be the first on your block to visit Libya. Conde Nast Traveler says you'll find "dramatic desert scenery, a slew of first-class classical sites and hundreds of miles of unspoiled Mediterranean coastline" -- plus some of the world's scariest drivers.
WORTH A GAWK: mental_floss explores 80 quirky local customs, including Spanish "baby jumping" (to ensure "safe passage through life") and Welsh "sin-eating" (food is waved over the deceased to "absorb" their sins, then devoured by loved ones).
July, 2004
WORTH A TRIP: "Even if overshadowed in the news by the explosions of bombs, Pakistan's other explosions -- of music, media and mass culture -- are powerful and growing sources of hope," Moshin Hamid writes in the July Smithsonian. His savvy insider's take on Lahore visits intellectuals and doormen, nightclubs and a Mogul palace "with a mirrored ceiling that reflects candlelight like the flickering of stars." With Pakistan under a U.S. State Department travel warning, we can dream . . .
WORTH A FLIP: Travel + Leisure claims that the site where the First National Congress of China's Communist Party met is now "the epicenter of Shanghai's consumer culture" and points out capitalist pleasures, from designer fakes to celeb chef Jean-Georges Vongerichen's chic eatery . . . Most mags just gab about the Lewis and Clark bicentennial; Canoe & Kayak sends you in on "your own corps of discovery" . . . Conde Nast Traveler spins a seductive story of Sri Lanka, "an odd little island, where elephants are as common as cats," dreams are "scented by yellow and white champac flowers left floating in bowls all around the room" and gunshots ring out at dawn "to chase away the monkeys" . . . Vermont Life champions the charms of a croquet tournament in Barnet. But beware, "Some of us play with skill. Some of us with deception,'" a competitor notes.
WORTH A GAWK: Y'all ("The Magazine of Southern People") explains the rules of "GRITS," Girls Raised in the South ( No. 4: Never be out-blonded) . . . Out & About gives the Jailhouse restaurant in Copenhagen an Editor's Choice Award, thanks to "handcuff-wearing servers, great food and fun crowd."
All columns © 2004 Gayle Keck
This column appears monthly in the Washington Post travel section
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By Gayle Keck