The hotel industry in China is absolutely exploding right now. Starwood and IHG are both poised to nearly double their number of hotels in the next 18 months. That's a lot of hotels! But are any of them any good? Do they stack up to the best of the ... Read More
Volunteer holidays are a tough sell. Holidays are supposed to be about fun and relaxation—a break from reality if you will. Volunteer holidays, on the other hand, serve up reality in spades and often at greater cost. A holiday spent making the world a better place, however, is a ... Read More
The hotel industry in China is absolutely exploding right now. Starwood and IHG are both poised to nearly double their number of hotels in the next 18 months. That's a lot of hotels! But are any of them any good? Do they stack up to the best of the ... Read More
The year is 2012—time to get working on that end-of-the-world bucket list. Dog sledding in Mongolia is a good place to start.
Mongolia in winter is a massive deep freeze―probably the closest you will ever get to Antarctica. Nighttime temps dip down to -40 degrees Celsius. It’s ... Read More
Train travel is one of the defining Asia experiences, and often not in a good way. Toilets of horror, bunkmates who snore, the incredible mafan of organizing the next leg—all are part of the fun. But on these luxury trains, the journey is a destination you’ll remember forever ... Read More
It's the time of year for awards and one of the most highly anticipated set of awards is Conde Nast Traveler's Gold List. A place on the list means prestige and publicity for recipients. In other words, it's a big deal. Last year we reported on The ... Read More
The top destination these days for China’s monied elite is the Maldives, the archipelago in the Indian Ocean that is sinking at a rate of about a centimeter a year. It’s a strange kind of paradise, split between an impoverished capital (Male) and a string of ridiculously expensive ... Read More
“Visit Bangladesh before tourists come!” reads a poster produced by the National Tourism Organization of Bangladesh. It’s no exaggeration. Few foreigners visit Bangladesh, and few of them are tourists. If you want luxury accommodations and well-worn tourist routes, go elsewhere, but if you’re an adventurous traveler who doesn ... Read More
Guidebooks are loaded with horror stories about traveling alone in India, especially as a woman. A lot of them are true. But that shouldn’t stop you from having the time of your life in this amazing country, as I found out when I traveled there alone for 17 days ... Read More
There’s a lot going on down in Moganshan. Naked Retreats just opened the fabulous naked Stables, Le Passage Moganshan, an amazing 50-room boutique hotel, is set to open in December and just about everyone in Houwu Village is kitting out their homes to accommodate the legions of weekend warriors ... Read More
Four years in the works, direct flights connecting Shanghai and Honolulu finally launched in August. No more six-hour layover in Narita, now you can get on a plane (China Eastern) at 6pm and turn up 10 kilometers from famed Waikiki at 9:50am the next morning. There’s an endless ... Read More
Located three hours from Shanghai in Monganshan, naked Stables Private Reserve is China’s first sustainable luxury wellness resort and equestrian reserve. It sits on 60 acres inside its very own private valley. The grounds provide a relaxing break from your usually busy city life and offer a unique, local ... Read More
Binjiang Park (RMB20 entrance fee) sits at the confluence of the Huangpu and Yangtze Rivers, on the Pudong side of things. This past weekend, I rode out to check out this distant spot of green on the map. What I found was a pretty decent place to spend a day ... Read More
Described as “a mix of North Korea and Las Vegas” by expats, Turkmenistan, a big sandbox bordering the Caspian Sea, deserves the title of world’s most bizarre nation.
The capital Ashgabat, beneficiary of large natural gas deposits and Saudi benevolence, amazes with its wealth. It’s a marvel of ... Read More
Moganshan is just blowing up these days. This summer alone has seen the opening of two very high class new resorts. First it was naked Stables by the same people who gave the world naked Retreats. But the chatter in Moganshan these days is all about Le Passage Moganshan.
[For ... Read More
The Greek isles, all 6,000 of them, are one of the world’s legendary holiday destinations, providing inspiration for travel classics like Henry Miller’s Colossus of Maroussi. And with Greece’s debt troubles, they are now more affordable than ever. A week-long holiday can run less than RMB20 ... Read More
Most travelers think of Dali as a place to load up on banana pancakes before hitting the Tibetan plateau, especially since the Chinese tour groups discovered Cangshan and Erhai. But Dali has unique natural beauty, friendly locals and a patchwork of ethnicities which you can get to know only if ... Read More
Shengsi island (剩四岛) is only a few hours from Shanghai. Hardly any foreigners make it there and not many Chinese people either for that matter. That's a shame because it's got great beaches, fantastic roads for biking, a nice clean ocean, plenty of wonderful seafood and tons of ... Read More
Jiuzhaigou is a World Heritage Site in the northern tip of Sichuan. It’s panda country, renowned for crystal-clear waters, awe-inspiring waterfalls and multicolored lakes stained amazing colors by minerals. Legend has it that a Tibetan goddess dropped a mirror which shattered into hundreds of pieces, and these magically transformed ... Read More
For being one of China's big tourist draws (for both Chinese and foreigners), there are precious few decent travel guides online. Sadly, Wikitravel's is the best. Well, I just got back from Qingdao where I scouted it all. So here's a whole bunch of insider tips just ... Read More
Jason Meilink of The Butchery Introdu...
By NARSFWEASELS
Ooh, this is a bit shameless. But I do have a question for Jason: Many... >>