Wine and Spirits Travel

My Australian adventure includes a lot of hotel hopping which I look at as the chance to discover some new places.  Unfortunately, that often also means leaving places before I can totally check them out, but I do like to pass along any gems I find along the way.  Within Melbourne , The Langham definitely fits in this category. One of my favorite aspects of The Langham was the hotel’s ability to combine the lap of luxury with down to earth friendliness.  It ranks among the most opulent hotels I’ve been at, with amenities such as doorbells on the room door, slippers and water bottles at your night table, breathtaking views from the windows (below) and a full wooden box of individually wrapped items of just about anything you could need in the bathroom, next to the large soaking tub. I didn’t have a chance to experience The Langham’s spa, High Tea, Chocolate Spread, Melba Restaurant or Spa, but I did head down to the Aria Lounge.  Petra was as welcoming as the rest of the staff and

It occurred to me when I was sitting at my computer in my suite at the Oaks at Market that I could be anywhere in the world at that moment and it wouldn’t have made a difference.  My first three days in Australia were spent taking a tram to watch tennis at Melbourne Park, coming back to my hotel and sitting in front of the computer until it was time to go to sleep.  It was definitely not the way an Australian adventure should be (though the tennis has certainly been good) and it was time for an immediate change. I shut off the computer and actually left it in the room so I could travel light (we don't part often, so it wasn't easy).  I walked right past the tram and kept walking down Flinders Street, the main thoroughfare in Melbourne .  I noticed for the first time that my hotel is just a block from the Museum of Immigration, and a few more away from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image – currently featuring a Disney exhibition – and the National Gallery of Victoria.

For as long as I could remember, visiting Australia was at the top of my bucket list.  As a tennis journalist, I longed to cover the Australian Open .  As a travel and wine writer, I couldn’t wait to see and taste what this country had to offer.  The one thing I wasn’t anxious for was the long trip required to get Down Under. I flew to Los Angeles a few days before my scheduled flight to Australia for practical reasons.  It is winter in the Midwest and the odds are good that it is going to snow at least once a week.  I didn’t want that snow day to prevent me from catching my flight to Melbourne and it was also a good excuse to spend a few days with my California cousins.  All went as predicted (including the storm that came after I took off, delaying flights).  I was safely on the West Coast, though, and made it to LAX in plenty of time for my 11:20 pm Qantas flight. I have to say I was very disappointed in the Bradley International Terminal at LAX.  Shopping, restaurants, even

A recent trip to New York City had me checking out a new hotel and eating at a place that brought back some old memories – with a little bit of sweating in between! I absolutely loved The James Hotel in Chicago and couldn’t wait to see the brand new James Hotel in New York. I was a bit shocked when I got there as I’ve never seen two hotels with the same name (and there are only two in the chain so far) that were so completely different. In fact, the only thing I found they had in common was the modern furnishings with wonderful displays of artwork throughout the hotel. The trip was a short (but definitely sweet) mother-daughter getaway so the hotel worked great for me. We also saw a lot of couples in the lobby who loved the view and the SoHo location. The ultra-modern design is a continued theme throughout the property, done by the Office for Design and Architecture in a collaboration with Perkins Eastman, and Amanda Sullivan from The James design team. Everything is open and i