10 spooky haunted destinations
photo by champagnedor
1. The Tower of London London, England Site of torture, execution, and murder for more than 1,000 years. see photos 2. Dracula's Castle (Bran Castle) Brasov, Romania Former home to Vlad the Impaler, widely thought to have inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. see photos 3. The Colosseum Rome, Italy Bloody gladiator shows and gory animal fights. Some hear the sounds of battle by night. see photos 4. Charles Bridge Prague, Czech Republic Said to be haunted by ten decapitated lords who roam the bridge by night. see photos 5. Ballygally Castle Ballygally, Northern Ireland Home to the ghost of Lady Isobel Shaw, whose husband let her starve to death in a locked room. see photos	6. The Queen Mary Long Beach, California More than a dozen apparitions have been recorded aboard this celebrated luxury liner. see photos 7. Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh, Scotland A phantom piper, a headless drummer, and a dog are among its ghostly inhabitants. see photos 8. Salem, Massachusetts Best known for witch trials in 1692. Tourists come to see the Witch Trial Memorial and Old Burying Point Cemetery. see photos 9. Catacombs of the Capuchins Palermo, Italy Meet the mummified dead ofPalermo in these spooky underground passages. see photos 10. Rose Hall Great House Rose Hall, Jamaica Said to be haunted by former owner Annie Palmer, who murdered three husbands and a succession of lovers. see photos

The Travel Bureau

21st Century auto Insurance is available only in the United States

Message body 

Australia's Big Pineapple gets a new lease of life

Queensland tourist icon has seen the rough end of the pineapple in recent times, but its future is now looking a lot sweeter.
A massive cleanup and restoration program has begun to bring the Big Pineapple at Woombye on the Sunshine Coast back to its former glory days.
Following the purchase of the attraction by a private consortium in August, scaffolding has been erected around the pineapple itself, as work begins to re-establish the site as a leading agri-tourism operation.
Newly appointed general manager Paul Ziebarth, the architect and manager of the acclaimed Northey Street Organic Markets in Brisbane, says after years of neglect it will be a huge task.
"Stage one will include welcoming back the produce markets, which were a highlight here at the Big Pineapple for many years, cleaning up and reclaiming the 400-acre (162-hectare) site, restoring the plantations and orchards over two years, restoring and reopening the Pineapple, specialist fixing of the famous train, and developing the masterplan proper,'' he said.
"It's important to recognise that the Big Pineapple was completely rundown and in a derelict state after being neglected for a long time, and lying dormant for well over 12 months.
"The orchards and gardens need very serious attention and care, all buildings on the site need cleaning, restoring and assessment, and the Pineapple needs full restoration.
"Some of the buildings, like the Nut Factory and the Chocolate Factory have been completely gutted, to the point (where) returning to their original use is simply impossible.''
The produce markets will return to a new and permanent home from November.
"While the markets at the Big Pineapple were traditionally focused on tropical fruits, our focus is to build on this solid foundation, and develop all primary food bases into a full range market offer covering fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy and grains and in the longer term, seafood,'' Ziebarth said.
"In the orchards alone there are some 12,000 trees all in a seriously neglected state. Restoring the gardens and orchards of avocados, pineapples, macadamia nuts, lychees and more is a very big job.
"The masterplan is to create a self-perpetuating hub with very real business and employment generators.''
"The Big Pineapple is a big part of the Sunshine Coast family and we are keen to engage ideas and suggestions.
Built in 1971, the Big Pineapple burnt down and was rebuilt in 1978, and during its life has been owned by various operators including Rupert Murdoch during the 1980's.


The Travel Bureau

21st Century auto Insurance is available only in the United States

 

Hong Kong cross-harbor swim returns after 33 years

Hong Kong, Oct 16, 2011 (AFP) -Hong Kong's iconic cross-harbor swim race made its return Sunday after a 33-year suspension forced by pollution and heavy traffic on the famous waterway.
The annual race, a tradition dating back to 1906 which in its heydey attracted hundreds of swimmers to the city's famed Victoria Harbor, was halted in 1978 as water quality deteriorated.
The event was revived this year due to popular demand, with organizers insisting that water quality has improved, allowing 1,000 participants to take part in the 1.8-kilometer race.
The participants dashed between Hong Kong island and the Kowloon peninsula on a bright autumn day, with the frontrunners completing the course in about 20 minutes.
"It's a meaningful event. It brings back a lot of memories for old Hong Kong people," said Ronnie Wong from the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association, a three-time champion of the race between 1967 and 1969.
"A lot of people have been asking me when we can hold the race again," he said, adding that the association had to turn down nearly 500 applications to limit the number of participants to 1,000.
Environmental groups had warned before the race that there were still high levels of harmful bacteria including E.coli in the famous port.
But Wong said that fluctuating water quality had improved in recent days in the eastern part of the harbor where the race is held, and that it was safe for the event to go ahead.
Wong said the association was considering opening the race to foreigners from next year, after drawing a big field of entries from swimmers young and old, plus a smattering of expatriates.
"Once we open the entry to international participants, this will become a tourist attraction," he said.
Pollution -- air quality in particular -- is a major issue in Hong Kong, and critics say that as well as posing a

Please visit my other blogs Salt of Life at http://www.salt-romblonwriter.blogspot.com,
Miscellaneous at http://www.micellaneous-oddnews.blogspot.com, and Fun in Life at
http://www.salt-funstories.blogspot.com

The Travel Bureau




21st Century auto Insurance is available only in the United States

Message body 

Romblon, a less-known tourist haven

Looking for materials to write for this blog, I thought of Romblon, a small province in the heart of the Philippines, where I grew up. Romblon, known among Filipinos as the Marble Country for its vast marble deposits, is a less-known tourist destination where mountains often meet the sea.

Romblon Bay: A safe haven for ships during storms.
At foreground is the town of Romblon, Romblon
 nestled between mountains and sea.

The province consists of three major islands - Tablas, Sibuyan and Romblon. Although not as popular as other tourist spots like Boracay off Panay Island or Puerto Gallera in Mindoro, Romblon has equally-beautiful beaches and coral reefs that are ideal for scuba diving under turquoise sea. 
Having lived on the capital island of Romblon in my teens, I can vouch that almost all beaches around the island are ideal for swimming but the most famous of which is Bonbon beach because of its proximity to the town - three kilometers away. From the beaches, tourists can go to nearby villages and see how the village folk live.

The town of Romblon itself hosts several tourist attractions - the St. Joseph Cathedral, a Spanish-era church with a separate belfry, the Spanish fortress on a hill known as San Andres, and stores selling souvenir items crafted from solid marble rocks. The picturesque Romblon harbor is a haven for ships during storms because the landlocked bay is buffeted by two islands at the entrance.

The Romblon National High School in Romblon, Romblon

Those who want to see how marble is processed into slabs or tiles can take a tricycle to the quarries where solid marble rocks are cut into blocks or the factory which processed the blocks into slabs or tiles that are installed as flooring or plastered on walls. Romblon marble comes in different shades ranging from black, white to gold. The shades often come in streaks.


Although few foreign tourists have discovered Romblon as an ideal vacation haven, a steady stream of visitors, some coming from other parts of the Philippines, prompted enterprising residents to build cottages along the beaches. The cottage owners also serve home-cooked foods. 
Aside from Bonbon, the other known beach  resorts on the island are in Ginablan, a village 12 kilometers away from town.

Bonbon beach 

Ginablan, where I grew up, has a wide swath of rice fields that crawl to the foot of the hills. I haven't gone back to Romblon for more than 30 years now but I can still remember the houses mostly built of wood or bamboo slits strewn far apart amid coconut trees. Off the shore is a small island which can be traveled by foot during ebb tide. Inland, the rivers were pristine and the woods, where birds perched quietly on branches of lush trees, were eerie in their silence.

Across the western horizon of Romblon, Tablas, the biggest of the three main islands in the province, has quite a number of tourist resorts. Among them is the Aglicay Beach Resort in Alcantara municipality which offers a clear shore with "kiss powdery-white sand" and a bed of corals where tropical fish with dazzling colors take shelter. It also boost of breath-taking hills that are "alive with the songs of birds". 

Aglicay beach off Alcantara town on Tablas island.

Tourists who want to stay in seclusion on a private island may choose the  Morel Island Resort on Morel Island. And like most beaches across the province, Kambaye Beach Resort in Binonga-an, San Agustin municipality, has a white long sandy shore, and offers a full view of Romblon island across the sea.


Sibuyan island on the eastern side of the province offers other attractions, aside from its white beaches. For instance, Mt. Guiting-Guiting, the highest peak in the province, has been attracting mountaineers for its abundant wildlife and waterfalls. Catingas River Valley, in Taclobo, San Fernnando municipality, is home for the world's smallest bats, mangcogo or iron wood and clean inland water.

White beach going to the Isla de Gallo,
  also known as Cresta de Gallo island.

Busay Falls, in Panangcalan, San Fernando, takes pride of its "remaining untouched falls in the Philippines" while Isla de Gallo in Azagra, also in San Fernando, offers a beautiful scenery of coral reefs for divers.


In a small island municipality known as Corcuera, visitors will find centuries-old coffins made of hallowed logs in Guyangan caves, which was discovered in 1936, years before World War II. Lis-ong Cave in Colong-colong village offers wonderful sights of stalactites and stalagmites.
At the peak of Mount Andradoon in the village of Mangansag is a grotto of the Immaculate Conception where devotees go to pray during the Lenten season. On a hill overlooking the town of Corcuera still stands the Cotta Tower built between 1860-1865 by San Agustin de Pedro to ward off Muslim pirates.
The 28-hectare Saba Bay Lagoon straddles the border of the upland villages of San Roque and Mabini with serene waters. In the domelike Guiniwagan Cave in Mahaba village  is a pool of cool water where villagers swim. I have gone to Corcuera with a high-school friend who lives there and found hot springs on the shore on the fringes of the town


Note: In case foreign readers wonder why there is Spanish-era church in Romblon, the Philippines was once a colony of Spain. Colonial churches are strewn across the country.


How to go to the islands.


The fastest way is by plane to Odiongan, Romblon's biggest town. Visitors who may want to go to the island of Romblon could travel by land to San Agustin and then take a rigger boat from there. 


There are also Ro-Ro  ferries from the pier of Batangas, south of Manila. The ferries, which take both passengers and cars, are operated by Viva Lines (Tel. +6343-7239302 +6343-7239302),    Montenegro Lines (Tel. +6343-7238294 +6343-7238294) and Shipshape Ferry Inc.(Tel. +6343-7237615 +6343-7237615)     The ferries sails daily to Odiongan, daily except Wednesday to San Agustin on Tablas Island, Romblon on Romblon Island and San Fernando on Sibuyan Island.  Corcuera island is also accessible from Batangas. 



Sailing from Manila thru North Harbor is the easiest way to visit Romblon province. Pier 8 at the North Harbor is the main port of MBRS Lines.  MBRS ships sail alternately, serving the three main islands of Sibuyan, Romblon and Tablas. 

Please visit my other blogs Salt of Life

The Creek House hotel in Romblon, Romblon

http://www.salt-romblonwriter.blogspot.com,
Fun in Life http://www.salt-funstories.blogspot.com and
Miscellaneous http://www.miscellaneous-oddnews.blogspot.com.

All photos are from the Internet.


The Travel Bureau

Glimpses of Greece and Turkey

Mykonos, a Greek island in the Cyclades, battleground of Zeus and the Titans in the Greek mythology.
Greek tycoon Aristotle Onasis and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed frequently here after their marriage.

The Parthenon atop the Acropolis as viewed from their hotel.

Twice a year, my niece Roxanna goes on a trip - outside the United States in summer and in the US, where she stays now,  in the fall. Last summer, she went on a tour to Greece and Turkey, culminating on a seven-day trip to the Greek isles as well as Istanbul and Kusadasi in Turkey. 

"I plan my trip way ahead of time," says Roxanna, who lives in Florida where she works as a medical technologist in a hospital, in an email. "After coming back from a trip, I plan for the next trip to keep me sane. I got inflicted by the travel bug."
She often travesl with friends, "mostly single women who are seasoned travelers" like her. "I feel like I got to see places on earth before it disappears. I want to see the ancient and new wonders of the world while they exist. Traveling is my passion," says Roxanna, who hails from San Fernando, Romblon, in the central Philippines.
Roxanne, nicknamed Baby, migrated to the US after joining her siblings in Canada. From Canada, she went to Texas and then moved to Florida.
"My philosophy is that I will travel while I am able - physically, financially and mentally. Hope alzheimer or dementia won't strike me before I retire," she kidded. "About 75 percent of the travelers I met outside the US are retired elderly, with canes and taking all sorts of medication." 

View of the Caldera, a  basin-like depression
caused by the collapse of the center of a volcano.

The sights of them strengthen her resolve to travel while she is young "because traveling involves a long while of walking, too. It's a waste of money paying for a trip if you just stay in a bus or a hotel because you can't go with the group on a walking tour."
She prefers guided tour offered by tour companies. "There are several types of tour: budget, first class, luxury, independent. I take a tour based on the itinerary I like. It could be first class or budget. I have not taken a luxury tour, too expensive for my budget.
On a 12 to 15-day European tour, she says, her budget is usually $5K-plus for airfare, options, pocket money and meals. She doesn't shop on tours knowing that prices on tourist destinations would be about thrice the normal price. She usually picks the month of May for a tour outside the US. "That's when the airfare is low and tourist sites or landmarks are not too crowded."

Blue-doomed church on the island of Santori.

Going back to her latest tour, she picked Greece because the tour packaged included Turkey. From Orlando, they layed over in Philadelphia and then flew to Athens, where she says she felt the ancient glory of the city. They stayed at the Divani Acropolis Hotel, which was close to the Parthenon, and toured Athens the following day to see its major landmarks.

They spent the second day touring the city of Athens and dined in one of the tavernas at the Plaka, a shopping district, where they enjoyed watching Greek folk dances and listening to Greek singers. "We ate authentic Greek food and tasted wine: ouzo (yuk), mousaka, dolmades and gyro (pronounced as yee-ro)."

Performers dance at a taverna where they dined.

It was cold in Athens when they went there with light showers in the afternoon. "Good thing I had brought a sweater. In Europe, you always bring a sweater whatever is the season."
On the third day, she and 47 others in the group from the US started their cruise to the Greek isles. All in all, there were 1,300 passengers in the cruise that started from the port of Piraeus where they saw lots of Filipinos. "I think majority of the port employees were Pinoys (Filipinos). They were all over, from the port entry, ticketing, porters, baggage handlers, visa checkers, etc. When we boarded the ship and got into our cabins, we found out that the steward was also a Pinoy. So we got a special service."
The situation was similar in her other cruises. "I had been to the Bahamas and found out that about 60-70 of the cruise crew were Pinoys. And, yes, you are always well-taken care of. They give excellent services and the Pinoy entertainers were good as well."
The first place they went to was Istanbul, Turkey. "Istanbul surprised me. It is a fascinating place, it straddles two continents. One side is in Europe and the other in Asia. The European side was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The Asian side is called Asia Minor or Anatolia. The two continents are divided by the Strait of Boshphorous."

White houses with blue domes, a postcard view of Santorini in Ola.

One of the memorable places they had gone to was the Sultanahmet mosque or Blue Mosque, so-called because the tiles used to adorn the interior were blue. "It's a beautiful mosque, with a massive history."she gushed. The also went to Hagia Sophia, a former cathedral turned into a mosque and later into a museum."The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are  facing each other.'
Roxanna said they were told by their guide that the Blue Mosque was copied form Hagia Sophia, which had a distinct byzantine architecture, and just added seven minarets.

Other places they visited were the Topkapi Palace, the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for about 400 years. "Lots of history. Inside the palace, we went into three different rooms where gems and stones of the royalties were kept. No cameras were allowed so we did not take any picture."

On a tender going to the port with co-travelers Cora and Art.

Their last stop in Istanbul were the bazaars where she had a good experience in price bargaining. "Once you touch something they will not stop (pestering you) until you buy. So if you don't want to buy anything just let your eyeballs roll around and zip your mouth."
The bazaars, she said, was a place where you have to haggle for a good price if you want to buy anything because the prices are marked up by "probably 10 times".
"I wanted to buy a souvenir and saw this small replica of the Blue Mosque. Although I was just looking around and didn't say anything, a salesman started following me and persuading me to buy something, probably sensing that I wanted to buy something," she recalled.

The city of Athens viewed from the Acropolis.

"Finally I saw the one I liked. You can pay either in euro or Turkish lira. At that time 1 euro was 3 lira, 1 US dollar was 1.5 lira. When I asked for the price, he said 30 euros. I said 10, he said 20. When I acted like I was going away, he said 'how much do you want?' I said 15. He looked at me and said ok, which confirmed my suspicion that the price was jacked up so much."
Going through the bazaars for food, coffee and spices, their last stop was a carpet store where some Americans in the tour bought carpets. "We watched the demo on how they weave carpets by hand, no machine was involved. While watching the demo, they served hot apple teas (very good) and lion's milk (Turkish liquor fermented anis which I did  not like).
"There were two kinds of carpet/rugs: silk and woolen.Silk was more expensive, from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the size. They ship it to any parts of the world but it would take weeks or months. First you choose what design you like. If the design was not readily available, they will weave if for you, with your signature weaved into the carpet and would be shipped to your address when it's finished.

Plaka district where shops and restaurants are located.

"Some Americans in the tour bought rugs that would be shipped in the next few weeks. They were really nice and I could have bought a carpet if I had the money. We returned to our ship at night and went to other islands, one island each day. One of the islands was called Kusadasi, where the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus was one of the tourist attractions. Kusadasi is a also a place where the Virgin Mary was believed to have lived after Jesus died.


"There are so many things to say yet but I would rather let your readers go to these places to see what I am saying. They are beautiful places to visit."

The first Olympic stadium in Athens where the Olympic flame
starts and ends at the place where the Olympic games is held.

We invite travelers to post their travels in this site - free. If you can't compose the story, just give us the details, we will do it for you. Pictures are a must to accompany the story. Send your story and photos to casianomayor@yahoo.com.




Please visit my other blogs Salt of Life at http://www.salt-romblonwriter.blogspot.com,
Miscellaneous at http://www.miscellaneous-oddnews.blogspost.com and Fun in Life at http://www.salt-funstories.blogspot.com.



<a href="http://www.ebookreaderreviewsite.org">ebook reader reviews</a>

Please also visit my website The Travel Bureau







21st Century auto Insurance is available only in the United States

Message body 

Palawan's Coron islands

Coron island in the Philippines may not be as popular as Boracay island but it has one of best shores for swimming or snorkeling. The third largest island in the Calamian Group of Islands in the northern Palawan province about 310 kilometers southwest of Manila, the country's capital, Coron is more known for several Japanese shipwrecks of World War II vintage.

From left: Bernadette, Lala and Lericita
 at the steps of Mt. Tapias.

The area around the wrecks has pleasant rock formations which provide for excellent snorkeling experience, with underwater visibility extending up to 80 feet (24 meters). The water is often calm. Coron is one of the most visited destinations for wreck diving in the Philippines. Wreck dive sites are found in a depth as shallow as 10–30 feet and as deep as 120–140 feet. Most are in the range of about 60–80 feet, perfect for sports divers.


But enough of the text-book type narrative about Coron as a tourist destination. You can search such information in the Internet. What you can't search in the web are real tour experiences. And that's what I want to provide in this post - this time it's the first-hand experiences of my two nieces and a sister-in-law.

Swimming in clear water, from left, Bernadette, Lala and Lericita

They took a promotion flight from Manila to Coron with the local airlies Cebu Pacific. The two-way ticket cost them 2,211 pesos each. At the current rate of about 42 pesos to a US dollar, that's more or less $52.5. They got the package from the website of Corongaleri.Com.Ph. It was a guided tour.


On day one, they climbed Mt. Tapias, which has more than 700 steps. "We were challenged to climb because our guide brought with him his 83-year old grandfather who took the climb in a breeze. We did not regret it because the view from the top was so beautiful. It provided a panorama of the island of Coron and the neighboring islands," says my niece Lala in an email.

A bee on an indigenous plant they took picture of along the way.

The day-two tour, that cost them 650 pesos extra, took them to the Kayangan Reef, Twin Peaks Reef, Arwayan Beach and the Coral Garden, which they said was the most memorable. "The water was so clear beyond 10 feet you can see the corals from the boat very clearly," Lala. says. "The corals were of different colors, the sight was so beautiful."


Their package included lunch, a tour guide, life vest but they rented the snorkeling gear.

One of their rooms at the Ralph pension house.

On day three, dubbed as Las Islas Ecotour  that cost them 750 pesos each, they went to the Barracuda Lake, Banol Beach, Calachuchi Reef , Sunset beach and Siete Pecados. What they appreciated most in this tour was the Calachuchi Reef.


"To go there, you have to use a snorkel to enter the cave with a submerge entrance. In the cave, you will find a lone calachuchi tree on a middle island. The sand along the sides inside the cave is so fine like a baby talk powder," says Lala. "It is advisable to bring an underwater camera so you can take beautiful sights inside the cave."


Their misfortune is they did not have an underwater camera.

The living room that goes with the three bedrooms.

They stayed at the Ralph pension house. The owner told them that everything they need in Coron - small restaurants, Internet shop, shops for souvenirs and local finger foods for taking home -  were just five minutes walk from the pension house. 

They did not go to those places but the Coron Galeri where they booked their package tours "was just a few minutes away." Food in the restaurant where the took supper cost 100 to 150 pesos a meal and they swear that the food were fine because they were like home-cooked.




Those who want to inquire about the tours here's the link of the Coron Galeri http://www.ralphspensionhouse.webs.com.

Sunset at Coron islands.

For those who want to go diving around Coron Island here's some tips I got from the Internet. 


There are many many dive sites around the island but the most famous is the Gunter's Cave, also know as the Cathedral Cave because at a certain time of the day the sun throws a beam of light through the cave hole illuminating it inside. The cave was named after Gunther Bernett who was part of the first group of divers to  explore it after local fishermen told him about its existence. 


The wreck diving sites in Coron Bay include the Irako wrech, Okinawa Maru wreck, Akitsushima wreck, Kogyo Maru wreck, Olympia Maru wrech, Kyokuzan Maru wreck, East Tangat gunboat wreck, Nanshin Maru wreck, Lusong Gunboat wreck and Skeleton Wreck.


The real name of the ship which was long been called as the East Tangat gunboat was discovered just recently by a group of Dutch divers who spent a couple of days digging the sand around its stern. I presume that the name of the ships in the sites Lusong Gunboat wreck and Skeleton wreck have been known. 


The underwater views of the sunken Japanese ships off Coron Island are listed in Forbes Traveler Magazine’s top-10 bests cuba diving sites in the world.

A group of tourists entering the Subterranean River.

Palawaan province, which faces the South China Sea on the north and the Sulu Sea on the south, has many tourist spots itself, including the Subterranean River which passes through a long cave.  
The 8.2-kilometer underground river in Puerto Pricesa City, the provincial capital, has been declared a national park and listed in Unesco's heritage program. It's among the nominess for the New 7 Wonders of the World.


Please also visit my travel website. The Travel Bureau



Please visit my other blogs Salt of Life, Miscellaneous,  and Fun in Life.

The world's best cities to travel

Despite the world economic crisis, travel has gone up with 270 million travelers leaving on vacation this year, Yahoo! Travel and Leisure reported on Thursday, quoting the Airports Council International.


Yahoo! Travel and Leisure said Bangkok is number one destination of most travelers this year, citing a readers's survey for its 16th annual World's Best cities. Florence comes close on its hees..


“Cities absolutely dominate over countryside experiences for travelers,” it quoted Priscilla Alexander of Protravel International as saying. “You won’t have someone going to France and not going to Paris.”
Yahoo! Travel and Leisure took into consideration factors such as efficient transportation and affordable dining, among others.


Here's the top 10 cities:

No. 1 Bangkok
The capital of Thailand with of 10 million people, Bangkok has sky crappers jostling for space, while beneath them are cabs and tuk-tuks inching on heavy traffic. For shopping and dinning, Bangkok has an array of bacchanalia. It has nabbed the number one post for two years running and has been listed in the top 10 destinations every year since 2002.




No. 2 Florence
This much-loved Renaissance city is set amid rolling hills studded with towers and churches. New galleries and aperitivo bars share the compact city center with more than one million works of art — among them Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. With its high-fashion brands like Gucci and Cavalli, succulent steaks and the traditional artisan workshops of the Oltrarno, Florence beat out European cities many times its size.


No. 3 
Rome


Dubbed as the Eternal City, Rome has a series of starchitect-designed buildings. Emblematic of the bold new look are the Ara Pacis, a travertine-and-glass building by Richard Meier, and Zaha Hadid’s Maxxi (Museum of 21st Century Arts), which debuted in 2010 in the northern Flaminio zone. The Colosseum has opened its dungeons and third-floor gallery to tourists for the first time.


No. 4 New York


New York is know for its bright-lights-big-city grandeur where one can always find a quiet neighborhood. The trick is balancing the city’s outsize spectacle with intimate experiences. The latest neighborhood to pull it off is the Chelsea arts district, between 10th and 11th avenues, most notable for the just-expanded High Line, a landscaped strip of elevated public space. For a picnic lunch, stop into Chelsea Market, a food-court-on-steroids, and savor a piece of the city that’s been voted No. 1 within the U.S. and Canada every year since 2000.

No. 5 Istanbul

Straddling the Bosporus — and thus the only major city that occupies both Asia and Europe — Istanbul also spans the ancient and modern worlds. The sounds of construction compete with the call of the muezzin, and the skyline, a glittering ribbon of palaces and mosques, is dotted with rooftop nightclubs. One reason the city skyrocketed back onto the World’s Best Cities list after two absent years. The appeal of Istanbul’s latest culinary trend: resurrecting ancient Ottoman recipes, such as garlicky lamb’s trotter served on toast at Asitane and juicy kubbes — dumplings filled with beef and pignoli — at Cercis Murat Kona, on the city’s Asian side.

No. 6 Cape Town

Cape Town is sometimes labeled the least African of African cities — which, depending on who’s doing the labeling, is said with enthusiasm or disparagement. But whatever you think of the must-see destination, post-World Cup, the city radiates a palpable cool, and now it has surged back onto the World’s Best list with a higher score than in 2009 (the last time it appeared). Split your time between urban pursuits (browsing the trendy Neighborgoods Market and local artists’ galleries) and excursions to see wildlife, sample wines, and stroll the beaches of the Cape of Good Hope reserve.


No. 7 Siem Reap

Siem Reap is best known as the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex and other 12th-century Khmer ruins such as Ta Prohm, which remains as archaeologists found it in 1860, with banyan and kapok trees slowly reclaiming its sandstone carvings. But now the city has evolved from a cluster of riverfront villages into a full-fledged destination complete with art galleries, boutique hotels — and a World’s Best Cities designation. Sample the local cuisine at the FCC Angkor, a 31-room Art Deco hotel and restaurant, and drop by McDermott Gallery for black-and-white photographs of Angkor Wat.


No. 8 Sydney


Part outsize beach resort, part culture capital, Sydney, the perennial World’s Best City winner Down Under, exemplifies the art of relaxed cosmopolitanism: urbane but not pretentious; cutting-edge but not stressed-out. New restaurants and boutiques are channeling that Aussie energy in some oft-overlooked neighborhoods such as beachside hangout Manly. And an initiative to liven up the side lanes in the trendy Surry Hills and Darlinghurst neighborhoods has led to a slew of lounge bars opening up; try the lychee-infused tequila at Hunky Dory Social Club.

No. 9 Barcelona
Barcelona has long been famous for its art and architecture, with Salvador Dal, Joan Mir, and Antoni Gaud all leaving their marks. But this is the first year that the Catalan city has broken into the World’s Best Cities top 10 list. Though diversions like wandering the Gaud - designed Parc Güell have a timeless appeal, it’s new hot spots like Tickets, from mad-scientist brothers Ferran and Albert Adrià, that are creating the worldwide buzz. Where to stay? At the new Mandarin Oriental, where the Hong Kong hotel group’s legendary service is paired with Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola’s 98 bright, cream-on-white rooms.No. 10  Paris
 Paris where every cobbled lane, every street-side café, every patisserie window seems to have been art-directed by some impossibly savvy set designer. Yet for all that elegance and drama, Paris’s greatest pleasures are arguably its simplest ones: the hum of a neighborhood bistro; the tranquility of a churchyard; the crunch of a perfect baguette. After all, you come to Paris to eat. Indulge serious cheese fantasies at Laurent Dubois, a fromagerie with seemingly endless options.
Please  also visit our website:  The Travel Bureau
P