Just two blocks from the White House and within walking distance to everything the nation's capital has to offer, it's easy to see why The Willard InterContinental in Washington DC is known as the "Residence of Presidents" and has remained an anchor in a town that's undergone countless transformations over the hotel's 200-year existence.
In 1862, National Hawthorne wrote, "The Willard may be much more justly called the center of Washington and the Union than either the Cap
Among the various cities I've traveled to in Europe, Rome is my favorite. The sites, history, construction and ancient buildings mark it as interesting reasons for millions of tourists to flock in each season. Being the key city in Italy, Rome is rich for its traditional and cultural ethics. Standing on the banks of Tiber River, its most outstanding aspect for me is its museums and galleries - this city of seven hills speaks out tradition and art. Thousands of Christians gather to attend ch
This city of just over 54,000 is the largest of Croatia's historic Istria region, on the northern Adriatic coast in the country's northwestern corner. I recently visited Pula for three days, taking in its top sights and feeling its beauty. If you're interested in rich culture/history as well as leisure pursuits, the best time to visit is from April to October (and to build a better, customized experience, try the TripHobo trip planner). Its long, rich history dates back more than 2,000 years,
Formerly a colony of Portugal until it was handed back to China in 1999, this city spread against a backdrop of green hills over several islands, with a population of just over 705,000, is a Chinese special administrative on the Pearl River, just 60 kilometres from Hong Kong (making it an easy day trip, by the way). One of world’s more densely populated areas, Macau is best known and is known as Asia´s biggest gambling mecca. Besides the casinos which dominate the skyline (top), it´s is also k
When it comes to tourism in Central America’s largest country, the city that tends to get most of the attention is Granada (while ironically, capital Managua is pretty much avoided by all but business people). But in many ways I find its traditional – and less tarted up for tourists/expats – rival Santiago de los Caballeros de León, even more fascinating, beginning with the fact that despite its somewhat lower contemporary profile among foreigners, Nicaragua's second largest city (aft
Recently tthis month, even as we head toward the end of the year marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, I found myself visiting America's oldest continuously occupied city, St. Augustine, for the first time since a long-ago trip with my family as a kid. I expected to find some of the same things - the massive old Castillo San Marcos fort and the historic downtown, of course, plus a whole raft of new amenities and attractions. And that I certainly did. But I also found somethin
Croatia’s Dalmatian coast is chock-full of historic, architecturally charming towns and cities, but few would question that the queen of them all is the walled old quarter of Dubrovnik, thought to have been founded in the 7th century but according to some theories dating back even much earlier, to ancient Hellenic times. In any case, this eight-square-mile cluster of stone buildings and red-tile roofs has as a result become one of Europe’s more popular cities and tourist destinations – n
