Our Dubai Insider's Guide is now on the Nine MSN's travel site. Take a look here and let us know what you think. I'd be especially keen to know what any Dubai locals, expats and recent visitors to the city-emirate think and to hear your insider tips, favorite 'near the beaten track' things to do, and the things you recommend people avoid. I'm expecting our own suggestion to give the Burj Al Arab a miss will be controversial... You can leave comments on the site or let me know here.
Pictured? Expats relaxing by Dubai Creek. One of our favorite things to do on a weekend afternoon.
It's been a tough week. We're still completing the writing on one book project while we're researching others, as small assignments continue to come in, and other offers too good to refuse present themselves. It's hard to say no even though we're both completely exhausted. Terry appears to be getting the flu, I had an infected blister that saw one foot so swollen and inflamed I couldn't walk on it for a day, and I can't ever remember having been this tired before. We slept in until 9am today and yet I felt guilty even though we had an early start yesterday, worked all day, and were pounding the pavement until 10pm checking out bars last night for the book. We had a dinner reservation at 10.30pm but then even after our meal Terry continued to take photos for the book of the lively Navigli bar scene on the way home. We finally crashed around 2am and yet today I felt guilty for those seven hours of sleep. And it's been a hard week. We've been on the go all day every day from early until late with photo shoots and interviews at museums, theatres, shops and restaurants. In between Terry is walking the streets in the sticky 35+ Celsius heat (the humidity in Milano has been high this week so it seems even hotter than it is) and I'm researching, writing, and planning the next leg of the journey, to the Italian lakes and other parts of Northern Italy, and for two more research trips after that. And while our work is going to be taking us to some incredibly beautiful places, all I can think of is a holiday somewhere. Anywhere but there. Somewhere where there is nothing to do except lie on a beach and read books for a few weeks. And you thought travel writing was one great big holiday...
Call me crazy, I'm in Italy and I'm telling you to go to Dubai. But my beloved Dubai has been getting some bad press lately. Call it a backlash, jealousy or - dare I say it? - racism, it's undeserved. Ignore the critics and go look for yourself.
1. AFFORDABLE HOTELS - Hotels have slashed prices up to 50% off rack rates, including includes luxe hotels like Bab Al Shams, Al Maha and Burj Al Arab. If these special luxury packages are still be beyond your budget, there are great deals to be had at the rest of Dubai's 400+ hotels in all price brackets. Check Expedia to see what I mean. My picks: Bastakiya boutique charm at Orient Guest House for $86, sleek business-style at Novotel for $90, stylish BurJuman Rotana for $160, Carlos Ott-designed Hilton Dubai Creek for $170, and Moroccan-chic at Park Hyatt Dubai for $286.
2. SPA SPECIALS - Dubai has some of the world's best spas with a long list of luscious Oriental treatments (a milk bath anyone?) and most are offering summer promotions, including the Angsana, Akaru and Talise.
3. CHEAP EATS - Many of Dubai's restaurants offer great value degustation menus, promotions one night a week, all-you-can-eat champagne brunches on Fridays, and fantastic fixed-priced set lunches, but there are more restaurant deals than ever at the moment. So why is everything so cheap right now? Well, because...
4. DUBAI IS SIZZLING! - I'm talking about the temperature. Right now it's a scorching, sweltering, suffocating heat hovering around the low 40s in Celsius (around 105-110 Fahrenheit). And it's only going to get hotter. It's something you may never have experienced before, and probably won't again, so why not try it once?
5. EMPTY BEACHES - who wants to lie on a crowded Italian lido, only centimetres from the person next to you, when you can have a whole gorgeous white sand beach to yourself? And, um, the thousands of other holidaymakers in Dubai for the summer deals. But seriously, Dubai's public beaches are lovely and wide and rarely far from a leafy park, while the hotel beach is never far from the icy swimming pool, a wet-bar, or your air-conditioned room.
6. STAYING COOL IS A CINCH - you can escape the heat, whether it's in the temperature controlled hotel swimming pool, swooshing down the slopes at Ski Dubai or ice-skating at one of the city's rinks. Everywhere is air-conditioned in Dubai - taxis, malls, hotels, restaurants - so the heat is only a problem when you go outside...
7. PIERRE GAGNAIRE'S REFLECT IS OPEN - this sublime restaurant by three-star Michelin chef Pierre Gagnaire, one of the world's greatest chefs, has just recently opened its gorgeous doors, promising a multi-sensory experience. We interviewed restaurant manager Etienne Haro and saw the the glam space while it was still being decorated. We can't wait to try it!
8. SALES ARE ON! - the city's seasonal shopping festival, Summer Surprises, is on and the bargains are unbelievable. Ordinarily shopping in Dubai is cheaper than Europe, especially when it comes to electronics, designer fashion, shoes, perfume and cosmetics. Why? Because there's no tax. So when the sales are on, the prices are even crazier.
9. THE KIDS WILL LOVE IT - as part of Summer Surprises,, there is tonnes of indoor family entertainment on everywhere, in the malls, libraries, hotels, and at Mohdesh Fun City, named after the festival mascot.
10. THE CITY IS TRAFFIC-FREE - well, not quite, but there are far fewer cars on the road because most expats have gone home or are travelling for the summer and the Emiratis have moved to cooler climes. The sensible people have left town essentially. But that means faster travelling time for you. Traffic is a problem in Dubai; it's the thing residents hate most. So go and enjoy something locals rarely get a chance to - empty roads! - and whizz around the city eating, drinking, pampering, and shopping yourself silly!
By Terry*
Continued from part 2 and part 1.
Anon continues:
* “The miracle of Dubai is also made possible by a largely invisible army of cheap labour: 90 per cent of the population are foreigners, including Western professionals lured by the black gold, but mainly Filipino maids and nannies, and construction workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh” and “Construction workers are paid a paltry US$100 a month and sleep in huge hostels, where 20 people share a single bathroom.”
Yes, those construction workers, waiters, maids, nannies and shop assistants I talked to every day for years were just a mirage. But the ‘invisible army’ and the mention of mistreatment of workers are obligatory in any story on Dubai that takes a negative stance. I’m starting to feel nostalgic for the old days when it was obligatory to mention the cruel Arabs and the five-year-old camel jockeys…
Workers’ conditions and living conditions for the underprivileged is an issue everywhere but If I write about New York restaurants, should I devote a paragraph to the illegal dishwashers from South America without health insurance who help keep America’s economy just above the waterline? Should I write about Maori alcohol and incarceration problems if I write about New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc? If I write about Outback Australia, should I always mention the ‘Aboriginal problem’? Is a travel story the place to talk about globalisation and the migration of workers looking for a better life and getting screwed? Sometimes. But if you’re going to do it, be balanced. Oh, and the last time I heard the term ‘black gold’ was on the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Man, I love me some banjo. Can’t get the song out of my head now.
* “We also check out Little India, swarming with tourist tat touts and shops cluttered with cheap Chinese-made clothes and plastic utensils, which are what real people use”.
What sort of utensils do the people who aren’t real use and what do you have against utensils made of materials other than plastic? (Note: for those shopping for plastic utensils, the author probably means Karama Souq.)
* “Shindagha, the original site from which Dubai grew, is by the river mouth. Sheikh Saeed's house, the former home of the ruling Maktoum family, has been 'carefully restored' and is open to view.”
Why is carefully restored in inverted commas? Are those Arabs trying to trick Anon again with a ‘fake’ house and yet another fake experience? Is there nothing really authentic in Dubai? Not according to Anon.
* “Nearby, the Heritage and the Pearl Fishers' villages purport to offer a glimpse of traditional life - with credit card facilities.”
It’s actually ‘Heritage and Diving Villages’ and the author clearly didn’t visit during the frequent Emirati events (pictured), including traditional dances and singing, as well as our favourite, the rifle-throwing competitions – you don’t need a credit card for those, just for the ‘fake’ souvenirs. You also don’t need a credit card to buy the authentic breads and snacks made by ‘real’ local women, just some small change.
* “In fact, there are few historic buildings left standing. Between the corrosive elements of sun and wind, mud walls don't tend to last long and for the past few decades, Dubai's natives have been more enthusiastic about building comfortable, modern mansions than restoring mud huts.”
We’ll overlook the inaccuracies and horrid sentence construction, but damn those ‘natives’ wanting to live in comfortable, modern mansions when they could live in a ‘mud hut’ with no air-conditioning for the sake of not appearing ‘fake’ to a New Zealand ‘journalist’ who can’t even get his ‘facts’ straight. The cheek of them.
* “A dignified older man offers us dates and coffee spiced with cardamom.”
At last, the Wilfred Thesiger or Lawrence of Arabia moment that Anon has been looking for happens! Luckily, it wasn’t an ‘undignified’ older man that he met. I hear they’re not as friendly.
* “Hospitality is one of the most highly esteemed virtues in Islamic culture. The touching family scene straight out of centuries past is disrupted by the arrival of a giant SUV sending up clouds of sand. The other men of the family are arriving.”
Damn, just as Anon’s Orientalist dream – straight from ‘centuries past’ – is realised, it’s snatched away by ‘fake’ Arabs and their ‘fake’ 4WD’s. Don’t they know anything about authenticity, like, you know, white New Zealanders earnestly doing the Haka? By the way, it’s Arab (and especially Bedouin) hospitality that Anon might be thinking of and Islam is a religion.
* “When we recount our meeting later, our guide is quick to quell any romantic notions of traditional lifestyles surviving into the 21st century. It turns out Bedouin all live in the city these days, and drive to their estates at the weekend. "Camel caretakers", predominantly from Southeast Asia, are paid a pittance to do the actual day-to-day camel wrangling.”
Wow. Sounds like these tour guides are a real downer in Dubai. As soon as you think you’ve found something authentic – baaaaammmm – they’ll spoil it for you!
And so it turns out that the only ‘real’ moment of Anon’s Orientalist Dream Tour was fake as well.
* Terry Carter is my husband and co-writer.
By Terry*
So, where were we? If you’re just joining us, see this post about an Orientalist fantasy of an article on Dubai in The Sydney Morning Herald by an anonymous author who I'm calling 'Anon':
Anon writes:
* “The encampment is furnished with modern flush loos…”
Yes, they’re all the rage in Dubai now, the Sheikh apparently has a gold one! Clearly the author wanted to pee in a dark, smelly, open pit. Damn you, oil money!
* “Locals in traditional white dishsasha robes and headdress are commonly seen getting happily loaded on alcopops in hotel bars.”
Alcopops? Probably not a local. Common? Nope. And the robes are more commonly known as ‘dishdashas’ which means robe anyway, so Anon's said they’re wearing ‘robe robes’, but that’s a minor point an editor could have picked up. If there was one…
* “Men from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which has a much more hard-line approach to liquor, frequently slip over the border for a quaff before driving home.”
Hard-line? It’s illegal in Saudi. And that’s a long way to drive home drunk from Dubai, a round trip of at least 800km (see this map.) Perhaps the author meant Bahrain where Saudis drive across the Johnny Walker Bridge, woops, I mean, King Fahd Causeway to imbibe. But the vision of drunk Saudis driving home all the way from Dubai would probably make a great road movie. Especially if they sang ‘99 bottles of beer on the wall’ in Arabic...
* “Like our ‘desert experience’, much of Dubai is essentially fake. Forty years ago, Dubai was a dusty fishing village on the banks of Dubai Creek.”
Clearly, Anon wanted it to stay like that so he could have an authentic Orientalist experience. How dare they build new ‘fake’ buildings. Damn you, oil money!
* “Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also prime minister, and vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, is estimated to have a personal wealth of US$16 billion. Yet he apparently has the common touch: his FaceBook site has 6995 registered fans.”
Clearly a lot more than Anon, but what’s the point? Sheikh Mo also has his own website.
* “The sheikh has bankrolled some of the city's more fantastic constructions, such as the Burj Al Arab hotel - the only six-star hotel in the world - and the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, which is under construction.”
None of which is entirely true, and yet another ‘journalist’ gets the Burj Al Arab’s hotel rating wrong. Dubai has a five-star rating system at the moment. The Burj Al Arab is not classified although they claimed to be the world’s first ‘seven-star’ hotel. So Anon isn’t even close no matter which way you look at it.
* “I find myself wondering how New Zealand would spend the money if we suddenly had trillions of dollars injected into the economy: massive rugby stadiums in every suburb, perhaps?”
Really, did an editor – either in New Zealand or Australia – actually read this dribble? Did Anon even realise he typed this instead of just thought it?
And yes, indeed, if you can believe it, it gets even worse.
* Terry Carter is my husband and co-writer.
By Terry Carter*
Dubai is still sizzling as a travel destination, no matter what part of the planet you look at it from. But let’s look at Dubai from an Australasian travel media perspective for a moment. Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald and sister publication The Age love running stories on Dubai, but they've really run out of steam if their latest article is any indicator. But really, what should we expect from a once well regarded publisher that has a blog called ‘The Backpacker’ that explores themes such as 'Joining the Mile High Club', 'Travel cliches (sic): are they worth it?' and 'How to get rid of your backpacker'. Seriously. However, this latest anonymously authored story, which ran in New Zealand’s Dominion Post first, manages to set the bar to an all-time low, appearing like a package tour report that wouldn’t be out of place on TripAdvisor. The 'author' of the article has an odd preconception about Dubai from the start, but then feigns surprise when the destination doesn’t live up to his skewed expectations. So, what does he do? Call the story ‘Truth and Trickery in Dubai’. So, what's wrong with this story?
‘Anon’ as we’ll call the writer, is disappointed to learn the belly dancer on his desert safari is from Egypt, claiming she’s no more a Dubai local than he is (we’ll assume it’s a ‘he’). Last time I checked Egypt was in the Middle East and New Zealand wasn’t. We’re already off to a weird start. I don’t want to get into the much-contested origins of belly-dancing, but if you have an Egyptian belly-dancer in front of you, that’s a lot more authentic an experience than most visitors to any Middle East destination get these days. Even in Egypt itself (arguably the spiritual home of the dance), you’ll probably be confronted by the ‘fake’ shimmying of an Eastern European dancer if you go to an ‘Oriental’ show.
Anon then contradicts himself by saying it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the dancer isn’t a Dubai local as “one is lucky to see an ankle belonging to a local woman, let alone an exposed navel”. Actually, local women do a dance similar to the ‘belly-dance’, just not half-naked, not in public, not in front of men, and certainly not for creepy foreigners like Anon. So, let’s get this straight. He’s saying: the belly dancer is inauthentic because she’s from Egypt, Dubai women don’t do the belly dance, therefore Dubai=Fake. Or perhaps that makes it doubleFake? Can’t argue with logic like that.
To be honest, I debated whether to bother going further to deconstruct this article, but a story as misanthropic, sexist, and filled with thinly veiled racism as this (not to mention being published in such well-regarded newspapers), deserves it. So, let’s just get the attacks on the people that our fearless Orientalist comes across out of the way first. Here are some of Anon's choice quotes:
“…a pock-marked Bangladesh-born wide-boy”
“…one hapless male whose game attempts to mimic her pelvic thrusts are slightly impeded by his fluorescent bumbag and complete lack of coordination”
“…fat-bottomed tourists” and
“It is fun to get lost in the narrow alleyways of the gold and spice souks and get high on the heady mix of cloves, cardamom, incense and armpit.”
Clearly Anon dislikes acne, fluoro bumbags, people lacking dancing skills, fat-bottomed tourists, and people who don’t wear deodorant. I’m still trying to figure out why this is exclusive to Dubai. Really, did anyone edit this? But what Anon really dislikes is how ‘fake’ Dubai is. And he’s in Dubai to separate the truth from trickery.
But if Anon was ‘tricked’ about what to expect in Dubai, who deceived him, and what were his expectations? It’s clear – at least for the purposes of creating an angle for his story – he was expecting some sort of Orientalist fantasy of Bedouin goat-hair tents lining Dubai’s main thoroughfare Sheikh Zayed Road, where there’s a ten-lane camel highway (and perhaps a flying carpet lane as well?) leading to ARABIA, while the score from Lawrence of Arabia fills the air. However, Anon never sets out his expectations at the start of the story. Heaven forbid that would create a narrative! But here’s a hint as to where his desires lay: the belly-dancer is “an exotic apparition” before the spell is broken and he finds out she’s a ‘fake’ from Egypt.
And it gets worse... (read part 2 here.)
* Terry Carter is my partner and co-writer
The weather is still perfect in Milan - it's another balmy summer's evening. Terry's out shooting, and I'm still holed up in the apartment writing (and, um... blogging in my coffee break). Something the Renegade Writer thinks would be impossible for her to do - she said my post about the nightmare my dream job had turned into set her straight about travel writing and she'll no longer be fantasizing about all-expenses-paid travel writing trips. But there's good news in my In Box today that could make her change her mind... one of Milan's best chefs agreed to do an interview and shoot for the book, we're also shooting at La Scala next week and taking a look backstage as well as interviewing the head of scenic direction. Planning for other shoots in museums and shops are starting to come together. And some rather exciting news this afternoon: we had an offer to do another book today, for a publisher we've never worked with before, which is always nice. And it's in one of our favorite cities, which is even better. The problem is our schedule, which is fairly full (an understatement), so unless they can shift the deadline, it's not looking possible. But the news I think I'm getting more and more excited about the more I think about it... we've been invited to La Traviata at Teatro alla Scala next Friday night!! What will I wear???
After only five hours sleep, a not so great day yesterday, and still feeling bleary eyed and in need of a few hours more, this weary travel writer nevertheless rose early this morning and went downstairs. Even before putting on the coffee she opened the French doors in the living-dining area (now their cluttered office) in the little Milano apartment (see here), and she looked out to see a cobalt blue sky. It was a relief after several weeks of dreary grey skies and occasional rain showers, punctuated by haze and fog, or, at best, blue sky with light cloud cover, none of which are optimum conditions for shooting books. Especially to photo editors and art directors who always want to see cerulean, no matter what Terry says about clouds being a photographer's friend. But as the writer watched the suited Milanese with briefcases in hand, the models carrying portfolios, and the students with backpacks slung over their shoulders, all rushing up and down the stairs of the charming bridges that cross the Navigli canal, on their way to work and school, she also felt relieved. Relieved that she didn't have a 9 to 5 routine (really 7 to 6, or even 6 to 7 when you count breakfast, shower and travel), that she didn't have to sit in rush hour traffic or on a crowded train, and then go through the monotonous motions of the day, which no matter how interesting a job is and how fascinating the people are you with work, still involves a routine. The travel writer decided she would rather go without sleep, food and showers, and have these periods of intense work and long days at a computer, to have the weeks when they're driving through stunning landscapes in places like Crete or Syria or enjoying sunsets over castles and beaches in Italy and Turkey. Especially if the computer is in front of a window looking on to the streets of Milan. And Amsterdam. And Buenos Aires. And Brussels... And so the travel writer came to her senses.
The photo? Our work space in Brussels two years ago. Grey skies there too, but we didn't mind with that view.
Remember how I told you how much I loved my work as a travel writer? And you said I had the dream job everyone envied? Well, it's not so dreamy at the moment. We are tired. Really tired. For the last few days we've been at our laptops 17 hours a day. We haven't showered. We're not eating properly anymore. All the wonderful food we bought at the market on Saturday - the proscuitto, bresaola, rucola, buffalo mozzarella, the big bunch of basilico! - it's all going to waste. Okay, maybe it's not a nightmare. I'm exaggerating a little. But let me share the highlights (or rather lowlights) so you know a travel writer's life is not all VIP openings, private parties and seas of champagne! I'll put you in the picture: we're in an apartment in Milan so all we should be doing is researching Milan and Terry should be taking photos of Milan. We have started researching Milan, although we haven't been pounding the pavement every day as we'd have liked and Terry's only been able to spend two days taking photos because we've had grey skies and rain almost every day since we arrived. I'm working on another book about another place, which I should have finished a month ago but couldn't because the editor only recently approved the final outline. As the delays aren't my doing, she's extended the deadline, but I don't want to be working on this now, I want to be working on Milan. What's really frustrating is we'd stayed on in Turkey to finish the thing there. I'm also planning post-Milan research, which I should have done weeks ago but couldn't because that editor has just now been able to provide a final brief. So we're writing outlines, floorplans, shot lists, itineraries and books. And over the last week I've written hundreds of emails my hands are aching so much I'm sure I have carpal tunnel syndrome; Terry feels like he's getting the flu. I'm sending emails to museums, theatres, hotels and restaurants to get permission to visit, shoot photos, do interviews. I'm emailing tourism organizations, airlines, car rental agencies, hotels, tour companies and PR reps to get help for a forthcoming Australia trip. I'm dealing with magazine and newspaper editors about other ongoing and future projects. And I'm chasing editors of past projects for payments. And while getting paid is never normally a drama, for some reason everyone wants to send cheques all of a sudden (I didn't even know people used them anymore! Doesn't everyone do electronic banking?). A story I wrote in English for a Gulf magazine has been published in Arabic, another piece I contributed to has been published without my credit, while a story Terry spent hours prepping dozens of images for (at the art director's request) has appeared with only two of his pics among twelve stereotypical stock shots. But whose going to listen to a travel writer complain? This evening, the weather is perfect in Milan. It's a typical balmy early summer's night. As it's meant to have been! We can hear the bars downstairs on the Navigli buzzing with locals, eager to make up for all the socializing they've missed out on. Meanwhile, we're here finalizing outlines and shotlists when we should be checking out those bars. It's times like these when we start to wonder whether we should just give up and get 'real' jobs...
By Terry Carter*
Something that strikes us about Italians is their love of football**. In Amantea in Calabria a few weeks ago the local’s favourite team had just won a match so we were stuck in our car for a while in the middle of the celebratory procession through town. We were the only ones not tooting our horn or hanging out of the car cheering! Here in Milan in our apartment on the Navigli last week we knew Euro 2008 was on when we heard screaming and cheering from the local bars down on the street below. We turned the TV on to see Italy playing the Netherlands. Every time Italy had a shot at a goal (and missed) the collective groans echoed through the streets. After their loss, the locals quietly streamed out of the bars, jumped on their biciclettas and Vespas and headed home. On Fridays the streets are generally filled with locals heading for aperitivo hour at the local outdoor bars. But last Friday the streets were empty. We were thinking it was probably the threatening weather or Friday the 13th keeping locals at home. But then loud cheer echoed through the streets. Euro 2008. We turned on the TV to see Italy playing Romania. Even with the sound turned down we could tell how the game was going by the noise emanating from the bars. Very little noise means Italy is not doing well. Groans mean they’ve had a shot at goal and missed. Wild cheering indicates a goal from Italy, while silence means the other side has scored. As I write this, the game between Italy and France has not long started. The mood of the whole neighbourhood will change depending on what happens in the next hour and half. Italians. Passionate? No denying it. Even in the streets of ‘reserved’ Milan. Gotta go - the football's on.
* Terry is my husband, co-author and occasional co-blogger
** generally called soccer in countries where it’s not the main form of football
Here are two more views on the hotel versus apartment rental debate from a couple of vacation apartment moguls. Marvin Floyd, GM of VRBO admits: “I'm biased for vacation rentals of course, but don't believe hotels will ever go away or even out of fashion. Business travellers will continue using hotels to get points and preferential treatment. I stay at the Radisson in Austin every month rather than dealing with a different short term vacation rental... I know the hotel, the route, etc, so it's just a lot easier. Many couples will continue staying in hotels... a nice romantic weekend with a daily room cleaning is preferred by many people who get away to be pampered. They love going downstairs to a nice restaurant, visiting the pool or hot tub or spa, things many vacation rentals don't have... There will always be a place for the consistency of most hotel chains, where you know exactly what you're getting ahead of time…” Robert Shive of Buenos Aires-based Living-like-locals writes: “They are going out of fashion for me. I just spent two weeks in hotels in Sun Valley, Utah, and Park City, Utah, while shopping for a ski condo. No matter how nice the hotel, the rooms just can't compare to living in an apartment. The trade off is making my own bed, and not having fresh towels every day – but it is worth it for the space to spread out.”
We so know what you mean. Yes, that's me, pictured, and that's one of our many temporary 'offices' that we find ourselves creating when we're on the road. Admittedly, that was the last night before flying out (from Buenos Aires via Milan to Dubai), and you know that feeling, right? In the Milano apartment we’re currently renting, our laptops, drives, boxes of CDs and DVDs, guidebooks, brochures, press kits, business cards and so on, completely cover the 'dining' table as they did at one of the BA apartment we rented above. We just can’t do that in a hotel. Although it would be kind of nice to have someone come and clean up occasionally…
I asked you if hotels are going out of fashion and you all inundated me with insightful emails. I want to share some more of those perspectives. First up, a couple of frequent world travellers: Dubai fashion entrepreneur Shehab Hamad, emailing from London, writes “Given the choice between hotel and pad for visits longer then three days I tend to choose the latter (Rio, LA and Ibiza are three cities I opted-out of hotels recently). I still love hotels but it’s been a long while since a new hotel has truly broken new ground and blown me away – staying at Morgans or the Royalton in the early 90s were revelatory travel experiences! But not even Schrager has managed to come up with the next revolutionary wave of hotel concept although the Gramercy is lovely, refined and wonderfully scented... there will always be room for both but discerning travellers do have that constant desire to get closer to the local experience and there's nothing like being able to throw a dinner party for new friends in a new city!” Jetsetting academic consultant Denver Craig emails “Just back from Bangkok yesterday where I stay in a Thai owned boutique hotel called Triple Two Silom. Why there? Only 3 floors! (who needs a view?). They know me – they have my photo so when I book they remember me. They pick me up at the airport. They are cheaper than a chain. They know what I do for my work and know I visit colleges and unis - they find out where they are and guide me. No big branding or commercial stuff in the rooms, no ads, no up sell of products. They want me to come back so they're nice! And guess what? I like them too!” Book me in! But will they let us throw a dinner party, Denver?
Pictured? Our room at the Ron Arad designed Duomo hotel in Rimini. Super-stylish but not ideal for work or dinner parties.
By Terry Carter*
Our third memorable meal turned out to be at Michelin-starred Ristorante Il Pagliaccio. We had wanted to eat here for a while, having heard great things about the chef and glowing recommendations about the inventiveness of the menu of Anthony Genovese. Visiting for lunch, we were the only patrons there, yet we hadn't been able to get a table for two nights. Manager Daniele Montano explained that they open for lunch to keep people like us happy (he guessed we were ‘food tourists’), as well as the businessmen and politicians out to impress. To be honest, there were so many highlights to this meal it’s hard to pick out some favorites. The gnocchi with oysters and caviar was sublime. And we had the best prepared pigeon, served with peas, pea puree and mushrooms, that we'd ever had in our lives. The wines were perfectly matched and the service was warm and generous. Il Pagliaccio might translate to the weeping clown, but this meal made us weep tears of delight. Although we were a little melancholy for more after we left…
Great meals have a flow about them and great restaurants exude a certain confidence. The wines match the food well, the waiting staff work seamlessly together, and the kitchen brings out fresh ingredients cooked with care and often plenty of flair. But great meals don’t have to be as intricate and delicate as dining at Il Pagliaccio where a new wine and new taste sensations were presented with every course. They can be as simple and rustic as La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali, or more classical and refined like L'Arcangelo. When we go out to eat we’re happy with any of these three types of experiences. And when a meal clicks, it makes all the ones that don’t feel that way seem like wasted opportunities - something that really irks us when we’re working on a guidebook and blow a tonne of money on a restaurant that we ultimately can’t recommend. But while we are researching stories, to have three memorable meals in just as many days, with such a gamut of experiences, is one of the pure joys of travelling. Don’t you think? It’s one of the reasons we do what we do!
Terry Carter* is my partner and co-author.
By Terry Carter*
La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali** was casually recommended to us by our guide, Petulia, from Context while we were on our way to visit some bespoke shops, and it was another memorable stop. A modest, old-fashioned trattoria, we were instantly taken with the casual nature of the staff. ‘Dad’, who appears to do the cooking, walked through the restaurant wearing the kind of apron that generally makes the rest of the family giggle, but the food was delicious, as was the wine selection. We ordered off-menu as this generally translates to the ‘specials’. In good Italian restaurants ‘specials’ don’t mean the stuff from the back of the walk-in refrigerator that’s well past its prime, it means the dishes that are made from what was bought fresh from the market that day. We had a beautiful freshly-made caponata (a 'salad' comprised of cooked eggplant, olives, pine nuts, celery, more than a little sugar, vinegar and olive oil, with some wonderful buffalo mozzarella on the side), followed by some handmade pastas, of which a veal ragout with late-season truffles was an aromatic delight. Even a neighbouring table’s comments*** that they had to keep drinking wine to "drown out the garlic taste" of the same dish* couldn’t deter us from fighting over whether our ‘half-half’**** rule applied.
* Photographer-writer Terry Carter is my husband and co-author
** at Via Madonna dei Monte 16
*** Notes for our neighbouring table (while desperately not trying to sound like a food snob): it was truffle, not garlic that was giving off the strong aroma (costs much more, smells very different); ‘al-dente’ means ‘with bite’, this is how pasta is cooked, although the ‘bite’ varies depending whether the pasta is secca (dried) or fresca (fresh); and ‘Dante’ was a writer, so asking if a pasta is ‘chewy’ because it’s cooked ‘Dante’ is like asking to be sent to the Inferno.
**** our ‘half-half’ rule is what we use when we have two dishes we both really want to try. We eat half and then swap plates. Conditions apply and there is often a little cheating. As when one person is faking that their dish is ‘just OK’, but is secretly having a food orgasm. This is generally easily discovered by noting the facial expressions of the cheating diner.
By Terry Carter*
Given that we were not on the travel guidebook treadmill when we were in Rome recently (we were researching stories for travel magazines instead), we easily fell back into the pattern that we used to follow when we didn’t write restaurant reviews for a living. We decided to do what we love to do – eat at whatever restaurant takes our fancy rather than what fulfills editorial desires. (More on that in another post coming soon.) Our friends and people we meet on the road think that this means we’d drop into Michelin star establishments for breakfast. But that’s not the case. Dining at Michelin-starred restaurants can be stifling, stiff and often disappointing experiences (more on that soon also). We love to mix it up and we’re just as happy with a bowl of great pasta as we are with a tian of whatever served with an ingredient that I’d need to look up in a food dictionary and topped with foam of cloud essence. You get the idea… So, here are our three favorite restaurants in Rome...
* Travel writer-photographer Terry Carter is my husband and co-author.
By Terry Carter*
On our first day in Rome we dumped our bags and quickly headed out to lunch at L'Arcangelo, a classically understated yet elegant ristorante, where the quietly charming owner-sommelier Arcangelo Dandini exudes the confidence of someone who knows that the food and wine are exemplary. For example, an octopus salad with potatoes, capers and artichokes was perfection on a plate. The balance of the flavours and the amount of each ingredient were impeccable. Sometimes you’d take a mouthful of a dish and you’d just know that these ingredients were made for eachother, making me wonder why I didn’t cook more simply when we’re staying in apartments. Our rigatoni alla matriciana was one of the best pasta dishes we’d ever sampled and if the head chef is from India he’s had excellent guidance from Arcangelo, who is responsible for many of the recipes and much of what’s on the menu. The wines recommended (including the owners’ own lovely bianco) were beautifully matched and the meal flowed seamlessly, leaving us floating off giddily for a well-earned siesta. Now that’s our idea of fine dining.
* Travel writer-photographer Terry Carter is my husband and co-author (although that's my lazy photography, pictured).
Living like locals or lolling about in luxury seem to be the two main factors for consideration for travellers choosing accommodation, according to the readers of this blog and Life in a Venti Cup. Those who want to live like locals want to immerse themselves in a place, absorb the culture and learn the language so opt to rent apartments, villas or farmhouses. And for families, the added value is space for the kids and savings to be made from renting, say, an apartment in Paris for a week as opposed to hotels for the same period. Then there's the convenience, not only for families, but for those who want to be able to eat when they want to eat and not rush down to breakfast, to shop at the local market and dine in and not eat all meals out, to be able to do laundry instead of paying exorbitant prices at a hotel or have the hassle of heading to a laundromat. On the other hand, those preferring hotels over vacation rentals are essentially looking for a lifestyle upgrade. They want to be pampered. They want The Treatment: a valet to park the car, a porter to take care of their luggage, and a concierge to show them a good time. They want breakfast in bed and room service, a daily paper delivered, access to a swimming pool, fitness centre, spa and so on. These days, however, there are vacation rentals that offer the best of both worlds, as Franki at Life in a Venti Cup also pointed out. A couple of years ago we rented a chic, spacious, penthouse apartment in Brussels through vbro.com. It had a cool, contemporary look, was super comfortable and fully equipped with fantastic features from a flat screen TV with DVD and stereo to a full kitchen with espresso maker and dishwasher. The owner met us for a drink, shared his insider secrets, and was on hand when we needed him, along with a cleaner who lived downstairs. A couple of months ago we stayed at Villa Aphrodite in Kas, Turkey that was easily as well-equipped, came with a folder of fabulous information that could have been compiled by a concierge, including restaurants, cafes, bars and shops hand-picked by the owner (a friend actually), and had the added bonus of a caretaker whose duties ranged from delivering fresh bread daily to cooking up a Turkish-style barbecue. At both places we were able to live like locals as well as enjoy a bit of luxury.
The image? Some snacks Terry and I whipped up one afternoon using local produce, to savour as we took in the sunset overlooking the infinity pool at Kas Villa. How many hotels could you do that at?
In answer to my question are hotels going out of fashion?, travellers responding are reaffirming my recent observations while travel industry professionals are seeing things a little differently. Norae rarely stays in hotels on her many travels: "If I do I always seek out the small hotels that have some character... the main reason I have avoided hotels is that they tend not to be good value for my money.” Brett Webber agrees: “Most of my travel is business, and for short stays where corporate restrictions on accommodation choices apply, hotels are still in. For longer work assignments, serviced apartments are increasingly becoming a better choice. For private travel, the value proposition offered by anything other than the best deals at the best hotels is diminishing, particularly when compared to higher quality B&B operations.” Bernard Purcell writes: “Hotels, apart from a little spoiling luxury every now and again, do not meet any of our travel requirements these days. With family in tow, we prefer to rent villas or farmhouses for a longer period and explore the region from that base. Even in major cities, a fully equipped apartment meets our needs more fully than a hotel.” Bill Holmes says: “My vote is for apartment or house swaps. This works out cheaper for everyone and the accommodations are often much nicer and more personal.” Travel writer/blogger Dan Eldridge writes “I'm not sure if hotels are going out of fashion, or if it's just that American travelers are becoming more comfortable with alternative accommodation options.” Dan is developing an upmarket hostel-cum-cool B&B for “grown-up hipsters”. Tamara, founder of Mr & Mrs Smith offers a nuanced perspective: “I don’t think it’s time to ring the death knell for the hotel industry at all... boutique hotels have never been more fashionable...‘More interesting and intimate travel experiences’ don’t necessarily exclude hotel stays, after all; it just depends on the hotel in question. I do, however, think you’re right to suggest that people are more likely to consider unusual forms of accommodation, and self-catering alternatives in particular... I don’t think this is necessarily eating away at the hotel market, it’s just an indication that people are becoming more imaginative travellers, whether they stay at a boutique hotel, a B&B, a self-catering rental, or whatever.” And The Happy Hotelier tells me this is exactly why he's so fascinated by the pod hotel concept!
Pictured? Our room at Talisman, a magical boutique hotel we stayed at in Damascus last year.
If you read Hotel Chatter, Hotel Hotsheet or Happy Hotelier, you'd hardly think hotels were going out of style, however, I'm starting to see evidence to suggest otherwise. As much as I love browsing i-escape, tablet hotels and Mr & Mrs Smith, checking in to a design hotel or lolling about at a luxury resort, I'm beginning to think hotels might be going out of fashion. For starters, all of the other sleeping alternatives are on the rise, whether it's apartment and villa rentals (including renting direct from owners), B&Bs, agriturismo, 'cool camping'/glamping, RVing or caravanning. An increasingly devalued US dollar has made European hotels too expensive for Americans, leading US travellers to look for other accommodation options on the Continent this summer. As a result, the apartment rental business is booming, with help from the US travel media's ongoing coverage of 'Affordable Europe'. Those not feeling the pain of the diminishing dollar seem simply to want more interesting and intimate hotel experiences. We're seeing the shift as we travel around and see how others are travelling. More and more people are opting for longer stays in one place while another growing trend seems to be driving holidays where one night travellers might check in to a locanda (a charming little country inn or rooms above a restaurant), the next night opt for a farmstay or pensione, and then they'll do a hotel. People seem to be mixing it up a lot more. Then there's the increasing popularity of couchsurfing, a phenomenon The Guardian's Vicky Baker has been exploring in her series Going Local; Vicky has been sleeping on friendly sofas all over South America and loving it. The guidebook briefs we're getting are also reflecting changing trends, with less emphasis on hotels and hostels and more directives to source greater accommodation alternatives. So what do you think? Are hotels going out of fashion? I'd love to hear your thoughts - leave a comment or answer my poll (top right).
Every now and then I discover that a story we've published or a photo that Terry or I have shot has been copied from my blog or from a website it has legitimately appeared on (i.e. a website we've sold it to) and been used elsewhere. This has been increasingly happening lately. You know who you are. Essentially, copying photos and text without permission is theft, so you are stealing my content and it's illegal. I'm confident my regular readers know this, but for those who don't: copying a photo or text from a blog or website to use on your own blog or site is not okay and you need to learn about copyright. As a full time professional travel writer, I make my living from selling the words and images I create, so essentially by stealing my content you're depriving me of income. There are two other considerations: 1) years ago I started a PhD on the connections between travel and film and their inspirational abilities, and occasionally reflections on those ideas appear on this blog, so when I resume the degree they'll be transferred to that project; 2) Terry and I are writing a book about our 2.5 years (so far) living out of our suitcases and some of these posts and images are likely to appear in that book. Either way, it wouldn't look good to be plagiarizing content that will be published in books. So, if you want to use text or photos that appear on COOL TRAVEL GUIDE, please email or leave a comment so we can first discuss usage and payment. Obviously, fellow bloggers writing about one of my posts and linking to me can certainly use an image to accompany the post, but please don't permanently place the photo on your banner or elsewhere on your blog as one travel site recently did. Thanks for reading!
The June-July issue of Jazeera Airways' J magazine features a few of our articles and Terry's fab photography. If you're not flying with the funky no-frills airline this month (or next), then you can read the stories online, although we love the layout and design of the printed magazines more. Check out Cyprus: Beyond the Beach, our guide to the top ten off-the-beaten-track things to see and do on the island (along with my update of the Cyprus destination guide); The Empire Strikes Back, about Istanbul's hip t-shirt brand Ottoman Empire (we did an interview with the lovely Ayse Bali, one of the owners, to be published in various forms in the future, which I'll keep you posted on); and Room with a View: the W Istanbul, which we quite literally wrote in our hotel room there just hours before the glam opening party I told you about. (Terry should have got a credit for writing that story too actually, but somehow his name got left off... these things happen occasionally unfortunately.) The May issue of Gulf Marketing Review featured a Tourism Sector Analysis (sounds dull I know, but it was fascinating. Really.) with my piece 'Low Cost Hospitality Comes to the Gulf', on the explosion of budget and "limited-service" hotels in the Gulf (sounds dull I know, but I tried to make it fascinating. Really.) If you're lucky enough to stay at a Ritz Carlton hotel next month, look out for a wee little piece from me on Doha's Islamic Art Museum as part of their global summer arts coverage; if you're taking a super-swish Seabourn cruise (the only cruise ships you'd ever get me on) you can read my 'Old Dubai, New Dubai' story in their on-board magazine; and if you're checking in to one of the Radisson-Carlson hotels, you can take a look at my guide to Dubai in Voyageur magazine.
Pictured? Not Cyprus, Istanbul, Doha, or Dubai. Instead, I thought I'd share another image from our recent trip to Calabria. I took this from the belvedere at Scilla, overlooking the castle and old town. Sublime, isn't it?
While some writing and photography commissions keep us on the road for a while crisscrossing regions and countries, as we've just done researching the Calabria guidebook, others, such as city guides, require us to settle down in one place for a while to do research. Usually we rent an apartment and create the 'home' we miss when we're on the road and we endeavor to live like locals as much as possible. This post is the first in a series called 'At home in (insert city)', which I'll write whenever we're based in one place for a while, and where I'll share both the fun stuff and the occasional frustrations of living in 'foreign' cities. We're in Milano now and the image is that of the French doors in our dining and living area and the view from our fourth floor across to an apartment block that's typical of our neighborhood, the Navigli. Navigli refers to the two canals that run through this lively area of Milan, a neighborhood jam-packed with restaurants, bars and cafes and funky little shops, that still has a village feel. From the window I can see elderly ladies who've dressed up to go to shopping exchange niceties with friends they bumped into on the street, dreadlocked Italian students with their art portfolios over their shoulders cycling home from university, and on the balcony opposite a a hip young gay couple sipping something in champagne flutes, as they too enjoy the action down below. We arrived a week ago and after we unpacked and set up our work space on the dining table, I looked out the window and said to Terry: "We need to make sure we always rent apartments with a room with a view - it's just so inspiring." Terry agreed. The view provides a constant source of entertainment, amusement, information, and of course, inspiration. We not only enjoy what we glimpse when we glance up from our work, but we sit in front of the window and appreciate the aspect more fully when we take breaks for coffee or lunch or a glass of vino bianchi in the evenings. Those are the times when, looking out that window, we learn about the rhythms and rituals of the everyday lives of the locals as we watch them go about their daily business, heading off to work, returning home, eating out, meeting friends for drinks, even watching the football together as they were in the bars tonight. Aside from the 'research value', it's just such a joy to take in the vistas and the vibe of life on the street. And enjoy the changing light.
Liquorice! Make that 11 reasons to visit Calabria. See this post for the other ten, oh, and this one too. How could I forget liquorice? Liquirizia in Italian. I've always loved liquorice, since I was a child when my Nanna (nonna in Italian) encouraged my addiction to Aussie confectioner Darrell Lea's original soft liquorice. She'd buy a big brown paper bag of the stuff whenever we'd go shopping and after dinner (or 'tea' as they called it then), we'd sit in front of the television (black and white in those days!), my Pop (nonno), Nanna and I, and we'd demolish the whole lot. Yum! And we weren't alone. 50 million strands of liquorice are consumed by Australians each year. That's 40,000 kilometres worth. Enough to cross Australia 10 times! (See this page for more liquorice trivia.) My passion for the soft stuff doesn't mean I don't appreciate the hard chewy pastels popular in Europe. They're just as delectable and Amarelli's liquorice pastels are the connoisseurs' favorites, as much for the retro tins (pictured) as for the tiny tangy morsels inside. Which is why I was excited during our recent research in Calabria to discover the Amarelli factory was in Rossano. Family-run Amarelli is the oldest liquorice producer, and while the Amarellis were extracting liquorice juice as far back as 1500, they didn't establish the factory until 1731. Their old fortress-like residence is now a fascinating museum dedicated to all things liquorice and the friendly multi-lingual staff run guided tours daily. While you can visit any time, go in the morning if you want to watch the liquorice process in the factory. But expect the sweet mouthwatering aromas to have you heading straight to the gift shop after.
Here are 5 more reasons to venture to Italy's southernmost mainland region:
6. Sila National Park: breathtakingly beautiful, the Sila boasts three turquoise lakes skirted by sandy beaches; rural countryside so idyllic it's as if it's out of a children's picture book with wooden fences, apple blossoms, and horses grazing in the paddocks; forests of pine, fir and birch trees so thick they form a canopy over the road, often dark except for dappled light, making for an enjoyably eerie drive; and wildflowers so aromatic you become addicted to opening the car window and inhaling. Camigliatello, Sila's main town, is a great base for skiing, hiking and exploring the Sila, and a gourmet paradise with gastronomic restaurants and shops selling local specialties such as smoked cheeses, cold cuts and salamis, porcini, and soppressata, a delicious pork sausage.
7. The Calabrian passagiatta: the Italian ritual of the passagiatta or evening stroll, when locals dress up and take to the streets to see and be seen and socialize, is a national pastime and a pleasure to watch anywhere in Italy. In Calabria it's at its most compelling. People dress up more and more people seem to promenade than anywhere else in Italy. (Why? A friend told us "We're more bored here in Calabria!") The sea of sharp-looking people is a sight to behold. My top 5 passagiatta towns are Vibo Valentia, Amantea, Crotone, Reggio Calabria, and Cosenza.
8. Calabria's castles, cathedrals and churches: every town in Calabria seems to possess a splendid duomo or basilica with chapels holding exquisite art and is watched over by the ruins of an imposing Norman castle. There are beautiful churches in all styles and from periods, from the little Byzantine La Cattolica in Stilo to the Church of St Francis in Gerace with a wonderful baroque alter. My favorite castle is Le Castella (pictured) at Isola di Capo Rizzuto, which appears to float at sea.
9. Pizzo: with elegant palazzi perched precariously on steep cliffs overlooking the ocean and a charming old town that's a tiny tangle of pastel-painted houses, narrow lanes and steep stairs reminiscent of Positano. Unfortunately, tourists outnumber the locals at the gelateria tables on the main piazza, and one too many shops have given over to tacky souvenirs, however, wander the pretty backstreets where life goes on as ever and you'll smell the mouthwatering aromas of lunch being cooked and find women hanging out washing over their balconies. (See the blog Palazzo Pizzo).
10. Reggio di Calabria: the streets of this surprisingly sophisticated city are lined with elegant buildings, some in Venetian style; there are good restaurants, great shops and excellent gelaterias, a beautiful new art museum, the Pinacoteca, and the superb bronze Riace statues at the archaeological museum, not to mention an attractive seaside promenade with lidos that are lively in summer and stunning views across to Sicily and Mount Etna.
Our Dubai Insider's Guide is now on the Nine MSN's travel site. Take a look here and let us know what you think. I'd be especially keen to know what any Dubai locals, expats and recent visitors to the city-emirate think and to hear your insider tips, favorite 'near the beaten track' things to do, and the things you recommend people avoid. I'm expecting our own suggestion to give the Burj Al Arab a miss will be controversial... You can leave comments on the site or let me know here.
