Perhaps director Fernando Livschitz and the gang at Black Sheep Films were hitting the mate a bit too hard when they conceptualized this trippy video, but the result is a whimsical thrill ride through Buenos Aires‘ historic sites, including the Presidential Palace (La Casa Rosada).
Buckle up and enjoy the show!
Buenos Aires – Inception Park from Black Sheep Films on Vimeo.
Hotel Villa Magna
Madrid, Spain
Hotel Village Magna is a 5-star luxury hotel located in the center of Madrid. Until December 2012, the property will be helping travelers get to know the art and culture of the city through their Prado Package, which includes a private guided tour of the Museo Nacional del Prado, a museum featuring fine European art from the 12th-19th centuries. Not only that, but once the tour is over visitors will be seated for a gourmet, butler-service meal in one of the exhibition rooms where live music will accompany breathtaking art and sumptuous cuisine. Once back at the hotel, the package treats guests to stay in the Royal Suite where unlimited Cava will be provided, as well as a daily buffet-breakfast for two, private car service to and from the museum and airport, and a late check-out of 4PM.
Packages start at $14,575 per night. Call +0034915 871 234 or E-mail villamagna@villamagna.es to book. The Midland Hotel
Manchester, England
The Midland Hotel is a comfortable hotel loved by the rich, royal, and famous, as it has been a favorite of members of royalty as well as celebrities for 100 years. The property, which is located near many worthwhile art and history museums, is also focused on culture. And to help guests experience culture in England they are offering a Theater Breaks package, which includes overnight accommodations, a 3-course meal at The Wyvern Restaurant, two theater tickets to either Opera House or Palace Theatre, and a full breakfast in the morning. Some upcoming shows to expect include Chicago, Blood Brother, the Lion King, Spamalot, Calendar Girls, and Phantom of the Opera.
Packages start at $330 per night based on double occupancy. E-mail midlandreservations@qhotels.co.uk to book.
Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts
Rome, Italy
The Rome Cavalieri is a 5-star luxury property and is walking distance from many of the city’s historical and cultural landmarks. To help guests experience Rome’s offerings, the hotel has joined with Italy’s Finest (IF) Lifestyle Management to offer exclusive city tours that explore art, culture, architecture, history, and neighborhoods. Some examples include “The Secrets of Via Giulia” tour that takes guests to places like the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Oratorio del Gonfalone, and the Palazzo Sacchetti, as well as the “Evolution of Luxury” tour that allows visitors to see the Opus Sectile from Porta Marina, the apartments of Princess Isabelle and the Ditta Medici, and a display of the celebrated Bulgari jewelers.
Moreover, the Rome Cavalieri has also partnered with MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI century arts, to offer guests a special package that includes accommodations, a buffet breakfast, two artsy cocktails, two entrance tickets to the museum with private transportation and VIP access, and an exhibition catalog.
For those interested in the lifestyle tours, they last approximately 3 hours and range from $790 to $1,975 based on two guests. E-mail ROMHI.Concierge@waldorfastoria.com to book. For those interested in the national museum package, rates depend on the time of year. Call +39 06 3509 2031 or E-mail RomeCavalieri.Reservations@waldorfastoria.com and mention P19MAX to book.
AYANA Resort and Spa
Bali, Indonesia
AYANA Resort and Spa is a luxury accommodation located high on a cliff overlooking Jimbaran Bay and the Indian Ocean. Because Indonesia is a melting pot of over 700 unique ethnic groups, AYANA wants to help their guests experience the unique culture of the area through their Bali Theater package. The property has partnered with the Devdan “Treasure of the Archipelago Show”, which takes viewers on a “high-energy visual tour of Indonesia’s cultural diversity, featuring a fusion of traditional and modern dance, aerial acrobatic performances, dazzling costumes and hi-tech special effects”. The package is a minimum of four nights and includes breakfast each morning, Aquatonic Pool experience, and tickets to the dance show at Bali Nusa Dua Theater.
Packages start at $285 per night, per person. E-mail reservation@ayanaresort.com to book.
The Langham Hungtington, Pasadena
Los Angeles, California
The Langham Huntington, Pasadena is a luxury hotel located on 23-acres at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. To help guests experience all the cultural offerings in Los Angeles, the property offers an Experience the Arts package that includes accommodations, valet parking, shuttle service to museums in the area, and two VIP museum passes valid at over 18 venues.
The package is valid until March 28, 2012, and saves guests over $250. Click here to book.
The Langham, Boston
Boston, Massachusetts
The Langham, Boston, is an elegant hotel located in downtown Boston near sites like The Freedom Trail, Post Office Square, the New England Aquarium, many colleges and universities, and great shopping, dining, and nightlife choices. To help guests experience the finer side of the city, the hotel is featuring an Experience the Arts package, which includes luxury accommodations, breakfast for two in Café Fleuri, use of fitness facilities and indoor pool at Chuan Body + Soul, and two tickets to the MFA Exhibition or the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Package rates vary but save guests $58 on average. Click here to book.
The Inn of the Five Graces
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Inn of the Five Graces is a luxury bed and breakfast as well as an award winning food and wine accommodation located in the historic part of Santa Fe. In fact, the inn is located on the oldest inhabited street in the United States. This year will mark Santa Fe’s 400th anniversary, and to celebrate the inn is offering guests a Four Nights Stay in Culture and History package. The 4-night package includes breakfast, cheese and wine gatherings on select nights, a private walking tour of the historic downtown area, two passes to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and a 4-day pass that will give guests access to five different museums including the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, and the Palace of the Governors which is home to the brand new New Mexico History Museum.
During low season, package rates start at $1,610. Call 866-992-0957 or E-mail guestservices@fivegraces to book.
Doubletree Hilton San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Doubletree Hilton San Juan is a beachfront property located right on the Caribbean Sea. To help guests experience the finer side of Puerto Rico, they are offering an Art and Culture package, which includes complimentary breakfast and complimentary passes to the Puerto Rico Museum of Art. The package is also great because it is targeted at couples as well as families, so children can enjoy an enriching experience with their parents.
Packages start at $139 per night. Call 787-721-3118 to book.
Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort
Stann Creek, Belize
The Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort is a secluded boutique accommodation located on the central coast of Belize. To help recognize the end of the Mayan Long Calendar in December, 2012, the property is featuring an array of Mayan Experience packages, which include 7 nights beachfront accommodation, meals, air transfers, use of bikes and kayaks, and a selection of Mayan experiences, including:
Packages start at $2,099 per person. Call 877-552-3483 or E-mail info@hamanasi.com to book.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, “dark tourism” refers to visiting sites associated with grief, tragedy, or death. While some people may debate the ethics of visiting these types of sites, they often provide educational, enlightening, and even life-changing experiences for those who do. When I was in Munich, Germany, I took a day trip to see Dachau Concentration Camp (shown right) and learned a lot about the site and the Holocaust in general that I had not known before. While it wasn’t an easy experience, I did see the value of visiting such a site for the awareness factor as well as to stop these past tragedies from happening again.
Although dark tourism first gained prominence between the 18th and 19th centuries, the interest in these types of sites is still growing. Here are some new dark tourism sites open all over the world, as well as some that have garnered an integral status throughout the years.
New
Napoleonland
France
Napoleonland, which will be created to honor military leader and politician Napoleon Bonaparte, is expected to be completed by 2017. It will be a theme park that will include shops, museums, hotels, and restaurants. While this may sound fun, the site of the attraction will reside on the very spot where Napoleon’s troops fought and defeated the Austrian army about 200 years ago. A water show resembling the Battle of Trafalgar, a ski run containing the frozen bodies of dead soldiers, a re-creation of Louis XVI literally losing his head on the guillotine, and other war-related and morbid interactive exhibits will all be featured.Singapore Bomb Shelter
Singapore
The Singapore Bomb Shelter, believed to be the last of island-country’s bomb shelters, opened at the end of 2011 to visitors. To help commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Singapore as well as raise awareness about Singapore’s war history, the National Heritage Board is leading tours of the shelter. During WWII air raids, this 1,500 square meter space was used as protection for about 100 people. Until now it has been hidden from the public, and for the most part is still in its original condition.
National September 11 Memorial and Museum
New York
As a reminder of the worst terrorist attack ever to hit United States’ soil, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum opened to the public in September, 2011. The memorial and museum resides at the site of the former World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and honors the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on that tragic day in 2001. The memorial section contains two acre-sized reflecting pools that sit where the Twin Towers once stood, as well as the biggest man-made waterfall on the continent. Moreover, bronze panels list the names of all those who lost their lives in the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center attacks. While the museum section is not open yet, it will include exhibitions such as a look at the events leading up to the disaster, portraits of those who lost their lives, the architectural history of the buildings, and more.
Integral
Robben Island
South Africa
Robben Island is a museum and World Heritage Site that opened to the public in 1997. Now South Africa’s most popular tourist attraction, it was once an apartheid-era maximum security prison that held some of history’s most well-known political leaders, like Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty years on the island, and current deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe. Visitors can experience tours of the facilities, precinct attractions like a Muslin Shrine and a museum shop, watch educational videos, and speak with a former political prisoner.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Japan
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a memorial to those who lost their lives during the U.S. nuclear bomb attack in 1945. While more than 140,000 died when the bomb hit the city, thousands more were killed in the aftermath, including 80,000 lost lives three days later in the Nagasaki atomic attack. The park was opened in 1954 on a field that was created from the bomb explosion. Dozens of monuments and tombs are erected throughout, some of which include the Peace Clock Tower (shown right), which chimes daily at 8:15 to remember the time when the world saw its first atomic bomb, the Peace Bell, a symbol of “spiritual and cultural movement”, and the Flame of Peace, which “expresses condolence for victims unable to satisfy their thirst for water, as well as the desire for nuclear abolition and enduring world peace”.
Choeng Ek Killing Fields & Security Office 21
Cambodia
The Choeng Ek Killing Fields and Security Office 21 (S-21) were once areas of extreme tragedy during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror. Once a peaceful village, Choeng Ek was transformed into violent killing fields. Moreover, S-21 was actually a high school that was converted into a center for interrogation, torture, and murder, with only seven of the 14,000 who entered surviving. During this time the Khmer Rouge actually took careful notes and took almost 6,000 photographs, which can be seen during a visit to the site.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is home to one of the most iconic battlefields in the United States as well as a rich but tragic history. The Battle of Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, with over 51,000 lives lost. It was also the motivator of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, as well as a turning point in the war that stopped General E. Lee’s aggressive northern invasion. In November, 1863, President Lincoln officially dedicated Soldiers’ National Cemetery and, with more than 1.5 million annual visitors to Gettysburg Military Park, the city is an extremely popular tourist destination.
Slave Castles of Cape Coast, Ghana
Africa
In Cape Coast, Ghana, there are two well-known slave castles that bring visitors back to the time of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Guided tours offer visitors the chance to learn about and see the dungeons where slaves were kept in inhumane conditions as well as the Door of No Return (Cape Coast Castle), which was the gateway to a life of slavery in the west.
While we here at Gadling are keen to bring you details on the most blinged-out Presidential suites (see our other post today on pimped out presidential suites in DC), we thought our readers would also appreciate a look at a wider range of properties where U.S. presidents have visited, stayed, or left their historic mark. Learn which hotel commissioned a special chair to hold the portly President Taft, which suite’s fireplace mantle retains a golf ball divot from an errant indoor presidential putt, and which resort kept an underground government-commissioned bunker secret until 1992.
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One of the great things about hiking in Europe is that many trails pass places of historic interest. Whether you’re hiking along Hadrian’s Wall or to a medieval castle, you can learn about the past while living in the moment amidst beautiful scenery.
Spain offers a lot of these hikes. One is an 11km (7 mile) loop trail near Santoña in Cantabria, northern Spain.
My hiking group and I set out early on Sunday morning after Carnival. Costumed drunks were still staggering home as the sun rose. One guy dressed as prisoner lay passed out in a doorway. At a police checkpoint three men dressed as priests were being arrested for drunken driving. I would have felt morally superior for exercising while all this debauchery was going in, but a bad hangover kept me from passing judgement. Except against the drunk drivers, that just ain’t cool.
Santoña is a port in a bay of the same name. It was an important military post during Napoleon’s occupation of Spain and the seafront is dominated by a large fort. Built in a horseshoe pattern, dozens of cannons once covered the entrance to the bay. The peninsula that forms the western boundary of the bay is studded with several Napoleonic-era forts and artillery batteries and the combined firepower of all these defenses must have made the place all but impregnable to a sea attack. Some of these forts existed before Napoleon’s invasion, of course, and many were modified in later years, making a trip around them a good lesson in the history of military architecture.
Also on the seafront is a monument to a different era of naval history. A soaring monolith flanked by statues with religious themes stands as a memory to local boy Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco. He was one of General Franco’s must trusted men during the dictatorship and was slated to succeed him. Admiral Blanco was assassinated by ETA in 1973. Franco died less than two years later and with those two hardliners gone, the path to liberalization and democracy was open, although far from smooth.
Ignoring the steady drizzle and clammy temperature, we set out to hike around El Buciero, the mountain that shelters the Bay of Santoña. Much of it is reserved as a natural park. Thick woodland is broken only by outcroppings of rock and the occasional farm.
%Gallery-147993%The loop trail took us around the mountain and along some beautiful coastline. A beach to the west was mostly taken up by a large prison. Putting the prisoners within sight of a beach seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me, not to mention a waste of a good beach! Heading around the peninsula we got some fine views of the sea and passed a small lighthouse.
The most impressive sight was the sea cliffs. Along much of the northern coast of the peninsula the land dropped off sheer, plunging a hundred feet or more into emerald water that crashed and foamed against jagged rocks. Even with overcast skies it was captivating. I’m planning on returning on a sunny day to see it again.
The hike ended, as hikes in Spain generally do, at a local bar where we had a few pintxos (the northern version of tapas) and some wine. I skipped the wine even though my head was feeling better.
The hike is low intermediate level although if it’s raining there are a couple of slippery spots where you need to watch yourself. Santoña can be reached via regular bus service from Santander and Bilbao.