Go ice skating at your hotel in Miami

by Melanie Renzulli on


What’s better than ice skating during the holidays? How about ice skating with the knowledge that the sunny beaches of Miami are waiting for you when you’re finished?

Travelers escaping the cold for the balmy climes of South Florida can enjoy a little taste of winter with the Intercontinental Miami’s Holiday Ice Rink. Through January 15, 2012, the full-size rink will be open at Intercontinental’s Bayview Patio, which has views of Biscayne Bay.

While you don’t have to stay at the Intercontinental to enjoy the rink – the ice is open from 10am-10pm daily; admission is $20/hour adults and $10/hour kids, inclusive of ice skate rental and discounted parking – you can pretend that you’re in St. Moritz by taking advantage of some of the hotel’s cool après-skate activities, like spa massages or a dip in the heated outdoor pool. Building on the ritzy Swiss resort theme, the grand lobby of the Intercontinental will feature through January 1, 2012, the photography exhibition “Andy Warhol: ‘The Model Boy’,” the inaugural installation of the Intercontinental Miami Arts Program displayed in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach.

For families considering a stay in Miami over the holidays, the Intercontinental is offering the Holiday Ice Rink Package, which includes ice rink passes for a family of four and tickets to the Miami Children’s Museum, starting from $269 per night.

By the way, if you’re planning on New Year’s Eve in Miami, none other than Ludacris performs right in front of the Intercontinental as part of Downtown Miami’s New Year’s Eve Celebrations. Hotel rink by day, rap concert by night? Sounds to me like a well-balanced way to ring in 2012.

Photo Flickr/daveynin

Quirky hotel amenity: Pirate tuck-ins for children at Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

by Jessica Festa on

What better way for a child to end a day full of swimming and sea than to be tucked-in by a pirate? At the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, in Florida not only does Pirate Luis Aury provide a bedtime story, but Princess Amelia and a blue and gold macaw make an appearance, as well. Children will also be given cookies and milk as well as a treasure chest full of loot. The tuck-ins can be scheduled in between 7PM and 10PM and cost $45 per child.

Going to be staying at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, during the holiday season? Parents can opt for a complimentary Santa tuck-in instead. Not only will children get to be read a bedtime story by good old Saint Nick himself, they will also be given a holiday gift.

Street art comes alive at the Sarasota Chalk Festival

by Melanie Renzulli on



Go to any major tourist city, particularly a city with a car-free, pedestrian-friendly center, and you’ll likely find street artists honing their craft, using just chalk as their medium and pavement as their canvas. Within hours, these street painters are able to create everything from spot-on renderings of the Mona Lisa to 3-D chasms that look so realistic you fear walking too close to the painting’s edge. Street painting is always a treat to come across. But, like all street art, chalk art is not organized. So it’s not an activity you’ll typically find on your weekend arts calendar. That is, unless you’re in Sarasota.

This week, the south Florida city of Sarasota hosts the Sarasota Chalk Festival, an annual event during which the world’s best chalk artists transform South Pineapple Avenue into an open air performance art space. In its fourth year, the Chalk Festival will focus on “Pavement Art Through the Ages,” paying homage to the art’s centuries-old Italian roots. In particular, the festival will showcase historical street painting, giving artists the opportunity to depict on pavement hundreds of years of Italian culture. The festival will also feature a 24-hour chalk painting competition modeled after the Grazie di Curtatone Madonnari, the very first street painting festival that took place in Mantua, Italy, in 1973. Madonnari, by the way, is the Italian term for “street painter.”

And then, there’s the 3-D art. Legendary chalk painter Kurt Wenner, an American artist who helped popularize anamorphic, or 3-D, street art, will be on hand to demonstrate his technique for creating three-dimensional chalk figures on a horizontal plane. In all, approximately 100 artists will decorate downtown Sarasota with dozens of mind-blowing street paintings that will all fade away shortly after the festival ends.

The Sarasota Chalk Festival runs through November 7.

Travel in the southern United States for free with Megabus

by Jessica Festa on

Who doesn’t love free travel? With a new hub in Atlanta, Georgia, Megabus is giving away 10,000 free seats to travelers using their new routes during trips taking place November 16 to December 16, 2011. The eleven cities included in the new route leaving from Atlanta include:

  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Mobile, Alabama
  • Montgomery, Alabama
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Chattanooga, Tennessee
  • Knoxville, Tennessee
  • Memphis, Tennessee
  • Nashville, Tennessee
  • Gainesville, Florida
  • Jacksonville, Florida
  • Orlando, Florida

To take advantage of the offer, just enter the promo code ATL10K when reserving your seat online.

Serial public art around the world

by Libby Zay on

Public art exhibitions featuring a common sculpture that is multiplied and then embellished by various artists have been popping up in cities worldwide since 1998. Artistic director Walter Knapp first came up with the idea and convinced artists to dot Zurich, Switzerland with a collection of artfully-decorated lions. Within a year, Chicago businessman Peter Hanig had taken the idea and ran with it, using life-sized cows for an exhibition titled CowParade that is still circling the world today.

This idea of serial public art spread like wildfire into over 70 cities across the United States and many other locations worldwide. Tourism administrations seem to think the installations draw a crowd, while the exhibitions typically end in pieces being auctioned off to charity. It’s a win-win for all–unless, of course, you think the artworks are an eyesore.

From mermaids to gorillas, click through the gallery below to see a sampling of serial public art from around the world.

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