Advantages: A five-star stay? Disadvantages: ?with just three-star facilities
simplicity often trumps ritzy ostentation. Attentive service matters, but nothing is nastier than the kind of smarmy obsequiousness that always seems to mask a sneer. And so on. Maybe it's simply down to that indefinable essence known as character or personality.
These inconsequential musings are prompted by my trying to pinpoint what it was about the Casa San Blas at Cusco that I liked so much. The hotel is certainly not without its limitations and even its failings, but it's a nevertheless a charming and delightful place to stay. Let's try to summarise what it has to offer.
* Location *
The Casa San Blas is situated just a few minutes' walk from Cusco's Plaza de Armas (central square), and is therefore convenient for all the main sights of the ancient Inca capital, such as the Qorikancha (Sun Temple), the Cathedral ...
Advantages: One of the best examples of Catalan Modernism Disadvantages: Very expensive
My husband has a job, which more often than not requires him to work on Christmas day and through most of the Christmas period. Whilst this is the perfect reason to turn down all invitations to spend Christmas with family, it's not the greatest way to celebrate the big day with a 14 hour shift. So last Christmas I decided that we'd have our very own Christmas but just a few days before the rest of the world. And so I booked a long weekend in Barcelona.
Our hotel - The Gallery (review already posted many moons ago) was just off the Passeig de Gracia, one of Barcelona's key boulevards where you can find my favourite of the buildings designed by Antonio Gaudi - the almost impossible to pronounce, Casa Batllo. Earlier in the year I had attended a big industry conference in Barcelona and we'd had the conference 'gala' dinner in the Casa ...
Advantages: walking on a volcano is a once in a life time experience Disadvantages: walking on a volcano is very hot and tiring.
Santorini is a volcanic island, this is what makes Santorini different from most other Greek islands. The volcano that is now a tourist attraction as well as a site of scientific interest has with each eruption shaped the landscape of the island.
Cruise ship sail into the caldera; so that the passengers can marvel at the dramatic rock formations that have been formed there and so that the cruise liners guests can visit Ia (Oia). Tourists from all over the world visit the volcano Nea Kameni which is a national geological park. They are taken there from Thira port, Santorini and trek up the slopes of the volcano and to look at different rock formations formed from the larva flows. The last time Nea Kameni erupted was in 1950, no predictions are given as to when the next eruption will be.
You get to Nea Kameni on a boat trip and are ...
