TND West

Have you been exploring the wonderful historical city of Montreal Canada? If you have made your way to the Notre Dame Basilica than you may want to catch an elegant place to dine in the same neighborhood. Head over to the Beaver Club for some wonderful French cuisine.

They have some really fresh and elegant dishes with a excellent wine list. When you pull up outside the Valet will take care of your car and they will get you seated in a wonderfully modern atmosphere. The knowledgeable staff will help you select the best meal and wine parings. They serve up wonderful creations such as stuffed quail, duck pared with fruit compote, all kinds of unique seafood dishes and their specialty beef Wellington for two.

You can watch them make their special dishes with the open faced kitchen. After you have enjoyed the main meal and some wine you may want to splurge on a Chocolate Orange Temptation or order the Hot Lime Souffle a head of time for a mouth watering finish.

The Montreal hotels know all about this city gem and can help you get there. The Beaver Club has won many awards for its culinary perfection such as the Five Star Mobile Guide rating and the DiRona Award of Excellence for a decade now.

Cabo San Lucas will be celebrating Mexico’s Bicentennial, September 16, 2010 with the revelation of the new Cultural Pavilion ; the rest of Mexico is preparing to celebrate a memorable 200 years of independence with the usual fare. Cabo’s Pavilion is the first building of its kind in the state of Baja California Sur and it aims to cultivate the artistic and cultural expressions of this particular region of Mexico.

Located along the Cabo San Lucas Marina and many of the luxury hotels Cabo in known for, the Cultural Pavilion will consist of 6 buildings when completed. The project creates a unified space where residents and tourists alike will enjoy traditional Mexican concerts, art exhibits, dances, expositions and international seminars. The Arts and Biodiversity Pavilion, which is the 1st of the six buildings to open to the public, will be unveiled in September 2010.

Cabo was chosen by the Mexican government and their goal behind picking Cabo as the home to the Cultural Pavilion is to promote and preserve the Mexican culture and to further attract visitors to this premiere vacation destination. Once the project is completed, the Pavilion will feature theatres, both enclosed and open-air, shopping centers, cinemas, restaurants, a library and a museum. Plus, as an added incentive to bring in as many visitors as possible, there will be plenty of free parking, which has been a huge concern for local business men.

One of the interesting perspectives in deciding how to explore the city of Boston is to look at some of the more obscure historic personalities and events. And for some reason that is not quite known but continues to be studied, people always seem to be captivated by the gruesome and spooky and sensational social elements. And whenever a potential haunted location comes up, the guests in many of the Boston hotels will immediately want to run and investigate. Perhaps it’s just human nature, but unsolved mysteries and unexplained phenomena really seem to grasp our imaginations.

The fact that Boston had its fair share of witch trails during the early development of this country may not compare to those that occurred in Salem , though they do capture the interest of many people. Meanwhile, more contemporary controversial elements like the Boston Strangler may be too close for complete sensationalized status, though the 1960s murders that occurred are certainly on their way to becoming so. This is partly due to some of the mystery that continues to surround the crimes. Several women in Boston were murdered and these were attributed to Albert DeSalvo though investigations indicate that they were not committed by only one person. And of course various stories about the mob will always be part of the lore of the underside of this incredible American city.

From the windows of the best Miami resorts you can watch the sun rise over the ocean. A memorable sight many take with them from this magical city whether they are witnessing it as they turn in after a night out at the clubs or waking up to greet the day and maybe squeeze in yoga on the sand.

Miami has over 10 miles of beaches for tourists to sun, snorkel, and explore, and that is before you even start looking at the jewels just off the coast to the south of Miami. No matter your taste in beach experience you’ll find what your looking for in Miami. Whether you want to find the perfect photo opp or catch sun you won’t be disappointed.

Be sure to do your research beforehand. While some of these beaches have boardwalks and concession stands for the hungry or thirsty beach goer to refuel, several don’t and it’s important to keep hydrated.

Don’t worry, even if you’ve been to Miami more than once and feel you’ve explored it to the max the Keys are just a quick drive south and you’ll be able to tell your friends you had Key Lime Pie from the source.

The city of Seattle has always seemed ripe for buskers . For those who might not know the term, busking refers to street performance, and anyone who sings on a street corner with a hat at their feet is busking. It’s a very old tradition, and probably stems from the same impulses to perform anything anywhere, and just needed a city with a population with change in their pockets, to get underway.

So a city like this, with a very intelligent citizenry, who also happen to like and appreciate arts and culture of all kinds, would be one of the more likely candidates for a high level of street performance. There are a number of people who do work downtown, and it’s usually the guitar and vocal kinds of entertainment. Buskers have a local hero with Magic Mike , also known as Michael Berger, who has been working Seattle Center, doing magic tricks and making balloon animals for the kids.

He’s been involved in a long legal argument with the city over his right to work there, and it’s an interesting case. He’s won settlements, and the verdict has been overturned and turned again multiple times over the past few decades. For wannabe street performers, looking for cheap Seattle hotel rates to try their luck in the city, it’s still a difficult place to work without a permit, but there are signs of hope everywhere.

There are some amazing tombs in Delhi and people travel from all over the world to see them. They are featured as masterpieces in the world of architecture and they have amazing stories surrounding their existence. One of the most visited tombs is the Humayun Tomb which is a 16th century, Mughal style masterpiece. It was built to be the grave of the Mughal emperor Humayun by his wife Hamida Banu Begum. It was the first in a few categories such as being the first garden tomb in the area. This building was the first to have used so much of the beautiful red sand with such a large building. This tomb houses a number of the Humayun family as well as some of the Emperors who followed. There are a few other tombs that are along the path that leads to the Humayun Tomb. There is the Tomb and Mosque of Isa Khan, Bu Halima’s Tomb and Garden, Afsarwala Tomb, Arab Sarai and Nila Gumbad or Nila Buri. These are not far from the Delhi hotels .  

Other tombs are found with the buildings for Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya who was alive from 1238 to 1325. His mausoleum, Nizamuddin Dargah is another ancient masterpiece of architecture. Nizamuddin Auliya was a Sufi saint and the Muslims still visit his Dargah everyday. People travel from all over the world and from all kinds of faiths to see this mausoleum. Surrounding the mausoleum are the tombs of Amir Khusro who was a musician, poet and scholar and Jehan Ara Begum who as the daughter of Emporer Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal.  

All of the building and grounds surrounding the many tombs and other historical sights are outstanding. They have been well preserved and continually groomed and they are full of interesting stories of rich history.

There are so many exciting cultural attractions that are a part of the overall atmosphere of Atlanta, that it can be easy to forget that there are also numerous beautiful, harmonious, quiet and peaceful aspects as well. And these are some of the favorite features of many people’s vacation there. And while the great nightclubs, theatres, music venues and other popular entertainment features are a common item on most tourists’ agendas, places like the Atlanta Botanical Gardens are a great alternative and sometimes are even more enticing. All of the diverse elements of Atlanta’s culture can be combined to create an extremely dynamic and fulfilling trip.

Plans to develop the Atlanta Botanical Gardens were originally developed in 1973 when civic minded residents proposed the idea to the city. It was officially incorporated in 1776 and the gardens have become a major source of pride and contentment as well as beauty and environmental satisfaction for residents and guests to the city. It is one of the most popular places for guests in the hotels Atlanta, USA and it is also one of the favorite aspects of their city for many of the residents.

There are some incredible indoor and outdoor plant collections at the garden and demonstrate an extremely diverse horticultural make up. In addition there are great special engagement events and ongoing classes presented by the gardens. Many plant and environmental experts hold lectures and these are always greatly informative as well as interesting. Some of the classes for adults include water color painting, floral design and gardening workshops. There are also classes structured for children and these are a mix of fun topics that not only engage their interest and imaginations but also help to develop an early appreciation for plants and flowers as well as a respect for the environment.

Visiting Florida is almost a catch phrase for enjoying time at the beach and relaxing in a lush paradise. The cities are bright and sultry during the day, and at night they come alive with vivacious activity. The music never stops, and, as any good travel directory will tell you, there’s always something new to see and hear. It’s difficult to escape the ocean here, and even inland cities have a love affair with the sea that cannot be denied. It’s estimated that 1/3 of the planet’s population lives close to an ocean, so deep is its mysterious pull that we can’t seem to get away from it.

Stories of Atlantis, the mythical island of warriors that sank into the sea thousands of years ago, seem to experience rises and falls in popularity. There are plenty of possible and fascinating reasons for this, where it might come from a deep cultural need for belief in the ethereal. Whatever the reasons, the island that Plato wrote about continues to have a hold on our imaginations. Many of the theories of the city have been discounted as wishful thinking, but it’s still something rather charming to think about when staying at the state’s 5 star hotels. Florida is a great place for daydreaming.

There are plenty of things to daydream about, too. Over the past century, there have been lots of interesting stories about remnants found on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Florida. Every find seems to bring out more claims that this is, indeed, the lost city of Atlantis , but they always warrant further investigation. There have been reports of glowing pyramids on the ocean floor, and plenty of other pyramid-shaped structures. Many of these have been verified in photographs as “something,” but the details of the something are hard to pin down. There are also reports of finding parts of old highways, with images of streets under the ocean from 12,000 years ago. Perhaps it is another renaissance of ideas and obsessions about the lost city, or perhaps it’s another dream to dream, but it still adds up to another great reason to visit Florida.

One of the most difficult transitions to make when visiting European countries is learning that the definition of a cafe there is very different than what is expected in the U.S. In the states, when people go to cafes, they expect baristas, fresh baked goods, and a free wi-fi connection, especially in the places that aren’t chains. It’s become a part of life, and for some people, these places are their home offices away from home. So it’s always surprising that, even in places that are as super-connected as Zurich, this idea is still seen as a new phenomenon.

Here, the idea of a cafe is something entirely different. There’s often coffee, and sometimes there’s even an espresso machine, but more often than not the clientele will be drinking beer rather than the caffeine-infused concoctions. These are the alternate spaces where residents gather, and it’s not unusual to spend hours at one table, eating and drinking and talking deep into the night. These are the real cafes, and it’s important to distinguish them from Zurich coffee shops . And while just a few years ago it was difficult to find one where one could get online in Zurich , it is becoming much more commonplace today.

There are a number of excellent coffee shops where it’s always been easy to find a way to spend a lovely afternoon outside of one’s hotel in Zurich to meet locals and fellow travelers and spend some time chatting about recent events and the Zurich cultural scene. There are also a number of hotspots in other locations around town, because it is a city that’s very progressive in terms of contemporary culture and technology. It still seems to be the norm, however, to be social in these semi-public meeting places, and although the online community in Zurich is substantial, it’s still not making the shift toward turning coffee shops into places for work. The separation of work and social life is very guarded here, but it’s perfectly acceptable for travelers to hole up in these places and get connected.

Paris is lovely in the springtime, and any other time of year. It’s a city of great mystery and romance, celebrated the world over for its incredibly rich city life, offering classical and contemporary amenities that speak of an exquisite taste for the finer things in life. Visitors drawn to the city by the lure of its famous Paris hotels will likely find plenty of good food and amenities that might make it seem almost unnecessary to even set foot outside. However, the real magic of Paris is in the streets.

Great discoveries can be made by walking, although it’s sometimes a good idea to get to know Paris’ city metro . This is where the city’s residents can be observed in their natural state, with all the sound and fury, and all the liveliness and passion that the metropolis can draw from its people. There has been some talk about arranging for a line that can reach the outlying suburbs , but for now it’s pretty much an inner-city line. This is because the lines were designed to run on the opposite tracks from the rest of the country, in order to keep the suburban element out of the city proper. When in Rome, learn how the locals take the trains.

On the streets and in the cafes, one will be provoked to salivating over the smells of fantastic food. It truly is as good as everyone claims, and after even a short stay here, it is hard to adjust to anything else. This is where the real essence of Paris city life takes hold, when brie and brioche become part of the working vocabulary every day, and the taste buds start to adjust to the subtleties that make life worth living. What might be impossible to tell from the ground or the first floor is that there are many rooftop gardens in the city. This is an old custom that was invented out of necessity, but has been gaining traction in recent years, especially among cities who have an eye for urban planning and sustainability.

Paris is certainly at the forefront of world cultures in this regard. At times the city might seem wonderful, and at other times impossible to grasp, but there are touches here and there, like the dizzying number of free wi-fi spots. The trick here is to join the network labeled “orange” rather than the one marked “free,” because that one is actually a paid network. It’s just one example that demonstrates that this is a city in process, with designs that aim toward the needs of the residents to make their urban living experience a fulfilling one.