North American Onsen

After much looking for places in North America similar to Japanese Onsen (hot springs), I found a place that tops some of the nicest springs in Japan. High in the Rockies (above 3000m!), there is this open-air spring surrounded by 4000m-peaks, 8 miles away from the closest road. I was drooling looking at the picture :)  Definitely on my list of places to go.

Picture found on Internet

Kruisherenhotel

The first time I've been to Maastricht (Netherlands), we passed an old cloister with a very peculiar entrance. Curious, we went inside and it turned out to be a hotel. We were quite impressed by the contrast between the century-old building and the design interiors. And the holographic light bulbs in the toilets! I thought, one day I'll come back to stay there.

said peculiar entrance

2 years later I did come back, and there we were. See the pictures below. This must be one of the 3 most expansive places I've stay at, though.

the lobby

the courtyard

the wine bar

the breakfast room

...the breakfast buffet was a 10m-long table with food so diverse, there's no way you could have tried half of it!

Maastricht is home to the Caves of St. Pieter, an underground labyrinth with over 20,000 (unlit) passageways, started by the Romans. Visits are made with torches. You get lost, you never come out...

Kaamos

I've just seen an impressive video on the Dot Earth Blog that shows northern lights filmed from the ISS. After that I really want to see northern lights again :-) Remember my post about Kakslauttanen? In the FAQ section on their website they have an entry "What is Kaamos?". They state "Kaamos is a time of phenomenal Arctic light performance, during which sky is blue when look North and red in the south." Somehow hard to imagine, until I ran into this picture...

Historic Stay-overs

I like old buildings reconverted into places you can stay at. Like this old abbey turned into a hotel, in Kientzheim, Alsace (France). Founded around the 12th century, it was an abbey to the St-Claire religious order.

Kientzheim is a medieval village with preserved fortifications, old stone houses and town square.

It also happens to be on the famous 'route des vins', that historic road runs along the Vosges mountains through picturesque villages and wine estates. On a nice sunny autumn day, go for a great drive and stop at the wineries for wine-testing! Make sure to bring a non-drinker along to delegate the driving part :-)

Salt Lake Country

Bolivia offers great scenery. The capital La Paz, at 3650m, is just about as high as the Mt.Fuji. One thing the country is famous for are the salar, these dry salt lakes that stretch for thousands of square miles.

©petuniverse

Rocky 'islands' pop out here and there. Someone that has been there once told me that if you camp on one of these hills, you are litterally surrounded by stars. They fill the sky in all directions from above your head to below the horizon! (since you are above the surrounding plain).

In this empty, featureless landscape, you can achieve funny photographic effects by playing with perspective. The possibilities are only bound by your imagination.

©gakout

Riviera Luxury

Maybe you have seen the movie "The Bucket List". If not, I recommend it. Anyway, in one scene of the movie Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are having dinner in a spacious room with wide bay windows overlooking the mediterranean. That's the restaurant of Le château de la chèvre d'or in Eze, France. Eze is a nice old medieval village with stone houses, perched on a hill above the see.

Hotel entrance

Now that hotel is beyond romantic-getaway; more honeymoon-grade (or bucketlist-grade :-)
Watch out for the price though... a real wallet-buster.

Retreat On The Zambezi

At the corner of 4 african countries are found the great Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi river storms down a narrow gorge to continue its course 100m below. The "Smoke that Thunders" can be seen from afar in the savane plateau surrounding it. Haven't been there, but definitely tempted.
At bit upstream on the Zambezi, in Zambia, sits a beautiful luxury lodge. Now I always have a bit of an ethical problem with enjoying luxury in Africa, considering the extreme poverty in the continent. Anyway, just for the atmosphere it gives off, look at the pictures below.

Pictures from the website of the Tongabezi lodge

Victoria Falls. Pic found on Internet