A few years ago, Genoa was far more grit than glamour — a way station to more fabulous places like Cinque Terre and its industrial port was among the more forgettable spots along the Italian Riviera. However, a complete restoration of its seedy waterfront, combined with an influx of young, well-funded entrepreneurs, has made Genoa a city bustling with cosmopolitan wine bars and restaurants.

Head to the Piazza delle Erbe, which is a small square hidden amid the labyrinthine alleys that snake through the city’s medieval quarter and it is home to no fewer than a half-dozen bars, two restaurants, a pizzeria and a gallery. Anyone who thinks Genoa is still a grimy port town hasn’t set foot inside Mua. It is a place where Genoa’s beautiful people gather, with decor taken straight from some chic Italian design store: walls awash in gleaming white, high-backed brown leather chairs, tables propped up by thin stem-like legs.

Parts of Genoa’s old city still look like the Middle Ages. There are cobblestone alleyways, so narrow that you can stretch out your arms and touch buildings on either side of the street. Spend some time there and get lost and don’t miss the San Lorenzo Cathedral, which dates back to the ninth century, in the heart of the old city.

If you decide to go Delta and United are among the airlines that fly to Genoa from New York with a connecting flight usually in Europe. Genoa is small enough that you can walk pretty much anywhere in the city center. And when your feet get tired, it’s easy to hail a taxi.

The Thompson Toronto Hotel opens its high-concept doors this year and promises to be ground-zero for the beautiful people. The hotel is located in this part of town called King West Village, where at every turn there is a construction site and gaping hole on the ground, or a lot with a target on its back. The Thompson Toronto is the first international arm of New York brand. The hotel is almost entirely glass and guests with haute expectations won’t be let down.

Bohemian chic meets art house wise meets quiet yet radical elegance” before name-checking Basquiat, Godard, and the Royal Tenenbaums, and quoting Kerouac. Evidently, Thompson aims to amalgamate disparate cool from throughout the last 60 years; so far, the formula has worked.

From the seventh floor of the hotel, a VIP club complete with rooftop pool, boasts an unobstructed 360degree sweep of the city, from the Victoria Memorial Park directly below, past the Bay Street contingent to the east, the city and onward. The crane-spiked horizon might imply a world of chaos, but for Thompson, its location is just a matter of opportunity.

The hotel has 16 floors and offers 102 rooms as well as monstrous 30,000 square feet of dining and event space, including three upcoming restaurants – New York?based Scarpetta with Chef Scott Conant, Wabora Sushi and the 24hr diner, Counter. The hotel smacks as both crisp and flamboyant, with clean lines and sober colours livened by expressive touches like the 125 foot by 12 foot high hand-painted, three dimensional mural of Toronto on the lobby wall by Spanish artist Javier Mariscal.

In terms of comforts, the rooms are a step up from the boutique-hotel norm, verging on business territory: biz travelers will be happy with the full-sized desks, IP telephones and wireless internet, leisure guests will make use of 42-plus-inch plasma televisions and floor?to?ceiling glass windows, and dark oak hardwood floors.

La Bandita is a Tuscan farmhouse, with light white spaces and modernist infinity pool overlooking a Val d’Orcia nature reserve. This is a chic urban place, full of fresh air and clean space, contemporary furniture, and bold slabs of pure colour. No frills, no clutter, no rough edges and not a hint of wrought iron. The owner is a New Yorker escapee John Voigtmann, who has worked with Christina Aguilera.

Each white room is washed up with stencils of colour – red or green trims on white pillow-slips, for example or textured walls of resin cement in deep shades (yellow for sunlight, blue for bathrooms, red for fireplaces). And there is natural colour too: squares of warm sunlight cast on pale surfaces, or picture windows that frame a true-blue sky, a perfect landscape. They are all furnished in the same style with extra-high ceilings, extra-large walk-in showers, baths and air-conditioning.

There is no restaurant in the area, so the chef David Mangan is on hand to rustle up lunch or dinner on request. He and John serve a relaxed ‘family-style’ meal twice a week – when the mood takes them (for new arrivals, possibly, or last nighties). On warm evenings, dinner is served at a long candlelit table under the pergola on the terrace. If you want a more intimate dinner, somewhere more private, just ask. Breakfast features a healthy selection of whole-grain cereals (granola, muesli), seasonal fruit smoothies or fruit salads, yoghurt and, when it’s hot, iced lattes.

The village, where is villa sited is a UNESCO World Heritage site, consisted a wonderful collection of 15th—16th century buildings, a charming piazza, the Gardens of Piccolomi, and narrow streets of touristy shops. When you feel a bit tired John’s wife could refresh your mood. She is a yoga instructor and is available for private classes for all levels. Or have a massage with a therapist. The hotel is also within easy distance of the medieval hot springs at Bagno Vignoni, or southern Tuscany’s wine capitals, Montalcino and Montepulciano.

Location: near Pienza, south of Siena, in Southern Tuscany, Italy. When to go: Spring, summer or autumn (La Bandita is closed from November to 15 March).  Go out of season for cooler weather and fewer tourists, in spring for lambs, and autumn for the wine harvest.

This Thai-inspired resort is kilometres of soft, powdery-white beach contrasting with cobalt seas; a relaxed Zen atmosphere without cares and fuss; and Buddhist-inspired decor, including bright orange fluttering flags everywhere. There are ten villas, each sited in a horseshoe facing the ocean, between coconut palms. The position is perfect for swimming, strolling and kayaking, and there are opportunities for chilling out on day beds under white parasols, in hammocks and on cloud nine. 

All rooms are simply furnished with white walls and curtains, mosquito net draped beds, cosy duvets for chilly nights, good quality furniture and a ceiling fan for hot tropical evenings. The fan and lights work from dusk till dawn; romantic candles also help illuminate the hotel at night. Be warned the plumbing is a little basic, lights can be dim and you are encouraged not to keep any food in your cabanas, as you’re in the jungle. From bird watching, fishing, horse riding, kayaking, kite surfing to scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming, windsurfing and whale watching all available in this petit paradise.

Although there is no bar, cool boxes with drinks of your choice are made up everyday. There is no restaurant on the premises, but meals can be delivered from nearby eateries. On the other hand Shambala Petit Hotel provides breakfast, lunch and dinner available with prior notice. Fish tacos, braised shrimp, chicken fajitas, salads and pasta are available. Water is served with lunch and red or white wine for dinner. Location: Shambala Petit Hotel is just outside the town of Tulum, Mexico, in the Yucatan, about an hour and a half by car from Cancun airport. Getting there: There are direct international charter flights from the UK (10 hrs) and many direct flights from the US (4 hrs from New York). Alternatively, take an internal flight from Mexico City to Cancun.

This strange restaurant is owned by Chris Parachini and Brandon Hoy. The pizzeria is in a forlorn part of Brooklyn filled with gritty factories, warehouses, and lofts. The restaurant, housed in a former garage, has wood-paneled walls, elongated wood tables, and mismatched captain’s chairs.

Out back is a patio with additional seating and a rusting Mercedes-Benz sedan studded with flowerpots. The pizza, made in a wood-burning oven, is Neapolitan in inspiration and technique. The crusts are admirably airy and crispy, and the mozzarella homemade—but the tomato sauce could be richer and more assertive. There are nearly two dozen toppings, with unusual choices like taleggio cheese, capers, and tuna. The combo pizzas remove the guesswork: The guanciale and egg has delicious shavings of house-cured pork jowl surrounding an egg that has set perfectly, and the R.P.S. aptly balances peppery sorpresa with mellow roasted red peppers.

Location: 261 Moore St., Brooklyn, New York 11206

Andaz Wall Street is a New York boutique hotel with a Midtown location. The Andaz property is part of an entirely new brand for Hyatt with extremes opulence and flophouse chic character. Every detail and every moment, from our cutting-edge guestrooms to our authentic farm-to-table cuisine, are designed to give you a genuine and intimate New York experience. From the moment you arrive with our refined and relaxed check-in process, everything is unexpected but completely intuitive.

Pio Pio Restaurant is a finely crafted wooden box set into an existing building on 10th Ave, New York. When visitors enter this rustic wooden encase, they immediately removed from the noisy Manhattan streets. However, this is only a glimpse of what exists beyond. The limited view increases the tension and desire for exploration.

The entry leads to a 40-foot, monolithic marble bar resting on a distressed concrete floor. The bar also defines the long corridor towards another space at the end of the restaurant, set at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Here the lights dim and one finds oneself contained in a volume woven entirely in Ocotillo canes. The experience is no longer defined by the relationship of the restaurant with New York City; here the magic belongs to a fantastical experience that is characteristic of Latin America.

Pio Pio has boasted about its culinary skills since 1994, when its first restaurants in rego parkwas open. Their new restaurant features an expanded menu of Peruvian cuisine. Pio Pio calls attention to the kitchen: exquisitely marinated, cooked rotisserie style and served with garlicky green sauce, this bird will have your buds tweeting in ecstasy. It will be really shame to miss such a sophisticated meal, so if you are near by, get your affordable platter to go.

Les Crayeres is a mansion that once belonged to the princes of Polignac, cousins of the Grimaldis, the rulers of Monaco. The Polignacs were also owners of Pommery champagne, and until recently the chief winemaker at Pommery was Alain de Polignas, a direct descendant of one of Champagne’s most famous window: Jeanne-Alexandrine Pommery, who ran the company with distinction after her husband’s death.

Although it is on the outskirts of the art deco city of Reims (France), Les Crayeres has the atmosphere of a country house hotel thanks to the its 20-acre park. It also has the considerable advantage of being close to the Roman chalk quarries where the best champagne is stored.

The kitchen at Les Crayeres achieve fame under Gerard Boyer, one of France‘s most distinguished three-star chiefs. Boyer recently sold the mansion to Xavier Gardinier – the owner of Chateau Phelan Segur in Bordeaux – and Gardinier hired the Monagasque chef Didier Elela to be the right sort of successor to Boyer.

Elela was a close personal assistant to Alain Ducasse for fifteen years, when Ducasse opened in New York, it was Elela who cooked. Beiing in Champagne, Elela makes his dishes act as a foil to the wine. He has one menu where every dish comes with a different glass of Roederer and includes a flute of the famous Cristal with the main course.

Although it is colder and windier outside, but the air is crisper, the views clearer, the animal tracks easier to see. While most of us wait the summer period for a well-organized camping, for hikers, skiers and snowshoers to camp outside during the winter is the best part. There are five spots in the Northeast America ideal for the hardy lover of snow and cold. Accommodations range from lean-tos to campsites for your weather-ready tent, from modest cabins to rustic lodges. The first of five wonderlands for winter camping is in north-central Maine. And there are cabins equipped with gas or kerosene lamps and wood stoves. There are a main lodge, where meals are served, a bunkhouse and seven cabins, each with a wood stove. 

Cardigan Lodge is the second one, also owned by the mountain club. There are about 50 miles of trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The lodge is heated in winter and has 13 students rooms that sleep two to six. The third one is just on two hours north of New York City in the expanse of woods and a conservation group, recommends a part of the Appalachian Trail to cross-country skiers and snowshoers that offers a big climb, a big descent and a big river. Campsite are both official Appalachian Trail campsites and are free to use on a first-come first-served basis.

The next one is Stokes State Forest, which has panoramic vistas, as well as winter activities like ice fishing, ice skating, sledding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Stokes is four miles north of Branchville, virtually at the northernmost tip of the state. Some of the park’s 51 tent and trailer sites are open all year and have fire rings and picnic tables. To the south, Outdoor Center in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area offers cabins and tent sites year round. This 70,000-acre area features cross-country skiing at Blue Mountain Lakes, downhill skiing at Shawnee Mountain Ski Area and ice climbing at the Delaware Water Gap. Photos by: Lori Duff

Lope National Park, hangs from the equator like a trophy flag, covering 1,918 square miles in the center of Gabon that are home to the highest density of large mammals ever recorded in a tropical forest, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. It is very beautiful and eighty percent of Gabon‘s forest is intact. Spotting our relatives, the gorillas is best achieved by mutual avoidance. Photo by: giles.breton

The males have red, white and blue faces, yellow beards and hugely indiscreet behinds. They hang around alone in the forest except when they need female companionship. This must be a terrible shock to their systems since females travel with as many as 1,000 of their friends and families. These are the largest primate gatherings in the world, but they’re amazingly hard to locate. Western lowland gorillas have never been easy to find because they’re heavily hunted for the lucrative African trade in wild meat and live in a dense forest habitat. Photo by: bernard_in_va

Air France, flies from New York to Libreville, the capital, for about $1,500 round trip. Several airlines fly there from Europe. Visas are required and can be obtained through the Embassy of Gabon. Americans receive a five-year visa for $100. Processing should take under a week, officials say. The Lope Hotel in Lope, has 20 rooms and 3 bungalows, air-conditioning, excellent food and a swimming pool. It offers river excursions and tours. Rates run $60 to $150. Photo by: bernard_in_va

Mount Snow is situated in southern Vermont and less than a four-hour drive from New Jersey and New York suburbs, with a reputation as a busy place. However, it is a bit like being in New York, the Mount Snow, which averaged 500,000 skier visits a year, had a loyal following and improved its lodging. 

Years ago many of the facilities needed renovation and the snow-making needed an update, but there wasn’t a lot of cash available for those fixes. At least, in the spring of 2007, Peak Resorts of Wildwood bought Mount Snow and Attitash Mountain. This was a significant development for Mount Snow.

Because the ski areas sit where natural snowfall is not plentiful, the company has invested in a sophisticated kind of snow gun called a fan gun. The fan gun makes 30 percent more snow with less energy than the traditional snow-guns, which use waters pressure and condensed air, rather than on-board electric air compressor combined with a high-speed fan.

So If you visit Mount Snow you will notice the snow guns are everywhere on the most popular trails and the snow cover bountiful. Each gun costs $32,000 per gun, that’s why not every ski area could employ them. Mount Snow is also a spot to stand-alone area dedicated to freestyle and new-school skiing.

Mount Snow is a home to a lot of happy faces. It has about 125 park features and they are graduated in difficulty, from beginner to expert, so newbies to the park can learn as they go, and most important, not get in the way of others with more skill. About a month ago, Mount Snow, was a master of a competition of snowboarding and free skiing. Photos by: Caleb Kenna

The Wright is a stylish restaurant in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, that gives to visitors a geometric dining experience. The place is both contemporary and complementary. The 487 sq m restaurant offers a playfulness of form as a curvilinear wall of walnut layered with illuminated fiber-optics accentuates the main wall and sculptural forms embellish a flared ceiling. The forms are rooted in Wright’s underlying geometries to create a relationship between the main museum and this new addition.

The creator is Andre Kikoski, whose essential styling has the feeling of procession as one enters the main lobby of the restaurant. He engaged the heightened sense of procession using surfaces and textures animated by movement to create a fluid aesthetic.

Stowe is a Vermont ski town with soaring church steeple, covered bridges, and no chain stores in sight. Ii is a ski resort, with a Main Street that is as folksy as a yellowed New England postcard. All of these could explained Stowe’s recent $400 million upgrade, with a shiny gondola and a new pedestrian village with a private club and outdoor fire pits galore. But beneath all the modern glitz, Stowe still feels like an old-fashioned town where no one locks the door and folks still dress like The Beatles.

The picture shows a store that has been around since the 1890s. Pick up a rabbit-fur hat or an Icelandic wool sweater at Shaw’s General Store on Main Street.

The highest point of Stowe is the summit of Mount Mansfield. Once your legs get warmed up, follow the speed demons over to Nosedive, a steep chute that is among the oldest trails in Vermont. For tree skiing, head to Hayride, a gently sloped glade run with evenly spaced spruces. Don’t expect an ordinary cafeteria on the top, lunch there means a casual sit-down at the Cliff House.

The nearest major airport is in Burlington, Vt., about an hour west of Stowe. JetBlue has nonstop flights from Kennedy Airport starting at about $150. Stowe is about a five-hour drive from New York City.

Stowe Mountain Lodge is the only ski-in, ski-out hotel at the mountain. The 139 units offer marble baths, balconies, fireplaces and goose-down feather beds, from $199. A few miles from the mountain is the Topnotch Resort and Spa (Be sure to get a room facing the slopes, not the parking lot. Rooms start at around $300. Photos by: Denny Lee

Dream Hotel is located in the heart of Manhattan. Stylish boutique hotel with distinctive elegance and the feel of a private residence, intimate and comfortable. Located between Central Park, the Time Warner Center in the north and Times Square in the south.

The hotel consists of a total of 220 rooms on 13 floors of which 20 are suites.In-room: safe, refrigerator, Internet.

Amenities: Pets Allowed, Fitness Center, Meeting Facilities, Broadband Access, Restaurant in Hotel, Air Conditioning, Parking, Room Servicemore, Television.

The hotel lobby takes guests below ground to the Chopra Center, offering therapeutic spa and beauty services taught by Deepak Chopra.

Restaurant Serafina: offering an eclectic mix of Italian fare served up in a theatrical, Fellini-inspired space designed by The Rockwell Group.

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Artist: Stefan  Eberstadt, Munich
Structural  Engineering: Thomas Beck, Munich
Steel   Construction: Alfred  Mayrhofer
Total  Surface:  9m2
Construction  Cost:  approx € 25.000
Perched  between  art  and  architecture, form  and  function, private  and  public  property, the  Rucksack  House  is  a  hovering  illuminated  space  that  looks  like  a  cross  between  temporary  scaffolding  and  minimal  sculpture.
Its  design  is  the  result  of  fundamental  artistic  questions: How  can  sculpture  function  outside  the  context  of  art? What  claim   does the  sculpture  has  today? Where  does  sculpture  apply  in  today’s  world?

Stefan  Eberstadt:
Why  should  a  building  end  where  its  walls  normally  end? How  could  it  be  expanded? The  claustrophobic  living  conditions  I  experienced  in  mega  cities  like  London  or  New  York  when  living  in small  apartments  with  sometimes  only  one  window  towards  the  outside  world  have  initiated  the  idea. I  imagine  the  space  in  front  of  this  window  becoming  real  and  accessible. Just  stick  some  space on!

The  concept  of  the  Rucksack  House  has  a  dark  reddish-brown  color  which  comes  from  the  material  from  which  it  is  made – exterior  grade  polywood  with  an  absorbent  resin  surface. It  evokes  solidity  and  provides  a  contrast  to  the  façade  from  which  the  house  hangs. The  choice  of  material  is  inexpensive, accessible  and  economical.