Mountain City's Travel Blog

We love airports, don’t you? After a year without travel,  we can’t wait to see the bustle, feel that unique buzz of people excited to be off on a new adventure in a new place… Of all the sights and sounds of a busy airport, the one that’s guaranteed to make you smile is the earnest, adorable faces of hard-at-work...

Amid political drama, it’s easy to forget that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC isn’t only the address of one of America’s branches of government - or a family home, America’s original work-from-home venue before WFH became a ‘thing’.The White House is also a global symbol of the historic roots of democracy. And it’s one of the pre-eminent museums of...

Written by & Images by: Diane Manson, CTC | Travel & Cruise Consultant

It’s made of an astonishing 10,000 western red cedar logs, and ‘logs in’ at a whopping 4-million cubic feet of volume.Fairmont Le Château Montebello lays claim to being the biggest log building on the planet. A massive lobby and rotunda anchor four wings extending out in a star formation that’s painted dramatic black on the outside, but retains its natural...

It looks like something out of a science fiction film, but it could be the way you get your very next aerial tour of Singapore. In a world first, after two years of tests and collaboration with the island city-state and a decade of development of its technology, ‘Volocopter’ is set to make no-pilot air taxi services a reality.While other...

This January, two powerful forces for wellness travel converge: yearly New Year's resolutions to become or rediscover our best selves, and this year, the pandemic that's both kept us from traveling, and for many, fostered a lifestyle that may not have kept us at our peak.In the travel era BC (Before COVID), wellness travel was already one of the most...

Short Vid with Diane and Erin

Happy New Year and Thank you for allowing me to drop into your inbox today. Thank you for taking the time to read the first newsletter of 2021.It’s hard to believe we are well into the first month of a brand new year. Time certainly fly’s by.Late last October I heard a quote - loved it so much I immediately...

If this year’s altered holiday celebrations left you wistful and nostalgic for full-bore Christmas festivities, there’s a river cruise that gives you a chance for a re-do. Christmas in July on the Danube comes without snow – but it does come with plenty of seasonal cheer on Uniworld’s S.S. Maria Theresea. On two sailings in July, the Maria Theresea will have...

At long last, 2020 is wrapping up, and a New Year full of hope is just around the corner. This feels like the kind of year you’d toast the year past as early as possible, then call it a night, hoping when you wake up in the New Year, we will have turned the page on the disappointments, challenges, cancelled...

In BC (Before COVID) times, viral airline safety videos had fun with things like fastening seatbelts. Times have changed. Alaska Airlines gave the COVID travel era the new type of safety video we really needed right now. The video above is a send-up of the 80’s music classic Men Without Hats’ ‘Safety Dance’. If you want to compare it and get a...

A year from now, one of the travel events of our lifetime will be over.  Not only will 2021 see the return to travel we’ve all longed for; on December 4th, 2021, a total solar eclipse will take place. A total solar eclipse, where the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, completely blocking out the sun for a short...

The past month of rumination, is unlike any previous December’s reflections. I expect I’m not alone in saying almost every corner of my world has been flipped on its’ head. And yet within the topsy-turvy of this wild-riding pandemic I’ve found generous life gifts.   I am loved and lifted up by family and the kindest friends anyone could imagine or ever...

One’s in Austria, and the other in America. But they are bound together in the pop culture celebrations of the season.Have you figured it out yet? The hint is in film and music. Both Salzburg and Stowe are destinations tied to the Trapp Family legend. You likely know it as: The Sound of Music, a movie that’s become essential holiday family...

You may not be celebrating the holidays as usual this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create some new holiday entertaining traditions.While we wait to travel and celebrate again, here are two recipes for ‘spirited’ holiday drinks from favorite destinations to warm your heart and remind you of better times ahead.Perfect for a virtual holiday cocktail party, long winter...

We can’t travel on a luxury cruise ourselves right now– or do many of the other things we love to do around the holidays - but “Let Them All Talk” lets us take an armchair escape during the break, and imagine ourselves along for a ride on one of the most famous ships afloat.We couldn’t ask for better company for our...

They are the essential train trips in Western Canada. Three rail routes that provide travelers a window onto the Rockies like no other way of travel. Rocky Mountaineer operates bucket list rail journeys between Vancouver and the iconic Canadian Rockies towns of Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. They are train trips featuring a multitude of luxuries in the heart of the...

Wine lovers have one more reason to get traveling again next year. In celebration of one of its oldest and most beloved products, Italy has declared its first-ever ‘City of Wine’. The Italian association of communities that collaborate to protect and promote their regional wine designations held a competition for the new honor.  Barolo - the town with the famous red...

This “world-famous” Gorgonzola Salad was a house-specialty recipe at Porky Manero’s, a classic steak and prime rib restaurant in Westport, Connecticut from 1959 to the early 1990s. To this day, the salad is legendary. This simple, secret recipe is best served as an appetizer rather than a side salad to the main course. And remember, it is the cool, crispness that adds...

260 days ago the World Health Organization announced a global pandemic. With planet earth shifting past the embryonic days of COVID-19 professionals learn more about this virus every day. The manner and protocols of how we go about our daily lives are guided by Doctors, Scientists, Researchers, and assisted by Politicians. At this time we have been asked to keep...