Places

A TROPICAL BREW

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:57 +0000

Deep in the Brazilian rainforest there is a town built around a church where worshippers drink hallucinogenic tea. Alex Bellos took a trip up the Amazon to sample the high life in Céu do Mapiá... read more »

FUENTES ON TIME AND SPACE

Carlos Fuentes — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:57:19 +0000

The great Mexican novelist and essayist Carlos Fuentes has died aged 83. Two years ago, he wrote this piece for our series Authors on Museums. “Museums, like lovers," he said, "can lose their charms”, but when he returned to an old haunt in Xalapa, Mexico, he found he was smitten all over again... read more »

WHERE THE WIND HOWLS

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:42:10 +0000

A Walk on the Wild Side: in a new series, Robert Macfarlane, acclaimed author of “The Wild Places”, walks the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland, formed 60m years ago... read more »

HOTELS FOR HYPOCHONDRIACS

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:37:14 +0000

Feeling a little off-colour as winter drags on? Claire Wrathall is ready with a prescription... read more »

KENYA'S SECRET RIVER

J.M. Ledgard — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:19:43 +0000

The Tana is a river even most Kenyans have never seen. And now its ancient way of life is under threat from a super-port. J.M. Ledgard finds glimpses of paradise in its chocolate waters... read more »

OSLO TAKES A YEAR

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:01:44 +0000

Being There: Simon Reid-Henry on day-to-day life in a city that changes drastically from season to season ... read more »

CHRISTOPHER ONDAATJE'S SEVEN WONDERS

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:44:45 +0000

The funder of the Ondaatje prize, awarded to the book that best evokes a spirit of place, picks the highlights of his well-travelled world ... read more »

MADRID TAKES STAMINA

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:28:42 +0000

Being There: Fiona Maharg-Bravo reports on life in a city that never sits down to a meal until it has to ... read more »

FISHING IN DALMATIA

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:35:45 +0000

Tonci Bibic and his family have been fishing off the islands of the Dalmatian coast for six generations. But that may be about to end. James Hopkin reports from Hvar ... read more »

HOT AIR IN COLORADO

Rebecca Willis — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:54:16 +0000

~ Posted by Rebecca Willis, December 23rd 2011

It's snowing in the Rockies. A bit. They're still waiting for the "big dump" that sets the resorts up for the whole season. Vail is the largest single mountain ski resort in America, and in Vail Village the trees are covered in Christmas lights, there are gas fires in the street and the pavements are steaming as the snow lands on them - they are heated from underneath.

Our hotel in Beaver Creek has an outdoor pool and five hot tubs, all exhaling moist warmth into the freezing air, uncovered during the day and mostly unused until après-ski time. There are patio heaters outside restaurants, heated underground car parks, and of course the ski lifts churning away all day and the piste-bashers grooming all night... It's all a stark reminder that downhill skiing holidays are high energy as well as high altitude.

In our room, though, there is a slice of a tree with the word "CONSERVE" scorched into it, ranch style. We are invited to participate in "helping preserve and protect natural resources" by placing this sign on our rumpled bed in the morning. If we do so, the staff "will prepare it using [our] existing linen". That is to say, they won't change the sheets. For a night, anyway: "a full refresh of all linens and towels will be provided after the second night". A snowflake in a snowdrift, you might say.

Rebecca Willis is Intelligent Life's associate editor, and a former travel editor of Vogue