Viator Travel Blog

You can sip a Mai Tai in the middle of a freezing New York City winter, but really the experience is not the same as having one on a lanai in Maui. There’s something about the perfect drink in the perfect place that really rallies the senses together to experience something more than just the [...]

Forget the South of France. Forget Italy. And Ibiza. These days being glamorous on your yacht, wearing flowing white designer linen, and partying every night is all about – Croatia. Kevin Spacey, Nicky Hilton, Valentino, Gwyneth Paltrow – they’ve all discovered it. And this summer I was right there with them. Sort of. The yacht [...]

Singapore has a lot more going on than meets the eye. Maybe it can’t match the messy human chaos of Bangkok, the high-tech chaos of Tokyo or the grand outdoors of Sydney, but it does have all these things in small, Singaporean-sized pieces. Take a few days to discover more than just its shopping and stopover clichés.

Singapore has an extraordinary blend of local delicacies to sample, from Hainanese Chicken Rice, Nasi Lemak, Laksa, Rojak, Beef Kway Teow, Fish Head Curry… to Peranakan, Indian, and Malay cuisine. The trick with Singapore’s hawker centres (stalls where local food is served up – think “mega-food court”) is to go with friends so you can [...]

So the south of France, the Cote d’Azur. I know what you’re thinking: expensive, clichéd. Think again. I agreed to go there for a week’s holiday with a friend mainly because I’d never been and it’s one of those famous places that’s in all the books and movies and gossip magazines. Oh, and because I [...]

Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, is a mélange of culture and activity. Though a Turkish city until1912 (as part of the Ottoman Empire), Thessaloniki is now most definitely Greek. It is a major destination and port entry to the Balkans, specifically the former-Yugoslavia. There is a hint of South Beach in the atmosphere, and a 2007 [...]

Most visitors to Dubai never catch the local buses, probably due to the fact that you can actually melt into a sizzling puddle on the sidewalk waiting for one. But it’s a great way to mix it with Dubai’s expat workers – not the ones on the executive packages. You’ll see the neighbourhoods where they live and get a feel for the different expat communities. It’s also a great way to find those authentic workers cafés. Just look for the crowds around a hole-in-the-wall and get off.

Ladies, if you ever need your mood lifted, go to Rome. It’s very difficult for a woman to walk down the street there without being greeted with ‘Ciao, bella’ or ‘Buongiorno, beautiful lady.’ Very good for the ego. And definitely not pick-up lines but just part of the joy of life embraced by Italians. My [...]

What is surprising about Istanbul is not the exotic atmosphere, it’s the cosmopolitan sensation of a city on par with New York or Paris. Sure, the call to prayer echoing from neighborhood mosques is nothing to scoff at — particularly when accompanied by an evening sunset. And sure, many aspects of Turkish culture and history [...]

What to do in Milan? Start with an espresso. Drama. Passion. Coffee. Coffee, coffee, café. You guessed it, the land of the Boot. Italy. That’s where I am now, where the waving pointed finger is the only way to make a conversation work. Where you can never say “yes” just once (“si, si, si” in [...]