Golden Age reborn at Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

A goldfinch lives at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam—a goldfinch trained to draw water from a well with a tiny bucket. Painted by Rembrandt’s pupil Carel Fabritius in 1654 (and made even more famous by the eponymous Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 2014), the goldfinch recalls the city’s 17th-century Golden Age when goldfinches were popular companions in … Read more

Guadalajara: In the LGBTQ Spotlight

When in 2015, the governments of the Mexican state of Jalisco and its capital Guadalajara began a bid to host the Gay Games in 2022, they unwittingly set the city on a path to LGBTQ-awakening. For Guadalajara, the three-year bid process signified a shift in focus for a government that had not previously engaged the … Read more

Luxury defined at the Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour

Bal Harbour has become synonymous with luxury, one of the world’s most fashionable addresses — and all the more remarkable for a village of less than 3,000 residents whose exquisite ocean-to-bay enclave encompasses barely 1 square mile on a barrier isle along the Atlantic.