CHARLESTON IS A QUICK TWO HOURS FROM SAVANNAH. MUCH LIKE SAVANNAH, IT HAS SO MANY THINGS TO SEE AND DO YOU WILL NEVER BE WONDERING - NOW WHAT DO WE DO? FOUNDED IN 1670, THIS GRAND SOUTHERN CITY HAS A COMPLICATED HISTORY - SLAVERY, SMALLPOX, MALARIA, HURRICANES AND MANY OTHER MALADIES PLUS THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND THE CIVIL WAR AFFECTED THIS CITY. TODAY IT HAS IT ALL - AMAZING FOOD, FREINDLY PEOPLE, AN ECLECTIC ART SCENE AND WATER EVEYWHERE.
FIRST - WHERE TO STAY
We enjoyed Charleston several years ago. I posted about Charleston and The Inn at Middleton Place where we stayed in August of 2012. This hotel is noted as a winner of the highest design award from The American Institute of Architects. It is a modern hotel sensitive to the local history of the area. However, it was about thirty minutes from downtown Charleston. The hotel was exceptionally well designed, had great food and amazing views of the Ashley River and the surrounding former plantation. The current day price is around $340 a night. If you want to experience the intimate diversity of Charleston up close and personal reserve one of the many super cool AIRBNB's all over the city for reasonable prices. On the other hand, The Middleton will afford you and yours a great place to stay and relax after a busy day of walking and enjoying Charleston.
Charleston has great restaurants, great museums, interesting walking tours, a birds of prey sanctuary, all manner of other interesting tours, Cypress Gardens where you can enjoy being rowed around in a black swamp and many other things to see and do. Just click the SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW link above.
A few quotes on this quintessential very old and very modern city:
“Charleston is one of the best built, handsomest, and most agreeable cities that I have ever seen.” – Marquis de Lafayette
“I’m going back to dignity and grace. I’m going back to Charleston, where I belong.”– Rhett Butler, Gone With The Wind
“Walking the streets of Charleston in the late afternoons of August was like walking through gauze or inhaling damaged silk.” – Pat Conroy
“Come quickly, have found heaven.” – Artist Alfred Hutty
Anyway you ponder Charleston you will be glad you walked its streets, ate its food and saw its beauty.
See ya next week with more places to wander through.
Fall is just around the corner - Official Start of Autumn is September 22. Right now, there is bright sunshine with occasional clouds & rain with temperatures in the low 90's. Officially, the hurricane season runs from June to November. However, I'm going forward with a positive outlook that the bad stuff is done! It's time to update and actually do things on your bucket list. Most people's Bucket Lists have places they want to travel to - Italy, Spain, France-Provence, and on and on. All those places to visit and experience the cultures, the people, the food, and other amazing things in our world run up and down our lists. Today's post, however, is about the greatest country on the planet - the Good Ole' USA Southern Style!
Because America is so large and diverse, there are many places you can visit to see the natural and built beauty of this country. The photo to the right is the famous Frank Lloyd Wright residence and studio Taliesen West about thirty minutes outside of Pheonix. You can travel to Napa Wine Country or the incomparable Southwest of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, or the Carolinas, containing the most amazing residence ever built in the US - The Biltmore Mansion, just outside the very hip town of Asheville, NC. Throw in Texas or Arkansas or the Great Western places in Montana and Wyoming such as Yellowstone or Glacier National. You can keep very busy seeing amazing places in this so-diverse country. I have always believed that great travel involves great planning combined with serendipity.
Here are thoughts on some places that should be on every Vagabond's Bucket List.
It's a long drive to Asheville from my hometown, Tallahassee, but the drive is beautiful most of the way. Or you could stop off somewhere halfway in a very cool and inexpensive ($90 a night) AIRBNB in Marietta Square, Georgia a few minutes north of Atlanta with all five-star reviews - The Grand In Marietta Square. Then make the drive to Asheville where the Biltmore Estate has existed since 1895. The privately owned residence is the largest single-family residence in North America. Logging in at 178,926 square feet with 250 rooms, 33 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces this mansion is one of the most impressive works of architecture I have ever seen. It sits on 8,000 acres surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains with scenic areas everywhere for walking, biking, carriage rides, hiking, horseback riding and more.
We stayed in a small boutique Hotel Indigo - great design, great staff and great views priced at $200 a night. And it's only about ten minutes from the Biltmore. Or, if you really want to just relax in pure luxury and impress, a room at The Innon Biltmore Estate is your choice for a nice $670. For less money check into The Village Hotelon Biltmore Estate for a paltry $380! We had a delicious lunch there.
If you want to take a trip that is easy and reasonably priced - Savannah is the place. You can stop about halfway at Amelia Island for lunch. Amelia has numerous great restaurants. Just click Florida Trippers for a list of great restaurants serving fresh seafood and other culinary delights. Then head up to the oldest city in Georgia - Savannah. This beautiful ancient, yet modern city has it all - great food, great museums, beautiful streets for walking with amazing scenery everywhere. It also has a plethora of hotels, large and small, as well as AIRBNB's for every budget. The Andaz Hotel is right downtown convenient to great restaurants, museums and other amenities. Today's rate is around $260 depending on when you go and what room design you select. Or if you want to save your money for food and other stuff, check out a list of AIRBNB's for the budget minded vagabond. This classy city has twelve great museums exhibiting works from ancient history to ultra-modern. First on my list is the SCAD Museum featuring innovative sculptures and paintings such as the yellow boot above.
“If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, "What's your business?" In Macon they ask, "Where do you go to church?" In Augusta they ask your grandmother's maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask you is "What would you like to drink?”
Today's video features a founding member of the multi-award-winning group Florida-Georgia LineBrian Kelley. He performs a cool tune extolling the virtues of Georgia's oldest city - Savannah.
TODAY - PART TWO OF MY BUCKET LIST IS FOR ALL VAGABONDS, WANDERERS AND EXPLORERS DESIRING TO GO TO PLACES FAR AND WIDE. THE NOMAD ARCHITECT IS GOING TO FEATURE PLACES IN ONE OF THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD, YET BEAUTIFUL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD - FRANCE!
BEFORE WAXING ELOQUENTLY ABOUT la FRANCE, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT I ADDRESS THE ATTITUDES THAT AMERICANS AND OTHER VISITORS HAVE ABOUT FRANCE - THE HISTORY, THE ARCHITECTURE, THE LAND, THE FOOD, THE WINE, THE PEOPLE - ALL MAKEUP THE ESSENCE OF A COUNTRY THAT HAS CREATED GREAT WORKS OF ART FROM MONET TO KANDINSKY, AN AMAZING CULTURE ANCIENT AND MODERN AND SOME OF THE GREATEST FOOD EVER CREATED.
LOVE & HATE
“How can anyone govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?” Charles de Gaulle
"To err is human. To loaf is Parisian" - Victor Hugo
“It is perfectly possible to be enamored of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French.” -James Baldwin
“In Paris, they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.” - Mark Twain
"A walk in Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life" - Thomas Jefferson
“The flavors melted in my mouth- warm chocolate and melted butter and the flaky sweet crust. This was what I loved about France. A keen appreciation for the simplicity and sweetness of life. The French seemed to savor their minutes along with their food.” — Melanie Dobson - Author
We landed in Paris and checked into the ultra-modern Hotel Mayet. Our room was almost Lilliputian but was beautiful and comfortable and located perfectly not far from The Eiffel Tower and other places to see. Today's price is reasonable for Paris - $250 - $290, depending on when you go. Right after we checked in, we had dinner at a small restaurant next door. After dinner, we decided to just take a leisurely stroll. As we turned a corner, there it was - the world-famous shining Eiffel Tower right in front of us. We held hands and smiled walking together. One of the unique architectural features of central Paris is that there are no tall buildings, except for the Eiffel. All tall buildings are on the perimeter of the city.
Provence
After taking a train we checked into a small, intimate place in Avignon which, unfortunately, has closed. It was a great old house re-designed by a Swiss architect with an intimate courtyard perfect for relaxing and talking. If you want to see what this unique Bed & Breakfast was like just click Lumani for The Nomad Architect's description. Then we rented a car and drove a quick 45 minutes to a repurposed farm turned into a high-end hotel in the center of its own wine vineyard just outside the small town of Menerbes in Provence - La Bastide de Marie. In all honesty, this place with only twelve rooms or suites is not low priced - $330 - $400. But sometimes you just need to spend more to get more. This five star "bastide" has it all - incredible romantic rooms and suites, amazing food and wine, the Pure Altitude Spa, an outdoor pool, a massage room and about seventy acres to hike and roam around in. I do not say this about most places we stay, but La Bastide de Marie was one of the most comfortable, beautiful and romantic places we have ever enjoyed.
Trust me, this place will change your way of thinking about elegant travel.
Next week - more Bucket List thoughts for wandering nomads coming your way!
Video of the Week - Perfect for France and Romance - Multi-Grammy Award winning Nora Jones gives a very smooth performance and video of one of her great romantic tunes - COME AWAY WITH ME. We had the pleasure of seeing the smooth and cool jazz artist several years ago.
