http://www.post-gazette.com/travel Travel news and features, Travel Editor David Bear's column en-us Copyright 2010, post-gazette.com. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:44:45 -0400 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10081/1044771-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml To the Editor: Regarding "Tuscany Without the Crowds" (March 7): In its catalog of great places to stay in the Val d'Orcia, the article didn't mention the beautiful and reasonably priced monastery of Sant'Anna in Camprena (www.camprena.it), near Pienza. Built in the 15th century and now gracefully restored as an agriturismo, it's where the Italian segments of "The English Patient" were filmed. Last June I spent a wonderful, crowd-free week there for 60 euros (about $80) a night, including breakfast. All the Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10081/1039699-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml PARK CITY, Utah - The movie stars and the Hollywood executives were packing up as the Sundance Film Festival entered its final days in Park City. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10081/1044711-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Dick Barron got into the snow business when Kaufmann's Downtown store hired him to work part time in its ski shop while he attended computer classes at a nearby technical school. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044616-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml ASIA is beginning to look a lot more like America -- at least when it comes to hotels. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044617-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml THE BASICS Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044618-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml DOWN a crooked lane across from a shabby beauty shop, the old Macao mansion known as the Mandarin's House always seemed to have space for newcomers knocking at its gate. Built around 1869, the house and its 60-odd rooms started to fill with renters after 1920. As more tenants moved in, parlors were subdivided, doors were added, staircases were moved. When still more came, they built shacks in the garden. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044619-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml WAN CHAI used to be best known among foreigners as an area crowded with seedy bars and massage parlors, but it remained popular for locals, filled with historic tenement blocks, old-fashioned street markets by day and youngsters shooting hoops after school. Now, the Hong Kong neighborhood is thriving, as a nascent cultural scene emerges and as young creative types and entrepreneurs alike are being lured by cheaper rents. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044620-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Decades ago, a recipe for sabudana vada sealed the fate and fortune of Prakash. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044170-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Saturdays Winter Nature Hikes. Powdermill Nature Reserve, 1847 Rte. 381, Rector. 1 p.m. guided hikes. 724-593-6105. March 21 Talk 'n Walk Series EcoHiking. 2-4 p.m.. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:54:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044172-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml As winter relaxed its grip earlier this month, six consecutive days of bright sunshine and blue skies left no doubt that spring was on its way. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:52:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044205-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml At this latitude, the crappies get active right around the opening day of trout season, April 17. You don't suppose they know that anglers will be preoccupied? Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:51:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044208-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml A bird on the water might look like a duck and swim like a duck, but that doesn't mean it's a duck. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:20:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044165-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Although there's plenty to do at the hatchery open house, folks might want to show up early for other wildlife-watching opportunities around Linesville. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:19:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044169-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml The hatchery was built in 1939 on 2,500 acres owned by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:18:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044206-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:18:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044163-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml The "bridge to far" -- the footpath span crossing the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Somerset, which links the northern and southern stretches of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail -- was dismantled Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:17:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1044171-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Leave it to the experts to tell your kids where babies come from -- babies with fins and tails, at least. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:17:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1043936-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml BARCELONA, Spain -- The last time I visited this most magnificent Mediterranean metropolis, Francisco Franco still ran the country and everything and everyone in it. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10080/1043938-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml The Department of State, looking to practice a little domestic diplomacy ahead of the inevitable summer passport crunch, is hoping to ease your passport anxieties on Saturday. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10079/1044451-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml THE path is wide, the terrain easy, yet I keep losing my footing, tripping over stones and my own feet because I can't watch the trail. My eyes refuse to leave the white mountain filling the sky before me, the 24,786-foot Himalayan peak Annapurna III. It dominates the horizon as surely as a sunset does, but with millenniums-old glaciers ringing its crest like a necklace of diamonds, it feels more dazzling than even the brightest setting sun. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10079/1044452-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml THERE is nothing quite as bracing as the smell of rotten eggs in the morning. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10079/1044453-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml "YOU like congealed pigs' blood?" my travel companion asked, pulling me over to a street cart in Ho Chi Minh City. Before I could answer, two bowls of chao, a rice porridge bobbing with slices of pork sausage and cubes of coagulated blood, were plopped in our hands. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10079/1044454-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml IT was 10 p.m. in Siem Reap, and while most tourists were tucked in after a long, hot day exploring the temples of Angkor, things were just getting going at a bar called Linga. Pairs of European men in their 30s and 40s wearing unbuttoned collared shirts and checkered krama scarves sipped fruity cocktails and jostled for space with the young Khmer crowd, who huddled around small tables in anticipation of the main event: the Saturday night drag show. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10079/1044455-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml THE teardrop-shaped island of Phuket has long been known for its dazzling beaches and naughty night life. But for many, it was the catastrophic Asian tsunami in 2004 that finally placed Phuket on the map. Recovery has been swift, and in recent years the island has firmly reasserted itself as a premier beach resort in southern Thailand, with a growing crop of luxury hotels, top-notch restaurants and even a thriving art community. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10079/1039698-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Jane Austen's bit of England is the "green and pleasant land" of the old Anglican hymn. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10078/1044106-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Jeffersonville, Vt. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10078/1044107-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Dummerston, Vt. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10078/1038229-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml TUCSON, Ariz. - Having been regular visitors to Tucson for many years, my husband and I had seen most of its well-known attractions. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0400