The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Strip Tease: A Peek at Vegas’ Newest Hotel

It’s hard not to be intrigued by a Sin City hotel with the tagline “just the right amount of wrong.”  Perhaps you’ve seen the hotel’s TV commercial, featuring pant-less bellhops, bustier-clad women, bedroom photo shoots, and animals crashing a suite party. Unusual, yes – but The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which debuts December 15, has certainly gotten my attention.

In the land of pirate ships and Eiffel Tower replicas, The Cosmopolitan boasts something only a handful of other Vegas hotels can claim: it has no theme (unless, of course, you consider edgy and sexy themes). It’s also the only Vegas property – and the only casino resort anywhere – to become part of Marriott’s luxury Autograph Collection.

Sweet Intoxication in Central California

When we stepped out of the “Wine Wrangler” tour bus, Coy Barnes (the company owner and wrangler himself) assured us we were in for a rare experience at the Steinbeck Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles, California. While shedding layers of clothing in the blazing October sun, we were greeted by Cindy Steinbeck Newkirk, part of the sixth-generation family that’s been farming the land since 1884. Dressed in jeans, cowboy boots and hat, she resembled “a modern-day Annie Oakley,” one of my colleagues pointed out.

Indeed, Cindy and Steinbeck Vineyards offer a window to Paso Robles’ past. Located halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on California’s Central Coast, this city has been a farming community since its inception, and the Steinbecks were local pioneers in growing wine grapes. Only recently did they enter the winemaking business themselves, debuting a tasting room in an old blacksmith shop furnished with an antique grape press and historic photographs. Also on display: a model B52 airplane resembling the one that crashed in their field in 1956. Fittingly, the 2006 cabernet blend that launched them into the wine industry was named “The Crash.”

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Strip Tease: A Peek at Vegas’ Newest Hotel

It’s hard not to be intrigued by a Sin City hotel with the tagline “just the right amount of wrong.”  Perhaps you’ve seen the hotel’s TV commercial, featuring pant-less bellhops, bustier-clad women, bedroom photo shoots, and animals crashing a suite party. Unusual, yes – but The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which debuts December 15, has certainly gotten my attention.

In the land of pirate ships and Eiffel Tower replicas, The Cosmopolitan boasts something only a handful of other Vegas hotels can claim: it has no theme (unless, of course, you consider edgy and sexy themes). It’s also the only Vegas property – and the only casino resort anywhere – to become part of Marriott’s luxury Autograph Collection.

Lush Valleys to Snowy Peaks

From my front-row seat at "Pure Energy, Pure Chile” – a multimedia light show celebrating Chile’s Bicentennial – the presidential palace in the capital of Santiago was a spectacular site, illuminated in vivid purple. The building became the backdrop for a visual history lesson depicting scenes of the country’s early settlers and struggle for independence. Then, two words flashed across the length of the palace: “Viva Chile” (“Long Live Chile”).  It was enough to make me patriotic about a place where I’d only spent one week.

There is indeed a lot of living to do in this country that, on average, is only 100 miles wide. In one short week, a group of fellow journalists and I marveled at historical buildings and modern graffiti art, sipped award-winning wines and celebrated longstanding Chilean traditions. We toured the capital, visited ski resorts at 10,000 feet above sea level, and explored coastal destinations. And each stop along the way was less than 90 minutes by car. To make things easy, the group enlisted Metropolitan Touring, one of South America’s largest touring companies, to handle ground transportation and tours.

The San Diego Symphony

100 Years and Counting

The symphony probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of San Diego. For many visitors, palm trees, beaches and sunsets tend to overshadow theaters, museums and concert halls.  I myself had no idea that my city was home to California’s oldest existing orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, which celebrates its centennial this December.

LA Local: A Tale of Six Neighborhoods

Sunset Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, the Hollywood Hills—it’s all quite glamorous.  It’s also your typical LA story. As a new resident of Southern California, I owed it to myself to dig a bit deeper. What I discovered is that the real stars of Los Angeles are the many vibrant neighborhoods it boasts beyond Tinseltown.

The Langham Huntington is just nine miles north of downtown Los Angeles, but it seems worlds away from the concrete and congestion of the city. Its out-of-the-way location at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, in one of Pasadena’s most beautiful residential neighborhoods, makes it ideal for peaceful getaways.

There’s something wonderfully peculiar about Jsix restaurant in Downtown San Diego. It borders two distinct areas, the trendy East Village and the historic Gaslamp Quarter. Its décor includes a backlit bar, flower castings on the ceiling and fezzes on the dining room wall. The menu spotlights coastal California cuisine – with a French twist.  It’s all just eclectic enough to appeal to a wide range of tourists and locals alike.