The brief history of boutique hotels is fascinating if you’re a boutique hotel obsessive as I am, beginning in London in 1978 with Anouska Hempel’s Blakes Hotel and taken to giddy heights in New York City by Studio 54’s Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell with the Paramount Hotel near Times Square. I have to confess … Read more
Instagram tours to Instagrammable sights and popular hashtag locations is a new form of ‘travel by Instagram’ – people are paying tour companies to take them to the best selfie spots, take Insta-worthy images of them, and even provide post-tour edited pics for sharing on social media. Like many travel writers, I’m pretty good at … Read more
These Siem Reap hospitality training restaurants serve up some of the most tantalising meals in the city – and they’re meals that make a difference. The money you spend contributes to training young Cambodians, helping to lift locals out of poverty. Located in Cambodia’s northern riverside city that is the departure point for excursions to … Read more
Should selfie sticks be banned from Angkor Wat? What do you think? We think they should be banned in precious heritage sites and there’s never been a greater urgency to ban them at Angkor Wat and the other Angkor Archaeological Park temples. Or has there? Should selfie sticks be banned from Angkor Wat? Every time … Read more
The American author of Overbooked: the Global Business of Travel and Tourism, award-winning journalist Elizabeth Becker was in Siem Reap recently for the UNWTO and UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture. I chatted to her about culture, heritage and sustainable tourism in Cambodia. Elizabeth Becker kick-started her writing career in 1972 as a war correspondent … Read more