Activities

The Best Pedicure in Paris

In Paris, a pedicure entails something entirely different than your typical scrub and polish.

Monsieur Ho is to feet as Yves Saint Laurent was to fashion—worshipped by his fans and envied by his rivals as a master of his medium. For the last three decades his name has been passed from one glamorous Parisienne to another as the best pedicurist in town. His most fervent supporter? None other than La Deneuve, France’s most famous and demanding diva.

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The World’s 6 Coolest-Looking Bookstores

So how do you create a three-story bookstore in a cathedral when you can’t drill any holes into the building or attach anything load-bearing to its walls?

Usually a store is just a store. But a few stores are attractions in and of themselves. So it is with these six incredibly cool-looking bookstores. Next you are in Maastricht, Beijing, Porto, Buenos Aires, Paris or Mexico City, add these stores to your list of must-see attractions—even if you don’t plan on buying a book.

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Spotting Late Sept & Early Oct ’09 Travel Deals

October is an odd time for travel booking. It is low season for cruises (check out our review of luxury cruise lines currently offering discounts) and for Europe and for Southeast Asia. The northern hemisphere ski season hasn’t started yet and the Caribbean is at the tail end of hurricane season. But all this means there are more travel bargains for you.

As always, you can stay updated on our latest travel deal posts by . . .

• going directly to our travel hot deals page;

• or, getting a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;

• or, perhaps best of all, subscribing to our RSS feed and getting all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;

or—why not?—act on all three of those options.

Please note that most of the offers below are for a limited time. And with that, here’s to happy, high-value travel!

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Three Cool, Affordable, Luxurious Cruise Lines

Close your eyes and picture this: You’re on the Christina O(nassis) with Jackie-O and Ari sailing the Greek Isles. Oh Jackie-O this is marvelous. So cool. Cocktail hour and then a fabulous dinner of the freshest daily catch followed by great conversation. Ari did what! And laughter. Next a rousing game of charades with J & A. She’s so funny—who knew! Please don’t wake me.

That exact scenario may be a dream but your ability to afford a luxury cruise may not be. Some of the best cruise promotions being offered today are in the premium market. Premium sailings serve up the good life and a whole lot more. Luxury cruises are capturing a younger, more sophisticated yet less stuffy crowd. While mass market cruise lines carry 2000+ passengers, making it hard from them to indulge passengers with fine dining and highly personalized service, luxury cruises offer a more upscale and intimate environment. And who doesn’t want a little more luxury and a little more pampering on their vacation?

A year ago we would not have been able to say premium cruising is affordable. Now we can say: Luxury is affordable and you can go on a luxury cruise. I can, yes I can! And I will!

Here are our three luxury cruise lines of choice. Each are currently offering outstanding promotions:

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An American Werewolf in . . . Cozumel?

All work and no play makes Dracula a dull vampire

This January the Carnival Liberty will set sail on a special Fangs and Fur Cruise. But if you imagine this is an opportunity for you and your four-legged companion to take to the high seas—a sort of Rover + You + the Love Boat—you are off. Way off.

The fangs in question belong to a vampire. The fur belongs to a werewolf. And the cruise’s target audience is literally literary—it is for aspiring authors of the gothic genre.

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Spotting September & Labor Day Travel Bargains

Fall is coming to the Northern hemisphere, spring to the Southern, and travel bargains abound. Here’s a selection of some September travel deals that caught our eye.

As always, you can stay updated on our latest travel deal posts by . . .

• going directly to our travel hot deals page;

• or, getting a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;

• or, perhaps best of all, subscribing to our RSS feed and getting all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;

or—why not?—act on all three of those options.

Please note that most of the offers below are for a limited time. And with that, here’s to happy, high-value travel!

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Spotting a Selection of August Travel Bargains

Welcome to the first in an ongoing series of posts Spot Cool Stuff is launching on cool travel deals. Awesome airfare discounts, spectacular cruise sales, reduced resort rates, guidebook bargains, high-value all-inclusive vacations—we keep an eye out for current deals on them all, aggregating the best into a single “travel bargains” post.

Look for new travel bargains, with the latest deals & discounts, to be published once or twice a month. Oh, man! How can I stay updated on the latest deals? you are surely asking yourself now. Well, you could . . .

• go directly to our travel hot deals page;

• or, get a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;

• or, perhaps best of all, subscribe to our RSS feed and get all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;

or—why not?—act on all three of those options.

Please note that all of the offers below are for a limited time. And with that, here’s to happy, high-value travel!

Continue →


Cool Caribbean: Dominica

Many people, even those well-traveled, have never heard of the rugged, tropical nation of Dominica. Tourism does not dominate here in the way it does many other small Caribbean islands where development often crowds out ecological concerns. Much of Dominica is green, wild and untouched. No wonder Dominica was chosen as the filming location for the “remote feeling” outdoor scenes of Pirates Of the Caribbean.

If you are looking for a Caribbean destination with magnificent diving, fantastic hiking and lush jungles, you should choose Dominica too. The natural beauty of this place makes it one of Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite island nations. Spend some time here and you’ll come away wondering why more people haven’t heard of this paradise.

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