100 Things We Love: Part 5
This is it—the final frontier in our list of 100 things we love. Read on for our last 20, and make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter, where we’ll send out the entire list to all of our readers tomorrow.
20. Dar Ahlam—They call this Moroccan oasis a “house of dreams”, and we agree wholeheartedly. It’s hard to believe such a palatial hotel could be made of mud—there’s obviously a little magic involved.
19. Osteria Acquachetta—One of our foremost principles it to eat where the locals do. In Montepulciano, Italy, you’ll find this incredible, casual restaurant that’s as special to the natives as it is to visitors. Don’t be frightened by the cleaver-wielding gentleman on the home page, he’s friendly, we promise.
18. Starting from scratch—Just as we build each trip itinerary from scratch, each of our offices have also started from the bare minimum, before being slowly built up out of drywall and character (and various pig-themed artworks).
17. Hipmunk—We’ll be the first to admit that while we know our destinations as well as our own homes, we’re no international flight experts. We have a few gurus we can refer you to for that, but Hipmunk is also an amazing resource for finding and comparing flights.
16. Flight 001—For all your backpack collapsing, charger organizing, portable laundering needs, Flight 001 one has you covered with gear that’s cool and functional.
15. Lemarti’s Camp—He’s a traditional Kenyan Samburu warrior. She’s a fashion designer originally from Germany. Put them both together and you get an unexpected romance, and an incredible luxury bush camp. You can’t make this stuff up.
14. Krusty the cowboy—Sure you could go to Texas, or meet the gauchos of Argentina, but why not visit our local Ontario wrangler instead? Krusty is a one of a kind guy, and he runs horseback riding out of his farm north of Toronto.
13. Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup)—Fi fi pho feu; however you manage to pronounce it, it doesn’t really matter with a mouthful of noodles. One of our favourite dishes to slurp especially when it’s chilly out, we’re lucky to have plenty of options close to home, but nothing beats eating it on a street corner in its home town.
12. Casa Palopo—When we’re dreaming of Lake Como but can’t finagle an invite from Clooney, we choose this Latin American doppelganger instead.
11. Big Animals Expeditions—The name says it all. To see the biggest, most exciting creatures on earth, with a wildlife photographer leading the way to boot, this is who to contact. The narwhal really does exist!
10. Farm-Africa Presents—Buy a chicken, a beehive, or our personal favourite, fermented cow’s urine. Your friend gets a virtual gift with a video about the present, and a farmer in Africa gets something that makes an incredible difference in his or her life.
9. Ta Phrom Temple—We loved it before Angelina Jolie was raiding it. And we still love it after. In the world of ruins, its vine-entwined structures are among the greats, and should be on your bucket list.
8. Barrel tasting—Do we even need to explain? It’s a giant barrel of French wine. We get a big glass. You get green with envy.
7. Minas Gerais—Nobody is going to scoff at the beaches of Brazil, but it’s the cobbled towns in the state of Minas Gerais that have captured our hearts.
6. Driving over the High Atlas mountains—The drive from Marrakech to Ouarzazate in Morocco is one of the most beautiful (and most winding) we know. And if you need a break partway through, we know the perfect place.
5. Corral del Rey—An original, 17th century building restored to perfection, this is our favourite gem of a boutique hotel in Seville, Spain.
4. Au Pied de Cochon—The grandfather of all food comas was born at this very meaty Montreal restaurant. It’s the kind of place you can probably only handle once a year, but man is that 365th day an event.
3. Northern lights—(Most of us) being Canadian, we’re a little bit biased about the magical phenomenon known as the aurora borealis. Even we will admit, however, that Iceland‘s Hotel Ranga does it best, with a wake up call and hot tub viewing available.
2. International cooking classes—There are few better ways to dig right into the culture of a place than learning how to make the local cuisine. From Moroccan to Vietnamese, we’ve eaten our way through plenty of food to serve you better.
1. Pigs—A final (and unsurprising) shoutout to our leading mascot ends this list. This particular little piggy in Lalbanque, France inspired our little company. Thanks for following us all the way through 100 newsletters.
If you’ve missed them, check out parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of our list. And as always, if something in particular strikes your fancy, get in touch with us to find out more.
