It’s unusual for me to walk to a hotel but, thanks to Seattle’s brand new light-rail system, which transported me from the Seattle-Tacoma Airport to downtown Seattle in 37 minutes for $2.50, I was able to have a pleasurable walk past the Pike Place Market area enjoying unusually, for a mid-February day in Seattle, warm (15°C/59°F) and sunny weather.  The new Four Seasons Hotel Seattle, opened in late 2008, is almost directly on the bay and built in a U shape, which means that 80% of the guest rooms have …

Die Swaene is the quintessential small European luxury hotel and fits perfectly into the narrow cobblestone streets and centuries-old buildings that surround it.
WHERE IS IT?
Located in the city center, this small romantic hotel overlooks the picturesque tree-lined Groenerei canal.  It’s in the heart of Bruges (Brugge in Flemish, Brügge in German) and minutes away from museums and other sites.   The hotel has 30 guest rooms, all individually decorated.  The lounge is the restored Guild Hall of the Tailors and dates back to 1779.
ROOMS
My room was a bit small and full …

The Wiener Philharmoniker (as the Vienna Philharmonic prefers to be called), leveraging a native relationship to the Second Viennese School of music, brought along challenging and thought-provoking pieces by Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern as it arrived at Carnegie Hall this past Friday.
The ensemble was in New York a bit earlier than usual for its annual three-concert series just a few weeks after its New Year’s Day concert in Vienna, one of the music world’s biggest annual events.  The format of the New Year’s Day concert is nothing if not …

Our Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide presents a wide range of presents for appropriate for the business traveler(s) in your life that you can get almost overnight.  Have you ever wanted to safely bring home a few bottles of wine? Get the BottleWise Duo.   Need to conduct conference calls on the road?  The Tumi Internet Microphone is perfect for such  meetings.  Always searching for the right tool?  Simply carry the LoggerHead ImmiX 20X with you.
Read on for some of the best solutions for portable computer backup, stylish Bluetooth headsets, a …

Vienna, at the heart of Europe, is a city offering a unique blend of the arts, culture, music, and shopping, where 19th century Imperial traditions coexist alongside the latest trends.  One doesn’t have to go far to see a Fiaker (horse-drawn carriage) being passed by a skateboarder.
Tradition is everywhere, from the Kaffeehaus (coffee house) to ubiquitous paintings and photographs of Kaiser Franz Joseph I., the Habsburg emperor who ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1848 to 1916.
Vienna is one of the only cities in the world with its own cuisine (most …

Many business travelers today are finding that the higher cost of using private business jets are balanced by gains in both time and efficiency.  The ability to travel on one’s own schedule, to fly directly without the need to stop at a hub and transfer, and to bring one’s colleagues (or customers) into a quiet and private work environment can translate into higher profits, greater efficiencies, and even a partial restoration of a lost work-life balance.  My experience indicates that all of this is true.
With the help of my car’s …