A twisty drive on the Alpenstraße brings the visitor to Le Ciel, a 12-table restaurant that offers dining at an altitude of 1000 meters at the InterContinental Resort Berchtesgaden.  The hotel itself is set on a small plateau overlooking the Nationalpark Berchtesgaden in Berchtesgadener Land, Bayern (Bavaria) adjacent to Salzburg, Austria.
On Christmas Day it had started to snow in the late afternoon and the restaurant’s softly lighted interior seemed all the more inviting, the quiet elegance of the place adding a festive note to the visit.
The atmosphere reflects the passion …

Just as those of many business travelers, my typical trips are several days long. Fly out, have a day or two of meetings, and return. When it comes to longer trips, especially those mixing business and pleasure, I find that I need to plan my packing strategy far more carefully. And when the trip is in the middle of the holiday season, even more care is required.
Choosing the right luggage is key. In recent years, I’ve settled on several different bags from Tumi, including the Tumi …

The institution of the Kaffeehaus, or coffeehouse, is one of the most democratic public places ever invented.  Similar to the Melange, the most popular kind of coffee in Vienna, the Kaffeehaus offers a mélange of people of all social classes who come together to sit, read, write, and talk – all for the price of a cup of coffee.   Indeed, a guest who orders one coffee can sit for hours at a time reading the newspapers, typically plentiful in a Kaffeehaus and found in special wooden holders that facilitate one-handed …

A pleasant 40 km (25 mile) drive along the Hudson takes one from midtown Manhattan to the town of Piermont in the Hudson River Valley, where chef and owner Peter X. Kelly offers a seasonal menu that is worth the drive from anywhere in the Northeast.
The elegant restaurant, which seats 40, is small and cozy.  The dining room is festive with crystal chandeliers, flowers everywhere, and soft cream colored walls.
Service is superb with great attention to detail, yet it is also unpretentious and friendly.  I was there for a private …

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 …

The Wachau is an area of Austria that I have visited regularly since childhood.  It is a valley that runs along the Danube river for 33 km from Melk to Krems but today is the first time I viewed it from the Danube itself.  I left Krems on the Austria, one of several vessels from Brandner that run along the river and disembarked in Weißenkirchen one hour later.
A short walk along the Wachaustraße took us to the the main retail location for Wieser, a purveyor of local apricot marmalade (Marillenmarmalade) …

Join me as I embark upon a tour to the three main wine-growing regions of Austria.
I departed New York on 4 September via Austrian Airlines, coincidentally on the first day of ownership of the airline by Lufthansa.  Fortunately, not much has changed and hopefully, as the Austrian newspapers have written, it will simply be “red uniforms without red ink.”
The first order of business was to pick up a BMW Z4 sDrive23 from BMW of Austria and drive to Langenlois, where the beautiful new wine and spa resort  Loisium …

The Burgenland, Austria’s youngest Bundesland or state, shares the Neusiedler See, Austria’s largest lake, with Hungary. Eisenstadt (Kismarton), its capital, was the seat of the Eszterházy Hungarian noble family and Joseph Haydn lived there as Hofkapellmeister under Esterházy patronage. 2009 is the Hadyn-Jahr (Haydn Year) in honor of the 200th anniversary of the composer´s death. This area was once referred to as “German-speaking western Hungary”.

Many business travelers head south for the weather, Italian food and wine, and the “Northern Italy” experience. This section describes some of the cities and towns just off of the A22 (the Autostrada del Brennero), which is the main toll road running north-to-south through the region. It starts at the Brennerpaß, south of Innsbruck and the Europa Bridge. Signposted as “Passo del Brennero” in Italy, it is the lowest pass (1370 m) through the Alps. The northern parts of this area were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire up to World …

The Wachau region along the Danube (Donau) river in Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), namely the village of Dürnstein as well as Stift Melk have become destinations for visitors.
Dürnstein is where Richard Löwenherz (Richard the Lionhearted) was held captive during the Crusades and you can visit the ruins atop a hill today. It is also a wonderful place to bike ride, enjoy good Austrian wine (Grüner Veltliner, for example), and excellent Austrian cuisine. Stift Melk is one of the world’s most famous and beautiful monastic sites.
In many parts of the Wachau, you …