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Featured Trips

• Meet the new generation of travel guru: Andy Steves

Edmonds travel guru Rick Steves’ son, Andy Steves, learned about traveling overseas when other kids were in preschool. Now, 29, he’s founded his own travel company and has, not too surprisingly, written a guidebook.

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Fatherhood’s a long journey, and if you’re travel expert Rick Steves, 61, father of Andy Steves, 29, there’s not always time for rest stops.

Throughout his childhood, Andy recalls, he, his sister and their mother would join his father in Europe every summer while the elder Steves did research and taped TV shows for his burgeoning travel-guide business. There wasn’t a lot of R&R.

“When Rick Steves is in Europe, it’s always a business trip — it’s never vacation,” Andy says bluntly.

AUTHORS’ APPEARANCE

Andy steves in discussion with rick steves.

Andy Steves will discuss and sign “Andy Steves’ Europe: City Hopping on a Budget” at 6 p.m. Monday, June 20, at Seattle’s University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E.; ( bookstore.washington.edu/)

What was it like for the kids in those days when Dad was laser-focused on building his brand?

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“It was intense. We’d have our daily allowance to get a gelato or something. We’d have our frustrations — walking past the camera 10 times to get it right for a shoot.”

But that all became routine, Andy says, and if imitation is in fact flattery, any childhood resentment seems washed away: Just in time for Father’s Day 2016, the younger Steves is doing a major “like father, like son” act, publishing “Andy Steves’ Europe,” his first travel guidebook .

The pair will do a joint appearance and Andy will sign books at 6 p.m. Monday, June 20, at Seattle’s University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E.

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for 35 years, you’ll know that Rick Steves is generally considered the European travel guru (even he calls himself that in conversation). From self-publishing his first “Europe Through the Back Door” travel guide in 1980 and leading trips through the University of Washington’s Experimental College, he’s built a little empire, with tours, best-selling guidebooks, and travel wisdom doled out through a syndicated newspaper column and nationwide programs on public TV and radio. He has always emphasized traveling light and getting to know local culture.

It’s made him a millionaire, all based from his hometown, the Seattle suburb of Edmonds, where father and son sat this week in the head office of Rick Steves’ Europe and pondered their travels through life together.

From his earliest days, “I have vague memories of running around castles — of playing hide-and-seek in castles built by Mad King Ludwig,” Andy says.

As a dad, Rick aimed to engender independence and travel savvy in his son as he grew up. Sometimes it would be a sort of trial by fire.

“In Paris, he’d put me on the next Metro (subway) car and tell me where to transfer and where to get off — and hopefully he was watching out for me,” Andy recollects.

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After graduating from Lynnwood’s Meadowdale High School, Andy backpacked around Europe with a school buddy. As Rick recollects in a foreword penned for his son’s guidebook, he had primed Andy with a list of “must-see” museums, castles and galleries.

“When he came home he triumphantly declared that he had skipped most of those conventional sights and, instead, made friends in each country,” Rick recalls.

That kind of person-to-person connecting is what “carbonates” travel, and it’s what his son is so good at, Rick says.

While Andy attended the University of Notre Dame (studying industrial design, with a minor in Italian language and literature), a foreign-study term in Italy opened his eyes to a market for the kind of help his father offers travelers — but zeroed in on college students and technology-driven millennials.

Out of school in 2010, Andy founded his own business, Weekend Student Adventures , for the backpacker crowd that pops between European capitals on $50 budget flights.

The guidebook is an outgrowth of that, as he now divides his time between Prague and Seattle.

Rick Steves say he’s not proud he didn’t make more time for family vacations in earlier days. Nowadays, he takes his grown kids on an annual trip together — somewhere distinctly not Europe. (He and his wife divorced in 2009.)

Meanwhile, Andy seems laser-focused on building his own travel business.

“Your mom and sister would say we’re disgustingly similar,” Rick says to his son.

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Hello... I'm Cathy Bartrop

The owner of travelguru.tv and a self confessed travel junkie. I am a travel promoter, writer, video producer, presenter and editor. I started my career in travel as a graduate trainee with Saga Holidays back in 1983 then, after gaining invaluable corporate experience with Saga, Thomas Cook and Ocean Cruise Lines, in 1989 I set up my own business focused on travel media including...video production.

Twenty fantastic freelance years went by working with media clients like The Telegraph and Take A Break magazine and, in addition, managing complex, multi-crew filming projects for Tourist Board clients.

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Think guidebooks are out of style? This American travel guru will convince you otherwise

“Rick Steves is kind of like the Bob Ross of travel,” Ryan Howe tells me. 

A 45-year-old strategic business coach from Custer, Michigan – population 297 – Howe grew up amongst farmland in his poverty-stricken village. Public Broadcasting Television (PBS) – America’s free-access TV channel where Ross debuted his Joy of Painting in 1983 and Steves’ his Travels in Europe with Rick Steves in 1991 – was his only means of escape. 

“There’s no way to construe anything about what [Rick] does other than that it’s from a good place of wholesomeness. When I was stationed in Japan in 2002 with the Air Force and was to move to Pisa, Italy , I immediately went to my library on base to ask how to order Rick’s Italy guidebook from PBS. Three weeks later, I got it.”

Steves, 68, is the owner and founder of Rick Steves’ Europe, a small-group tour operator. He currently has 81 books and nine planning maps in print. No less than five of the top 10 travel books on Bookscan – which includes guides, memoirs and other books related to travel – are Steves’ books. He is also a television and radio host, activist, and beloved by many Americans who grew up on his shows, his books, and the calming voice he’s known for. 

“His tone is very soothing,” says Vanessa Gordon, 34, CEO and publisher of a local Long Island magazine who started reading Steves’ guidebooks in the late 1990s and credits her desire to travel with those hours spent perusing his pages.He oozes ‘dad vibes’, is what we’re saying. 

Born and raised north of Seattle, Washington, in Edmonds, Steves’s first trip to Europe was in 1969 with his parents when he was 14. He scribbled about what he saw and experienced on the back of postcards, and when he returned to Europe sans parents four years later, he came equipped with journals. Writing down all he learned came as naturally to him as posting on Instagram does to today’s young travellers. 

In his 20s, Steves began teaching travel through a non-credited student-run arm of his alma mater, University of Washington, and a decade after that first trip, he self-published Europe Through the Back Door , his first European guidebook.

Tamar Marder, stay at home mum and blogger at World by Weekend who grew up in northern California first remembers hearing about Steves from her parents when she was 12. They took her on a trip to Italy and used Rick Steves’ Italy . Since then, Marder has used his guidebooks to plan many trips across Europe. 

A couple of years ago, while on a Sicilian Christmas holiday with her family, she ended up at the kitchen table of Mariarita, a fourth-generation vintner. After the scheduled tour that they had booked ended, Mariarita invited them into her home, and they sat, surrounded by photos of her family, a Christmas tree alight with presents piled underneath.

“We chatted about life in Sicily, the wine business, and the local products she used to prepare the meal while my children crawled around under the table,” says Marder. “These are the types of experiences that Rick Steves promotes – cultural exchanges and interactions with locals. Because while travel is about seeing the sights and learning the history, it’s also about meeting people and learning about different ways of life around the world. I may forget what year the Normans conquered Sicily or who built the churches in Palermo, but I will remember sitting at Mariarita’s table, drinking wine, and eating delicious food.”

For as long as Steves has been a public figure, he’s been a supporter of advocacy for communities and organisations that cross cultural divides – his company donates to climate-smart nonprofits and Bread for the World, a Christian group working to end world hunger. 

He’s also helped the fight to legalise marijuana across the US and has donated £7.5 million for two community centres in his hometown and a 24-unit apartment building for homeless women and their children with the local YWCA.

Though Steves’ fans tend to skew North American and in the 40-plus range, folks from further afield and a younger subset of travellers have fallen in love with his easy-going vibe.

“I resonate with the emphasis he places on flexibility,” 29-year-old Rocky Trifari from New Jersey who runs The Rocky Safari Guide, tells me. “It’s at the core of his travel philosophy and it’s at the centre of mine as well. Flexibility is a big factor that has allowed me to adopt long-term travel as a lifestyle while working as a digital nomad.”

Trifari learned of Steves from an Australian couple he met in Zadar, Croatia five years ago. But he says that Steves’ name pops up in more conversations than he can count on his travels across the world.

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, but based in Madrid for the past decade, Claire Riley, owner of luxury travel company Duende Travels, says she knows plenty of millennial-aged people who always travel with Steves books as their guide: “I think Rick Steves appeals to Americans [because] he seems so relatable and normal; his show airs on public television, so almost everyone has access to [him]. He makes travel so accessible to everyone [and] has options for more budget-minded people, options for people who want to splurge, and everything in between. There’s no gatekeeping from Rick Steves.”

It’s clear that Steves has had an influence over multiple generations of US travellers, and will continue to do so because of his affable demeanour and prolific publishing. In fact, just the other day, my mother told me she found a Rick Steves France guidebook in a second-hand shop and picked it up for my sister who’s travelling to the country next month. It seems that Steves is always in the right place at the right time.

Are you a Rick Steves fan? Share your thoughts in the comments below

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I'm Cathy Bartrop

The owner of travelguru.tv and a self confessed travel junkie. I am a travel promoter, writer, video producer, presenter and editor. I started my career in travel as a graduate trainee with Saga Holidays back in 1983 then, after gaining invaluable corporate experience with Saga, Thomas Cook and Ocean Cruise Lines, in 1989 I set up my own business focused on travel media including...video production.

Twenty fantastic freelance years went by working with media clients like The Telegraph and Take A Break magazine and, in addition, managing complex, multi-crew filming projects for Tourist Board clients.

Fast forward then to 2007. Around this time, well known UK TV travel shows like BBC's 'Holiday' and ITV's 'Wish You Were Here' became victims of slashed broadcast budgets. At the same time online video was exploding - video on demand (largely thanks to YouTube) had finally become a reality. This created an opportunity to offer specialised content to an online audience. Aged 47 at the time with 15+ years as a video producer under my belt, my 'lightbulb' moment was to fill a gap in the market, specialising in creating trusted travel content for the 50+ traveller. travelguru.tv launched in June 2008.

The 50+ sector accounts for 80% of the UK's wealth and a staggering 60% of the nation's travel spend and yet, when it comes to travel marketing, it is an audience that is still all too often overlooked. My mission is to change that and provide discerning 50+ travellers with content that is relevant, interesting to watch and which shares information (both verbally and visually) that informs smart travel choices.

The content I produce is all about real people, real experiences and trusted travel advice. For me the greatest compliment my viewers can pay me is 'it made me want to go there'. Please do check out my YouTube channel and see if I can inspire your next trip...

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National News | Widow of man electrocuted in Mexico resort hot…

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National News | Widow of man electrocuted in Mexico resort hot tub files wrongful-death lawsuit

The wrongful-death lawsuit, obtained by People, details Lizette Zambrano’s desperate attempt to yank her husband, Jorge Guillen, from the water as he collapsed and got sucked to the bottom of the tub at Sonoran Sea Resort in Puerto Peñasco, an hour south of the U.S. border. It was about 8:30 p.m. local time last Tuesday as the couple prepared to watch the sunset after arriving at the high-rise-condo complex for a family vacation.

Zambrano “sprang forward from the pool deck to try and grab Jorge’s body from the jacuzzi,” alleges the complaint filed in El Paso County, according to People. “However, upon touching Jorge and the water, Lizette was electrically shocked.”

Other guests pulled 35-year-old Zambrano out of the water, but every attempt to grab Guillen, 43, shocked them, too, the lawsuit states.

“Patrons attempted to assist, grabbing a shepherd’s cross and other items,” the lawsuit said. “However, the metal from the objects carried the electrical current and began shocking the rescuers.”

Moreover, the suit alleges, it took 10 minutes for hotel staff to answer the guests’ cries for help as every attempt to pluck Guillen from the bottom of the tub shocked him anew.

“ It’s absolutely terrifying ,” said Tej Paranjpe, an attorney at PMR law in Houston. “There was not a single staff member that did anything while Jorge was getting continuously shocked again and again underwater.”

Zambrano is seeking $1 million in damages from Casago International, a vacation-rental provider, and the travel company High Desert Travel, both based in Arizona. Neither company was responding to requests for comment on Monday. The General Prosecutor’s Office of Justice of the State of Sonora is investigating the incident.

“There is no reason this should have happened ,” Paranjpe said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Hotels and resorts have a duty to ensure guest safety. At no point did resort staff think to engage an emergency shut-off, not to mention warn guests of a faulty, dangerous amenity.”

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5 big travel lessons and one ‘mistake’ from 50 years of Lonely Planet

Co-founder Tony Wheeler shares his best advice from decades of publishing guidebooks

Tony Wheeler has spent half a century traversing the globe but still carries a guidebook. Naturally, it’s his own.

“Just a couple days ago in Brazil, I went to Iguazu Falls,” Wheeler, 76, said during a recent video call from a hotel guest room in New York City . “I went across to Argentina and had the Lonely Planet guidebook. It said to take the walk close to the river level because everybody heads to the top one. You know, the guidebook got it right.”

Wheeler and his wife, Maureen, founded Lonely Planet guidebooks 50 years ago. In 1972, the newly married couple bought a ratty old car in London and drove east, across Europe, and then farther east, to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, where they sold their vehicle. In Australia, their final stop, one adventure ended and another began.

Their first publication, “Across Asia on the Cheap,” spawned more than 150 million guidebooks covering 221 countries. It also heralded a new generation of travelers who were young, adventurous and scrappy. Like true rebels, they ventured where few parents had gone before.

“These were books for people in their 20s with no money,” he said. “If their parents had gone to Europe, they were going to Asia. If they were in Europe, they were going down to Spain and across to Morocco. Instead of escaping the States to Mexico, they’d go down to South America. Their horizons were getting larger, wider.”

In 2011, the Wheelers, who split their time between London and Melbourne, Australia, sold their publishing company. Red Ventures, which also owns the Points Guy , took over in 2020. Although they are no longer actively involved in the series and have upgraded their travel style, they still embody the spirit of the “ backpacker’s bible.”

The day after Tony returned from South America, he shared some of the lessons he has learned from his 50 spins around the Lonely Planet.

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Always carry on

Mishaps happen to even the most seasoned traveler, and you just have to roll with it.

During his recent trip in Brazil, the airline repeatedly canceled his flight to New York. He spent four hours standing in line at the airport counter trying to sort it out. “You can fly across the Atlantic in the Concorde in that amount of time and have a meal, as well,” he said dryly.

Also this year, an incident in France forced the railway to shut down its entire line. Then a torrential rainstorm hit. “I was standing around on a platform with rain pouring down for four hours,” he said.

Wheeler gamely acknowledged that a traveler’s best material often comes from plans that go awry.

“People like to hear the bad stuff,” he said. “No one wants to hear that my flight left on time, my seat was the one I wanted, I liked the meal and my baggage turned up.”

Want to avoid those pesky carry-on fees? Be your own suitcase.

Speaking of lost luggage, he avoids it by limiting himself to carry-on . He said an opera singer friend would have significantly reduced her stress levels had she followed suit. On her flight from Munich to his London home, the airline lost her bags. Several days later, a delivery man drove up in a vehicle packed with hundreds of pieces of luggage waiting to be reunited with their owners.

Travel for the people, not the politics

Of all the travel guides, Wheeler said Burma caused them the most angst. At the time, people were urged to boycott the country to avoid indirectly aiding the brutal military regime. After several research trips, the couple decided to publish the book in 1979 but encouraged travelers to support local businesses and not government-owned ones.

“The locals really wanted the tourists, and it wasn’t just for the money,” Wheeler said. “It was for the communication with the outside world.”

State Department issues ‘worldwide caution’ alert to Americans overseas

Wheeler is similarly conflicted by Iran. “The government’s awful, but the people are wonderful,” he said. To illustrate this point, he described the heartwarming interactions he repeatedly experienced in restaurants. Diners would notice that he was eating alone and spoke English and would invite him to join them at their table.

“How often does that happen in a restaurant in England or America?” he said. “In Iran, that does happen, and I think it’s kind of amazing.”

The eighth edition of “Lonely Planet Iran” is scheduled for release in December 2024, an update to the 2017 version.

Trust your research and instincts

On the subject of crime, Wheeler has been fortunate: He has been a victim only once, when he was mugged in Bogotá, Colombia. He said travelers should thoroughly research a destination but also trust their instincts.

“Things are not always as unsafe as you fear they are,” he said. “Once you get to a place and are out in the streets, you will feel if it is okay or not.”

On a family trip in Guatemala City, the Wheelers set out at night in search of food. The streets were empty and unnerving. But the next morning, they discovered an entirely different city: vibrant, lively, safe.

Wheeler has ventured to more than 170 countries, including many that have faced conflict, such as Syria, Libya and Yemen. He does not take safety lightly. He is intrigued by Nigeria — “It’s the center for movies in Africa and has a lot of entrepreneurial activity ” — but is cautious about visiting Africa’s most populous nation because of safety concerns. Many foreign offices, including the U.S. State Department, advise travelers against visiting Nigeria.

“You start with the idea that it’s not going to be totally safe,” he said, “but I’d like to see it one day.”

Explore ‘two streets over’ from main drag

For countless travelers, Lonely Planet opened the door to unknown or undiscovered places, but some critics say the books worked too well and have led to overcrowding. Wheeler’s solution to overtourism is actually a Lonely Planet tenet. He recommends always going “two streets over” from the main drag for sightseeing as well as shopping, dining and lodging.

Far off the tourist track, Molise offers the best parts of Italy

“Everyone is in St. Mark’s Square,” he said of Venice. “There are other parts of the city you can go to and find churches that are not crowded with tourists.”

Another option: Skip the popular destination for a lesser-visited city, such as Ravenna, which he described as the opposite of Venice. “It almost felt like it was undertouristed,” he said.

Choose a train over a plane

This year, Wheeler has traveled by train in a dozen countries. He said his best train experience was on Amtrak ’s Coast Starlight from Seattle through the San Francisco Bay Area.

“It was a nice train, and there was quite a lot of conversation at the tables in the bar,” he said. “It was what train travel is supposed to be.”

Amtrak WiFi can be infuriating. Here’s how to make it work for you.

When possible, he chooses more eco-friendly modes of travel. For a return trip from Lugano, Switzerland, he took the slower but greener route home: train from Zurich to Paris, then Eurostar to London. In Uruguay and Paraguay, he relied on trains and buses, which have vastly improved since his last overland adventures.

“My bus travel years in South America was a long time ago,” he said. “It felt dangerous all the time, the buses were uncomfortable, and the bus stations were not good places to be.”

This time around, the bus station in Montevideo, Uruguay, was modern and had a great breakfast spot. The buses were comfortable and safe. The seats came with belts that people actually wore. There was an onboard toilet.

“It was definitely a real change from 40 years ago,” he said.

‘A 50-year mistake’

The company’s name did not stem from a romantic notion about connecting travelers or making the world a less forlorn place, but instead from a 1971 documentary film called “Mad Dogs & Englishmen.”

Over too much red wine at a Chilean restaurant in Sydney, the Wheelers discussed the film’s song “Space Captain” and the opening lines sung by Joe Cocker: “Once I was traveling across the sky/ This lovely planet caught my eye.”

Smitten with the lyrics, Tony suggested calling the series “Lonely Planet.” Maureen agreed, but pointed out the misheard word. “It’s been a 50-year mistake,” he said.

More travel tips

Vacation planning: Start with a strategy to maximize days off by taking PTO around holidays. Experts recommend taking multiple short trips for peak happiness . Want to take an ambitious trip? Here are 12 destinations to try this year — without crowds.

Cheap flights: Follow our best advice for scoring low airfare , including setting flight price alerts and subscribing to deal newsletters. If you’re set on an expensive getaway, here’s a plan to save up without straining your credit limit.

Airport chaos: We’ve got advice for every scenario , from canceled flights to lost luggage . Stuck at the rental car counter? These tips can speed up the process. And following these 52 rules of flying should make the experience better for everyone.

Expert advice: Our By The Way Concierge solves readers’ dilemmas , including whether it’s okay to ditch a partner at security, or what happens if you get caught flying with weed . Submit your question here . Or you could look to the gurus: Lonely Planet and Rick Steves .

• Food guides for travelers /
• Frankfurt, Hesse /

Michelin-starred culinary scene in Frankfurt, Germany

Table of contents

• 3. Main Tower
• 4. Carmelo Greco
• 5. Masa Japanese Cuisine
• What cannot be calculated is happening right here!

Frankfurt is the fifth largest city and the financial capital of Germany . Being the site of many global and European corporate headquarters and one of the busiest airports in Europe, Frankfurt is a hub for commerce, culture, education, and tourism. It also boasts an unrivaled wealth of museums. 

The city is famously known as “Mainhattan” since it is located along the river Main and is home to 14 out of the 15 tallest skyscrapers in Germany. You can go to the 55th floor of the MAIN tower for a good view of the city as it is the highest vantage point of Frankfurt .

More than half of Frankfurt’s population is made up of immigrants from over 180 different countries. Due to this, almost every culinary taste can be catered here. Traditional restaurants and street vendors dominate the landscape, but the immense diversity has made its way onto the menus of luxurious  Michelin-starred restaurants as well, so we have compiled a list of the best ones to visit in Frankfurt for a truly exceptional gastronomic experience.

Gustav is the second project of restauranteur couple, Matthias Schieber and Milica Trajkovska, who also own Weinsinn in Frankfurt. After discovering it in an unassuming building in the Westend district of the city, you can expect food with a lot of character. The head chef, Joachim Busch, is at the helm of the kitchen, and a responsible approach to resources is really important to him, which is why only selected regional and seasonal produce is used in the creation of the dishes.

The ambiance of Gustav boasts of colors and designs inspired by Bauhaus, and the interiors are stylish, sleek, and modern, with chic handcrafted chairs and unusual objects created by young local artists. The restaurant features a small, large, and 7- course tasting menu with optional wine pairings for your meal. The menus are based on a beautiful interplay of contrasts and textures, which can be experienced in dishes such as marinated lake trout with a green tomato vinaigrette in pine oil, grilled pointed cabbage in fermented porcini mushroom juice, pike perch with Brussel sprouts in brown butter, and grilled Bavarian Wagyu with onion and hazelnut. In desserts, you can relish grilled pear with rose sorbet and caramelized apple with nut butter ice cream.

Small Tasting Menu – €149 Large Tasting Menu – €183 7-course Tasting Menu – €195

Lafleur is a two-Michelin-starred gourmet restaurant located beside the Palmengarten botanical garden in Frankfurt. Its name is reminiscent of the famous wine estate Chateau Lafleur in Pomerol and offers a ‌cuisine of modern French dishes. The kitchen is run by Chef Andreas Krolik since his taking over the Lafleur kitchens in 2015, the fine dining establishment was awarded its second Michelin star in the same year.

The modern colorful decor is inspired by the opulent hues of the botanical garden, with high ceilings and full-length windows opening up a clear view into the park. The kitchen features two tasting menus – ‌Grand Product and Vegan – of 5, 6 and 7 courses accompanied by carefully selected wine pairings from the restaurant’s own merchant.

Some of the dishes that can be experienced at Lafleur are Norwegian lobster with scallops and costa greens in a citrus aroma, filet of sea bass with a herb crust in a tomato spinach chutney, roasted carabinero (prawns) with bell peppers in a tandoori kaffir lime sauce, and risotto with Jerusalem artichoke in truffle sauce.

5-course Tasting Menu – € 205 6-course Tasting Menu – €215 7-course Tasting Menu – €225

Main Tower restaurant and lounge is one of Frankfurt’s most popular locations for food connoisseurs with discerning palates. Located on the 53rd floor in the city's heart, it offers a spectacular panoramic view over the rooftops of “Mainhatten”. The modern cuisine created by head сhef, Martin Weghofer, at the Main Tower is equally impressive like the view. The dishes on the menu are not only visually appealing, but full of flavor and made from high-quality ingredients in elegant combinations of Asian flavors. They feature a 5, 6, and 7-course tasting menu with an option to add or change individual dishes on the menu to suit your preferences.

At this elegant restaurant, you can savor tuna with black radish in a tangerine sauce, duck liver with plum and Parmesan, miso eggplant with beech mushrooms, and French dove with black truffle in a beetroot sauce. You can also enjoy an aperitif before dinner at their lounge.

5-course Tasting Menu – €148 6-course Tasting Menu – €175 7-course Tasting Menu – €189 Wine Pairing – €89

Carmelo Greco is the flagship restaurant of Sicilian-born chef, Carmelo Greco, located in the Rodelheim district in Frankfurt. In 1996, he received the coveted Michelin star for his refined classic Italian recipes. He grew up in the gourmet region of Piedmont, where his former master, Lidia Vanzino Alciati, shaped his culinary skills.

The interiors of Carmelo Greco are executed in a modern and elegant style with shades of gray and gold. The indirect lighting helps create a cozy and intimate atmosphere. There is also a walk-in glass wine bar with 1200 labels of German and international wines. The kitchen team reinterprets Piedmont cuisine in two tasting menus of 6 and 7 courses, respectively, as well as a vegan-tasting menu.

You can sample classic Italian dishes such as beef tartare with beluga caviar, Parmesan flan with coffee and orange jus, scampi risotto with Marzano tomato sauce, and beef filet with foie gras. Do try their signature “dolce” dishes such as Italian raw milk cheese and Piccola pasticceria (Sicilian biscuits) in desserts.

6-course Tasting Menu – €135 7-course Tasting Menu – €165

Masa restaurant represents Japanese haute cuisine refined with culinary influences from European gastronomy. Located in Frankfurt’s Ostend district, this unpretentious Far Eastern-style eatery offers its guests some of the best modern Japanese food in Germany.

The owner and chef, Masaru Oae, is the mastermind behind the fantastic Omakase menu at Masa. Chef Masaru has perfected his culinary skills and knowledge by working in Basho-An and Nagaya in Düsseldorf before opening his own fine dining place in Frankfurt.

The interiors of the eatery are styled in a simple and cozy way, with diners sitting at the food counters across the open sushi bar or at small wooden tables. The full range of the kitchen and its skills can be experienced with their 7 and 9-course Omakase Tasting menu accompanied by sake on request. Some classic dishes you can enjoy at Masa are tuna tartare with caviar, mussels with pickled turnip, grilled A4 Wagyu filet, and roasted cod with smoked eel.

7-course Tasting Menu – €145 9-course Tasting Menu – €160 Sake and Wine Pairing – €79

Frankfurt is unlike any other German city, full of glass, steel, and concrete skyscrapers. Yet at its heart, it is a traditional and charming city with timbered buildings in its quaint Old Town, cozy apple wine taverns serving heart regional food, and village-like neighborhoods filled with cafes. It is the birthplace of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the author of arguably the greatest work of German literature – Faust. With its modern outlook and historic value, Frankfurt is undoubtedly a traveler’s paradise.

Have you been to Germany already? Which city do you find to be the most fascinating? Share your experience with our community in the comment section below!

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This Summer in Paris: More ‘Open’ Signs, Thanks to the Olympics

With millions of visitors expected in the city, restaurant and shop owners are hoping they made the right decision to forgo their cherished annual vacations.

By Lindsey Tramuta

Anyone who’s visited Paris in late July and August knows the word “fermé.” It adorns the darkened windows of chic indie boutiques and cozy bistros whose owners, along with other locals, have fled the city on their annual vacations.

This summer, with Paris expected to draw nearly 15 million visitors between July 26 and Sept. 8 for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, that ritual is anything but certain. Many shopkeepers, bakers, restaurateurs and tour guides — citing patriotism as well as profit — say they’re planning to stay open.

It’s a decision that comes with unpredictability. The 2012 London Olympics have cast a long shadow in Paris. Before those Games, warnings of overcrowded roads, congested transit and security concerns emptied out much of the popular city center and the West End, causing a tourism slump in those areas. Small-business owners in Paris are hoping history does not repeat itself.

The French capital is in a better position than the British capital was, insisted Pierre Rabadan, Paris’s deputy mayor for sports . Most of the events in London were held in one section of the city, he said, while in Paris, they’re taking place all over. “So when businesses have asked if they should stay open,” he explained, “we tell them we’re trying to create the conditions for this to be a real opportunity and for the city to function normally.”

With streets restricted, Metro stations closed and public transportation likely to be jammed, “normally” might be a stretch. But if you’re traveling to Paris for the Olympics or Paralympics, you will most likely find more dining and shopping options than you would otherwise see at that time of year. Here’s what to expect.

Preparations and a few disruptions

“If you want to have your ‘Emily in Paris’ trip to Paris this summer, you absolutely can,” said Olivia Grégoire, France’s minister in charge of tourism . Most popular attractions will remain open as normal, but a few closures could complicate plans.

The Place de la Concorde was set to be blocked off, even to pedestrians and cyclists, as of June 1, and three nearby Metro stations will close until Sept. 21.

The Eiffel Tower will remain open except for the eve and day of the opening ceremony, on July 26. The region’s airspace will also be closed for six hours before and during that event. And because the opening ceremony is set to take place on the Seine, river cruises, among the city’s most popular sightseeing experiences, will stop seven days before the ceremony and resume on July 27 at noon.

Owners of businesses that focus on tours and cultural experiences are banking on early-summer visitors to soften the blow that might come from a drop-off during the Games, after the Paris Tourist Office reported that participation in cultural activities was down 15 percent during the London Olympics.

Fat Tire Tours , a leading bike tour company, will run special Olympics-themed tours in early summer, then pivot to bike rentals during the Games to compensate for an expected drop in tour bookings.

Jane Bertch, a co-owner of La Cuisine Paris cooking school, which offers English-language classes in a location near City Hall, said she had noticed a sharp drop in bookings for late summer, but will “run as many classes as possible.”

Rising to the challenge

The Olympic crowds will bring appetites for Paris’s renowned cuisine, but for months, restaurateurs worried that restrictions on motorized vehicles in security zones around the city’s 25 competition venues could curtail deliveries. City officials have calmed some of those nerves.

“We don’t want restaurants to close during this monumental event because they’re worried about deliveries,” said Grégoire Ambroselli, a co-founder of the food logistics start-up Choco , during an Olympics-related conference in March.

Now, armed with more clarity on how to adapt to delivery challenges, most restaurants and bakeries report they will stay open during the Games, with one big caveat: Many plan to take a break between the closing ceremony, on Aug. 11, and the start of the Paralympics, on Aug. 28.

Maslow , a soaring, centrally located vegetarian restaurant facing the Seine, wouldn’t dream of closing, given its proximity to the Olympic action. But that decision comes with some unease. “We’re staying positive because the energy will be incredible, but we’re a bit worried about how hard it will be for our staff to get to work,” said the executive chef, Mehdi Favri, who is also a co-owner.

Commuting has ranked high among businesses’ concerns. However, locals have faced similar hurdles getting to work before. In 2019, trains across France and public transport in Paris were severely disrupted for nearly two months during a nationwide pension reform strike, forcing workers to walk or cycle long distances.

André Terrail, the owner of the Michelin-starred restaurant La Tour d’Argent , which overlooks the Seine, doesn’t think the Olympic commutes will be quite that complex but admits such challenges, in general, are the price of doing business in Paris. “It’s going to be complicated. We’re all going to be running around. But it’s also going to be amazing,” he said. “If other host cities have found solutions, so will we.”

Etheliya Hananova, a co-owner and sommelier at the contemporary French restaurant Comice , is perhaps the most enthusiastic about the summer ahead — enough to remain open seven days a week for three weeks through Aug. 10. “It’s one of the biggest events in the history of Paris. We’re here to be part of the welcoming committee,” she said.

The scaling-back of the opening ceremony on the Seine has given the antique booksellers, or “bouquinistes,” that line its banks a reprieve, and many plan to stay open. Shoppers will also be able to browse in department stores such as Galeries Lafayette , Printemps and Le Bon Marché . For those seeking something unconventional, the St.-Ouen flea market will sprawl out as usual, offering antiques, vintage clothing and more.

Outside the tourist areas, popular restaurants and bars like Holybelly , Folderol , Kubri , Abricot Le Mary Celeste and Fulgurances aim to draw visitors seeking a break from the crowds. “We’ve decided to open more — six days a week,” said Rebecca Asthalter, a co-owner of Fulgurances . Likewise, independent boutiques such as Landline , which sells home goods in a residential neighborhood east of the Bastille, are hoping travelers branch out to calmer parts of the city.

Back in the thick of the action, Marin Montagut, an artist and illustrator who sells hand-painted table accessories, stationery, silk scarves and candles from an apothecary-style boutique near the Luxembourg Gardens, is planning a Paris-inspired display of his wares. “I’m looking at this like it’s the World’s Fair. I want to honor the city and be open to all,” he said. “If I’m not optimistic during this period, when will I be?”

Amy Virshup contributed reporting.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Inside the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics

News and Analysis

Three Chinese swimmers who failed drug tests before the 2021 Olympics had tested positive for a powerful steroid several years earlier . They were not suspended in either incident, and all are expected to compete in Paris.

Bill May, the 45-year-old artistic swimmer who was vying for a chance to be the first man to compete in the sport at the Olympics, did not make the U.S. team’s final roster .

Seeking to undermine the Paris Olympics, Russian propagandists  are spoofing broadcasters and mimicking French and U.S. intelligence agencies to stoke fear about security at the Games.

A Guide to the Games and the Athletes

When Olympic Dreams Die: There will be no shortage of drama when the Paris Games begin in July, but most hearts will be broken in June’s cutthroat qualifying trials .

Katie Ledecky: As she prepares for the Games, the seven-time Olympic gold medalist talks about the doping accusations against her competitors  and how she stays focused while swimming 1,900 miles a year.

More ‘Open’ Signs: With millions of visitors expected in Paris, many shopkeepers, bakers and restaurateurs are forgoing their annual summer vacations . Parisians who are less enthusiastic about hosting the Games  took to TikTok.

Escaping the Games: Even if you’re visiting France for the Games, you may want to take a cultural break like a local. Here are some suggestions .

More From Forbes

Travel trends reach new heights as aerial attractions soar in popularity.

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The new Skybridge Michigan at Boyne Mountain ski and golf resort is the world’s longest ... [+] timber-towered suspension bridge at 1,200 feet, and connects two mountain peaks for foot traffic.

All around the world, tourists are paying good money to be taken to new heights, and aerial attractions have suddenly become a sky-high trend in travel.

As long as there have been skyscrapers there have been views from the top, but the most recent iteration of the scenic observation trend is much different.

The current movement most likely began in 1954, when the small Sugar Bowl ski resort near Lake Tahoe put one of its chairlifts up for sale. Everett Kircher, founder of Michigan-based Boyne Resorts, which operates golf and ski resorts around the country, decided to try something new. He bought the lift and moved it to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a spot hat has absolutely nothing to do with skiing.

The Gatlinburg SkyBridge is popular day and night

But what Gatlinburg does have is multiple tourist attractions and immediate access to the most popular National Park in the United States, Great Smoky Mountains NP. It also has a large drive market Southern population, many of whom had never been on a ski lift. Kircher started running his scenic chairlift rides to an amazing mountaintop viewpoint in the Smokeys, proving the Field of Dreams adage, “If you build it, they will come.” Tourists have been flocking to the attracting for 70 years, but the Kirchers were hardly done.

Inspired by the decades of success, Everett’s son and current Boyne Resorts President Stephen Kircher built a massive bridge in 2019—the largest pedestrian cable bridge in North America. It sits at the top of the chairlift, and hundreds of thousands of travelers each year (privately held Boyne Resorts won’t confirm more detailed numbers) pay $38-$51 to ride the lift and walk across the Gatlinburg SkyBridge . The area gets a lot of repeat visitors, and many of these consider the SkyBridge an indispensable part of their vacation, experiencing it every time they come.

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The Gatlinburg SkyBridge draws hunderds of thousands of visitors each year.

“We are in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, abutting the National Park, and the bridge connects two ridges with views of three of the tallest mountains on the East Coast, higher than 6,500 feet. The views are so spectacular they are hard to describe,” said Kristen Lodge, Marketing Director for the Gatlinburg SkyPark , which includes the lift and SkyBridge, as well as the SkyTrail hiking path and an observation tower viewing station.

They sell both single ride and unlimited one day tickets, and surprisingly, many visitors opt for the latter because they want to ride it in the morning, afternoon and after dark for the different views. “Gatlinburg goes crazy with lights during the holidays, and we also decorate the bridge with lights, and that’s a really popular time to come at night and see all the holiday displays. The views have always been what we hang our hat on. At the beginning there was just a view deck at the top of the lift, now there’s the bridge, and we are building a new viewing pavilion with restaurant at the other side of the bridge, opening September 1.”

The Gatlinburg SkyBridge sits 500 feet off the ground and in a single span covers 700 feet, complete with a 30-foot stretch of see through glass floor panels in the middle to further appreciate the dramatic views. It takes most people 15-20 minutes to cross, and then you walk back across.

Both Gatlinburg SkyBridge (shown) and SkyBridge Michigan have glass panels in the center to look ... [+] through the floor.

Five years ago, when the bridge opened, it would have been easy to question Kircher’s judgment, but its wild success has proven him right, and he followed up with the peak-to-peak pedestrian SkyBridge Michigan in summer 2022. The world’s longest timber-towered suspension bridge, the 1200-foot-long beauty is a marvel of engineering with its impressive wooden frame, and connects two peaks at the Boyne Mountain Ski Area, one of the most popular in the Midwest.

Like its predecessor in Tennessee, SkyBridge Michigan is accessed by a ski chairlift, and includes a glass-floored section in the middle. There are multiple food and drink options available, and the pedestrian bridge is open year-round. In winter Boyne Mountain is a ski resort, but non-skiers flock to the bridge, and in summer it has many other activities, including two high-quality 18-hole golf courses, and Boyne operate another half dozen courses including the highly-ranked award-winning Bay Harbor course, at its nearby sister properties. The area is a popular summer destination thanks to it its standout golf and fishing, and the SkyBridge makes for a new and unique extra attraction or activity that you will find in very few places.

"Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA - April 11, 2008: The Skywalk is a U shaped observations deck that ... [+] allows people to walk on a glassfloor 4000 feet over the Colorado River."

But while they are at the forefront, Boyne Resorts is hardly the only one adding these kinds of scenic aerial attractions that are all about the views. The Hualapai Tribe famously opened the Skywalk at Eagle Point , a glass-floored U-shaped observation platform jutting out over the Grand Canyon, in 2007. Built at a cost of $30 million this engineering marvel was the world’s largest glass cantilevered bridge until a similar attraction opened in China in 2016. In fact, according to website highestbridges.com, which compiles a list of skywalks and viewing platforms , there are dozens of cantilevered scenic glass platforms and bridges in China, including eight of the world’s top ten, many of them opened since 2020. The Grand Canyon Skywalk is the only one on the site’s Top Ten outside the Pacific Rim.

The Skywalk is suspended 4.000 feet above the Grand Canyon, and is not part of the National Park, but like Gatlinburg, is very convenient to Park visitors, part of an attraction area known as Grand Canyon West . Additional activities here include rafting, scenic helicopter rides, zip lines and more.

Woman admiring the view from Step Into The Void in Chamonix.

France’s Chamonix is at the base of Mont Blanc, the tallest peak in the Alps and Western Europe, and is the birthplace of the sport of mountaineering and first-ever Winter Olympics venue. The premier “mountain town” of the Alps, it draws a steady stream of tourists, summer and winter, and among the outdoorsy is famed for its skiing, hiking and adventure sports. But many travelers come simply for the stunning mountain views and ride the many cable cars in the region. The most famous of these is the Aiguille du Midi cable car , the world’s highest when it opened in 1955, reaching about 12,000 feet. It claims to receive half a million visitors annually.

In 2013, Step Into The Void , “Europe’s highest attraction,” was added at the top. This is a five-sided glass enclosed room of sorts, with entirely transparent walls and floor, cantilevered out as an enclosed viewing platform over a 3000-foot abyss.

Wyoming's famed Jackson Hole ski resort just added the new Grand Teton Skywalk atop its aerial tram.

From Michigan to France to Canada, ski resorts have been at the forefront of this aerial tourism trend, and just this past fall, one of the nation’s most famous got into the high-altitude attraction game when Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) in Wyoming debuted the Grand Teton Skywalk . This is circular viewing platform at the end of a concrete and steel bridge/walkway, jutting out from near the upper terminal of the resort’s iconic aerial tram. Like the Gatlinburg SkyBridge and Grand Canyon Skywalk, JHMR sits near the entrance to two stunning National Parks, Grand Teton and Yellowstone, and offers amazing views and an additional major tourism attraction to those visiting the Parks.

The Cloudraker Skybridge at the Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort in Canada spans about 500 feet

In 2018, Canada’s Whistler/Blackcomb, the largest and most visited ski resort in North America, added a double dose of aerial attractions . Raven’s Eye is a triangular viewing platform above Whistler Bowl, cantilevered out 40 feet with stunning long-range views. The resort also has its own pedestrian bridge, the Cloudraker Skybridge, running about 500 feet from the West Ridge to Whistler Peak. But even before these opened, the resort had one of the most unique such activities anywhere, the Peak 2 Peak gondola. This connects the tops of the two adjacent ski mountains Whistler and Blackcomb and was the longest single span gondola in the world, with some cabins featuring glass floors for downward viewing. The Peak 2 Peak runs for skiers in winter and as a scenic attraction in summer, taking 11 minutes to make the 2.7-mile crossing nearly 1,500 feet above the ground.

Whsitler/Blackcomb also has the Raven's Eye observation deck.

The latest entrant into this niche is the Nautilus Observation Tower in Virginia Beach, VA. Scheduled to open this fall (2024), it’s part of the Adventure Park at Virginia Aquarium , which combines visits to the aquarium with aerial ropes courses and zip-lines. With 258 treetop platforms, 17 aerial trails and 33 ziplines, it has a lot of up in the air action. But the new Nautilus Tower is different and claims to be the first of its kind in the United States. It is 80-feet in diameter and 15 stories tall, with a circular series of open sided platforms spiraling up from the ground, so as you walk up the corkscrew you get 360-degree views during the entire ascent. You can also opt to go up more directly via central staircases. But the big surprise is on the way down—you can retrace your steps, choose whichever option you ignored on the way up, or for a bit more excitement you can jump into the nation’s longest stainless-steel slide and let gravity take you down as you spiral through the center of the tower. The Nautilus will also have a Canopy Walk system of aerial bridge trails connected to it, 40 feet off the forest floor. It sits on 38-wooded acres on the water’s edge.

The Il Spir Observation Platform looks over the Rhine Gorge, "Switzerland's Grand Canyon"

Some other notable aerial attractions in this vein include the Cabo Girao Viewpoint , jutting out from the highest promontory in Europe at 1,800 feet, on the Portuguese island of Madeira; the 5-Fingers Viewing Platform , which is hand-shaped with five metal viewing protrusions over a 1,200-foot abyss in the Austrian Alps; and the Il Spir Observation Platform in Switzerland, over the Upper Rhine Gorge or Ruinaulta, the “Swiss Grand Canyon.”

Chicago's Willis Tower added protruding see-through boxes to its Observation Deck, a newer ... [+] attraction called The Ledge.

These sky bridges and cantilevered platforms are a category all their own, but many big cities have taken an urban spin on the concept, with top level observation decks on skyscrapers all over the world. Many of these in turn have added scarier outdoor sections, or in the case of Chicago’s Willis Tower, the second tallest building in the country, with its Skydeck at a staggering 1,353 feet, The Ledge, a city version of the cantilevered glass decks with transparent boxes jutting out.

New York alone has at least five notable examples, including the iconic One World Observatory, at 1,265 feet on floors 100-102 of the nation’s tallest building, One World Trade Center. Almost as high is the Edge, the tallest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere at 1,130 feet, and the Big Apple also has the famed Empire State Building (King Kong’s favorite), Top of the Rock and Summit One Vanderbilt.

An oldie but a goodie, Paris' Eiffel Tower

Other notable examples include the Eiffel Tower in Paris; The View From The Shard in London; Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand with an open air Sky Walk around it; Toronto’s CN Tower, the world’s tallest structure with an outdoor Edge Walk option; Tokyo Skytree, the world’s second tallest structure; The Stratosphere in Las Vegas; Petronas Towers. Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia; and Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world when it opened, and still the tallest LEED certified one, which has long housed a major observation deck attraction but recently opened an outdoor area, Skyline 460.

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