John Oseid

It’s not called the Glasshouse for nothing. Located on the sloped Leith Walk at Picardy Place, the curving Glasshouse Hotel and its three stories of floor-to-ceiling windows face Edinburgh’s New Town, while in the back the property’s rooftop garden looks up to the lush Calton Hill. In sharp contrast to the surrounding historic buildings, such as the landmark Playhouse Theatre next door, the Glasshouse positively shines.
Things weren’t always so architecturally eclectic at this prime spot in t...

On July 20th, the entire world observed the fiftieth anniversary of the success of NASA’s 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. Now the nation’s fourth largest city, Houston has come a long way since its early days when it was dubbed Space City for its role in helping fulfill President Kennedy’s desire to reach the lunar surface by the end of that decade. Two months ago, the city rightly pulled out all the stops in celebrating the drama behind Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s Moon walk.
All these ye...

Think you can throw a spear far and accurate? Just borrow this trusted tool of life on the savanna from one of your Maasai trekking escorts and see how well you do. Not so great, huh. It’s all in fun for sure, but on your morning hike starting from the Basecamp Explorer company’s Dorobo Mobile Camp in Kenya’s southwest Mara Naboisho Conservancy, your respect for the traditional Maasai cattle herding people only grows stronger when you see your hosts easily nail their targets in the distance.
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Think you can throw a spear far and accurate? Just borrow this trusted tool of life on the savanna from one of your Maasai trekking escorts and see how well you do. Not so great, huh. It’s all in fun for sure, but on your morning hike starting from the Basecamp Explorer company’s Dorobo Mobile Camp in Kenya’s southwest Mara Naboisho Conservancy, your respect for the traditional Maasai cattle herding people only grows stronger when you see your hosts easily nail their targets in the distance.
...

If you’re a big city dweller from a place such as NYC, you’re clearly used to crazy sounds in the wee hours outside of your house or apartment. But, as you wake around 4 or 5 a.m. from a deep jet lag-induced sleep in your Eagle View tent, it takes awhile to realize that the racket you hear outside emanates from a few elephants having a snack.
The nighttime serenade outside might even elevate to some trumpeting from the ellies. And then, there were the earlier myriad and sometimes spooky vocal...

It’s no surprise that the night sky in Kenya’s vast southwest Masai Marai region is spectacular. Let’s say you’re not exactly the most rugged of campers, though. You’re in luck at Leopard Hill in the 77-square-mile Mara Naboisho Conservancy where your luxury tent has a retractable skyroof, a cool feature that is said to be the only one among the conservancy’s camps.
Opened in spring of last year, Leopard Hill is the newest in the Basecamp Explorer company’s small family of luxury and quasi-ru...

Woodward Avenue. Detroit’s major thoroughfare is one of those great American place names that instantly conjures nostalgia for a lost grandeur. Once buzzing with a vibrant theater scene, the avenue was also home to giants of commerce that were housed in architectural gems, from the late Hudson’s department store to the still-standing Art Deco Guardian Building. In a narrative that everyone knows too well, Detroit and its main street had been in steep decline for decades.
But sometimes all it ...

As the summer and fall sun sets over PNC Park, home stadium of the Pittsburgh Pirates, you can clearly see runners rounding the bases and distinctly hear the seventh-inning stretch all the way across the Allegheny River. If it happens to be one of the season's fireworks nights you get treated to a huge display over the river. And you don't have to pay for anything; it’s all just a fun perk that you enjoy from your King/River/Corner Room at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel.
Right near the inno...

How quaint the notion now seems of going to pay your utility bills in person. That’s indeed just what folks did for generations with their electric bill at the handsome New Orleans Public Service, Inc. building. Today, the nine-story 1927 gem in NOLA’s Central Business District is a shrine of sorts to those days, with the original terrazzo floor and teller counters still in place in the lobby.
Since mid-2017, the former utility administrative office has also been home to the NOPSI Hotel. With...

You’d think it might be hard to stand out on an island that is essentially the glitzy Riviera of the Caribbean. On St Barths, however, Le Sereno St. Barth in its own understated way does just that. Or, should we say the new Le Sereno to be exact?
A mere ten-square-mile volcanic island in the French West Indies, St. Barths was gutted by the most fearsome hurricane in recent times when Irma plowed through the Leeward Islands in September, 2017. Neither being in the shadow of Morne du Vitet peak...

The sea shining well beyond the gleaming white lobby grabs your attention for sure as soon as you enter the CuisinArt Golf Resort & Spa. But so too does the stunning water-themed chandelier that hangs from the ceiling just inside the lobby entrance, a work commissioned from English sculptural light artist Sharon Marston whose studio is known for its dramatic pieces.
And so do a handful of enormous Brazilian amethyst cathedrals in the lobby, sculptures of sorts, whose exposed innards glisten i...

As you launch your Abu Dhabi vacation in the Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort, you most likely have jet lag that you wish to sleep off. At the crack of dawn, however, you should get your buns out of bed. Sure, it’s perfectly fine to make a cup of espresso in your room and watch the morning light from your balcony. And, okay, you don’t have to make like a few iron-willed people swimming laps in the sea. But, you should follow one of the property's three boardwalks that lead down to the 1,300...

Resting on pedestals, several hand-luggage-sized cubes with various colorful forms embedded, or melted, into them are real head turners that leave you wondering how they were created. You’re looking at a series of works called simply Plexiglas by Italian artist Donato Pompa. You're also surrounded by a dozen engaging contemporary paintings, though you’re not in an art gallery at all: You're in the aptly-named Arts Café on Deck 8 of the Silver Muse, the newest ship in the Silversea line.
Of la...

It’s always a pleasure to be reminded in this increasingly-crowded nation that there are still places that seem a world away, that right outside of a metropolis you can explore 2,000 acres of rolling terrain in a hideaway that you likely had never heard of. A mere ninety minutes from Pittsburgh, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania is that place.
As you pull up to the resort’s Chateau Lafayette—the largest of its three main inns—you are greeted in front...

The "Empty Quarter" pistachio delight delivered to your VIP room resembles desert sand dunes. It's not just sweet and creamy—rather, the cakey financier pastry made with a Valrhona almond Jivara mousse, almond milk chocolate ganache and cinnamon crumble serves as a reminder of where you are.
An accompanying descriptive note tells the story of the Empty Quarter—the Rub' Al Khali as the desert is known in Arabic—and the celebrated 1940s and '50s journeys that explorer Wilfred Thesiger made with...