Luxury Archives - Barbara Redding - Freelance Travel Writer

Big brands, boutiques spice up the New Orleans hotel scene

Food & Drink, History, Hotels, Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel

March 15, 2024 by Barbara Redding

Seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee, and sugar-dusted beignets entice visitors to New Orleans. Along with Mardi Gras and the Jazz and Heritage Festival, of course. But these days, the city’s hotel scene is also getting some special attention. Luxury hotel brands Caesars and Fairmont are set to add new properties in the Crescent City. Plus, new boutique hotels are opening, and historic favorites are being renovated. Plus, most of the new additions include restaurants that are offering the food that’s helped make New...

The Velvet Rope: A New Palm Springs Hotel Spins Old Hollywood Glamour

Adventures, Fashion, Food & Drink, History, Hotels, Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel

January 18, 2024February 19, 2024 by Barbara Redding

The Velvet Rope, a new boutique hotel in Palm Springs, puts a modern twist on Hollywood’s heyday in this California desert town. Nine deliciously themed suites and a speakeasy-style bar transport guests back in time to experience the mid-20th century glamour that attracted celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, and Hugh Hefner to Palm Springs. The Velvet Rope opened in December 2023. But before the first official guests arrived, I was among a group of travel writers invited to experience a few days...

Séc-he: New Palm Springs Wellness Center Offers Tribal Healing Treatments

Adventures, Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel, Wellness

January 8, 2024 by Barbara Redding

“Taking of the Waters” is a sacred healing experience practiced for centuries by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of Palm Springs, California. Today, visitors can soak in the steaming water of the tribal hot springs at The Spa at Séc-he, the tribe’s new luxury spa in downtown Palm Springs. The tribe began sharing Agua Caliente Hot Mineral Spring with settlers in the 1800s, making it Palm Springs’s first tourist attraction–and namesake. The first bathhouse was a rough-hewn wooden cabin. Séc-he...

Barton Family Wines: Crafting Innovative Wines and More in Paso Robles

Adventures, Family, Food & Drink, Lifestyle, Luxury, Stories, Travel

August 2, 2023August 3, 2023 by Barbara Redding

California’s Central Coast wine region was in its infancy when the Barton family bought an old farmhouse west of Paso Robles and started a family winery in the 1990s. Today Barton Family Wines includes a winery, a farm-to-table restaurant, and a spirit distillery. Modern indoor tasting rooms and shaded outdoor patios with stunning vineyard views welcome visitors to the original farmhouse. No longer a sleepy inland community, Paso Robles is the state’s third-largest wine region behind Napa and Sonoma. Please read my...

Time Traveling Aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California

Adventures, Family, Food & Drink, History, Hotels, Lifestyle, Luxury, Stories, Travel

July 13, 2023 by Barbara Redding

Pictures of a robust Winston Churchill and a young Queen Elizabeth decorated my art-deco stateroom aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. The iconic 1930s ocean liner, now permanently docked on the Pacific Coast, has harbored movie stars, British royals, and prime ministers–as well as more than a few ghosts. In fact, Time magazine designated it one of the most haunted ships in the U.S. I was thrilled to be one of the ship’s first overnight guests when she finally reopened in...

San Miguel Enjoys Worldwide Acclaim for Art and Architecture in Central Mexico

Adventures, Food & Drink, History, Hotels, Lifestyle, Luxury, Stories, Travel

May 31, 2023 by Barbara Redding

San Miguel de Allende’s colorful colonial buildings and narrow cobblestone streets make this Central Mexico city an enchanting place to visit any time of year. But during Day of the Dead festivities, visitors can join locals in honoring loved ones who have passed and in celebrating life. To learn more about my visit and my stay at a colorful casita called Casa Carly, please read my story about San Miguel de Allende. My article is available on the Rovology travel website, which is a wonderful...

Keukenhof Gardens Tulips: The World’s Most Beautiful Spring Garden

Adventures, Family, History, Lifestyle, Luxury, Stories, Travel

May 2, 2023 by Barbara Redding

Vibrantly colored tulips pop up everywhere in the Netherlands when warm weather heats the low-land country’s fertile sandy soil each spring. The best place to appreciate the beauty and variety of this prized flower is Keukenhof Holland, an English landscape-style garden in Lisse, about 30 miles south of Amsterdam. The perennial with cup-shaped petals is cultivated by the acre at Keukenhof, but the show only lasts eight weeks each spring. To learn more about my visit to the world’s most beautiful spring garden,...

Fairmont Tazi Palace Hotel adds a Touch of Mystery and Luxury to Tangier

Adventures, Food & Drink, History, Hotels, Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel, Wellness

March 1, 2023 by Barbara Redding

The colors, the furnishings, and the decor of the Fairmont Tazi Palace are reminiscent of an earlier time when an advisor to the sultan of Morocco built this hilltop retreat in Tangier. After a major renovation and expansion, the Fairmont hotel now offers modern luxuries still fit for royalty—and curious visitors like me interested in exploring magical Morocco. I stayed at the palace, which has 133 rooms and several eclectic restaurants, on a recent press trip to Tangier. To find out more about the...

“Big Blu:” A Dream Vacation House for Rent on Lake Michigan

Beach, Family, Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel

January 17, 2023January 18, 2023 by Barbara Redding

I am still a Midwest gal at heart, despite trading frigid winters for searing summers in Texas years ago. So, when my sister called to say she had rented a house on Lake Michigan for five days in September, I was excited. The Great Lakes were our summer playground growing up. We were a big camping family drawn to isolated locations where we could fish and swim in the cold, blue freshwater lakes. (Three of my five siblings still live close to the lakes.)...

Commodore Perry Estate: An Italianate mansion reimagined as a luxury resort deep in the heart of Austin, Texas

Food & Drink, History, Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel

October 5, 2022 by Barbara Redding

A stone wall wraps around the Commodore Perry Estate, obscuring views of an ornate Italianate mansion built by a wealthy cotton merchant and his socialite wife during the Roaring ‘20s in what was then the outskirts of Austin, Texas. But the estate is hardly a secret these days. Auberge Resorts Collection has reimagined the 10,800-square-foot mansion as the centerpiece of a 10-acre urban resort that is enticing luxury-minded visitors from around the world. On a recent assignment for Travel Weekly, I explored the whimsically...

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