Category: Travel

City profile: Phoenix

My first assignment for the AZ Department of Tourism focused on what to do in my longtime hometown.

I moved to Arizona to work at a start-up weekly entertainment magazine that focused on events in the greater Phoenix metro area, and over the next several years I crisscrossed the Valley of the Sun to profile and preview everything from baseball stadiums and dive bars to ballet performances and boutiques. Even after switching careers, I keep checking out new restaurants, shops and experiences — now just for fun, instead of a byline.

So I was delighted to accept the assignment when the Arizona Department of Tourism asked me to recap some of the city’s top destinations.

Continue reading “City profile: Phoenix”

City profile: Phoenix’s Melrose District

A look at Phoenix’s most diverse and inclusive neighborhood
(and my introduction to Arizona’s “Hip Historian,” Marshall Shore)

When Visit Phoenix offered me the opportunity to interview Marshall Shore as part of a feature that would profile the city’s Melrose District, I couldn’t agree fast enough. Although I was familiar with Shore as Arizona’s “Hip Historian”—a role in which he hosts everything from walking ghost tours downtown to virtual happy hours with some of the state’s most interesting people—I’d never met him in person.

Continue reading “City profile: Phoenix’s Melrose District”

Travel profile: The Parker Palm Springs

One of my favorite articles in my newspaper career combined a few things that were rare for reporters: a press junket, unlimited column inches, and an editor who encouraged a strong personal voice in feature writing.

Which is how I ended up writing about my weekend trip to the Parker Palm Springs, a hotel that once had been the Merv Griffin Givenchy Resort & Spa but had recently been revamped by designer Jonathan Adler. Continue reading “Travel profile: The Parker Palm Springs”

Travel Itineraries: Bal Harbour, Florida

Would you prefer a weekend of museums, gardens and galleries? Or mimosas, massages and dinner inside Gianni Versace’s former mansion? (Maybe pick some from each itinerary.)

Sometimes I get exhausted just writing about all the activities in a suggested itinerary. When I was putting together the three-day “Cultural Treasures” article here, I swear my lower back seized up based on the walking and standing required to hit all the listed museums and arts events. To make up for it, the two-day “Romantic Getaway” itinerary just above it on the same page includes mimosas, massages, a private beach bed, quiet time in the hotel room, and an intimate, eight-guest restaurant where dinner lasts more than 2½ hours.

I mean, you could pick your favorite activities from each one …