The World Is Your Oyster - sort of
Travel is harder now than before it seems. The insane weather patterns, the fuselage falling out of a plane, war (and more war). The looming election. But it’s nice to dream right?
This week I had a piece in the New York Times’ yearly 52 Places, and Baltimore was my big love. But I had a few more in dreams, even though they didn’t make the official list.
Baltimore - Remarkable transformation
It’s an enormous year for Charm City. The 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act is marked with a new Justice Thurgood Marshall Amity Center (receiving National Park Service protection), the Baltimore Museum of Art is indigenizing their collection by adding a substantial Native art presence, Baltimore Peninsula opens, which will turn an abandoned port area into a place for visitors and locals to shop, dine, live and play - from Sagamore Rye distillery, the Volo Beach sports entertainment venue, to Roost Apartment Hotel, and the new HQ for Under Armour. Access to the water trails with non-motorized craft will open the Baltimore Blueway water system; connecting visitors throughout the waterfront to different cultural, historic and natural sites. Also opening is the city’s new entertainment district, The Walk @ Warner Street - another giant multi-million dollar project which includes a concert venue, a stadium, a theater, plus golfing opportunities. And Hairspray famed director John Waters will be in town filming his latest movie (based on his novel “Liarmouth” - which happens to be his first fiction book, and ooooooh boy did I love it).
Barbados - Resurgence of Energy
Leaving the monarchy is looking very good for the island. With a vibrant new Prime Minister, the island has found its groove. Next year the west side, Speightstown (second largest City center of Barbados) area, will suddenly boom as the new destination on the island bringing new life. It includes eco-centric Mullins Grove’s new hotel and beach club, a fabulous restaurant and bar owned by Jade Jagger, a new locavore restaurant and hotel, Local & Co, locally made Mount Gay Rum will open a visitor center and bar, retail and entertainment space Heyman’s Village is opening also plus the upcountry jungle resort Ape’s Hill. A local coffee roaster Wyndham will open its first cafe in town. On the east side of the island Walkers Reserve will open its glamping and visitors center as part of its ongoing 300 acres regeneration project. Focused on biodiversity, ecological health and regeneration, it is the largest of its kind of model redevelopment in the Caribbean, illustrating the extraordinary potential for reversing climate change through increasing biodiversity, enriching soils, restoring watersheds and enhancing ecosystem services. And in its capital Bridgetown, the country’s new heritage site will open (designed by David Adjaye): dedicated to the history of the transatlantic slave trade (includes a museum that will house the largest collection of British slave records outside of the United Kingdom, an international research center, and a memorial adjacent to a burial ground where the remains of 570 enslaved West African men, women, and children were discovered).
McCook, Nebraska
Unlikely art hot spot in the middle of the middle of the country McCook has only 8000 residents, but has a future farmers group, a downtown arts district, an IDA International Dark Sky designation (awarded this year), a music festival, a storytelling festival, a chapter of the Nebraska Community Foundation, museums and Sehnert’s, a James Beard Award-winning bakery (only one in NE) and the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in the state, it is also the original home of Edwin Perkins, inventor of Kool-Aid, plus an emerging contemporary arts movement (helped along by the Arts Council). This includes Artbank and Keystone opening (which includes the 6th Floor Project of Outsider Art, and 10 other creative businesses), the opening of Norris Alley (a creative placemaking inspired by one of 20th century’s greatest US Senators George Norris), Mccook Community Foundation’s mural project, Nebraska Shakespeare to make this their rural hub, Knowlen & Yates cooking store opening next year, a new local food movement (Klooz Farm, Heritage Acres, Mac’s Drive In, Coppermill, a rebuilt and expansion of an century old brewery at Loop Brewing Company), McCook Community Kitchen hosting the community's first Juneteenth and Dia Des Los Muertos celebrations, Navajo painter Shonto Begay is opening a gallery here and there is Creation Station showing artists and offering creative opportunities for youth.. And then there is the gorgeous nature — prairie chickens and lakes, whooping cranes (Sandhill Crane Migration - one of the last great animal migrations with new conservation efforts), Red Willow State Recreation Area now with new places to stay…all as the official midway point between Omaha and Denver with a train link for slow-life loving travelers.
Iraq
Travel writer Freya Stark loved it (read some of her work, so fabulous) - and perhaps inspired by her, tour operators are now offering 2024 trips: Steppes Travel ventures into Iraqi Kurdistan, backcountry skiing with Untamed Borders, whereas GeoEx and MIR Corporation opted for southern Iraq. There is also solo travel: the newly opened Zagros Mountain Trail (with 14 stages and a network of homestays and local guides) that adds to the region’s portfolio of paths and traces the routes of shepherds, pilgrims, traders and solace seekers through the peaks of northern Iraq. Just beginning to open to tourism, Iraq is fascinating as you can dip into ancient and contemporary culture and history: exploring off-the-beaten-path local markets, 4000 year old temples, Mesopotamian marshes by mashoof boat, the millennia-old architecture of Ur, Uruk, and Ctesiphon plus and the birthplace of invention, the legendary city of Babylon. Also worth seeing is the religious tourism city opening right outside of Sumerian city of Ur - think cafes, restaurants, theaters, and a museum.