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Istanbul's Most Memorable View

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Shangri-La Bosphorus

The 30 kilometer-long, deep blue Bosphorus strait separates Europe from Asia and splits Istanbul in two. But the bustling waterway is also the city's great uniter, prettier than a central park and far more useful. A good number of Istanbulites commute via ferry between the continents daily, so urban life plays out on the water: If your stay in the city is brief, maximize your time near the water and really take in the trade hub's maritime culture. The best front-and-center view of this civic cinema comes from the waterfront suites of the newly-opened Shangri-La Bosphorus, an ultra-luxe 192-room hotel perched immediately in front of the Besiktas ferry terminal on the European side – a few miles removed from the dolled-up hotels of Sultanahmet.[3][4][5]

Much of the day and night, ferries surrounded by seagulls quietly pull in and out a stone's throw from the Shangri-La's panoramic, floor-to-ceiling windows;  if you've scored a waterfront room, you'll likely leave the TV off and watch the drama unfold under the dusty, shifting Turkish sky. The hotel was built from the bones of a 1939 Tobacco factory and warehouse. Though it looks identical to the seven-story facade in old photographs from the water, it's actually all new construction; seven new floors created by digging underneath the original footprint.

The Shangri-La is flanked on one side by the Dolmabahçe Palace[6], where the Ottoman Empire ruled from 1856 to 1922. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved some of his offices there last year; as a result, the hotel's security is high. Armed gunmen are posted near the entrance, and before entering the lobby, you’re sent through a metal detector. Once inside, you'll encounter an abundance of flowers, crystal, far-east artwork, and general old-school world-travel opulence, a signature of the Hong Kong-based hotelier. We walked in with an overstuffed backpack but felt like we should have instead been trailed by a few steamer trunks. The rooms are hushed, pastel blue spaces with giant, marble-clad bathrooms. Service is ever-present, almost to the point of being overbearing: each time the elevator doors open, for example, expect to see be welcomed by a staff member asking if they can assist you with anything. Tell them to open the curtains.

More information: Rooms at the Shangri-La run from around $450 a night. Turkish Airlines[7] runs direct flights to Istanbul from New York.

References

  1. ^ Travel (www.mensjournal.com)
  2. ^ Close (www.mensjournal.com)
  3. ^ Istanbul (www.mensjournal.com)
  4. ^ Shangri-La Bosphorus (www.shangri-la.com)
  5. ^ Sultanahmet (www.mensjournal.com)
  6. ^ Dolmabahçe Palace (www.dolmabahcepalace.com)
  7. ^ Turkish Airlines (www.turkishairlines.com)
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Louisiana's Golf Trail

Louisiana's Golf Trail

Courtesy TPC Louisiana

The room was spinning – or at least the bar was. The Carousel Bar[1] at the grand old Hotel Monteleone[2] in New Orleans rotates 360 degrees every 15 minutes. As I wheeled past bartender Marvin, he whipped up a Sazerac (Old Overholt[3] whiskey, sugar, bitters, Pernod, and lemon), plus the local hangover helper, a bourbon-fortified milkshake. I needed to be clearheaded for my road trip the next morning: three days on Louisiana's Audubon Golf Trail.

I've played America's top resort courses, profaned Augusta National's sacred turf, and hacked my way around the Old Course in St. Andrews, golf's crib. But with its combo of quality golf, fearsome wildlife, and smoldering Cajun cuisine, the Audubon Golf Trail[4] would be a new treat. I mean, try finding good gumbo in Scotland.

The Audubon Trail ties together the Bayou State's best resort links: 10 challenging and diverse courses that snake their way up from New Orleans to the border with Arkansas. You get lakes, swamps, hardwood forests strung with Spanish moss, and wild animals that double as hazards. (Is that gator an immovable obstruction?) While my buddies up north were freezing their Titleists off, I'd be blazing the trail's newest, tightest stretch, from New Orleans's French Quarter across Lake Pontchartrain, to Baton Rouge, and then back down the Mississippi. I'd finish at one of the great courses designed by the man they call "golf's mad genius," architect Pete Dye – the Tournament Players Club of Louisiana[5].

Monday I wake up to café au lait and piping hot beignets at Café du Monde[6], then zip north on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. There's zydeco on the stereo, white pelicans overhead, flat gray-green water all the way to both horizons. I'm driving Saab’s brand new 9-2X, a nimble five-speed hatchback with all-wheel drive. It stickers at $23,685, packs 165 hp, and tops out at (don't tell any state troopers) 125 mph. I cruise into Carter Plantation[7], a new course designed by PGA Tour star David Toms, an LSU grad. At the first tee I meet up with my guide, Eric, who works for the state "gummint" in Baton Rouge and has played all 10 courses on the trail. He says I’ll soon have my hands full – from now to Wednesday, the courses will get increasingly difficult.

Carter Plantation, hard enough, winds through three landscapes: oak-lined parkland, pine forest, and low-lying wetlands. Eric and I tiptoe past Gaston, the eight-foot gator lurking in a pond beside the second green, and blast our way to the turn. Eric is a stick, a threat to break 75, but the best thing we'll break today is the seal on a post-round beer. "Durn it!" he yells as a back-nine drive caroms off a tall cypress. We've both got a shot at glory on the 13th hole, a monstrous 608-yard par five, but Eric lips out his birdie putt and I blow a six-footer for par.

That night I swear to bag at least one birdie before we're through. "You’ll get 'er done," says Eric over fist-thick steaks at the Caboose in tiny Independence, where freight trains rumble by under a thumbnail moon.

Tuesday Today's drive to The Island[8] in Baton Rouge is through bayou country, the road riding the crown of a levee, ramshackle fishing camps on both sides. The course is carved from a sugar plantation and still bordered by cane fields. Here golfers don’t need to test the wind by tossing grass into the air. They just check which way the languid green stalks are swaying.

We make our way through a layout that features nine lakes and two bayous, with water in play on 17 holes. "You get some blind shots here," Eric says, his accent prettifying blind into blond. Thanks to a wind-aided 300-yard drive I almost bag my birdie at the 7th hole, a par 5 where my putt burns the lip. A strong back nine bodes well for tomorrow’s trip to the imposing TPC course.

But first we eat. After the tough round we're feeling lower than the graduation rate for LSU athletes, but find solace at the Chimes, a beery bistro at the campus’s main gate. Soon our table is piled with crab cakes, Creole gumbo, golf ball-size boudin fritters, creamy crawfish étouffée, and a toothsome appetizer: blackened alligator, which does not taste like chicken. It's infinitely better – spicy, chewy, almost (but not quite) gamy.

Later that night we try our luck at the Argosy riverboat casino[9]. It's a smoky dive where penny and nickel slots clang below deck while dollar slots, card games, and roulette whirl upstairs. Thinking of my golf game, I try a slot machine called Hexbreaker. And go hex-broke. It's time to turn in anyway: Tomorrow’s task is tougher than beating casino odds. wednesday Across the mighty Mississippi and a 50-mile swamp, we ride a highway built on concrete stilts to Dye's $30 million, 7,600-yard torture track.

Eric and I hustle to the first tee and boom drives on Dye's opening hole, 399 wrinkly yards of turf, sand, and cypress trees. Our golf cart scatters the egrets pecking at the fairway. The TPC features Dye's trademark bunkering – huge fairway traps, some more than 100 yards long. The course is longer than Carter Plantation or the Island, but Eric is on fire today and I'm getting warm. At the 8th hole I somehow knock a wedge 80 yards from the world's smallest pot bunker to the green, then sink a 20-foot putt. But now comes the par-3 ninth, which I play this way: Ball in water, ball in bunker, ball still in bunker, explosion shot, lucky eight-foot putt. That's a triple-bogey six. "Aw, it’s not all about the score," Eric tells me.

Nearing the end of Louisiana's Fabulous Food and Scenery, Ultimately Grueling if You Suck at Golf Trail, I get it right. I nail an 8-iron approach on the 13th hole, called Cypress Bend, spinning the ball to within three feet of the flag. It's a short putt, almost a gimme, but those three feet are starting to look longer. Before they can stretch to yards or miles I slap the ball and in it rolls.

"Birdie, man!" Eric yells.

We fist-bump so loud you can hear it. After pars at the long 18th we doff our hats and shake hands. We both cracked 40 on the last nine. "A fine round," Eric calls it. My final, unofficial tally is 54 holes, 263 strokes, 272 miles, 9,000 calories, and one magnificent birdie. "Y'all come back now," Eric says.

More information: In New Orleans, stay at the Hotel Monteleone[10] from $165 a night. Rooms at the Villas at Carter Plantation[11], which go for $113, are steps from the fairway. In Baton Rouge, the Sheraton is your best bet.

References

  1. ^ The Carousel Bar (hotelmonteleone.com)
  2. ^ Hotel Monteleone (hotelmonteleone.com)
  3. ^ Old Overholt (www.bevmo.com)
  4. ^ Audubon Golf Trail (audubongolf.com)
  5. ^ Tournament Players Club of Louisiana (www.tpc.com)
  6. ^ Café du Monde (www.cafedumonde.com)
  7. ^ Carter Plantation (www.carterplantation.com)
  8. ^ The Island (www.theislandgolf.com)
  9. ^ Argosy riverboat casino (www.argosyalton.com)
  10. ^ Hotel Monteleone (hotelmonteleone.com)
  11. ^ Villas at Carter Plantation (www.thevillasatcarterplantation.com)
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Cross-Country Skiing in Jackson, New Hampshire

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Jackson, New Hampshire

Jamie Gemmiti / The Conway Daily Sun / AP

Cross-country skiing gets cardio nuts out of their gyms – crowded with winter runners – and into the woods. The sport, which received more attention this year thanks to exciting Olympic races, is the ultimate cold weather workout and America happens to have one of the best spots on Earth to try it out. Jackson, New Hampshire[3] has access to the most miles of trails on the East Coast and many of the region's most striking landscapes. Skiing here can feel like sliding through a Robert Frost poem[4], except that even the road less taken is neatly groomed.

In Jackson, tackling a day of XC is a one step process: Got to the Ski-Touring Foundation's[5] center in the middle of town. A twenty-dollar bill affords you a day's worth of access to 55 miles of trails[6]. First timers take hour-long lessons – that's really all you need to be totally proficient in the sport – while seasoned vets head out through covered bridges, thick forests and scenic valleys. Trails take efficient skiers into the White Mountain National Forest's backcountry before splintering into smaller spurs.

The best intermediate slide is on the Ellis River Trail, a 5-mile groomed course filled with rolling terrain that runs along the west bank of the Ellis river. Longer days call for tackling Wildcat Valley Trail[7], a difficult 11-mile down-mountain venture that connects the summit of Wildcat Mountain Ski Area[8] with Jackson Township (You can circumvent the $20 fee and pay $10 to do just this trail). You'll shred through birch tree groves, farms, inns, and then you'll meet up with the Dana Place Trail, which has some steep drops for tuckers.

Cross-Country burns an amazing number of calories so, after a long day outside, you'll want a hearty meal. That's not a problem. Drive ten minutes into North Conway[9] – basecamp for hiking Mount Washing[10] and skiing Tuckerman's Ravine[11] – and visit Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery[12]. This restaurant and pub – located in an historic inn – serves up some of the best eats and ales in the state. Your first move should be to order a pint of Bone Shaker Brown, a smooth, crisp, toasty brown ale. Pair it with Moat's locally raised pork tenderloin and smoked gouda and red pepper mashed potatoes. It will feel good to be back indoors, but only because you finally spent a day outside.

More information: Jackson is a roughly 3-hour drive from Boston of I-95N. 

References

  1. ^ Travel (www.mensjournal.com)
  2. ^ Close (www.mensjournal.com)
  3. ^ Jackson, New Hampshire (www.jacksonnh.com)
  4. ^ Robert Frost poem (www.poetryfoundation.org)
  5. ^ Ski-Touring Foundation's (www.jacksonxc.org)
  6. ^ trails (www.jacksonxc.org)
  7. ^ Wildcat Valley Trail (www.jacksonxc.org)
  8. ^ Wildcat Mountain Ski Area (www.skiwildcat.com)
  9. ^ North Conway (www.northconwaynh.com)
  10. ^ Mount Washing (www.mountwashington.org)
  11. ^ Tuckerman's Ravine (timefortuckerman.com)
  12. ^ Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery (www.moatmountain.com)
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New York's Forgotten Wilderness

Adirondack Park, New York

Peter Ptschelinzew / Getty Images

Adirondack Park, New York

Though they sit just four hours north of New York City, the Adirondacks spend their summers living – sadly and paradoxically – in the shadow of the Hamptons' beaches. Recent efforts to revitalize tourism to the north country, including the Adirondack Challenge[1] white-water race championed (and won) by Governor Andrew Cuomo, have centered around reminding city folk about the region rather than rebranding it for the simple reason that nothing much has changed since the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers treated the area as a vast backyard. That constancy is a good thing. Adirondack Park[2], an outdoorsman’s paradise spread out over 6 million acres of publicly protected land in upstate New York, is larger than the Grand Canyon, Glacier[3], Yosemite[4], Great Smoky Mountain[5] and Yellowstone[6] national parks combined, and has a proportional number of adventures to offer.

Scattered among the Adirondacks' many charming towns, 3,000 lakes and ponds, 2,000 miles of trails, and countless raging rivers is an almost unlimited number of great hikes, fishing spots, and lodges. The hard part is knowing where to start. Just a four-hour drive up I-87 from Manhattan, the town of North Creek is a great base camp. The woods around the compact downtown contain a host of great hotels, including the Alpine Lodge[7] and Copperfield Inn[8], as well as a number of more-than-sufficient culinary and dining options. The Fry Daddy (beer-battered haddock and chips) from Basil & Wick's[9] stands out in particular, as does the general outdoorsman’s ambience at Trappers Tavern – where you should ask at the bar for local microbrews like Davidson Brothers[10] and Saranac[11].

A number of local outfitters, including the inimitable Becky Pelton's North Creek Rafting[12], offer day and overnight white-water rafting trips on the Indian, Boreas, Hudson, and Moose Rivers; their varying degrees of difficulty (mostly Class III and IV rapids) are dependent on weather and the frequency of dam releases. Fishing excursions to the upper Hudson River Gorge can be organized through Beaver Brook Outfitters[13] in nearby Weverton, and for those eager to give fly fishing a shot, lessons can be arranged through the Adirondack Fly Fishing School[14] in downtown North Creek. If you're trying to stay dry for the day, the immediate area also offers a can't-miss maze of hiking trails, and the scenic gondola ride at Gore Mountain[15] provides visitors with an unbeatable view of the High Peaks and Southern Adirondacks.

Arguably though, the true appeal of North Creek, and the region as a whole, lies in its peacefulness. The Adirondack Park contains an unparalleled amount of undeveloped public land – for the East Coast, anyway - and offers the sort of seclusion that can be hard to come by near a big city. Seclusion might not be for everyone, but for those looking to slow down a bit (while also doing some rafting and fishing), the Adirondacks are hard to beat.

More information: The rafting season runs from April through October, so be sure to visit within that window if you're looking to experience the ADK white water. City dwellers without cars can reach North Creek from Saratoga Springs via the rustic if unimaginatively named Saratoga & North Creek Railway[16] after riding north on Amtrak from New York's Penn Station[17].

References

  1. ^ Adirondack Challenge (www.adirondackexperience.com)
  2. ^ Adirondack Park (visitadirondacks.com)
  3. ^ Glacier (www.mensjournal.com)
  4. ^ Yosemite (www.mensjournal.com)
  5. ^ Great Smoky Mountain (www.mensjournal.com)
  6. ^ Yellowstone (www.mensjournal.com)
  7. ^ Alpine Lodge (www.adirondackalpinelodge.com)
  8. ^ Copperfield Inn (www.copperfieldinn.com)
  9. ^ Basil & Wick's (basilandwicks.com)
  10. ^ Davidson Brothers (www.davidsonbrothers.com)
  11. ^ Saranac (www.saranac.com)
  12. ^ North Creek Rafting (www.northcreekrafting.com)
  13. ^ Beaver Brook Outfitters (www.beaverbrook.net)
  14. ^ Adirondack Fly Fishing School (www.adirondackflyfishingschool.com)
  15. ^ Gore Mountain (www.goremountain.com)
  16. ^ Saratoga & North Creek Railway (www.sncrr.com)
  17. ^ riding north on Amtrak from New York's Penn Station (www.amtrak.com)
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The Land of the Midnight Tee Time

MJ Approved: Travel[1]

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The Land of the Midnight Tee Time
The Land of the Midnight Tee Time   View More Photos[3] Photograph Nicholas Hegel McClelland

Lofoten Golf Links (Gimsøy, Norway)

For two months every summer, the northern Norwegian sun circles the lip but doesn't fall below the horizon. For golfers, that makes the "Land of the Midnight Sun" into the land of the midnight tee time. Imagine a 72-hole tournament played in a single day – a marathon outing transforming a calm pastime into a hardcore endurance sport. Several Norwegian clubs claim players can take on 144 holes in 24 hours, but few actively encourage such punishingly protracted play.

Still, the opportunity to play 36 holes at a leisurely pace is an intriguing proposition. No matter when golfers hit their first tee shot, they're still positioned to catch a nap and a long lunch before starting again. There might not be a sunset to play through, but the views keep duffers walking.

The Lofoten Golf Links[4] on the island of Gimsøy in the Lofoten archipelago sprawls across a former farm sandwiched between jagged mountains and the Norwegian Sea. The archipelago looks like the Grand Tetons were dropped into the North Atlantic from height and garnished with picturesque fishing towns. When fire and ice cut these islands off the mainland millennia ago, they left a landscape far more extreme than any other golfers are likely to have seen from a manicured green.

For now, the Lofoten course is a par 35 nine-hole track that plays nearly 3,100 yards along the sea, but a back nine is currently under construction and should be completed for summer 2014.

On the mainland, the Bodo Golf Links[5] is an impeccable 18-hole course. On a clear day, golfers can see Lofoten and the fjords off in the distance. Nearer to the course, a waterfall tumbles off a mountain[6]. The front nine plays like a traditional Scottish links course despite the par 5 that requires swingers to hit their second shot over a Viking tomb. The back nine winds its way through the forest and a little ways up the mountain.

The courses are singular even in the middle of the day, but come nighttime, they seem paradoxically both wilder and more pristine. A calm settles as though the whole country – all those ancient mountains[7] and all that rushing water – is politely waiting for you to putt.

More information: Golf is not a cheap sport and Norway is not a cheap place to visit. Accommodations and food are pricey. A beer will run you between $9 and $12 U.S. But golf is entirely reasonable. Rates at Lofoten are 750 Norwegian krone (about $125) for 24 hours of golf, and at Bodo 400 krone (about $65) for all you can play in one day (so you and Thor can hammer golf balls to your hearts' content and maybe try to get 144 holes in before the sunset that never comes).

References

  1. ^ MJ Approved: Travel (www.mensjournal.com)
  2. ^ Close (www.mensjournal.com)
  3. ^   View More Photos (www.mensjournal.com)
  4. ^ Lofoten Golf Links (www.lofoten-golf.no)
  5. ^ Bodo Golf Links (www.bodogolfpark.no)
  6. ^ a waterfall tumbles off a mountain (www.mensjournal.com)
  7. ^ all those ancient mountains (www.mensjournal.com)
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