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The first time I visited Lake Bled was around five years ago in the winter time. It was cold and almost entirely abandoned. This year I returned for a summer visit to experience Lake Bled in all of its’ sunshine glory. I checked in to the glorious Vila Bled , one of the best hotels in Lake Bled, for a two night stay. A Room with a View of Bled Island Chances are if you are visiting Lake Bled you have seen one (or one thousand) photos of the beautiful Bled Island. The island can be reached by boat and if you don’t fancy paddling yourself there, you can pay someone to take you. Better yet – book a room at Vila Bled that gives you a complete view of the island any time of day. I checked in to room 106 and could enjoy the view all day every day during my stay in Lake Bled. The 31 rooms at Vila Bled are incredibly spacious – each with their own unique flair. You’ll find different furniture and antiques inside each room but every room promise...

There are only a handful of significant life events that prompt us to check in with ourselves and reevaluate our lifestyle or level of self care. Unfortunately many of these instances are triggered by trauma or significant change – loss of a loved one, a break up, or hitting a road block in our career or personal lives. At the end of my 3.5 year relationship I was forced to do just that: reconsider my geographic position, lifestyle choices, and the direction my life was taking both personally and professionally. I chanced upon Aro Ha on my recent visit to New Zealand, driving through the countryside between Queenstown and Glenorchy. It was one of those lightbulb  “aha!”  moments, when you rule out coincidence and start to put more faith in fate and let the universe show you a direction for once (being a rational virgo, I find it a rare but welcomed occurrence). The allure of a week-long yoga retreat had as many pros as it did cons for this caffeine-dependent digital...

While guests at Thailand’s Banyan Tree Phuket lounge by their villas’ private plunge pools, watch the sunset at Bang Tao Beach, and bliss out at the spa, some serious schooling goes down a few hundred feet away at the Banyan Tree Spa Academy. Spa therapists at Banyan Tree’s 42 resorts worldwide must complete 350 hours of Spa Academy training: anatomy, theory, and customer service classes; how-to lessons on making body scrubs and herbal sachets; and hands-on workshops to learn how to masterfully perform every single treatment on the Banyan Tree Spa menu. On a recent trip to Thailand , I traded vacation for vocation for a few hours and spent a morning as a Banyan Tree therapist in training. I shadowed therapists as they prepped the spa’s treatment rooms – 20 pavilions cocooned in lush tropical gardens – for the day’s services. (The spa opens at 10am, but therapists are already at work by eight.) In a small lab room, a few women mashed a green apple body scrub in a mortar, while others ...

How’s this for a long-lasting hotel souvenir? Guests (or fans) of Ashford Castle, located an hour from Galway on the west coast of Ireland, can take home the new Ashford Castle Monopoly board. Photo by Chris Plavidal. Just like the original game, which was first created in the early 1900s, players can land in jail or bankruptcy. But instead of Boardwalk and Park Place, you can spend your game cash on the Kennedy Suite or the Reagan Presidential Suite at Ashford Castle. Various landing posts on the board include the Cinema, the Prince of Wales Bar, the wine cellar, or Ireland’s First School of Falconry. At Ashford Castle, guests have the chance to meet, hug, and play with the hotel’s ambassador Irish Wolfhounds every day. And in the game, the pieces include these beloved dogs. Purchase Ashford Castle Monopoly at Mrs. Tea’s Boutique & Bakery at the hotel, or online, complete with a festive green and gold box, complementing the colors of Ashford Castle.