World Venture Travel

For something extremely fun to do while visiting Burbank, check out downtown every Thursday night in July and August, 2010. There will be eight amazing nights of great music and dancing under the stars. The ‘ Come Out and Dance’ festivities begin at 6pm with free dance lessons given by the Dance Family Studio, Francisco and Stacey. Then at 7pm, a two-hour concert begins where everyone hits the dance floor on the AMC Walkway located at Palm Avenue and San Fernando Blvd. The best in swing is featured for the month of July, and in August, things will heat up with salsa, plus it’s all free!

Come Out and Dance is put on by the Downtown Burbank Partnership , and a majority of hotels Burbank are located in the downtown area, so you’ll be able to walk to this fun and exciting event, only you’ll end up dancing your way back to your hotel room.

July 8th is Barbara Morrison and the Bu Crew’ international jazz and blues vocalist, Barbara Morrison has one of the most distinctive sounds in the music world. July 15th, is the Legends of Swing, as one of the premier big bands of the US, Grammy nominated Gary Tole and the Legends of Swing bring sensational hits to life. You’ll be dancing from the very start to this 14-piece powerhouse of sound. July 22nd, is the Wiseguys Big Band Machine, from swing to swank, this 18-piece Wiseguys Big Band Machine features a screaming horn line, talented vocalist, a roaring rhythm section, and an exciting soloists. July 29th, features High Street, a 10-piece, high energy band performing swing, jazz, disco and R & B in an explosion of sound.

August 5th, heats with Orquesta Charangoa, and their repertoire includes salsa, mambo, cha-cha, cumbia, meringue and montunos. August 12th, features Ronnie Gutierrez, a talented percussionist who has toured the world and has performed on the Tonight Show. August 19th, is Yari More’ Y Su Orquesta, the legendary ‘Queen’ of salsa Celia Cruz has picked Yari to be her official West Coast band. Finally, to wrap of the summer festivities on August 26th, is the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, one of the best upbeat Latin jazz that keeps you up out of your seat and on the dance floor the whole night through.

If you like dancing to fun and lively music, you don’t want to miss this free summer dancing concert series.

Augusta Georgia is one of those rare historic southern cities that retains a great deal of its original charm and atmosphere. And while it is certainly a contemporary city, and even hosts one of the largest golf tournaments in the United States, it also contains much of its early architecture, which gives the city an historic genteel feel. The hotels Augusta frequently housed some of the old estates and private homes and this contributes to the guests’ feelings of almost being transported to another place and time. And one of the great aspects of visiting Augusta is the fact that you can enjoy much of its historic elements as well as those that are standard aspects of the contemporary society and culture.

Augusta dates from 1736, which makes it the second oldest city in Georgia. It was established just three years after Savannah. The residents are friendly and guests encounter a true sense of southern hospitality when they arrive there. And while there are a number of enticing things for people to do when they visit Augusta there are also some standard favorite attractions. One of the main centers of attraction for tourists is the Riverwalk area . This beautiful part of the city has concerts and various performances throughout the year and there are also great cafes and restaurants.

The Morris Museum of Art is another standard stop for tourists in the city. It has one of the finest collections of 18th century art, stills and portraits in the southeast. It also has an impressive collection of contemporary works. The Imperial Theatre is one of the favorite attractions for many tourists and is a standard place to spend an evening. It presents quality entertaining performances, such as this summer’s hit The Motown Review, and also shows films. Performances here are one of the things tourists leave town still talking about.

A trip to Las Vegas wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a museum about the most famous and glittering pianist in the world. The Liberace Museum was created by no one other than “Mr. Showmanship” himself, Liberace, on April 15th, 1979. While most people know him only as Liberace, his full name was Wladziu Valentino Liberace, and during the 1950s through the 1970s, he was actually the highest paid entertainer in the world. He died in 1987 on February 4th, but his legacy continues in the form of the Liberace Foundation.

Located at 1775 East Tropicana Avenue (at the intersection of Tropicana and Spencer), the museum features Liberace’s jewelry, his rare antiques, an astonishing wardrobe, as well as unique and historic pianos, not to mention a custom car collection. Proceeds from the museum help support the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts which has funded scholarships to more than 2,700 students since 1976, helping people achieve their creative goals for 34 years. Near the Strip and the hotels Las Vegas offers, the museum consists of two buildings. One contains the piano and car galleries, while the second building displays the costume and jewelry collections, as well as a recreation of Liberace’s Palm Springs bedroom. There’s also an Awards Gallery. Among the pieces collected, there are pieces of rare Moser crystal from Czechoslovakia. The pianist had owned a service for twelve, which included 14 separate glasses for each setting.

Visitors will discover, too, the Cabaret at the Liberace Museum. The Cabaret contains Liberace’s amazing, mirrored nine-foot Baldwin grand piano; it’s also a performance venue for local entertainers for afternoon and evening shows. If guests want souvenirs, they can find them in the Museum store, where there are CDs and video cassettes as well as books on music, and Liberace stationary and jewelry. Liberace’s resting place may be in Forest Lawn in Los Angeles; however, to truly find out about the person, inquisitive fans must come to the Nevada desert.

Florence is an ancient city whose origins stretch back nearly two thousand years when it was founded by Julius Caesar in 59 BC as a settlement camp for his veteran soldiers. Then it was named Florentia (“the flourishing”) and built in the style of an army camp; however, as it was the main route between Rome and the North, it became an important commercial center. While travel to the city centuries ago may have been difficult, today it’s no trouble to arrange for your choice of hotel. Florence , over the centuries, has become a focal point for culture and art. Starting with the Renaissance, the city has been hailed as the home or birthplace of some of the most recognizable names in history, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo , Donatello, Machiavelli, Botticelli, Galileo Galilei, and Florence Nightingale.

One of the most recognizable sites in the city includes the Palazzo Vecchio (in English, that’s the “Old Palace”), and it was built in 1299, 711 years ago, when the residents of Florence wanted a palace that was worthy of the city’s importance, and to provide better security when times were bad.

The architect of the Duomo and the Santa Croce church, Arnolfo di Cambio, began working on it on the ruins of Palazzo dei Fanti and Palazzo dell’Esecutore di Giustizia. Building on these ruins, he incorporated the structure of an ancient tower, which is why the rectangular tower that reaches as high as 308 feet is built off-center. The tower also contains two small prison cells, used in the 15th century, as well as a clock, which was designed originally by Nicolo Bernardo, but was replaced in 1667 with a clock made by Vincenzo Viviani.

While the Palazzo Vecchio is largely a museum today — the Museum of Children — it still represents local government; since 1872, the building has contained the office of the mayor of Florence, and it’s also the seat of the City Council. The museum, made up of two theaters, a multi-media room, and more, provide activities for everyone from toddlers to adolescents, from young adults to octogenarians; age at the museum is not as important as maintaining a curiosity and interest in life and culture.

Once you’ve finished visiting the Old Palace, take a walk through the Piazza della Signoria, where you’ll find a copy of Michelangelo’s David, as well as an entire gallery of statues in the Loggia dei Lanzi .

To say that modern American society is materialistic would be an understatement. From billboards to magazines to television commercials, we are constantly bombarded with messages that what we have isn’t enough and that we need the newest clothes or toys or electronics. Despite the messages being sent our way, and no matter how much we might like to listen, most of us can’t afford to keep up with all of the latest trends. There are, however, ways to enhance what you already have without breaking the bank; especially in the area of home decor.

We all desire that our homes look nice and welcoming should we have expected, or unexpected, guests. However, doing a complete home makeover every couple of years is pretty unfeasible for most us. To give your home a fresh new look, one of the simplest things you can do is paint. Overtime the walls get dirty and the color begins to fade, especially in areas that receive a lot of direct sunlight. Whether it is a new color or fresh coat of the old, paint can go a long way to making a room look like new.

Furniture is an expensive investment. Once you spend the money buying quality furniture, it can be hard to replace it. On the plus side, there are many things that you can do to improve older furniture. Wood furniture is easily sanded down and refinished to either match its original finish or something new. Whatever the finish, it is pretty simple to bring wood furniture back to life. Couches and chairs can easily be covered with duvet covers. Duvet covers come in a variety of colors and styles so you can easily give your room a new look without spending the money on new furniture.

Windows are the most often neglected feature of a room. In the past, they were often covered up with heavy drapes; however, these days there are many window treatment options to choose from. To start many people begin with vertical or horizontal blinds from next day blinds . From there you can easily buy, or if you are really crafty make, lightweight curtains or a decorative swag. Not only are they easier to clean but also much easier to switch out for different seasons or occasions. If you want something a little more permanent, Next Day Blinds also has a variety of shades and shutters that can be a positive investment in your home.

By utilizing what you already have not only can stay within your household budget, but you can keep up with the latest styles as well.

When the size and scope of Miami’s energy is a bit more overwhelming than one might want for a vacation on the beach, Coral Gables is an excellent alternative. It’s close enough to Miami to enjoy all of its culture and nightlife, but still a fairly small town as far as cities go. It’s still very cosmopolitan, with a diverse population that favors Spanish over English by a small margin. It’s also a very walkable city, making it a perfect place to come spend some time enjoying some quiet time at the beach, as well as participating in the lively social scene.

Coral Gables might not have the glitz and the glamour of its neighbor cities, but it does have its share of famous daughters and sons. Mimi Rogers , one of Hollywood’s most enduring actresses, is from here. Her most famous roles on the big screen include the role of Elizabeth Hurley’s mother in the Austin Powers hit, International Man of Mystery, and The Rapture. The latter was the film that really secured her position as a talent who could evoke deep sensuality, and a wide emotional range played with unusual intelligence.

Her intelligence, in fact, is one of her defining characteristics. She is a member of Mensa , the organization that celebrates high IQs, and she also graduated high school at age 14. Instead of going straight into college, she spent her teen years doing community service work. These are her real strengths, and they should eventually eclipse the temporary fame she unintentionally received for being married to Tom Cruise for a few years. She has also done a great deal of work for television, with a very powerful and memorable role in the X-Files, an appearance on King of the Hill, and some work with Geena Davis on her show.

She is also a world-class poker player, and these days that game occupies more of her time than the Hollywood one. While its unlikely to run into Mimi Rogers at the city’s hotels, Coral Gables does offer smart and splendid fun in a brilliantly lovely setting.

For all the cities that have theatre scenes that have suffered in the past decade, Dallas sometimes seems to be the one that’s made the most out of the suffering. It’s not that they haven’t had their share of losses, because there are certainly those. The usual symptoms of hard times are on the surface, with interesting and eclectic little theatre companies closing up shop, and the larger houses suffering box office losses while reinventing marketing strategies for a tough time. At the same time, there are new voices and visions all over town, and these don’t just offer a ray of hope in a dark time.

They are like very bright lights instead of rays, and it’s because of the tenacity of writers like Isabella Russell-Ides that there is a scene at all. It turns out to be a pretty spectacular one, actually, with a lot of new work, and plans for new plays in the works in theaters all over the city. It’s hard to pin down the reasons why the feeling in the air is so good, but it’s worth looking into the 4 star hotels in Dallas and determine to spend some time excavating the city for signs of cultural rebirth.

The woman who wrote Cosmo & Gigi and many other works demonstrates some of the great qualities that make local artists so voracious in their work. This also makes the audience voracious to hear and see the new stories work themselves out before their very eyes, allowing for new worlds to open up and continue to do their magic when the spectactor hits the pillow at the end of the day. Some of her plays have the quality of first-hand observation of some of the most tender stories the world has known, and others have the quality of looking in on someone else’s dreams. A new writer, relatively, with a lot of life experience, there are visions here that are light and dark in equal measures, suggesting a balance in all things that translates into spectacular work on the stage.

We filled in the swamps and built theme park after theme park on top of them. Now sometimes when people travel to Orlando they are so sick of theme parks that they dread the trip, but the truth is that they don’t have to. Orlando is a lot more than going to theme parks. Once settled into one of the four star hotels Orlando ., here are a few ideas for those people who don’t have to travel with kids, or are just sick of the happiest place on earth.

Forever Florida has a great option for those people seeking an escape from their normal life. Try ziplining over Orlando and experiencing some of the most beautiful sights nature has to offer from the comfort of the sky as you travel at twenty five miles per hour over the heads of alligators, bears, and more. They also offer other types of safaris such as a more traditional coach ride, or on horse back, but the zipline is by far the most memorable of them all.

Hang out on the beach. Many people ditch the theme parks every day to go hang out in the perfect weather on the beach, enjoy the sun, and soak in the beach culture. There are a few to choose from but the most common to go hang out at is Cocoa Beach.

If flying and beaches aren’t your thing, try the Kennedy Space Center . If you wanted to use a bad pun you could say that it was out of this world. Seriously though, you can experience a shuttle launch, without having to be in the shuttle, immerse yourself in the sky above with a number of IMAX films about space, and much more. This is perfect either for the adult who has always wanted to get into space and never did, or for the kids who are still dreaming of becoming an astronaut.

If you just want to get out in nature without having to feel like taking a safari, or trekking through the unknown, take a calming, relaxing horse back ride with the Horse World Riding Stables. They offer lessons, information on how to take care of horses and even have some beautiful trails to take the horses out on. Be aware that there is some interesting wildlife on these trails as they have not been completely tamed and you may see an armadillo, squirrel, or other small creatures.

One might very well get the opportunity to hear Perper play in many countries in Europe, but there’s something very exciting about hearing a band play in the country they call home. Montenegro is a perfect place for this perfectly eclectic band, and the geography here is as varied as their music. It’s probably a pretty safe bet to call it old fashioned rock and roll, because the screams and the guitars are definitely in tune with those rhythms, but there are enough elements to make it fall uncomfortably in the category of rock.

Drawing heavily on jazz traditions, as well as the traditional musical traditions of the Balkans, a concert will move in many directions at once. This is something that’s very characteristic of any art form in Montenegro in general, where its unusual history has made it simultaneously a community isolated by its own rough terrain, but also unusually tuned in to the cultural offerings from the world at large. Together, the boys who have pretty much grown up together, and meeting again at universities in Novi Sad and Belgrade , have crafted something very exciting. They have played thousands of concerts since they started working together in the early 90s, and their popularity suggests this will go on for a long time to come.

It is a wonderful thing, then, to have the chance to stay at a hotel in Montenegro , and find out that it’s also perfect timing for a Perver concert. It is loud, and it is fast, but it’s also capable of moving into moments that are like a kind of rock lullaby. The musicians are all very skilled at moving from mood to mood, and making sure to keep the crowd very energized through all of it. World music is always exciting, and this is some of the most beloved of the local sounds.