Located alongside the Turia River, the Palau de la Musica is one of the most emblematic buildings of modern Valencia

"K2T Wisata"

Located alongside the Turia River, the Palau de la Musica is one of the most emblematic buildings of modern Valencia. Transparency is one of its main characteristics.  Designed by José Maria Barcia de Paredes – a creator of other concert halls such as the ones in Madrid, Granada and Cuenca, the Valencia Concert Hall was constructed in 1987. This concert hall is built like a giant greenhouse, employing the theme of transparency and live plants inside. Since its construction in 1984, it has considered as one of the best concert halls in Europe.

The Palau has become a symbol of Valencia’s future and a landmark of its urban development. A huge glass dome, which was designed by Ricardo Bofill serves as the main entrance, perfectly integrated into the surrounding gardens. The cascading fountains rhythmically leap up and down into the pool outside. You can watch the fountains that have been designed to spout to the beat of the music heard from the Palau throughout the garden. The Palau and the garden around it totally change by night, creating a different mood.

If you like your classical music it is definitely the place to go. Once you have crossed the enormous foyer, you gain access to the different concert halls. The program is only in Spanish but if you are a lover of music easy to understand. Concerts, operas, ballets, conferences, presentations, and all sorts of other educational activities have been held inside and outside the building. The Palau hast become a space open to many artistic initiatives: literary cycles, exhibitions, theatre, dance, flamenco, jazz, etc. The Festival of Jazz in the Jardines del Palau de la Música in July plays host to the greats of jazz such as Natalie Cole, guitarist Ximo Tebar and many more. The five hundred thousand people who come here each year attest to the popularity of this concert hall.

Located in the southern sierra of Ecuador at about 2500 m above sea level

"K2T Wisata"

Located in the southern sierra of Ecuador at about 2500 m above sea level, Cuenca is the third largest city in the country. Founded in 1557, the city offers a rich diversity of art, history and colonial architecture. Considered as the country’s cultural heart and soul, in 1999, the city was included on UNESCO‘s list of World Heritage sites. Cuenca is the site of four universities, many museums, research and cultural organizations and many travel writers call Cuenca the “most European” of Latin American cities. With its large student population, the city also has a modem edge, with international restaurants, art galleries, cool cafes and welcoming bars all tucked into its colonial architecture. The architecture, parks, restaurants, museums, cafes and four free flowing rivers make it a destination in itself.

Cuenca and its surrounding region are rich in history, with a colonial atmosphere that has survived thanks to years of almost complete isolation. “Its narrow cobbled streets, houses with wrought-iron balconies, flower-filled patios and many fine old churches are reminiscent of ancient Andalusian towns in southern Spain,” writes Derek Davies, author of the Traveler’s Companion series of books. The major historic buildings and attractions in Cuenca are: Old cathedral built in 1557, Museo del Banco Central which displays the best archaeological exhibits, Museum of La Concepcion that are tombs of the XVII century and etc.


In 2006, the International Congress of Urban Planners voted Cuenca as “one of the most liveable cities in Latin America”.  In early 2008, the German magazine “Stern”, made Cuenca its top Latin American pick in a survey of best places to live overseas.

Fabriken Furillen, is a small eco hotel that opened in 2000

"K2T Wisata"

Fabriken Furillen, is a small eco hotel that opened in 2000 and expanded for the better part of the next decade. The brief flight from Stockholm descended into fog at little Visby Airport. Then the 45-minute drive to Furillen a wiper-whipping swim along narrow roads until it slowly lightened to a mist. Furillen is itself an islet in the Baltic Sea off the northeastern coast of Gotland. Unlike Faro, the island just to the north that Ingmar Bergman long called home, a ferry ride isn’t required to get there. Craggy limestone formations loomed to the side of the road like tipsy sentries. Just before dipping to sea level and reaching the causeway to Furillen, the road traversed odd, empty, unnatural pools—as if a giant had taken an ice cream scoop to the earth, the flavor of the day being cement.

Everyting about Furillen is little wierd! What kind of person would look at an old cement factory (fabriken) operating out of a limestone quarry, dormant for some 30 years, and see the bones of a hotel? It would have to be someone as visionary as a photographer used to conceptualizing and improvising while on assignment in exotic locations. Tired of being on the road much of the year, away from family, Johan Hellstrom moved permanently to Furillen in 1999, first renovating the factory with his wife, Anna-Karin, as a studio before expanding it into a hotel. The idea was to promote the factory as much as a location for photo shoots as an unusual escape.

At Fabriken, the visual trumps all else. Heavy chains still hang from the ceiling of the former workers’ canteen; they’re no longer used, except as a super-scale necklace-like adornment. Large single-pane windows in the dining room frame a Charles Sheeleresque image of a hulking concrete tower next to a gargantuan heap of slag. There is a rugged, surreal, even romantic allure to the setting that the overcast sky only abetted, allowing all the subtle shades of gray to emerge. Like sound carrying across water, a woman in a bright orange jacket could be seen in the fog, sharp as a spark, way down the beach. One can only imagine the scenes Bergman, were he still filming, could have produced here.

Locally sourced sheepskin rugs and handcrafted Midcentury furniture give the seemingly spare six cabins an alluring warmth, while Bang & Olufsen stereos and flat-screen TV’s lend the 15 rooms in the main house a modern edge. Fabriken Furillen is so unusual a place, one of such brutal beauty, that despite its faults, it will stay with you far longer than you will stay with it.

Urnatur Skogseremitage

"K2T Wisata"

The couple, a German and a Swede, respectively, got degrees in biology (Krynitz) and forestry (Strotz), traveled, studied some more, taught, designed, and then, in 1993, bought a farm. And only naturally, very organically, did that farm develop into Urnatur Skogseremitage, an eco-reserve in green parlance, a summer camp for grown-ups in realspeak. Three hours southwest of Stockholm on small Lake Visjo, Urnatur is like a demonstration model for the live-smart movement and a destination for those who wish to not so much turn back the clock as to slow it way down.

In a place named for a Swedish phrase that means both “ancient nature” and “made from nature,” everything that’s in the woods is of the woods. From storm-felled trees, Strotz hand-built one main cabin, six guest cabins, two tree houses, and a bathhouse—the only structure with both electricity (solar-powered) and plumbing. (Strotz read the bibles of the American back-to-the-land movement, the Foxfire books from the 1970’s, which inspired much of his craft and woodsmanship.)

Three of the cabins have roofs of peat and moss that spawn wild strawberries in late summer, and meld into a forest carpeted in plush, intense green. At Urnatur, nature and design dovetail seamlessly. Pulling from Swedish, Amish, Shaker, Russian, and Japanese traditions, each cabin is unique but uniformly enticing. You will want to stay in them all.  Just a 10-minute walk from the cabins, along a path bordered by pastures for Swedish heritage breeds of cows and sheep, brought me to the lake. There, inside the “tin castle,” a metal-roof building that’s the largest at Urnatur, or on its deck, guests gather for conversation, a glass of wine, and Krynitz’s fine meals, their ingredients pulled mostly from the farm.

Urnatur is all fresh smells and new experiences and no rules. If you want crayfish for dinner, you can row out on the lake and check the traps with Strotz. Herbal tea? Forage on the grounds with Krynitz. When the sky finally darkens, you light your way with lanterns, your cabin with candles and kerosene lamps. After all, Strotz says, “What is more beautiful: a lightbulb or a burning candle?”When you want to bake in the sauna or stargaze from the hot tub, both part of the immaculate bathhouse, you advise Strotz, who stokes the fires that heat them.

Krynitz and Strotz’s knowledge of carpentry and blacksmithing is astonishing. Plant material and food and cooking, of animal husbandry, of Swedish history and lore, of current events and contemporary design, and simply of people. Not just the creators and caretakers of Urnatur, they are its soul, making it a paradigm impossible not to want to emulate, impossible to replicate.

Phu Quoc might be hailed as the next Phuket

"K2T Wisata"

Phu Quoc might be hailed as the next Phuket, but those looking to get far off the grid head to this undiscovered archipelago just 110 miles off Vietnam’s southeastern coast. A 45-minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City brings you to Con Son, the largest (and only inhabited) member of the 16-island chain. There, sheer granite cliffs border deserted beaches and crystal-blue water—imagine a tropical Amalfi Coast without the crowds. Up until now, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a decent place to stay, but the arrival of the Six Senses Con Dao villas from $685 has brought a welcome dose of luxury to the island. Standing along a stretch of golden sand are 50 airy villas (some with private pools) that look out onto the South China Sea. Food is a highlight there. In classic Six Senses style, the hotel’s Vietnamese restaurant is set up to resemble a market. There are separate stalls “hawking” noodles and rolls, while made-to-order dishes are cooked outside in charcoal-fueled woks. You may be tempted to never leave the resort, but the 20-square-mile island is well worth exploring. Hire a private guide from the hotel, who will bring you via motorbike to the area’s most remote spots, including a 19th-century hilltop lighthouse and the spectacular Dam Tre Bay lagoon. Take a boat trip to Bay Canh Island to view endangered hawksbill turtles during nesting season (May through September), arranged by the hotel.