Top Reasons To Visit Yucatán In The Winter

Sign Up For Open-Air Market Classes, City Tours and Events

YUCATÁN, MEXICO –  With temperatures dropping and the frigid winter months preparing to roll in, Yucatán is the ultimate getaway for U.S. travelers seeking sun, fun and culture. Temperatures average 85ºF during the day with cool evenings in the dry season (November – May), making winter the ideal time to explore Yucatán and enjoy the markets, archaeological sites, and cultural events that give this region its character.

City Tours

Travelers can take advantage of the warm weather and explore the Yucatán capital of Mérida and its rich history through guided city tours, including:

·         The open-topped double-decker Turibus allows travelers to jump on and off along the route to explore the city’s colonial buildings, monuments, and other landmarks on their own time. For those short on time, Turibus offers a complete one-hour guided city tour that visits more than 30 sites of interest (US$7.86 adults, US$4.19 for children 5-12). For more information, visit www.turibus.com.mx.

·         Explore the sights of Mérida on foot with a bilingual guide during a free 90-minute guided tour offered by the tourism board – a great way for travelers to get acquainted with the city at the start of their visit. The tour starts at the City Hall Tourist Information booth every day beginning at 9.30 a.m. For more information, visit www.merida.gob.mx/capitalcultural.

·         Travelers preferring to set out on their own can jump on a bike and take part in La Bici Ruta (Bike Route) each Sunday, a popular event where locals and visitors take over the streets to discover and enjoy the ancient city. Several miles of streets are closed to vehicular traffic, making this a safe and fun event for all. Bike rental rates vary.

Market Classes

Visitors can enjoy the sun while shopping at Mérida’s three main bustling open-air markets: Mercado Lucas De Galvéz, the most well-known market; Mercado Santiago, a more intimate market; and Slow Food Market, a haven for locals. Several tours are available for travelers to experience the hustle and bustle of Mérida’s markets, such as:

·         The “Mérida Market Tour and Cooking Class” includes a market tour with a bilingual guide who will allow participants to converse with vendors as they select seasonal ingredients for a cooking class with a local host. Rates start at US$60 per person. For more information, visit viator.com/tours/Merida/Merida-Market-Tour-and-Cooking-Class/d5195-5207MIDCOOK.

·         The boutique hotel Casa Lecanda offers the “Local Market Tour Class” inclusive of a market tour with a local chef, welcome drink, and a four-course meal utilizing local products and ingredients that have been used in Mexican cuisine for hundreds of years (US$140 per person with a two guest minimum). Prices may vary according to number of participants. For more information, visit casalecanda.com/activities/cooking-tasting-classes.htm.

Eco-Adventures

Travelers can embark on a variety of eco-adventures during their time in Yucatán, whether swimming in underground cenotes, paddling the waterways by kayak, or seeing flocks of colorful birds. For visitors seeking the true water culture experience, a bucket-list item is swimming in one of the region’s sacred cenotes, underground freshwater reservoirs revered by the Maya. Another great water activity is kayaking along the coast of Yucatán in Celestún and Río Lagartos. While rowing around, travelers are advised to keep an eye out for flocks of flamingos, as there are more than 25,000 in the region and the best time to observe the birds is between December and April.

·         Bikes are provided at Los 7 Cenotes to explore the private reserve’s seven cenotes, most of which provide the option of swimming and snorkeling. While there, visitors may enjoy a view of centuries-old Ceiba trees and beautiful gardens. For more information, visit www.xperiencia7cenotes.com.

·         The best way to see the Celestún Biosphere Reserve is by water. Guides will lead boat rides through mangroves, pointing out the wildlife and providing the best spot for a swim. For more information, visit www.viator.com/Riviera-Maya-and-the-Yucatan-attractions/Celestun-Wildlife-Refuge/d770-a14486.

Events

Mérida is celebrating being named the 2017 “American Capital of Culture” by offering free cultural activities every day of the week throughout the year, including Vaquería (country dance) on Mondays; trova (new Cuban music) on Tuesdays; cemetery tour on Wednesdays; serenade in Santa Lucía on Thursdays; pok ta pok ballgame on Fridays; Mexican night on Saturdays; and Bike Route on Sundays. Annual festivals taking place in the winter include“Mérida Fest” in January, consisting of several weeks of nightly fiestas celebrating the city’s founding; and Carnaval of Mérida in February, with its colorful costumes, floats, artists, concerts, music and more.

For additional ways to visit Yucatán or to view a full list of tour packages, visit gotoyucatan.com/tour-packages. 

About Yucatán

The state of Yucatán is located in southeastern Mexico, along the Gulf of Mexico in the north section of the Yucatán Peninsula. The region boasts both a coastline of pristine beaches and interior sections rich with natural preserves. Yucatán is home to several designated UNESCO World Heritage sites including the well-preserved Mayan towns of Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, as well as two “Magical Towns“ – the former Spaniards regional capital of Valladolid and the colorful Colonial-era town of Izamal. The state’s capital, Mérida features a vibrant culinary scene, modern museums, and historical attractions, while its main port city of Progreso is a popular cruise ship destination famous for its pier that extends an impressive four miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Yucatán has become an increasingly popular tourism destination for its diverse attractions that include natural underwater swimming pools, world-famous archeological and historical locations, unique luxury hacienda accommodations, and diverse natural wildlife.

Travel to Yucatán is easily accessible via Manuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID), with several non-stop daily flights from the United States and Canada. The airport is conveniently located approximately 10 miles from downtown Mérida, a 30-minute drive.

For more information on Yucatán, please visit www.gotoyucatan.com.

Major Exhibition Of Paul Cézanne's Portraits At The National Gallery Of Art, March 25 Through July 1, 2018

Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888–1890, oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Washington, DC—Bringing together some 60 paintings drawn from collections around the world, Cézanne Portraits is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to this often-neglected genre of his work. The revelatory exhibition explores the pictorial and thematic characteristics of Paul Cézanne's (1839–1906) portraits, the chronological development of his style and method, and the range and influence of his sitters. The sole American venue, Cézanne Portraits will be on view on the main floor of the West Building from March 25 through July 1, 2018.

"This exhibition provides an unrivaled opportunity to reveal the extent and depth of Cézanne's achievement in portraiture," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "The partnership between the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris has made it possible to explore his working techniques as well as his intellectual solutions to representation in these exceptional portraits."

Cézanne painted almost 200 portraits, including 26 self-portraits and nearly 30 portraits of his wife, Hortense Fiquet, as well as portraits of his son Paul and his uncle Dominique Aubert, art dealer Ambroise Vollard, critic Gustave Geffroy, and the local men and women in his native Aix-en-Provence. The exhibition presents a selection of portraits that reveals the most personal and human aspects of Cézanne's art.

Exhibition Organization and Support

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

The exhibition in Washington is made possible through the generous support of the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

About the Exhibition

Cézanne Portraits explores the artist's series of portraits of the same sitter; traces his portraits chronologically, revealing changes in style and method; and shows the full range of his sitters and how they influenced his practice. Cézanne's unique vision was informed by a desire to see through appearances to the underlying structure using mass, line, and shimmering color. The exhibition traces the development of Cézanne's portraits and the changes that occurred through style and method and the understanding of resemblance and identity.

Cézanne made his first portrait in the early 1860s, although it was not until 1866 that he began to paint portraits in earnest. Often painting family and friends with whom he felt comfortable, his early works were stylistically influenced by Gustave Courbet's and Édouard Manet's Parisian portraits. The family paintings include large portraits of his father, small paintings of his mother and sisters, and about nine portraits of his uncle, the bailiff Dominique Aubert, and provocative paintings of poet and art critic Antony Valabrègue and the artist Achille Emperaire.

By the end of the 1860s Cézanne's portraits became more refined and more sympathetic to his sitters. He began to produce fewer portraits until 1875, when he created a group of self-portraits prominently featuring his bald head painted in an impressionist style. Between 1876 and 1877 he began to incorporate heightened hues in which areas of prismatic color help to shape a vivid human presence, as seen in Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair (c. 1877), on view in the exhibition. Over the following seven or eight years, Cézanne created portraits of sculptural gravity, including paintings of his wife, their young son, and his son's friend Louis Guillaume, as well as self-portraits.

Between 1872 and 1892 Cézanne painted 28 portraits of his wife. Seventeen of these, painted during the second half of the 1880s, form three distinct stylistic groups. The first group, a set of small, lightly painted canvases, were painted around 1886 and includes the most expressive images of her made to date, marking a major shift in his portraiture practice. The second group, made a few years later, is more explicit in its description of emotion and more heavily painted. The third group of four portraits depicts Hortense wearing a red dress. Fifteen of these portraits will be on view.

Cézanne also painted several portraits of the model Michelangelo de Rosa in Italian garb. The Gallery's version, Boy in a Red Waistcoat (1888–1890), is the largest, most resolved of these portraits. Influenced by 16th-century mannerists such as Bronzino and Pontormo who painted iconic images of urban, male adolescents, Cézanne presents a moving, formally innovative image of a boy morphing into manhood.

During the 1890s Cézanne began to paint portraits of local people in and around his native Aix-en-Provence. His portraits of agricultural laborers record his admiration for people who had grown old without changing their ways. The paintings of domestic servants and children indirectly reflect Cézanne's increasing preoccupation with old age. Included among these works are Child in a Straw Hat (1896), Man in a Blue Smock (c. 1897), Portrait of a Woman (c. 1900), and Seated Peasant (c. 1900–1904), all of which are in the exhibition.

Of the 100 paintings Cézanne made between 1900 and 1906, only about 20 are portraits, seven of which were painted outside. During this period, Cézanne painted his final self-portrait, Self-Portrait with Beret (1898–1900), on view in the exhibition, which depicts a fragile, prematurely aged but still vehement figure. The subjects of these later portraits are local men, women, and children as well as a pair of portraits of his sister, Marie, depicted in a blue dress, and five paintings of his gardener, Vallier, three of which are on view.

Exhibition Curators

The exhibition is curated by John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, with Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Xavier Rey, formerly director of collections at the Musée d'Orsay, now director of the museums of Marseille.

Related Activities

Lecture
Introduction to the Exhibition—Cézanne Portraits
March 25, 2:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Mary Morton, curator and head, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art

Concert
Benedetto Lupo, piano
March 25, 3:30 p.m.
West Building, East Garden Court
In conjunction with Cézanne Portraits and on the 100th anniversary of the death of French composer Claude Debussy, Lupo performs an entire concert of Debussy's most important solo piano works.

Exhibition Catalog

The exhibition is accompanied by a 256-page, fully illustrated catalog with essays by the exhibition curators—John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, with Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Xavier Rey, director of the museums of Marseille. Also included are a biographical essay on Cézanne's sitters by biographer Alex Danchev and a chronology of the artist's life by Jayne Warman.

This catalog establishes portraiture as an essential practice for Cézanne, from his earliest self-portraits in the 1860s to his famous depictions of figures including his wife Hortense Fiquet, the writer Émile Zola, and the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, and concluding with a poignant series of portraits of his gardener Vallier, made shortly before Cézanne's death. Featured essays explore the special pictorial and thematic characteristics of Cézanne's portraits and address the artist's creation of complementary pairs and multiple versions of the same subject, as well as the role of self-portraiture for Cézanne. They investigate the chronological evolution of his portrait work, with an examination of the changes that occurred within his artistic style and method, and in his understanding of resemblance and identity. They also consider the extent to which particular sitters influenced the characteristics and development of Cézanne's practice. Beautifully illustrated with works of art drawn from public and private collections around the world, Cézanne Portraits presents an astonishingly broad range of images that reveals the most personal and human qualities of this remarkable artist.

The catalog is available for purchase at special installations near the exhibition and in the West Building, Concourse, and East Building Shops; shop.nga.gov; (800) 697-9350 (phone); (202) 789-3047 (fax); or mailorder@nga.gov

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov. Follow the Gallery on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalGalleryofArt, Twitter at www.twitter.com/ngadc, and Instagram at http://instagram.com/ngadc.

National Geographic Travel Unveils Annual Best Of The World List

National Geographic Traveler magazine has revealed the 2018 Best of the World, its annual list of the 21 must-see destinations to visit in the year ahead. Traveler editors selected their top picks for places in three key categories- Cities, Culture, and Nature. The results are in the December/January 2018 issue of Traveler magazine, now available on newsstands and online at NatGeoTravel.com/BestTrips2018.

"The No. 1 question we get from our 9.6 million readers is, 'Where should I go next?' Our Best of the World list responds to that question with 21 timely destinations that make for a year of transformative travels," said George Stone, National Geographic Traveler editor in chief. "With 15 international editions, National Geographic Traveler has a global team of writers, photographers and travel experts who helped build our list and report on these stellar places. We looked for cities that bustle with new energy and intrigue; parklands that percolate with vitality and ecological protection; and communities rich in local character that offer opportunities for cultural engagement. Packed with surprise, humor and relevance, our list advances our National Geographic mission to explore, conserve and share unforgettable stories about the best of our world."

The 2018 Best of the World destinations are:

CITIES

• Dublin, Ireland
• Malmö, Sweden
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• San Antonio, Texas
• Santiago, Chile
• Sydney, Australia
• Tbilisi, Georgia

CULTURE

• Cleveland, Ohio
• Friesland, Netherlands
• Harar, Ethiopia
• Labrador, Canada
• Oaxaca, Mexico
• Tétouan, Morocco
• Vienna, Austria

NATURE

• Albania
• Jordan Trail, Jordan
• Jujuy Province, Argentina
• Madagascar
• Oahu, Hawaii
• Ruaha NP, Tanzania
• Seoraksan National Park, South Korea

Hotel Best Rates Guarantee Promise Is Often A Hoax

Trump SoHo New York hotel

Hotel companies want you to stop shopping around. So why bother going to trivago.com, to agoda.com, to booking.com, to hotels.com, to expedia.com, to orbitz.com, to otel.com, to priceline.com, or to americanexpress.com and the many more available channels? Hotels don’t want you to compare rates, especially if you are a loyal member of their hotel group loyalty program, such as the World of Hyatt, Marriott Rewards, Hilton Honors, Starwood Preferred Guest, and IHG Rewards Club, among others.

As a matter of fact, hotel companies will threaten you NOT to book through what they say are “third party channels,” because if you do, your stay will mean zero points and zero status nights in the hotel loyalty programs. In order to reach an elite status with a hotel or airline, one needs to be loyal. Don’t make the mistake of being loyal to a brand and then booking through your travel agent, your meeting organizer, or one of the many known booking channels. You will never earn any status points that way, because your nights won’t count. So again, we ask, why bother even signing up for a hotel loyalty program?

Here is what hotel companies are advertising on their websites.

• The Lowest Rates Are on Hyatt.com
• Get Our Lowest Price, All The Time, When You Book on Marriott.com
• IHG – Choose from our great brands. Best Price Guarantee. Book direct now!
• We guarantee you always get the lowest price when you reserve a room through an official Hiltonbooking channel
• Best Rate Guarantee* If you find a lower qualified rate** within 24 hours of booking, we’ll match it – and give you a 20% discount or 2,000 Starpoints®

Sounds good, right? But not really. Here is the catch.

The following is a typical response you will get when shopping on a third-party website and find a sometimes significantly better rate.

First, the hotel doesn’t want you to book anything on the third-party website. What the hotel wants you to do is to fill out a lengthy form and ask for the “best rate guarantee.”

After you submit this form, it takes 24 hours for a response. If you’re at an airport trying to book a hotel for the same night, obviously, this “guarantee” will never work.

For a future stay, you most likely will get this response:

HYATT: “I am excited to hear of your desire to stay with us and your interest in our Best Rate Guarantee program. After researching, I was unable to validate your submission based on the Expedia screenshot that represents a “Private Sale Price of 59%, including a $100 Resort credit” which is a membership-only price package thus making it an invalid for the Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee. As indicated, the guest went to expedia.com and signed into the site, thus opening up the member pricing options.”

This means if you use a booking website, you are always asked to establish a sign-in. There is no cost to do so and no membership – it’s simply a username and a password. BUT, once you do this, then hotel companies consider you to be a “member” of that travel booking club, and there goes the option to use the hotel’s best rate guarantee.

In many cases, once you go back to the third-party website a day after the hotel has “investigated” and turned your claim down, you won’t be able to get that special deal anymore, because it has already been sold out.

Sometimes it pays, however, to be more firm instead of accepting this unfriendly hotel response. In the case of a Starwood Hotels and Resorts reservation, a claim to bring a nightly rate down from $280 to $89.44 plus receive a 20% additional bonus was honored, only after being threatened with a bad review on trip advisor, a filing with small claims court, and a letter to the editor.

This was the initial response by STARWOOD:

Thank you for your interest in the Starwood’s Hotels & Resorts Best Rate Guarantee program. It is always a pleasure hearing from our Gold members. I hope my email finds you well.

Please be advised that as per my understanding, I have processed the claim for a Premium room as originally booked. However, I request you to please mention the room type on which you want to get your claim processed in the New Starwood Room Type section in the future.

I have reviewed the rates for The Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa for the dates of your claim on our website and found a rate of $257.04 USD plus taxes and fees per night which is lower than the rate of $280.78 USD plus taxes and fees per night found on hotels.com. Since the rate is lower on our website, I am not able to approve your claim. To find the complete details of the Best Rate Guarantee program, please refer to our published terms and conditions.

So what happened here? Starwood looked at a higher room category on otel.com, the competing site. The claim was clearly for the lowest category, since the category names did not match on otel.com and westin.com, but this seems to be just another way to deny claims.

Here is the second response to this claim after it was first denied:

Thank you for your email regarding your Best Rate Guarantee claim for The Westin Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa. I appreciate the opportunity to address your email.

After reviewing the claim, I show a room type was not listed on the competing website or our hotel website, and our associate processed the claim for the room type listed on the reservation.

Please know I have processed the claim once again; only this time I have processed it for the standard room at the hotel. Your claim has been processed for the traditional room.

I am pleased to advise your claim is approved. I was unable to locate availability for a Traditional room on our website, though I was able to locate availability on otel.com, which allows me to offer you the approved rate of 89.44 USD, plus tax and amenity fee, per night, and an additional 20% off the rate as requested.

My advice: Cancel the booking altogether and select an independent hotel that doesn’t play games with loyal customers. Travel agencies and tour operators should avoid brand hotels to not upset clients with a loyalty program or put pressure on those hotel companies to treat travel agents, tour operators, and meeting planners fairly.