We visited the Detroit Institute of Arts (The “DIA”) on December 31, 2022 for one main purpose, and one secondary purpose. The main purpose was to see our last Caravaggio painting of 2022, the secondary was to see the massive “Van Gogh in America” exhibit that was about to end there. The DIA is a small, but very nice museum on the north end of Detroit’s downtown area and right next to the Wayne State campus. The second level of…
Boy, looking at my “Activities” menu, we sure did a lot of cool stuff this year. From Guatemala to Europe and all sorts of places in between, we made a lot of memories. This list was absolutely the most difficult to narrow down to just five. We met cool people, saw amazing architecture, experienced beautiful landscapes, and did a few food tours. How do you pick just five? Well, it had to be done, and below are ChiLuxe Travel’s Top…
Dublin has a rich Catholic history, but the two main Cathedrals that you can visit in Dublin are no longer Catholic. This article is going to focus on Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We came to St. Patrick’s Cathedral first, and it cost 8 Euro to get in for adults. There was no line when we arrived, and we didn’t get tickets in advance, but as we were leaving a bus full of tourists arrived and the line…
This is a post dedicated to the primary reason why I enjoy Dublin so much – the parks and the rich literary history coming from here. It really helps to come to Dublin if you enjoy literature, because apart from drinking, literature is the next biggest thing here. Dublin is full of bookstores – both used and new – and has an enormous literary history which continues to develop with modern Irish authors to this day. Dublin is proud of…
Some people say you can skip the Guinness Storehouse because it’s touristy and you don’t actually get to see the beer being made. When I was in Dublin in 2012 I did skip it, but I always kind of regretted it. This time, I made a point to be sure we came here. How can you go to Dublin and not pay homage to the most Irish of all beers? I purchased tickets in advance, which I highly recommend, just…
So I love doing a high tea when I go on vacation – especially if there is a fancy one in a fancy hotel that is KNOWN for tea. (I also love a high tea here in Chicago as there are a ton of amazing places for it!) Tea is also a great thing to do on the first day when you arrive in Europe or somewhere else where you may be feeling pretty tired or jet laggy. The 2…
Dublin Castle is a nice way to spend about an hour of your time while in Dublin. It’s not as grand as The Palacio Real in Madrid (which you can read all about here!) and doesn’t even come close to the grandeur of Versailles, but it is a neat place nonetheless. We came here early on a Saturday morning, and while I did get tickets in advance, it was not necessary since there were barely any people here. You are…
The National Gallery was at the top of our list of places to visit on our short trip to Dublin. Can you guess why? Yes! They have a Caravaggio! The Gallery is centrally located, right on Merrion Square just to the east of Trinity College. We trudged here in the absolutely pouring rain. Unfortunately, they did not have an operating cloak room or lockers, so we had to carry our wet jackets and umbrellas around. The National Gallery is free,…
So you can spend a ton of time here, or just a little bit of time – it is completely up to you. The first time I came to Dublin in 2012 I did a full tour of Trinity College walking around the campus and learning about different cool spots and its history. It takes about 1.5-2 hours depending on how long you linger at the Book of Kells and the Old Library. This time, though, we got tickets just…
How can I have a travel blog and not talk about my incredible Honeymoon in 2016? Well, it has been a while, but my memories from the Seychelles are probably some of my most vivid still. I had dreamed of going to the Seychelles for my Honeymoon ever since I was in High School. Sometime in the mid-1990’s the Chicago Tribune’s Travel section had a massive article about the Seychelles with a big banner photograph of the Anse Source D’Argent…