Please Go Away Blog

Wedding Bliss at the Ritz-Carlton BuckheadBy Damien Martin




“Happiness for the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight for the lucky, equanimity for the wicked.” Our yoga teacher, Elizabeth, instructed us to focus on one. As my wife and I were heading to a wedding later that day, I chose happiness for the happy. Standing in the garden of the Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta, looking up at Buckhead skyline, I couldn’t help but think we were already the lucky ones. Even the moon hung around in the bright blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, soaking up as much of the gorgeous morning as it could.

Limbs energized and minds relaxed, we enjoyed lunch at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead just down the street, where we were staying. Booking on the club level is worth it for the refreshments alone, but they also include two pressed items of clothing per day, which is perfect if you came in for a wedding.

The groom is of Indian descent, with Christian and Hindu parents. The bride is of Persian descent,…

Camping in style for National Camping Month
By Damien Martin School’s out, summer’s here and it’s time to break out the tents and s’mores, because June is national camping month. At Largay Travel, we love camping as much as the next person, but as usual, we like ours with a unique flair. Here are a few of our favorites.
American Safari Camp

With locations at Lake Powell, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon, American Safari Camp puts you closer to the action of nature than any hotel can get you. Not only are the accommodations spacious and the food a few steps up from canned beans, but just about any activity you can dream up can be arranged: horseback riding, mountain biking, rappelling and hot-air ballooning are all possible. Plus, your guides pitch and take down the tents, so all you have to do is have fun.
Clayoquot Wilderness Resort

Located in Tofino, British Columbia, in the Clayoquot Sound World Biosphere, the resort features 20 tents with flush or composting toilets and…

World of WellnessFrom holistic health to digital detox, we've got you covered.By Nadine Courtney 

In recent years, the nebulous-sounding field of wellness has become hot  – all the best destination resorts offer options. But where a hotel might have previously offered a smattering of extra massages in its spa or added yoga to its fitness menu, the next generation of spa-goers want something much more profound.

“There has been quite a shift in what clients look for in wellness travel,” says Kathleen Sutter, a Virtuoso agency owner based in Sarasota, Florida. “It is no longer just massages, yoga, salon treatments, and weight-loss programs, although these are still important options.” A few added classes or amenities no longer cut it. Instead, savvy travelers want to maximize their time away from home with multi-part treatment “journeys,” sessions with world-renowned professionals, and destination courses worth traveling across the globe – all designed to take guests’ quest for wellne…

Pompeii: The Exhibition  By Damien Martin



It’s a beautiful day out, and you’re going about your normal business. Sure, you’ve felt a few tremors, but those are so commonplace you don’t think much of them anymore. You have no idea that by the end of the day, your city will be completely destroyed and just about everyone you know will be dead.

    That’s what happened for the citizens of Pompeii on August 24, A.D. 79. The prosperous port town south of Naples was wiped out when Mt. Vesuvius erupted that afternoon, spewing flames and ash as high as 20 miles in the air. The heat alone was enough to kill people instantly. Over the next few days, enough pumice and ash had fallen to bury the city under several yards of debris. Within a few years, people had forgotten where the city used to stand.





    When unearthed in the 1740s, the preserved faces of the victims told excavators without words the horror and anguish of the catastrophic event. While devastating for the inhabitants, in a quirk of h…

The Ultimate Golf Getaways
By Damien Martin

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and there are plenty of work to be done outside. So what better time to ditch those projects, gather your friends and go play some golf? We at Largay Travel have the perfect foursome of getaways to help you fix that slice once and for all.



Experience the Home of Golf, Scotland

Even if your game isn’t quite Claret Jug-worthy, you can still live out your dreams of playing a round on the Old Course at St. Andrews with our Virtuoso-preferred partner Adventures in Golf. The 6-night package also includes three other rounds at world-ranked courses such as Kingsbarns, Royal Dornoch, Carnoustie and Turnberry Ailsa.

Deluxe accommodations with daily breakfast and a rental car are included. You can add a driver to take you around if you need to focus your mental energy or your other driving. Space for 2017 is quickly filling up, but it’s not too early to plan for next year.



100 Holes of Golf, Hawaii
This 6-night p…

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
By Damien Martin



No, it’s not Mexico’s Independence Day (that would be September 16). Yes, it’s way more popular in the U.S. than it is in Mexico; you can thank the Chicano Movement of the mid-20th century for that.
    While now it’s mostly an excuse for Americans to party, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The victory didn’t even preserve Mexican independence for long, as France soon after took Mexico City and established the Second Mexican Empire as a client state.
    The battle’s significance did resonate across the world, though, because an outnumbered Mexican force defeated a French army that was on a half-century winning streak. Guerrilas continued to fight and, aided by the U.S. after the American Civil War ended, managed to regain independence in 1867.
    Though it’s really only a regional holiday in Mexico, Cinco de Mayo has become a celebration of Mexican heritage around the world. Here’…

Happy World Penguin Day! By Damien Martin

One by one, they waddle out of the surf and onto the beach. Two or three wide, they scuttle on, hunched forward, headed home after a long day. Occasionally, one bumps into the neighbor in front. It’s starting to get dark, after all, and they’re in a rush. It’s not always easy being a little penguin. This rush hour traffic jam takes places every evening at sunset on Australia’s Phillip Island, about 2 hours outside Melbourne. And, yes, Little penguins is the official name for the world’s smallest penguin species, standing between 1 and 1½ feet tall. For the best view of the Penguin Parade, you need one of the 300 daily tickets for the viewing platform at Summerland Beach. The tiered seating offers 180-degree sightlines as the penguins march from their fishing waters to their sand dune burrows. You can also get an up-close view from underground window (limited to 70 people), watch from an elevated tower (10 people) or head off in a small group (limi…

Today Rome celebrates its 2,770th birthday by Damien Martin
It began as a small farming community on a hilltop and worked its way up from to regional power to caput mundi, “the head of the world.” Over the centuries, it’s been saved by sacred geese, the last man standing in a battle between two sets of triplets and a Brutus or two. Today, Rome celebrates its 2,770th birthday, and in a lot of ways, it looks better than ever. Thanks in large part to private sponsorship, landmarks such as the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps have been refurbished in recent years, beautifying a city that welcomes between 7-10 million guests annually.

La Città Eterna, “the eternal city,” has been many things to many people over time. It was the world’s first metropolis, surpassing 1 million residents in the 2nd century AD, and saw its population drop to around 30,000 at its low point a few hundred years. The Forum, power center of an empire that ruled a quarter of the world’s population at its height…

By Jamie Biesiada / Travel Weekly Virtuoso invited agents and employees to demonstrate travel videos on an Oculus Rift headset during Virtuoso Travel Week last August. Photo Credit: Virtuoso Gordon Meyer, director of virtual reality (VR) company YouVisit, will tell you that travel is the ideal space for the technology to make an impact because it provides a visual medium to showcase destinations and experiences that is far more vivid and experiential than flat, two-dimensional media. "The pairing of travel and VR just makes so much sense," he said. "It's a perfect-use case for VR." The industry is taking note and beginning to test VR programs. For example, Meyer's company has worked with several destinations to create VR content, and Ascape, another VR company, is also working with travel brands, providing virtual tours of destinations for companies like JetBlue. VR is in the early stages of making its way into the agency space, as well. Ascape recently par…