Around The World...

RIO DE JANEIRO Because the whole world will be there in 2014
  

Fifty-three years after Brazil’s federal government decamped to Brasília, and decades after São Paulo took over as the country’s business capital, Rio is staging a comeback. With the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics (plus an oil boom) providing the impetus, the tropical city perhaps most famous for its Carnival hedonism is on its way to becoming a more sophisticated cultural hub. In January, the Cidade das Artes, or City of the Arts, was inaugurated as the new home of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. On March 23, Casa Daros — an outpost of the Zurich-based Daros Latinamerica Collection — will open in a renovated 19th-century building with an exhibition of Colombian artists. March will also mark the opening of the Rio Museum of

The largest terrain expansion in North American skiing is under way just north of the border at Red Mountain Resort in Rossland, British Columbia. Long known for its steeps, tree-skiing and out-of-the-way location (it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Spokane) that leaves its lift mazes empty and led Skiing magazine last year to call it the “most underrated” resort, Red has embarked on a two-year project that will add nearly 1,000 acres on neighboring Grey Mountain. This winter a 10-dollar ride in a snowcat will haul skiers from Red to Grey to enjoy a few runs that have been cut as well as glade skiing.

Houston is probably best known as the Texan center for energy and industry, but it’s making a bid to be the state’s cultural and culinary capital as well. The Houston Museum District is a formidable coterie of institutions that includes the Rothko Chapel, the Museum of African American Culture, which made its debut last February; and the Asia Society Texas Center, which opened in a stunning Yoshio Taniguchi-designed building in April. And last summer, the Houston Museum of Natural Science opened a 30,000-square-foot hall of paleontology in a new $85 million wing. Meanwhile, the city’s dining scene is also heating up, with three of the city’s newest restaurants — Oxheart, Underbelly and Uchi — placing on national best-new-restaurant lists.

If the name Oliver North means anything to you, there’s a good chance that Nicaragua doesn’t jump to your mind when you think of a relaxing, high-end, spa-filled vacation. For the past 30 years, the country has been fighting its image as a land of guerrilla warfare and covert arms deals. At first, only travel writers took note; over the past several years, various publications have declared the country the next great destination. However, if the booming eco-lodge business is any indication, Nicaragua’s moment might finally have arrived.

The ease of traveling to Puerto Rico from the mainland United States (no passport or foreign currency) has made the island more a mainstream getaway than an exclusive haven. But a string of new resorts, some with a nod to the island’s storied past in tourism, have opened in and around San Juan. The Condado Vanderbilt, a stately 1919-vintage hotel on the oceanfront in San Juan that had been closed since 1993, opened an upscale restaurant called 1919 in October. Its 323 rooms, spread between the historic building and two new towers, are expected to open by this summer. About 20 miles west of town, the Ritz-Carlton’s new Dorado Beach opened last month with 115 rooms all facing the ocean, 11 miles of walking and biking trails,
a spa with treehouse massage pavilions and a restaurant from the chef José Andrés.

 THE BIG ISLAND, HAWAII  festing on hawaii's less-visited isle




Oahu has its North Shore. Kauai has its waterfalls. But until recently, the Big Island’s biggest claim was its land mass. This is the year that’s changing. A slew of high-end golf courses and new beach clubs, like the Lava Lava Beach Club, are drawing tourists to this corner of the archipelago
like never before. And now that
the farm-to-table movement has made its way to Hawaii, the Big Island is finally living up to its name. The grandfather of farm-to-table fare is Merriman’s, which has been at it for