John Henderson's Travel Adventures in Rome and Beyond

June 3, 2012

Isla Holbox is Yucatan’s anti-Cancun

The archway from my Villa Delfines leading to Isla Holbox's beach.

By John Henderson Special to Tribune Newspapers ISLA HOLBOX, Mexico – I watched the dolphins swim and play and feed in the little lagoon a 10-minute boat ride from my beach hut. If they kept swimming, turned the Yucatan Peninsula’s northeast corner and swam south, in 60 miles they’d hit Cancun. Sixty miles? After one day too long in the cement jungle of American chains […]

February 17, 2012

A Moveable Feast: Yucatan cuisine makes up for Cancun’s buffet of debauchery

About the only thing Mayan in Cancun is the occasional hotel maid. She must look at the Sigma Chi rush chairman stumbling around in a sombrero and wonder what has happened to her proud, 3,500-year-old culture.

Where she finds it is the same place I did: the dining table.

May 19, 2010

Healthy, tasty surprises fill tourists’ plates in Croatia

The tall, striking blond filleted the fish at my table with the precision of a surgeon and the care of a mother.

February 24, 2010

Tim Horton’s doughnuts are Olympic gold

I’ve found myself falling into a certain morning routine here at the Winter Olympics. Every day, it’s the same thing.

January 11, 2009

L.A. Times: Wild Journey into the Kelabit Highlands

A Panan, one of the nomadic tribes of the Borneo jungle, takes a smoke.

BARIO, MALAYSIA — “At one time or another, I imagine that we have all dreamed about how wonderful it would be to live in a Shangri-La where the climate is ideal, food is plentiful and the girls are beautiful.” — W.M. Toynbee, Canadian schoolteacher and author, on Borneo’s Kelabit Highlands.

June 19, 2008

Brunei: Islam’s tiny corner of peace and tranquility — but you can’t drink to it

The mosque in Kampung Ayer, better known as Brunei's Venice of the East.

By John Henderson Special to The Dallas Morning News BENSAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei – It’s sunset in Brunei and school children are jumping from their front porches into water that engulfs their floating city. Their laughter and splashing are the only sounds I hear, other than the slow puttering of our motor boat as it negotiates around houses, walkways and schools, all balancing over the […]

January 27, 2008

Eurochocolate: Perugia’s Cocoa Bacchanal

The 13.2-square yard, 7,876-pound chocolate bar at Eurocholate in Perugia.

By John Henderson I stood in a chocolate mosh pit, straining to hear the Italian spoken by a blonde beauty yelling to be heard over the screams of hundreds of people fenced off around us. Frida Ciletti is a sculptor who was carving a 2,640-pound block of chocolate into what looked like a family crest on a yacht’s bow. The wind carried the hypnotic, sweet […]

January 16, 2008

Brunei’s $23,000-a-night hotel room blows minds as much as budgets

The pool inside the Empire's $23,000-a--night suite.

By John Henderson Special to the Dallas Morning News JERUDONG, Brunei – See Borneo on $23,000 a day. I found that thought somewhat amusing, if not frightening, when I walked into the hotel suite. Only six days earlier I had pulled myself out of a leech-infested Borneo jungle following a three-day trek through ankle deep mud. Cost: $25 a day. Then again, I didn’t have […]

September 16, 2007

Mountain biking in St. Lucia: Blood, sweat and beauty on the grounds of slavery

By John Henderson Special to the St. Petersburg Times ANSE MAMIN, St. Lucia – I’ve traveled a lot through the Caribbean, and what I saw when our boat pulled up near shore here could have translated to a dozen islands. I walked onto a gorgeous, golden sand beach, in a half-moon bay surrounded by palm trees and dotted with comfy lounge chairs. Find a postcard […]

January 26, 2007

St. Petersburg, Russia: Window to the West

BY JOHN HENDERSON For Away.com The raven-haired goddess in the elaborate red headdress and strategically cut outfit danced and gyrated surprisingly well on her five-inch gold pumps. Two children in angel outfits riding a confetti-covered camel provided a nice contrast, but I had no idea why a giant bunny rabbit was waving to the crowd from the back of a bicycle taxi. It was a […]

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