It pays to work for Oprah. The second most powerful celebrity in the world is treating 1,700 of her employees and their families to an all-expenses-paid Mediterranean cruise this week, estimated to be setting Oprah back about $5400 per person, totaling $9.2 million.

The trip began on the mainland in Barcelona, where Oprah celebrated her 55th birthday in Poble Espanyol, a popular tourist destination featuring shops, restaurants and bars. During their three day stay in the Barcelona, Oprah and her staff toured the city, taking in sites like the famously incomplete Antonio Gaudi church La Sagrada Familia. ]]> cmb 2009-06-23T10:02:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/2/142014/9669

Last one in's a rotten egg! We're finding the best places in the world to stick our toes in this summer (or next winter) for our World's Coolest Pools map. Know of any pools we must check out? Let us know.

One guest's dealbreaker is another's delight: The Hotel Arts Barcelona's website barely mentions its pool among luxury offerings like the deluxe suites and the "Spa By Six Senses," but we think this gorgeous seaside tower's got something to shout about.

This Ciutat Vella skyscraper operated by Ritz-Carlton opened in 1994 and was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects who brought us the US embassy in Beijing and the Sears Willis Tower in Chicago. The neighborhood, the oldest part of the city currently holding the FC Champions League title, includes La Rambla, the long boulevard which is both tourist trap and exuberant artery of Barcelona street life. ]]> egw 2009-06-02T15:17:05-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/12/3/224447/097 Click Here To Go Straight To Chasing Racers Map



Chasing Racers is back, with a brand new Amazing Race 10 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below, and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray. Enjoy.

When we last left our intrepid racers, they were bedded down with some Bedouins just off the Road to Marrakech...literally. The models, Tyler and James, are off first admiring the Moroccan sunrise and plotting the demise of DuKat. Rob and Kimberly bounce back from their flat tire, while Bama gets sweet, sweet karmic revenge on DuKat, who yielded them. Will Rob and Kimberly pull it together? Will Lyn and Karlyn sass their way through the rest of the race? Will Dustin and Kandice succumb to bad karma after their botched yield? Will Tyler and James finally get busy? Answers, and more snarky comments, after the jump!]]> Todd 2006-12-04T09:26:12-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/10/9/85510/8404
Yesterday's Times turned on the bore with its shocking exposes of wine tours, walking tours, and--gasp!--archictecture. Matt Gross, the "Frugal Traveler," a.k.a. that guy you're still jealous of, provided some respite from the yawn-fest, however, with his Barcelona report.

Gross stayed at Hostal Gat Raval, a surprisingly hip hostel in Barcelona's "equivalent of Manhattan's East Village." At €42 a night, he got shared showers, a "functional and clean" room with a mini-balcony, and choice people watching outside the joint. He escaped the crowds, at Irati, a tapas bar, and by checking out La Boqueria in the wee hours of the morning before regular market swarms arrive. He also describes a sublime experience at Inopia, a restaurant run by Albert Adrià, brother of El Bulli superchef Ferran.

The total for his weekend in the city? €341.10, including lodging, transportation, food, and shopping. Not bad, and it actually sounds like a trip we might want to repeat ourselves.

[Photo: misarco]

Related Stories:
· Footloose in Spain's Capital of Style, Barcelona [NYT]
· Hostal Gat Raval Reviews [TripAdvisor]]]> djk 2006-10-09T11:31:14-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/10/6/145724/910
Pablo Picasso is an important artist. Important enough to not only have his paintings exhibited the world over, but to have not one but at least three large museums devoted to him. We favor Barcelona's Museu Picasso over the Paris and Malaga versions. It's home to a massive collection of Picasso works, including a large part of his early work donated by the great painter himself.

It's not only ogling the masterpieces of his Blue Period (clearly inspired by over-ordering in that one color, we suppose) or trying to interpret the shapes and colors of cubism that keeps us happy at Museu Picasso. Even the gift shop has been designed with care, and you can buy more than just the standard art gallery books, prints and postcards: the curators have gifts designed "to invade our everyday life" and assure us "that you will be giving an original present, which has personality." Now that's what you can bring back to annoying Aunty Jo--a gift with personality that'll invade her life. Picasso's perfect.

[Photo: Micke-fi] ]]> amandak 2006-10-09T09:09:49-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/8/17/16352/4620
We've long wondered how a Spanish building site has become such a popular tourist attraction: Antoni Gaudi's unfinished church, La Sagrada Familia, really is a construction site (so you won't be surprised to find its website is also under construction!). Visit on a rainy day like we did, and you'll realise particularly clearly how unfinished the temple ceiling is.

It's not just a time shortage problem, despite the complexity of the colorful, knobbly and full-of-the-unexpected building--the foundation stone was laid back in 1882. The loss of master architect Gaudi in 1926 when he was run over by a streetcar introduced new arguments into the construction process, and plenty of stories about money shortages also color its history.

So, should you wait around until completion date before you head to sunny Barcelona? We don't advise it. Estimates for this range from 2020 to 2200! Don your safety helmet (just kidding, we just think it could be a new fashion statement) and get there anyway.

[Image via onecurlycat/Flickr]

Related stories:
Another Gaudi: Park Guell [Jaunted]
Called to the Barca [Mirror]
]]> amandak 2006-08-18T09:35:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/