Overseas Travel: The Hot and the Cold of It

Sure, you're a savvy traveler and you know all about ice bars and ice hotels. Maybe you think you have to harness a reindeer and make your way to lapland to get a decent frozen vodka that stays cold while you sip. Well, you can do that, of course. But now you can have your vodka on real, imported rocks in Milan, Italy. Milan's Absolut Ice Bar was sculpted from 50 tons of crystal clear ice carried almost to the Mediterranean from the river Torne, 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle, according to Reuters.

But if you think that's cool, have you hear about the hottest party in England? Held November 5th, Bonfire Night in the Sussex town of Lewes features men and women in historical constume rolling barrels of flaming tar down the cobbled streets in a reinactment of the defeat of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Don't overlook a festival that warns you "if you are asthmatic, make sure that you bring a full inhaler." Where there's fire there's smoke. In any case, Lewes Bonfire Council has a great website on the festival with pictures. You'll find the festival and others in our Festivals and Celebrations Directory. One thing is certain, off-season travel doesn't need to be as drab as the weather.