I had the great fortune to spend last Christmas in Sri Lanka with my husband. We had an amazing time criss-crossing the country from Columbo to Kandy, down through tea country to the beaches of the southern coast and back up again.

Hands down, our favorite place to visit was the historic city of Galle. We spent several nights at the Amangalla, a beautifully restored historic hotel tucked away inside the walls of Galle Fort, a 17th century Dutch stronghold turned UNESCO World Heritage site.

If I had to call any hotel in the world home, it would be the Amangalla. Here’s a little collage of photographs I took of our stay there:

I love gadgets. Especially small, nifty gadgets that are fun *and* useful.

A New York-based company called Kogeto has been developing Dot, a cool new lens attachment that turns your iPhone 4 into a 360-degree panoramic video camera. To date, they’ve raised over $95,000 on Kickstarter (another one of my favorite things) to support product development.

Dot is expected to launch this summer, and I’m this close to giving in and pre-ordering one. It looks like it would be so much fun to play with for shooting travel videos, no?

Camels for sale at the Bur Dubai Souq - Dubai, UAE

One last frolic on the beach before dinner - Bali, Indonesia

American travelers headed to Europe this summer should read this NYT article as part of their pre-trip planning. Higgins offers useful advice on how to avoid common credit card problems that you may run into across the Atlantic due to system compatibility issues (us: old-school magnetic strips, them: sophisticated chip-and-PIN technology). Great tips to tide continental travelers over until we’re all paying for everything with our iPhones.

Punakha Dzong - Punakha, Bhutan