World's most beautiful castles
A lot of the allure derives from the history and human drama that played out within the walls, as well as the astonishing architecture that features on so many castles. But they're also romantic and somewhat mystical, places that spark our imagination and conjure visions of long-ago knights in shining armor and powerful warrior queens.
'Because they combine two functions, they are far more interesting than fortresses or palaces,' says Marc Morris, author of 'Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain.'
'What makes a castle a castle is that it combines the functions of defense and dwelling — it's a fortification and a stately home rolled into one. Creating a building which is both comfortable and defensible is difficult. The ingenious ways in which castle-designers reconciled this balance is always intriguing.'
Although we normally associate castles with European history, it's actually an architectural form found around the world — in nations as varied as Japan and India, Morocco and Mexico.
Many are now hubs of living history where modern visitors can watch jousting and other ancient combat forms, listen to medieval music or watch artisans demonstrate the arts, crafts and everyday skills of a thousand years ago.
They also make great backdrops for outdoor concerts, films, theater and military performances, or for the on-location filming of movies and television shows.
'With a castle you get not only the stories of sieges, but also stories of the domestic lives of the rich and famous,' says Morris. 'Castles are places were plots were hatched, marriages were consummated, murders carried out, royal babies born, and so on. With castles, you are never short of fascinating things to talk about.'
Read on to find out more about 21 of the world's most beautiful castles, fortified homes that are both a feast for the eyes and a time trip back to the bygone age during which they were created.
Located about 30 minutes by bullet train west of Osaka and Kobe, Himeji rises above the Inland Sea and is considered the epitome of the Japanese feudal castle.
Both a Japanese national treasure and World Heritage Site, the elegant whitewashed structure is also called 'White Heron Castle' because of its resemblance to a great bird taking flight.
Completed in the early 17th century, Himeji offers daily guided tours in Japanese and English.
This classic medieval castle towers above the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. Originally built as a Byzantine citadel, it was reworked into its present Gothic form by the crusading Knights of St John when Rhodes served as the headquarters of their grand master.
During the brief Italian occupation of the Dodecanese Islands, Benito Mussolini used the castle as a holiday home. Its permanent archeological exhibitions feature relics from ancient Greece and the early Christian period.
Even though many people consider this Bavarian masterpiece the epitome of a German castle, it's a relatively new creation, erected in the late 1800s at the behest of King Ludwig II.
The Bavarian monarch instructed his architects to design something that would reflect both the operas of Richard Wagner and the romantic ideals of the Middle Ages — as much a fantasy as Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, but with the snowcapped Alps as a backdrop and the Bavarian plains spread out beneath.
Neuschwanstein is also a cinema darling, having appeared in numerous flicks over the years including 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and 'The Great Escape.'
One of the most striking castles in all of Europe, the Alcázar rides a narrow, rocky promontory overlooking the plains of Old Castile in central Spain.
Although it started life as a Roman fort, the structure evolved over hundreds of years into a prototypical medieval castle with a deep moat, drawbridge, round guard towers and a robust keep, as well as lavishly decorated royal chambers.
Segovia Castle is most renowned as the home of Queen Isabella and powerful Phillip II before the royal court was moved to Madrid.
Another offspring of the Romantic movement that swept 19th-century Europe, Pena crowns a hilltop near Sintra, Portugal.
Commissioned by King Ferdinand II on the site of a ruined monastery dedicated to the Virgin of Pena, the castle is a flamboyant blend of various historic styles including Gothic, Moorish and Renaissance details.
The castle's vivid red-and-yellow color pattern — and its flashy clock tower — endow Pena with a much more playful air than the somber castles found elsewhere in Europe.
Erected in the early 17th century by the Mughal ruler of Rajasthan, the Amber Fortress crowns a hilltop near Jaipur, its stout walls reflected in the waters of Maota Lake.
The palace complex inside the walls revolves around courtyards flanked by exquisite examples of Rajput architecture like the Maharaja's Apartments, Sukh Niwas (Hall of Pleasure) and Diwan-i-Am (Royal Audience Hall).
Although it was once fashionable to ride an elephant up the steep entrance road, visitors are now advised to walk or take a 4x4 taxi.
This massive mudbrick structure on the edge of the Sahara has starred in more than a dozen movies and television shows including 'Game of Thrones,' 'Gladiator' and 'The Man Who Would Be King.'
The complex features a fortified lower town along the Asif Ounila River — where people still reside — and a partially ruined hilltop citadel.
Berber-style guest houses provide accommodation for visitors to a ksar originally built in the 17th century as an overnight stop for caravans traveling between Marrakech and the Sudan.
Founded in the waning years of the Viking Age, Kalmar Castle traces its roots to a 12th-century defensive tower overlooking the Kalmar Strait on the Baltic Sea.
Four centuries later, King Gustav and his sons transformed Kalmar into a splendid royal residence that (with the help of renovation) looks much the same today as it did in 1592.
In addition to exhibitions, children's activities and guided tours, Scandinavia's best-preserved Renaissance castle also features special events like an exhibition of ancient Egyptian artefacts, which is open until November 2025.
Guarding the entrance to San Juan Bay, this 16th-century Spanish citadel is one of the most impressive structures in the Caribbean.
Protected by a moat (with a drawbridge), stone battlements and rugged sea cliffs, the castle has repelled numerous attacks including several assaults by French pirates and a 1595 strike by Sir Francis Drake. However, it surrendered to US forces after a fierce naval bombardment during the Spanish-American War.
Since 1962, El Morro and nearby Castillo San Cristóbal (the largest fort constructed by the Spanish in the western hemisphere) have been part of the San Juan National Historic Site. The grassy 'field of fire' in front of the castle is now immensely popular for picnics and kite flying.
Although it's officially called a palace, Istanbul's sprawling Topkapi compound bears all the features of a classic castle: defensible site, fortified walls, powerful gateways and a royal residence occupied by the Ottoman sultans from the late 15th century when it was originally constructed until the 1850s.
Converted into a museum when the Ottoman Empire dissolved after World War I, the Topkapi offers extensive gardens, wall-top walks overlooking the Bosphorus, the Ottoman Imperial Harem where the ruler's concubines resided and the Imperial Treasury with its famous emerald-encrusted golden dagger — stolen and eventually retrieved in the 1964 heist movie 'Topkapi.'
Perched on an ancient volcanic outcrop at the end of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle is considered the 'most besieged place' in Britain with at least 26 major attacks during its 1,100-year lifespan.
From Mary Queen of Scots to Oliver Cromwell and Sir Walter Raleigh, many famous Britons are indelibly linked the ancient edifice.
Britain's oldest crown jewels (the Honours of Scotland) are safeguarded inside a castle that also provides an incredibly fitting venue for the annual Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Music concerts, living history events and weapons demonstrations are among the many events staged throughout the year inside the walls. And bygone military mascots are buried in the castle's Dog Cemetery.
Despite its diminutive size, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is well-endowed with castles — more than 50 are spread across an area smaller than London's metro area. The most spectacular of these is Schloss Vianden, poised high above the Our River in northern Luxembourg.
Built on the site of an ancient Roman fortress that protected the empire from barbarian invasion, the castle was constructed between the 11th and 14th centuries.
Blending aspects of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance design, it remained in royal hands until 1977 when the Grand Duke bequeathed it to the state. Vianden's biggest annual bash is an August medieval festival with dueling knights, troubadours, jugglers and artisans.
The Kremlin in Moscow may be better known, but it can't hold a candle to the one in Novgorod when it comes to medieval ambiance.
Located 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of St. Petersburg, Novgorod was the seat of a powerful Russian republic from the 11th to 15th century when it was finally overshadowed by Moscow.
That power was concentrated inside the detinets or kremlin with its sturdy walls and heavily fortified towers.
Among its landmarks today are the Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom with its silver domes, the Novgorod Museum and the Millennium of Russia monument.
There's no better example of the transition from the fortified castles of the medieval era to palatial homes of the Renaissance than this enormous chateau in the Loire Valley.
Commissioned as a 'hunting lodge' by King François I in the early 16th century, the massive structure (440 rooms) took 28 years to construct.
While it's moat, corner towers and keep are purely decorative, the 500-year-old castle has nevertheless protected some real treasures, not least the a magnificent double helix staircase said to have been inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.
One of the finest examples of Chinese castle architecture is Shuri, a hilltop fortress and palace complex on the island of Okinawa in Japan.
As the royal court of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom for more than 450 years — when the islands were heavily influenced by nearby China — Shuri developed a warren of imperial living quarters, audience halls, religious shrines and an extravagant throne room reminiscent of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The compound was heavily restored after World War II, when Shuri served as the local headquarters for the Imperial Japanese Army. The castle's present-day activities range from a morning gate-opening ritual called Ukejo and multilingual audio tours of the grounds to daily dance performances and nighttime illumination.
England has far larger castles (Windsor) and others that are more steeped in history (Tower of London). But none boasts that textbook form of Bodiam Castle in East Sussex.
Erected in 1385 as the bastion of a former royal knight, it's the epitome of a medieval castle – thick crenelated walls supported by nine stubby towers, arrayed around a square central courtyard and reached via a wooden walkway (a drawbridge in olden days) across a wide moat.
Among its many visitor summer activities are archery sessions, dressing up in medieval costumes, afternoon tea with cakes and scones and guided tours. And just seven miles away is where the landmark Battle of Hastings played out in 1066.
The only royal castle in the Americas hovers high above Mexico City.
Erected in the late 1700s as a summer house for the viceroy of New Spain, the castle has played many roles since then, including the palace of Emperor Maximillian and an 1847 battle between Mexican troops and invading Americans that features in the 'Marine Corps Hymn' ('From the Halls of Montezuma …').
Nowadays Chapultepec is home to Mexico's National Museum of History. The royal quarters — including the precious Malachite Room and Maximillian's flamboyant bedroom — are included in castle tours.
What makes this Slovenian castle so special is its astounding location — Predjama is arrayed across a cave mouth beneath a natural rock arch on the side of a sheer cliff.
The lofty setting made it virtually impregnable when it was constructed in the 13th century. Attackers laid siege to Predjama on numerous occasions, but a secret passageway (that still exists today) allowed the defenders to come and go at will.
Located 62 kilometers (38 miles) from Ljubljana, the castle and its park-like grounds host the Erasmus Knight's Tournament, a medieval festival and jousting competition staged every July.
This island bastion overlooking the Bay of Naples is the oldest castle on our list, tracing its roots to the 5th century BC when Greeks colonized the region. From Roman legionnaires to Napoleon's troops, many armies have occupied Aragonese over the years.
The castle now belongs to the family of an Italian lawyer who purchased the fortified island in 1912 and began restoration of its battlements, churches, convents, crypts and gardens. In addition to views that stretch all the way across the bay to Mount Vesuvius, Aragonese Castle boasts outdoor cafes, a bookshop, art exhibits and outdoor movies.
Prague's imposing citadel is also one of the few castles anywhere in the world that still boasts real political power — the official residence of the president of the Czech Republic.
Among the other landmarks inside its spacious confines are St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, 10 gardens and a row of 16th-century cottages called the Golden Lane that once housed the castle guards.
Guided tours, offered during daylight and evening hours, last around three hours.
Reportedly damaged during Syria's recently ended civil war, Krak des Chevaliers remains one of the world's great castles — and the only one on our list that has experienced 21st-century conflict.
Created in the 12th century by the Knights of St. John, the celebrated Krak is considered the epitome of a crusader castle in the Middle East and one of the greatest statements of medieval military architecture.
The structure features two mighty walls separated by a moat on a steep hillside between Homs and the Mediterranean Sea. It's hoped that the end to the fighting in Syria will enable restoration and repair work.
This article was first published in 2019. It was updated and republished in June 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The nightmare scenario for America's real estate market
A few years ago, Brian Boero and his wife decided to buy a vacation home in Tuscany. They envisioned owning an apartment in a medieval Italian city, the ideal splurge for a couple of empty nesters after the height of the pandemic. It was also "kind of a 'YOLO' thing," says Boero, the CEO of 1000Watt, a real estate consulting firm. Once he started hunting for a place, though, his European dream turned into a total nightmare. Shop Top Mortgage Rates Your Path to Homeownership A quicker path to financial freedom Personalized rates in minutes It didn't take long for Boero to realize he'd been spoiled by the American market. That may sound strange given the country's housing woes, but even Americans who've never bought a house have probably enjoyed the quirks that make our setup the envy of the rest of the world. When you want to get a sense of all the homes for sale in your area, you can easily cruise over to Zillow or the website of one of its competitors. The listings on these sites are pulled from industry databases that police their accuracy to ensure you're not wasting time on old or scammy postings. If you like a place, it's pretty easy for your agent to schedule a tour, scoop the keys out of a lockbox, and show you around. The rest of the buying process may come with tears and headaches, but the matter of actually finding homes is fairly seamless. Not so in Europe. The Zillow equivalents there offer only partial views of the market, turning up inaccurate listings or homes that have already traded hands. In particularly maddening cases, the same house may be listed separately by several agents, each of whom is asking for a different price. Brokers are also known to gatekeep their best listings, hiding them from the view of the average buyer. Even aggregate market data is hard to come by since there's no central clearing house for listings — it can be difficult to know whether you're getting a really good deal or a really bad one. In Italy, Boero says, he ended up having to carry out much of his search on foot, hoofing around town to peek at home listings posted in the windows of various brokerages. His real estate agent spent a lot of time on the phone, calling around to see what was available. For Boero, the whole thing felt like "feeling around in the dark." "It was shadowy, confusing," Boero tells me. "We really didn't feel like we were in control of the process." Boero is among those warning that the US market could be headed down a similar path. Some of the country's biggest real estate companies are engaged in a fierce war over the rise of "hidden listings" — homes advertised in some places but purposely kept off other sites. Zillow has gone so far as to ban listings that it says weren't shared with everyone, including Zillow, in a timely manner. Compass, the nation's largest real estate brokerage by sales volume, has responded by suing Zillow in federal court. The feud could result in a fracturing of the housing market, with home listings scattered across the internet or hidden away in so-called "private listing networks." Such a future would have real consequences for American homebuyers, who are used to getting a near-complete view of the market simply by navigating to one of the many home search websites available. There's also a bitter irony at the heart of this fight. Groups of real estate brokers in countries around the world are trying to replicate the US model at the same time that big firms on this side of the pond are squabbling over that very setup. "In France, they're laughing at the situation at this moment, honestly," Ali Attar, a real estate tech executive in Paris, tells me. The system in the US, he says, is more fragile than people realize. "They are taking it for granted in the US," Attar says. "And as soon as they destroy it, bringing it back will be extremely difficult." It took decades for the US to reach this kind of housing market transparency. The crown jewels of our modern real estate model — the things that make everything else possible — are the multiple-listing services, local databases where agents share detailed information on homes for sale. The MLSes then shuttle that info to search portals like Zillow, Redfin, or as well as the websites of thousands of local and national real estate brokerages. The average buyer doesn't get direct access to the MLSes, but with the help of the search portals, they don't really need it. Any home shopper can peruse the market, free of charge, from the comfort of their couch. The MLS model is considered by many to be the gold standard. Brokers in other countries have attempted to form similar databases, but the structure in North America remains unique. The problem isn't a lack of technological know-how — building the machinery isn't hard. The tougher part is getting brokers to agree to this kind of cooperation and enforcing the rules to make sure people don't take advantage of the system. In Europe, sellers are often represented by multiple agents who jockey to be the first to procure a buyer. There's a clear incentive to gatekeep a listing — share it around too much, and another agent might swoop in and broker a deal before you know what hit you. The popular, Zillow-like search portals in places like Spain or France are less unbiased repositories of information and more like advertising platforms. Agents ostensibly pay to display listings, but they're also marketing their own services. If a buyer inquires about a listing that's already sold, no matter — the agent can direct them to the other listings held behind closed doors. This is why listings may remain on these sites long after they've gone off the market. When it comes to drawing in more clients, there's no better lure. The ideal real estate marketplace is full of valuable, visible, and valid listings — what Attar refers to as the "three Vs." Buyers want these listings, they can find them, and the information is correct. House hunters in the US are accustomed to websites with postings that check off all three boxes. But in Europe, Attar says, home listings are typically missing at least one. "If it is valuable and it is valid, it's not visible," Attar tells me. "It's going to be hidden somewhere." Hollin Stafford, a real estate agent with eXp Realty in Portugal, can attest to these frustrations. She spent more than a decade working in the business in the States before moving to a town outside Lisbon in 2016. There she encountered a setup that, in many ways, still feels like "the Wild West," she tells me. Though Stafford has now spent years helping buyers and sellers navigate the Portuguese market through her company, Blue Horizon Properties, she hasn't forgotten the parts of the US system that she once took for granted. "You get so used to having the centralized system where you can see all of the details you need," Stafford says. "You can see what things actually sold for, and do a proper market evaluation, and all these things that you just think are par for the course." In September, real estate leaders from around the world are set to gather in Toronto for the third-annual International MLS Forum, a conference where attendees discuss plans to create the kinds of systems that buyers and sellers in the US already enjoy. Canada is the only other country with anything approaching a similar setup, says Sam DeBord, the CEO of the Real Estate Standards Organization, a nonprofit group focused on developing the technological rules and processes that undergird the MLS databases. Other places, like Egypt and France, have taken steps toward creating comparable databases. But in most cases, those with power — the big brokerages or portals that run things — have little incentive to make a change. "It's this concept of a tragedy of the commons," DeBord tells me. "If every individual goes out and takes as much as they can, all of a sudden the marketplace is ruined." There are some clear signs that the US real estate market could fall into something like the cutthroat, user-unfriendly European model. For one thing, the MLSes are basically a social construct. The National Association of Realtors — one of the most powerful industry groups in the country — effectively sets the rules for participating in these databases, and the local MLSes may levy fines against agents who run afoul of those policies. But there's no law that says it has to work this way, and recent troubles at the NAR have dented the group's influence over other power players. Actual enforcement among local MLSes is also known to be spotty. Some in the industry fear that it could all crumble if all this infighting turns into an actual exodus. Last year, Compass, which has more than 37,000 agents around the country, staked its future on a plan to draw more agents and clients by building up a stockpile of "exclusive inventory": homes that couldn't be found anywhere else. The company began heavily pushing a "three-phased marketing strategy" that encouraged sellers to test their home listings exclusively on the Compass website — first in the company's internal database and then on its public-facing landing page — before sharing them with the MLS and the major search portals. The crux of their pitch was that the MLS and sites like Zillow display information that doesn't help a seller, tracking stuff like price cuts and how long the house has been on the market. The brokerage's marketing plan, on the other hand, lets sellers fine-tune their approach and gather valuable feedback from other agents before making a broader debut. Plenty of industry figures cried foul over this plan — the whole system is predicated on the idea that agents share their listings widely and freely. But the brokerage's play also seemed to be working. Buyers want to get a first glimpse at homes however they can, and sellers may not mind testing the market in a limited capacity if they think it'll net them more in the long run. In February of this year, Compass said that more than half of its sellers were choosing to "premarket" their homes using the three-phased plan. About 94% of Compass's listings last year, including those that went through this kind of premarketing, eventually made it to the MLS, the company says, though it's not clear how long those houses spent in the databases. Even if most of these houses ended up on Zillow and the like, Compass clients still had early access to thousands of listings that couldn't be found on the big search portals. The concern now is that other big brokerages could decide to follow suit, keeping homes on their own websites before sharing them elsewhere. In this state of play, a buyer could still visit a site like Zillow to look at homes for sale, but the portal wouldn't be able to show you all, or maybe even most, of the available listings at any given moment. Instead, you'd have to jump from site to site, scouring the web for homes. The choice of an agent would carry additional weight — you'd have to consider just how much of the market they could unlock via their access to private, internal databases. The closest analogy to this hypothetical may be the fragmented world of video streaming, in which companies like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max are racing to build walled gardens of exclusive content. Sure, you can try to get access to all the shows and movies out there, but doing so requires a lot of time and money. And, frankly, it's a huge pain. Mike DelPrete, a real estate tech strategist and scholar-in-residence at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been warning about this threat to the search portals for years. "When it comes to browsing for real estate, consumers want access to all of the available inventory," DelPrete wrote in a blog post four years ago. "If a certain portion of listings are held off-market, available exclusively on another platform, consumer eyeballs will naturally follow." For now, a lot of eyeballs are still on Zillow, which draws more than 220 million unique visitors each month. But that's of little comfort to those who warn that Compass could trigger a domino effect among other large brokerages. The 10 largest brands in real estate accounted for more than half of US home sales volume last year, data from T3 Sixty, a consulting firm for residential real estate brokerages, shows. Even some leaders who have come out against Compass' strategy have warned that they, too, could flex their sizable market share to execute a similar game plan. MLSes need "someone to enforce the rules," DeBord tells me. In this case, that enforcer may turn out to be Zillow. The home search giant has tried to put the kibosh on all of this by banning listings that are not shared with Zillow — and the rest of the MLS — within one business day of being marketed publicly. That means as soon as a "for-sale" sign shows up in the front yard or an agent posts about a house on their website, the clock is ticking for them to send it to the databases that share listings with pretty much every other site in the industry. Those who don't comply will be left to explain to their clients why their house won't appear on the most popular home-search portal in the country. Compass has sued Zillow in federal court, accusing the company of using its monopoly power to quash a competing business model that, Compass claims, gives sellers more control over where and how their homes are marketed. In a formal response last month, Zillow disputed the monopoly characterization and argued that it shouldn't be forced to help Compass freeride on the system by accepting its stale listings only after they haven't sold on the Compass site. The brokerage's three-phased marketing strategy, Zillow's lawyers wrote, "harms consumers, who face balkanized and less liquid markets for homes, and Zillow, whose ability to attract and serve consumers depends on comprehensive, up-to-date listings." It's important to remember that anyone weighing in on this battle has a financial stake in their desired outcome. Compass wants to grow its agent base and market share. Zillow needs fresh home listings to fuel its business, which relies on selling leads to agents who pay to advertise on its platform. American companies aren't the only ones who care about this, either — brokers around the world are watching to see how this shakes out. When I talked to DelPrete back in June, he had just returned from a weekslong work trip to Europe. The fight over inventory back in the States, he says, came up "a surprising amount of times." "I think it's a case of the grass is always greener, right?" DelPrete says. "The US wants what the rest of the world has, and the rest of the world wants what the US has." There's a case to be made that all this hand-wringing will turn out to be hyperbole. The real estate industry in the US is notoriously slow to change, and consumers are used to the current setup. Zillow draws so many visitors that it's hard to imagine real estate agents shunning the platform en masse — it's simply too powerful a marketing machine. The MLS model, at least as it exists in the States, is far from perfect. More than 500 local databases form a complex web of overlapping fiefdoms that agents have to subscribe to individually. The recent class-action lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and major brokerages cast the MLSes not as models of transparency, but as shadowy databases that helped prop up agent commissions by facilitating a sneaky practice known as "steering." There are other models that could work, too: In Australia, for instance, there's a dominant search portal where most people go to find homes, and many places sell via an auction that offers more transparency than the US system of making blind offers. And while the search portals here offer pretty comprehensive views of the market, they've never had all of the listings. There have always been so-called "pocket listings" that float around beyond the reach of the MLSes, available only to in-the-know agents who can offer their clients a leg up on the competition. But hardly anyone in the industry disagrees with the basic premise that buyers like being able to find homes easily and in one place. People may gripe about Zillow's power in the industry or the questionable accuracy of its ubiquitous Zestimate, but the ability to scroll through all the listings on the site — or those on any of the other search portals — is unique to North America. Few probably appreciate this better than Boero, the real estate exec who set out to buy the Italian getaway of his dreams. He did eventually find a place that checked off his boxes: "We're happy with it," he says. But he made that purchase with far less confidence than he had in any real estate transaction in his life. And even today, he has no idea whether it's worth more or less than it was when he bought it three years ago. The whole experience, he tells me, gave him a new appreciation for the American way of doing things. "Within the industry, we've made these comparisons ad nauseam," Boero tells me. "'Hey guys, let's not destroy this very special thing we have. Because just look at the rest of the world and how messed up it is.'" James Rodriguez is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team. Read the original article on Business Insider
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Can a star Venice chef make lightning strike twice with his izakaya dream project?
If you were dining out in Venice late last decade, you knew this place — in the thick of Abbot Kinney Boulevard's luxury-cool retail density. MTN (pronounced 'Mountain') closed five years ago and, with a few pivotal modifications, has now returned as RVR (yes, pronounced 'River'). Being at RVR doesn't feel like experiencing déjà vu so much as streaming the surprise new season of a show we all thought had been canceled forever. Its second life turns out to be shockingly good, thanks especially to the kitchen's brilliance with vegetables. We knew MTN as an experimental izakaya that opened in 2017, dripping in hipness. It was the passion project of Travis Lett, the culinary architect behind Gjelina and hybrid food-hall Gjusta whose obsessions with relentless seasonality, global flavor combinations and a brand of casual, photogenic perfection gave Millennials an up-to-date definition of California cuisine. MTN's interpretation of Japanese cuisine closed a circle for Lett, a blond with surfer-model good looks who grew up in New Jersey. His father had spent time in Japan during his military career, and his parents had embraced the macrobiotic diet philosophy that surged through the United States in the 1970s. Scene-wise, MTN was apace with that top-of-the-world L.A. era: a magnet for the setters and chasers of trends, servers who threw attitude in the melee and could get away with it, the music from a turntable often inaudible in the deafening clamor. The cooking could pierce the noise. I remember teetering on a window seat, absorbed in Japanese sweet potatoes glossed with miso butter and covered with snipped scallions and bonito flakes swaying in the heat. Clam broth for one ramen variation arrived so sea-sweet it could fool you into thinking ocean water was quaffable. Two years into the restaurant's run, Lett separated from his Gjelina Group business partners, and MTN closed early into the pandemic. Gjelina and Gjusta carry on of course, still beacons your friends just off a plane want to race first for their California vibe check. But then last spring, the big announcement: Lett, with different investors, had reclaimed the MTN space for a second coming of his izakaya. RVR opened in October, recalibrated for a new decade. From across the street the building looks the same: Asymmetric, modernist exterior walls with a finish that resembles grainy wood. In another incarnation it could house a niche textile museum. Inside, the restaurant's walls have been lightened. A retractable roof has been replaced with panels that let in soft, filtered sunshine; the dining room fades to candlelight-dim when night falls. The tone of the hospitality is notably warmer. Overall, the whole operation comes off as more grounded, and ultimately more appealing. MTN walked so RVR could run. To eat in Los Angeles is to know the ways both classicists and individualists claim the word 'izakaya.' Show up to RVR itching to parse the traditionalism of its dishes and you're probably not going to have a great time. It's Venice. It's Lett. Small plates of chicken thigh karaage drizzled with chile honey, shrimp dumplings beautifully rounded in the gold-ingot wonton fold, roasted black cod and grilled kanpachi collar start at $15 to $20 and go from there. A meal adds up quickly. The value is in how the ingredients sing. This is where centering the region's finest produce comes into play. Lett brought in Ian Robinson as RVR's partner and executive chef. Robinson previously ran a Toronto restaurant called Skippa that specialized in regional dishes of Kyushu island in southern Japan. They're joined by chefs who previously worked with Lett for years, including Cean Hayashi Geronimo and, as of June, chef de cuisine Pedro Aquino, who co-led the Gjelina Group's short-lived Oaxacan restaurant Valle in the same space after MTN closed. The team's cohesion is important: There's some ur-Gjelina alchemy at work here in the plant realms. Even early in RVR's run the crew was teasing the Technicolor out of winter: They'd layer, for example, ripe, honeyed Fuyu persimmons in pinwheel patterns under rounds of lilac-purple daikon, their earthy-sweet differences further contrasted by crunchy furikake and torn shreds of dark-green shiso. Now, in the holy season of summer? Floral apricots step in for the usual cucumber in a take on sunomono, stung with tosazu (vinegar-based dressing smoky with katsuobushi) and aromatic accents of pickled Fresno chiles, ginger and crushed Marcona almonds. Tiny tomatoes rupture on the tongue, sharpened with myoga and blood-red sweet potato vinegar from the Kyoto prefecture and needing nothing else than salt and peppery olive oil. Costata Romanesco zucchini lands on the grill, its signature ribbing still visible under char and hacked on the diagonal; rubbed with a blend of spices that nod to Japanese curry; smeared with playful, mysteriously citrusy curry leaf aioli; and covered in a punchy furikake made with of crushed pine nuts, shallots and nori. For all the Southern California mythologizing around seasonality, few menus in Los Angeles cast produce in feature roles year-round. With technical command and on-their-feet imagination, the RVR chefs are pulling off the city's most inspired plant-centered cooking. Vegetables comprise the menu's largest and most compelling section, but there's plenty more that entices. Hand rolls like kanpachi wrapped with avocado, slivered cucumber, spicy-green yuzu kosho and shiso, or rock cod in tempura slicked with tartar sauce and piqued with daikon radish sprouts, delight with their very Californian cleverness. I keep coming back for duck meatball tsukune, at once fluffy and dense and served with head-clearing hot mustard; smoky-sweet Monterey bay squid, matched with a revolving mix of herbs and acidic punctuations that always coalesce; and pan-fried pork and cabbage gyoza crowned with a crackling, lacy dumpling 'skirt.' Among several ramen options, right now I'm favoring the springy noodles with Dungeness crab and corn. The viscous broth gently builds flavors, prominently echoing the two lead elements. However the idea of an izakaya may be translated, the drinking component is crucial. Among cocktails: fresh-fruit shochu highballs, plum-accented negronis and freezer martinis. Suntory premium malt runs on draught. Six styles of sake number among options by the glass, as do plenty of hot or iced Japanese teas and a fun, smooth cherry-vanilla soda made by the bar staff. More than not, though, I'm drinking off-dry Rieslings or rich, slightly oxidized whites from more obscure corners of France because wine director Maggie Glasheen is in the house. She's one of those enthusiasts who, if you show interest, gathers several bottles of wine in her arms and brings them tableside to discuss. Each sound like a mini-adventure, and Glasheen always swings back around to make sure you're happy with the one you chose. Nearly 10 months in for RVR, prime-time dinner reservations remain maddeningly competitive. A few months ago, the restaurant began serving weekend brunch as well. Before word spread, one could stroll in at 12:30 p.m. on a Sunday and savor a silky rolled omelet and one large, chewy-crisp black sesame pancake alongside the moment's sugar snap peas glossed with sour-sweet ume. Now brunch too is catching on, so it's safer to book a week or so out, particularly if you want to request a place on the breezy rooftop patio that launched when the weather warmed. It could — no, it should — be the new first-stop meal your vibe-seeking friends demand as soon as they're out of LAX.
Los Angeles Times
5 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Three Escapes to Get That Fall Foliage Fix
We've all seen the pictures – that first hint of autumn color, and suddenly your social media is flooded with jealousy-inducing images of New England and upstate New York. For Southern Californians who are sick of endless summer, those first goldenrod and umber tones can make anyone want to get away. And, while those East Coast destinations are lovely, the savvy traveler is already planning right now to be ahead of the curve. Instead of regular ol' Massachusetts or Vermont, they're looking for a seasonal pop of color without the crowded roads and predictable itineraries. What those travel savants are recommending are utterly gorgeous destinations that are all about sophisticated leaf-peeping and a whole lot more. These trips are for the person who wants to be discovering beauty in real time and having an amazing escape, not just watching it unfold on a feed after everyone else has already been there. Here are the three foliage-filled escapes that will give you the color rush you've been looking for. A quintessential fall trip doesn't have to be a cross-country drive to and through the Northeast. One can have an autumn escape in the West as well exploring the majestic landscapes of Wyoming. This is that unforgettable fall foliage painted upon a uniquely rugged, dramatic and Western landscape. The experience here is all about the stunning contrast: Golden hues of aspen trees pop like fire against the jagged backdrop of snow-dusted Teton mountain peaks. The real beauty of this destination is that it marries exhilarating outdoor activity with a deeply luxurious base. You can spend your days on a scenic drive along the Snake River, where the yellows and golds are so brilliant they practically glow, or take a peaceful hike to a secluded spot. For those iconic and photo-worthy views, make sure to visit Oxbow Bend and Schwabacher's Landing, especially in the early morning light when the reflections in the water are simply perfect. The wildlife viewing in the fall is also a major draw, offering the chance to see elk and bison against a vibrant backdrop. After a day of exploring, the town of Jackson Hole provides a wonderful place to rest one's head. Think cozy-yet-luxe lodges with fireplaces, world-class restaurants serving sophisticated cuisine, and quiet bars where you can enjoy a perfectly crafted cocktail. This is an escape that feels both active and calming, a journey that reconnects you with nature in a way that is utterly grand. If your idea of fall perfection is a blend of natural beauty and profound cultural depth, then Kyoto is your answer. Japan's koyo, or 'fall color,' season is as celebrated as its springtime cherry blossoms, and Kyoto is the absolute epicenter of it all. This isn't about big and sweeping vistas – it's about the exquisite detail of a single leaf falling upon a moss garden, all set in contrast to a setting sun illuminating a golden-toned hillside of Japanese maples. And Kyoto is a feast for all the senses, not just sight! The sophisticated traveler can experience this by embracing its renowned hospitality and culinary scene. Imagine a serene walk through a Zen garden, followed by an elegant kaiseki dinner, a traditional multi-course meal that is an art form in itself. Those colors can be seen throughtout the city, but for truly special views, seek out temples like Eikando, known for its night illumination, or Tofuku-ji with its famous bridge offering a stunning vista to view the color. This trip is an adventure in culture, food and Japanese history. You can book a private tea ceremony, view a geisha performance and top it all off with a stay at a top-tier hotel like the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto or Aman Kyoto, where every detail is meticulously considered. Want a fall straight out of a storybook, head into the heart of Germany. The Bavarian Alps come alive in a magical way, with historic castles and charming alpine villages set against a backdrop of golden and auburn forests. It's a journey that feels both deeply romantic and incredibly cozy. The visual highlight is, of course, the legendary Neuschwanstein Castle, which looks even more starkly dramatic and beautiful when surrounded by a sea of colorful trees. While the castle is a must-see, there's real magic in the region at large: for example, simply taking a scenic drive winding through the countryside – each turn reveals a new and picture-perfect view. For a unique fall foliage viewpoint, take to the water: a boat ride on Lake Königssee offers breathtaking reflections of the trees, with a snootful of cool alpine air. The lodging in this region perfectly complements the fairytale vibe. We're not talking about rustic, roughing-it accommodations. The discerning traveler can find high-end-yet-localish inns or luxurious resorts like Schloss Elmau and Das Kranzbach. Both offer gourmet dining, serene spa services and postcard-style uninterrupted views of the Alps. This is an escape that blends historic grandeur and refined culture with the comfort and charm of a true alpine retreat. These trips provide a compelling alternative to the classic East Coast fall (though don't let us stop you from going there, it's also beautiful too!) Taking an escape this fall can provide just the right kind of trip away to escape that forever summer feeling. So, get ahead of the crowds and make everyone jealous with those first fall photos on your social media feed.
