George Clooney Slept Here

Surrounded by 140 acres of indigenous bush, the Giraffe Manor, a small exclusive hotel just outside Nairobi, has a resident herd of giraffe who have a tendency to stick their long necks into everything. The butler, in fact, kicks off happy hour each night by offering nuts to Daisy, a 20-foot endangered Rothschild giraffe, and her clan.

In 1974, Jock Leslie Melville and his American wife Betty, concerned about the rare Rothschild giraffes whose natural habitat in western Kenya was disappearing, bought the 15-acre manor (they later added 105 additional acres), moved in Daisy and a partner and started the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife.

After Jock died in 1984, Betty opened the giraffe reserve and its faux Scottish hunting lodge to the public. Giraffe Manor has six bedrooms, one furnished with the furniture of writer Karen Blixen, the dining room is lit by candles only and meals are made with organic fruits and vegetables. Outside, with views of Mount Kilimanjaro to the south, warthogs strut their stuff next to the giraffes. Guests have included Johnny Carson, Walter Cronkite, Brooke Shields, Stephen Sondheim and Sir Mick Jagger.

Stick your neck into their website at www.giraffemanor.com.

The Zoological Society of London (along with the Mozambique government, a bunch of marine biologists and a cotton gin entrepreneur) recently opened a small ecoresort in the Quirimbas Islands, just off Mozambique’s north coast. The goal is to preserve the island’s diversity (marine biologist Isabel Silva says there are more species of coral here than in the Great Barrier Reef) and to support the local community whose fisherman monitor the green and hawksbill turtles, dugongs and humpback whales. In return, the lodge buys their fish and funds the local school and health clinic.

The resort has twelve thatched wooden bungalows perched on stilts. There’s no television or air-conditioning (cell phones do work), but to make up for it, guests enjoy sunken marble showers, expansive verandas and hand-carved Mozambican furniture and screens. Nelson Mandela and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the lodge’s guests who have hiked out to the island’s old Portuguese lighthouse, past yellow-bellied sunbirds, Samango monkeys and huge Friar butterflies.

Vamizi Island Lodge, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, 00 258 272 21299, www.vamizi.com.

Julia Roberts (along with hubbie, Danny Moder, 3-year-old Henry and 5-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus) picked The Fours Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay as one of two family headquarters while filming the Bali scenes in Eat Pray Love.

This secluded resort on the south end of the Indian Ocean’s Jimbaran Bay lived up to the Hollywood family’s expectations. Sitting atop a jungle cliff, the resort’s 156 thatch-roofed villas feature handcrafted teak furniture, plunge pools sprinkled with frangipani blossoms (the Roberts’ clan scored a full-size 60-foot pool), outdoor garden showers, open air living quarters and easy access to the resort’s private, white sand beach.

The uber-snazzy spa offers Ayurvedic treatments that start with warm herb-infused oil being drizzled onto the “third eye” chakra and warm herbal flower baths where guests can sip Loloh, a healing organic elixir made from garden herbs.

Half-day Balinese cooking classes, led by the resort’s Indonesian chefs, start with a tour of the local fish and vegetable market and culminate in the custom-built kitchen

As for the kids, Julia was so taken with Balinese Hinduism (the islanders spend nearly a third of their day in meditation and other spiritual practices) that they all got Hindu names. Hazel (A.K.A. Laxmi), Henry (A.K.A. Krishna Balram) and Phinnaeus (A.K.A. Ganesh mostly enjoyed jumping on the batik-clad beds and playing hide and seek among the waterfalls and lush gardens.

For more information or to make reservations, visit the hotel’s website or call the toll-free number at 800.819.5053.

Little-known fact: John O’Sullivan, the resort’s Irish-born GM, is also a published poet who regularly speaks at literary festivals around the world.

Having written an entire book on Girlfriend Getaways, you’d think I’d have already been to all the best destinations for traveling with girlfriends. But this spring, amidst the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush of the Texas Hill Country, I finally found girlfriend getaway nirvana.

This G.G. heaven, halfway between Austin and San Antonio, has shopping with a capital “S,” wine tours, creative cuisine, one-of-a-kind accommodations, herb gardens, swaggering cowboys who tip their hats when you walk by, and what I now consider a necessity when traveling when my friends—designer chocolate.

I didn’t want to believe it either. I mean sure, Fredericksburg, Texas, has a charming, historic downtown, rests enchantingly amidst the pastoral green hills of the Pedernales Valley. But c’mon, how much can a town with a population of only 10,000 really offer?

Turns out, dern near everything.

In fact, Orbitz named Fredericksburg’s Texas Hill Country second only to Napa as the country’s most popular wine and food destination. All I can add is that Napa, you better watch your back.

At last count, there were 27 wineries on the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail (www.texaswinetrail.com) and while not all of them produce vintages about to make Anthony Dias Blue’s list, there are several up and comers that, mark my word, you’ll be hearing about. Although most Texas wines are snatched up by Texans, who have a tendency to be snobby about their own, the wines that do manage to escape borders to compete in international competitions tend to bring home medals and trophies.

Texas Hill country wineries offer daily tastings, vineyard and lavender tours and annual special events such as the upcoming Harvest Wine Festival that pairs vino with artists, chefs, entertainers and musicians. There are even a couple tour operators that cheerfully take you from winery to winery so you can enjoy the many health benefits of red wine (its antioxidants reduce the risk of cancer, lower the rate of heart disease, improve brain function and, get this, stimulate weight loss) while someone else does the driving.

And as for food, Fredericksburg truly rivals Napa when it comes to culinary innovation with area chefs taking advantage of the region’s abundant organic produce, herb gardens, wines and even wildflowers. This is the area, after all, where Ladybird Johnson first fell in love with wildflowers, where the country’s largest commercial wildflower grower is located and where salad are just as likely to be garnished with nasturtiums as cherry tomatoes.

Needless to say, Fredericksburg offers the requisite barbecue, Tex-Mex and Angus beef steak houses. But that’s just the tip of the cow hoof. To name just a couple of Fred-town’s culinary offerings, there’s August E’s where Thai chef Leu Savanh specializes in Asian fusion, Cabernet Grill (located at Cotton Gin Village, a unique B&B with seven restored log cabins from the 1800’s, it offers such dishes as pecan-crusted crab cakes and jalapeño-stuffed quail, it’s) and Rebecca’s Table, run by pastry chef Rebecca Rather who happens to be the famous newscaster’s daughter.

Long a peach-growing region, Fred-town also has old-fashioned outdoor peach stands (Das Peach House, started by a former school teacher, sells roasted raspberry chipotle sauce to die for), cheese shops with hundreds of imported cheeses, acres of herb gardens, a pie shop that serves nothing but 24 varieties (available by the slice) of the delectable dessert and dozens of cooking classes offering instruction in everything from vegan desserts to mango peach chutney.

And then there’s my favorite Fred-town delicacy—hand-crafted liquor, coffee and wine-filled dark chocolate. The process is called liqueur praline (French, I guess, for liquid centers) and Lecia Duke, a native Texan, apprenticed under a Swiss chocolate maker to learn what unfortunately is becoming a dying art. Let’s just say, every bite of these delicacies is a life-changing experience. One of Duke best customers, a 96-year-old, orders her Jack Daniels-filled chocolates by the case. One a night, she claims, helps her sleep. Duke, who started making liqueur praline in the Bay Area, moved home to Texas in 1984, opening her unique confectionery on Fred-town’s main drag.

Speaking of the main drag, Fredericksburg’s three and a half mile Main Street, made up of century old native limestone buildings, most of which are on the historic register, has hundreds of unique boutiques, gift shops, galleries and antique stores. The only chains are on the bicycles of the many cyclists that come in for weekend jaunts from San Antonio and Austin, both about an hour (by car) away.

The choices of one-of-a-kind accommodations are nearly as plentiful as the German names. Fredericksburg was settled by free-thinking German immigrants in 1846 and many German traditions (Oktoberfest, Schuetzenfest and Kinderfest, to name a few) are still actively observed. Although it was originally Indian territory, Fredericksburg leader John O. Meusebach was smart enough to sign a treaty with the Comanche and to honor it.

But back to the accommodations. I stayed at Camp David, a charming B&B on the edge of town, in my own private cottage, one of 5 on the property. There are hundreds of converted Sunday Houses (German farmers built one-bedroom houses with a small kitchen for their weekly Sunday trips to town), a hotel built out of an airplane hangar (small planes still land there and despite how that might sound, it’s very luxurious, all done in a WWII theme with a USO room, South Pacific murals and a real 1940’s diner) and even a B&B with an underground grotto, a wedding chapel, a spa and the world’s largest collection of cap guns.

Trois Estate, the B&B with the cap gun museum, was built by Charles and Rebecca Trois and if anything, it’s a testament to what’s possible when you combine a creative mind with money to do something about it. When Charles was young, he made a lot of dough penning song lyrics (he played guitar for the Soul Survivors) so this unique (and that’s an understatement) 57 acre-estate showcases his many collections of everything from stuffed African animals to American Indian artifacts to his handiwork at furniture making, brick-laying and mosaic assembling.

The real Enchanted Rock, across the road from Trois Estate, rises 425-feet into the air, making it the country’s second largest monolithic dome. American Indians considered this giant piece of granite a sacred, living entity and, while I can’t confirm that, I do know I felt a little like the Lion King when gazing out over the valley from the top. Heather, one of the girlfriends I was hiking with, happens to have a second career as a singer, so, after reaching the top of this dome with the view, she rewarded us with a brilliant rendition of “On Top of the World.”

Other music heard during our trip was at Luckenbach, Texas. Yes, the place Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings made famous in their 1976 cult classic is a mere 9 miles from Fredericksburg. Every night, this town (population 3) with its own dance hall, general store and beer joint hosts a menagerie of musicians who come with their guitars, harmonicas and funny lyrics to sit in with the locals.

I could go on and on about why Fredericksburg and the Texas Hill Country is the perfect girlfriend getaway, but don’t take my word for it. Call the Fredericksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau at 888.997.3600 or check out their website at http://www.fredericksburg-texas.com.