The road into Bath County narrows as the mountains close in. You pass through Warm Springs, population 121, the county seat, and something in your blood pressure drops before you even stop the car. The air here carries pine and cold stream water, and the light falls differently at 2,270 feet. Then the valley opens, and there it is: a colonnaded red-brick structure sitting against the wooded hillside like something that preceded everything around it, …
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Stand in any airport security line long enough, and you will notice a choreography of small frustrations. Shoes off. Laptop out. Belt in the bin. An officer glances from your face to your ID and back, making a judgment that takes two seconds and has changed little since the 1970s. The TSA intends to change all of that. Across four technologies now in active deployment at airports nationwide, the agency is rethinking how checkpoints identify …
Lexington, Virginia, asks very little of you on arrival. What it gives you in return is considerably more complicated. The setting for the small town of 7,000 inhabitants is both beautiful and strangely captivating. You first come for the history. Lexington is a town that rewards the visitor who slows down enough to feel what is unresolved about it. Few towns of Lexington’s size have asked so much of, or given so much to, American …
Located easily within the Puerto Rican capital’s wider urban map, the barrio neighborhood of Santurce might still be missed by some travelers focused on the more commercial or oceanfront districts of San Juan. But including some time for Santurce on any trip to the island can certainly provide its own distinct and immersive encounter with this city.
In fact, Santurce’s present-day urban profile has its origins in a variety of historic, cultural and economic factors. …
Eight minutes. That is all that separates the roar of Manhattan from one of the most improbably pastoral escapes. Governor’s Island, a 172-acre jewel anchored in New York Harbor, has outlasted centuries of history, and emerged as the city’s most quietly extraordinary day trip, a place where the skyline just 800 yards away looks like a movie set. The pace of life on Governor’s Island, by way of contrast, is nearly surreal, a best-kept secret …
There are ghost towns scattered across the world, but few carry the weight of Kayakoy. Perched on a rocky hillside in southwestern Turkey, its hundreds of roofless stone houses, cobbled lanes and silent churches speak of a community that was not simply abandoned but deliberately erased by the politics of a vanishing empire. It is one of the most affecting places in the Eastern Mediterranean, and yet it remains, at least by comparison with many …
You won’t wander far without coming face to face with a troll in Bergen. In fact, these characters of Norwegian folklore even have their own museum. Their presence adds a whimsical aspect to a city surrounded by natural beauty. Cute wooden houses line the hilly streets, and the colorful waterfront is unbelievably picturesque. The visual delights of the city combine with Norse mythology to make Bergen an exceptionally alluring destination. I recently spent a few …
Five weeks in Europe: river cruising, barging and walking parts of the Camino.
Our most recent five weeks in Europe began and ended in Paris — with a barge cruise through Burgundy, a river cruise down the Saône, and a walk along the Camino Francés — and an unexpected ending.
We arrived in Paris with four nights to shake off the flight. By the second morning, Marucia and I were beginning to feel ourselves again …
For decades, luxury safari sold access: dawn game drives, leopard sightings in marula trees, sundowners against a burning horizon. Now, for a certain kind of traveler, access means something else entirely. It means paying not simply to see wildlife — but to help keep it alive.
Across parts of South Africa, a new form of ultra-premium conservation tourism is emerging in which guests contribute substantial sums — often around US$15,000 on top of the cost …
“People don’t take trips, trips take people” ~ John Steinbeck
There’s a word for happy accidents, those series of unplanned events leading to good memories: serendipity. I am convinced the best trips are those in which we allow serendipity to go along for the ride. On a business trip to London several years ago, I did something I do with some regularity and never with regret. I had always wanted to go to Glastonbury. It …
Some of the most beautiful places in the world are not found on land, they are alive underwater, in the coral reefs of crystal clear waters where entire sea life habitats exists. So, how do you get to enjoy this beauty? Not by bus, plane or train — the only way to experience this delight is by strapping on a dive cylinder and putting on some flippers.
Scuba diving is a fast-growing sport that takes …
The Daniele’s first move is unexpected. Rather than turning west into the open Doubs, the barge noses toward the base of the Citadelle — and then into it. A tunnel cut through the limestone bluff beneath Vauban’s fortress draws us in, lit and narrow, the stone walls close on both sides. The engine note changes in the confined space, deepening, bouncing off rock that has been here since the 17th century. And then daylight again …
Serenity and energy, a still visible past that endures amidst the flow of twenty-first century prosperity – all connect in unexpected moments while exploring this old quarter of Panama City known as the Casco Viejo. Because so many decades have left this compact warren of streets, squares and ornate structures outwardly untouched while the modern-day capital grew, the result has been an extraordinary preservation of much of the significant original architecture and layout of the …
The text arrived at 2:47 a.m. — not that Marcus noticed at first. He was asleep in a charming hillside hotel in Lisbon, the kind of place with terracotta rooftops and a fado singer drifting up from the street below. He’d had a spectacular dinner, a little too much wine, and had connected his laptop to the hotel Wi-Fi before bed to send a quick note home.
By morning, his inbox held three fraud alerts …