Browsing: United States of America

When you think of Christmas Markets the first place that comes to mind are the traditional ones located in Europe – specifically in Germany and Austria, where old cobbled streets decorated with stringed lights house wooden chalet stalls that sell everything festive.

Strasbourg, France

Located in the Rhine Valley, Strasbourg is a sprawling metropolitan city. It has a mix of French and German cultures because of its proximity to the German border. Here you will …

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Have you ever visited Kaua’i? Chances are, if you did you saw terrific beaches, not to mention great hotels, world-class golfing, sweet local restaurants, and (if you got really lucky), the elusive “green flash” which supposedly appears on the famous north shore of the island just as the sun dips below the horizon.

Of course if you go to Kaua’i for spiritual travel, there’s a lot more to see and do than have a Mai …

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One of the most important things I learned when I was in South Beach, Miami for a day recently is that if you are “in the know” you call it SoBe. If you find yourself in SoBe for a day and you like to shop, eat and lounge on the beach, here’s what I did to give you some ideas.

You have some choices when heading to SoBe from another part of Miami, but …

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According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Milwaukee plays host to the world’s largest festival. From late June to early July each year, Summerfest  takes over a 75-acre festival park with over 700 entertainers on 11 stages over an 11 day period. Last year despite a record setting heat wave, Summerfest attracted over 800,000 people participating in one or more days of the festival.

Along with some regional musical acts, this festival also attracts …

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Before we arrived at lovely Navarre Beach, we stopped at a Publix grocery on the way to pick up drinks and snacks to stock the fridge in our condo. We stopped before we got to Navarre because the last time I was there several years ago, there was no grocery store. You had to drive to nearby Pensacola or Gulf Breeze if you wanted to pick up groceries.

As we pulled up near the bridge …

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If you’re tired of being clobbered by hotel bills, find traveling alone has lost its allure, or you long to see a city through the eyes of a local, it’s time to go CouchSurfing.

That’s the amazing international initiative where people open up their homes to travelers and show them around the local sights. Although a free bed is certainly a huge attraction, it’s not just a scheme for cheapskates. It’s also the best way …

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Virginia has long been a reliable source of natural beauty. Preservationists have taken on the painstaking responsibility of conserving their national forest and parks, while making them available to campers and other nature lovers.  So far their success has been phenomenal.

Virginia Beach Campgrounds

There are many campgrounds available on Virginia’s pristine beaches.

First Landing State Park

Located by the Chesapeake Bay, First Landing State Park also hosts a camp store, bath houses, and a …

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Charlotte, North Carolina is commonly neglected by the multiple books and websites that create lists of the best places to visit. When people think of the state, a couple things usually come to mind: either the talented athletes at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and Duke University or the gleaming beaches of the Outer Banks.

What many do not realize is that Charlotte is a bustling metropolis and an important financial city of …

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Does your winter warm-weather search include a stop in San Diego? If it doesn’t, it should. Mild winters make this destination a favorite for anyone seeking an escape from snow and cold. It’s not uncommon to go walking on the beach on Christmas Day in flip-flops and shorts or jogging on New Year’s in a tank top.

What’s good for you is good for Fido, too. San Diego is emerging as an extremely dog-friendly destination …

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Nothing quite surpasses nature’s design in southern California’s inland desert plains of cacti and boulders, bordered by rose and ochre mountains.  At the same time, the modern world has contributed creatively in the flourishing towns that lie just off Highway 111 in this region.  One such development on the human side that stands out these days is within Palm Desert, a desert community attuned to the civic and commercial benefits of a diverse art …

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You’ve probably never heard of Sandpoint, Idaho.

But the readers of USA Today/Rand McNally’s “Most Beautiful Small Town in America” survey have heard of it. They recently bestowed this honor on Sandpoint, a classic Old Northwest village in the Idaho Panhandle, just forty miles from the Canadian border.

It doesn’t take long to see why. As you cross the two-mile-long bridge over Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced “pond-a-ray”), surrounded by the snow-capped Selkirk Mountains, a village …

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I’ve never owned a Harley; in fact, I have never owned a motorcycle. So why does the adrenaline flow and the blood pump faster when I see one of these shining speedsters drive by?

Maybe that’s why the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee has become such a shrine with non-riders as it has with owners of the iconic machines: The museum, located in the heart of the city’s downtown, is not your everyday museum, just as …

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Nestled in the rolling hills of central Arkansas, this little burg should be on everyone’s quick-get-away list…from infrequent travelers to euro-snobs to jaded jet setters. Here’s a dozen reasons why:

Three beautiful lakes – All are man-made, created by building hydro-electric dams in sections of the Ouachita River (pronounced ‘wash–ah–taw’ – the French spelling of an Indian word meaning “good hunting grounds”). The smallest is Lake Catherine at 1,900 acres and five miles long. …

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The origins of its name are shrouded in some mystery: Delray Beach is said by some to derive from Spanish colonial times, while others suggest an even wider range of possible roots. What there is no doubt of nowadays is that this once sleepy southeastern-Florida coastal town has emerged to make its mark as a regional destination with its own distinct highlights. How it has managed to do so reveals a dedication to preserving the …

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