Skier Paul Wampach, a 49-year-old manager from Chicago, Illinois, hardly matches the stereotype of a hostel dweller: an under-30 backpacker from outside the United States who can't afford fancy lodging.
You haven't experienced Christmas lights until you've seen nearly four miles of them artfully hung in patterns dictated by Tiffany's head designer in Copenhagen's famed historic amusement park, Tivoli Gardens -- and that's not counting the 1,800 strands dramatically draped on the lakeside willows.
The first thing Laura Slipak says when I drag my stressed self into the chill lobby of the Mod Resort, her Austin Powers-chic hotel in Palm Desert: "Oh, dear."
In what might be mistaken for a God-forsaken corner of central Portugal, tens of thousands witnessed an apparition -- and the lonely little town of Fatima became a major pilgrimage site for Catholics.
With the U.S. dollar surging against Canadian currency, a vacation north of the border is suddenly affordable again. The U.S. dollar was worth $1.23 Canadian in late November, a comeback from a one-to-one exchange rate last year.
No cranberry sauce or mashed potatoes -- sweet or otherwise. No pumpkin or apple pie and not necessarily turkey either.
The old warehouses of Portland's Pearl District are home to increasingly cool cultural diversions. Spend a weekend browsing the neighborhood's art galleries, snack on a pumpkin-pie cupcake and enjoy dinner and a show.
"Now, come, travel back in time. See where and how these rulers lived," Harrison Ford's deep voice beckons just before double doors swing open into a labyrinth of galleries displaying more than 130 ancient Egyptian artifacts.
Skier Paul Wampach, a 49-year-old manager from Chicago, Illinois, hardly matches the stereotype of a hostel dweller: an under-30 backpacker from outside the United States who can't afford fancy lodging.
You haven't experienced Christmas lights until you've seen nearly four miles of them artfully hung in patterns dictated by Tiffany's head designer in Copenhagen's famed historic amusement park, Tivoli Gardens -- and that's not counting the 1,800 strands dramatically draped on the lakeside willows.
The first thing Laura Slipak says when I drag my stressed self into the chill lobby of the Mod Resort, her Austin Powers-chic hotel in Palm Desert: "Oh, dear."
In what might be mistaken for a God-forsaken corner of central Portugal, tens of thousands witnessed an apparition -- and the lonely little town of Fatima became a major pilgrimage site for Catholics.
With the U.S. dollar surging against Canadian currency, a vacation north of the border is suddenly affordable again. The U.S. dollar was worth $1.23 Canadian in late November, a comeback from a one-to-one exchange rate last year.
No cranberry sauce or mashed potatoes -- sweet or otherwise. No pumpkin or apple pie and not necessarily turkey either.
The old warehouses of Portland's Pearl District are home to increasingly cool cultural diversions. Spend a weekend browsing the neighborhood's art galleries, snack on a pumpkin-pie cupcake and enjoy dinner and a show.
"Now, come, travel back in time. See where and how these rulers lived," Harrison Ford's deep voice beckons just before double doors swing open into a labyrinth of galleries displaying more than 130 ancient Egyptian artifacts.
On a recent trip to Europe, I spent an afternoon relaxing at the German spa resort of Baden-Baden. In two hours, I saw more naked people than I've seen in the last two years.
As I raised my hands toward the ceiling and then pointed them toward my head, I had to wonder: How would the 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol feel if he knew that a bunch of foreigners were dancing the YMCA at a nightclub named after him?
Forget the beach. Bridget Kerr, 10, would rather play in the snow.
Chicago's tourism Web site beckons visitors to "experience the city the Obamas enjoy." The Illinois Bureau of Tourism plans to launch a three-day getaway promotion featuring Barack Obama sites. And tour guides at the Old State Capitol in Springfield may get new scripts to stress two important speeches the president-elect made as a candidate.
It's been called "the Pearl of the Adriatic," but standing high above Dubrovnik's formidable ramparts, I study what the recent war did to this jewel of a city on Croatia's coast.
The Texas Hill Country, where tiny towns dot a landscape of wildflowers and cedar trees, is the kind of place where cowboys and sommeliers meet. Sometimes literally.
They've played in some of the coolest clubs around. So it goes without saying that these six jazz greats know a thing or two about where they like to chill out between gigs.
No video games. No cell phones or Internet. No TV, swimming pools, souvenir shopping or even a bed. And no one's complaining. In fact, parents and kids say they don't miss any of it.
For waves of immigrants to America, the Lower East Side was a place of first settlement. Today it's one of the city's trendiest neighborhoods. But it's easy to find history amid the hipsters.
A year ago I was excited about Tangier in Morocco and wrote in my blog, "It's no longer the Tijuana of Africa." I didn't realize my comments would understandably touch a nerve with people who like Tijuana.
This is the cradle of patriotism, the site of Paul Revere's historic ride and home to the USS Constitution.
Vegetarians, beware. It's Wednesday night at the Garden House Hostel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the unmistakable scent of juicy slabs of meat on the grill is wafting through the halls, luring guests to its source.
One of the world's most beautiful cities is probably one of the cheapest.
Boris Karloff never walked these grounds, but the history of Burg Frankenstein may have inspired Mary Shelley's famous monster.
It's an incongruous sight: a super-modern, glass-walled building set at the foot of the ancient Acropolis.
Here, amid and around the ruins of the medieval Tintern Abbey, the solace and serenity recalled so poetically by William Wordsworth is almost palpable to 21st-century visitors.
The big green moray eel stares at me, coming out of his hideaway in the reef, as if to say, "Go away! I don't want to play!
Visitors love driving Oregon's coast, but it's a shame not to get out and hike the stunning landscape, too. Here are several trails to get you started.
When 30-something mom Myra Doyle jetted to this Florida hot spot for a reunion with three high school friends, they "wanted to do what South Beach people do." But they had a rule: "There are four of us here and we have 11 kids among us. We want to be in bed by midnight."
Some 7.5 million people ride San Francisco's cable cars each year. Many of them board at Powell and Market streets, the famous turnaround site at the end of the line. Here tourists can snap pictures of workers manually swiveling the cars around to begin the route again.
"These are the fairy chimneys," our guide Alec said, pointing to a hill covered in large, strangely shaped rocks. "This one is a camel. That one over there is the Virgin Mary."
Of course there's all that great food and the stately buildings, but it's the open-air spaces that make me love Savannah.
Guests at W Hotels have come to expect "Whatever/Whenever." But this year's presidential election finds the luxury chain partnering with get-out-the-vote organization Declare Yourself in order to push that motto one step further --allowing guests to register to vote right from bed.
As my 30th birthday approached, my fear of becoming a middle-aged woman plagued with mystery ailments, huffing and puffing up flights of stairs, finally started to outweigh my exercise phobia.
With ponderosa pines towering overhead and a pristine lake stretched out before me, a martini is the last thing I'd expect to have on my mind. But here I am, hiking in Oregon's Deschutes National Forest, craving one. Sure, the views are intoxicating enough -- but I can't wait to get back to Bend, one outdoorsy town in which ordering a cocktail is as natural as hitting the trails.
John Fry mashes the brakes and curses under his breath as a pack of wild hogs scurries across the narrow dirt road, where spiky palmetto fronds claw at both sides of his National Park Service pickup truck.
For much of the world, Munich is likely to evoke one or more stereotypical images, among them the Glockenspiel in the tower of the neo-Gothic Rathaus, or city hall; the annual Oktoberfest bacchanal; and mustachioed men wearing lederhosen. Style, a word generally not associated with lederhosen, doesn't spring to mind. But these days Munich, Germany's third-largest city and the capital of Bavaria, is shedding its dirndls and feathered caps in favor of cutting-edge design.
At IceBar Orlando, patrons don't need to order drinks on the rocks.
Adults and kids are hunched over mounds of multicolored clay, fashioning little clay people and assorted creatures that will star in kid-produced animated shorts.
It might be notorious for its late-night party scene, swanky beach hotels with steeply priced drinks and the beachgoers who wear barely-there $300 swimsuits, but vacationing Miami-style doesn't have to cost a fortune.
The city of light has an unfortunate blight: the locals' reputation for rudeness. That's why a group of friendly Parisians have banded together to show complete strangers around their Paris, the one not found in travel books -- for free.
Like any sun-drenched beach paradise, Longboat Key offers water sports, biking and tennis, but the best way to enjoy the island may be by doing nothing at all.
Now's a prime time to enjoy a cozy bed-and-breakfast. Whether you want to trek a nature trail or shop along a dock, these places offer a great escape.
Chicago has a reputation as a working-class city for a reason. Sure, there are fancy Gold Coast shops and $500-a-night hotel suites, but it's also possible to see Chicago's famous lakefront, eat its famous food and enjoy distinctive cultures on the cheap.
The charm of Ventotene is apparent the moment you spot it from the boat transporting you to its shores. Sitting there like a lonely sponge cake protruding from the surface of a clear blue plate, the island's sheer size -- or lack thereof -- promises something not only special but personal.
If Mount Rainier were in Austria instead of Washington State, I likely would have explored it long ago. All my life, I've watched it shimmering Fuji-like on Seattle's horizon, and have never driven the hour off the interstate to actually take a hike there.
In March of 1997, hiker Bill Maddrell set off on a solo trip down the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, a well-worn ribbon that slices through 14 states, eight national forests and six national parks from Maine to Georgia. Determined to walk the entire 2,176 miles, he took a 60-pound backpack, but his relatives thought that wasn't enough. "They asked me if I was going to carry a gun," he said.
What do "30 Rock" and "Entourage" have in common, outside of their showbiz theme? Their settings -- some of the hottest venues in New York and L.A., respectively -- make for great places to visit. And what better time to venture into TV land than with the start of the fall television season? Pack your bags for a weekend of sightseeing and clubbing ... camera crew optional.
The beach is pitch black, except for the light from the stars dancing across the sky. The ocean waves pound. And right in front of us, a huge (more than 300 pounds and three feet long) green sea turtle methodically drops her eggs into a nest she's dug deep in the black sand -- more than 100 eggs in just a few minutes.
In this storied harbor town where the Mayflower landed nearly 400 years ago, generations of Americans have claimed and reinterpreted the Pilgrim story.
For centuries, Venice has captivated travelers with an array of romantic images: gondola rides through glistening canals at sunset, homes painted in vibrant hues of periwinkle and plum.
There are hundreds of biological field stations around the globe, and a select few of them are now letting visitors rub elbows with staff researchers and spend the night inside the facilities -- no advanced degree required.
This primeval forest in southern Ghana boasts 300 species of birds, unique monkeys and the highly endangered forest elephant and bongo antelope.
In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels penned their Communist Manifesto -- "a specter is haunting Europe, the specter of communism" -- in a cabaret overlooking Brussels' spectacular Grand-Place.
I've found vacation nirvana for teenagers and it's a place parents will like just as much as teens do.
Pounding rain and heavy mist are constant in this timber town where logging's decline left a graveyard of rusting timber mills and unemployment. Businesses shut down. Parts of the local high school were condemned. Families started to drift away.
Home to Microsoft and Starbucks, grunge rock and a constant rainy drizzle, Seattle is defined by the collision of urban soul and natural beauty. It's also a great destination for the budget-conscious traveler. An abundance of outdoor activities and a pulsing arts community make it the perfect place to visit while holding onto spare change.
Imagine yourself on a ferryboat deck with a latte in one hand, your overnight bag at your feet, and the dazzling Seattle, Washington, skyline filling the horizon behind you. While the boat churns across Elliott Bay, the Space Needle disappears from view and a shoreline materializes in the distance.
As the sun descends, street lamps take over, illuminating grandiose colonial plazas, antiquated historic buildings and romantic balconies that line the major streets of capital city Quito's "Centro Historico" district in Ecuador.
Spain's northeastern city of Barcelona, set between verdant mountains and the Mediterranean sea, basks in a well-earned reputation as one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations.
Three recently opened hotels offer travelers new ways to experience the Andes.
Ten years in Jerusalem, a city with only two significant seasons -- hot summers and cold, damp winters -- made me determined to have the best autumn possible my first year back on the East Coast.
Puddles of moonlight on a glassy, smooth harbor. Fresh shrimp coupled with stone-ground grits. Palmettos dancing in an ocean breeze. I fell in love with these things on my very first visit to Charleston, that oh-so-Southern belle perched happily on the coast of South Carolina. Even now, memories of that long-ago trip bring an unbidden smile.
Even after 20 years of visits, I always need a day to adjust to the wonders of Amsterdam. So I spend my first day here checking out small changes in the city -- a new handbag museum, a church turned into a mosque, a free ferry ride to an industrial complex where there is a skateboarders' warehouse filled with teenyboppers.
Thousands come each year to the Wisconsin River valley where Frank Lloyd Wright built his home and tested his ideas about building in harmony with nature.
Drive south from Tangier along the Moroccan coast to the port town of Asilah and here's what you'll see on the 30-mile journey: fields of deep-purple and mustard-yellow wildflowers, wide stretches of pristine beach and cement trucks idling in front of the occasional makeshift construction site. It doesn't take a fortune teller to predict that, in a few years, this dramatic coastline will be the next French Riviera.
Tourists looking for old Paris charm and a taste of "La Vie en Rose" should head to Belleville, a largely overlooked part of the city and the birthplace of Edith Piaf.
First came the fishermen. Then came the surfers. Now the formerly scruffy enclave of Montauk, at the easternmost point of Long Island, has been colonized by fashion-forward boutiques and hotels that are one-upping the rest of the Hamptons with a refreshingly relaxed sense of style.
Cindy Haynes was 42 when she made her decision. All of her life she had been a wife and a mom. Now her kids were growing up; her divorce was being finalized, and she had just landed her first real job.
There's nothing like a little time travel to get the day started.
There's an attraction in New York City that offers sweeping views of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty, traffic-free biking, shaded lawns for picnics and outdoor concerts. And it's all free -- including the quick ferry to get there.
God save the queen, and maybe a few pounds -- sterling, that is.
Staring into a TV camera, I say, "Istanbul is one of the world's great cities, period. For thousands of years, this point, where East meets West, has been the crossroads of civilizations. Few places on earth have seen more history than this sprawling metropolis on the Bosphorus."
From Mexico's Guadalupe Valley to Blue Hill, Maine, these 10 waterfront getaways offer a toast to the good life.
The smells of basil, Chinese food, fish and baked goods linger in the humid air along Penn Avenue, mixing with the sweat and grime of packed sidewalks and outdoor vendors.
"Shh ... shh get back," the man with the walkie-talkie said. "We're filming."
I'd all but given up on resort vacations for my family. I just couldn't take the food. As the editor of Food & Wine magazine, I've grown accustomed to culinary adventures pretty much every day. But resort meals, with their overcooked pasta and tasteless chicken, managed to fall short of even my lowest expectations.
In some parts of the country, a balmy September afternoon might be spent picking pumpkins or apples.
While Copenhagen is a thriving metropolis, when you travel out into the Danish countryside, you find yourself saying "cute" more than you know you should. When I'm in the Netherlands, I have a running joke with my guide friends. We say, "Everything's so ... Dutch." Now, in Denmark, I'm saying, "Everything's so ... Danish."
Everyone knows Boston is a city steeped in history, but on a steamy hot summer day, one of the best places to experience the city is from the ocean or the harbor.
One of Denver's best-kept secrets is just a seven-minute drive from downtown. With the Democratic National Convention in town this week, the Highlands Square shopping district near 32nd and Lowell hopes to get the word out.
Given Montreal's proximity to substantially-sized American cities -- it's just over five hours driving from Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut -- you might not think Quebec's largest city would be so different than these New England metropolises.
Given Montreal's proximity to substantially-sized American cities -- it's just over five hours driving from Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut -- you might not think Quebec's largest city would be so different than these New England metropolises.
The other night I found my way home, a little tipsy after an evening in the Belgian town of Bruges. I'd been at my favorite bar in town, the 't Brugs Beertje, where not only did I get schooled in the many varieties of local beer, but also learned a few things about modern-day Belgian life.
After huffing and puffing uphill past luminous Aspen groves and delicate wildflowers for more than an hour, we expected a big reward: a sweeping view of Steamboat Springs, an imposing waterfall, a cold beer -- something.
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