If I had only skimmed the latest travel news articles, I probably would have brushed off Bentonville, Arkansas, as just another stop on the outdoor tourism circuit. But after going there, I realized the headlines don’t really describe what makes this smaller Ozark town feel different. Bentonville isn’t only a bunch of mountain bike trails;…
The first time I saw autumn in Colorado, I pretty much finally got why people set aside whole trips around it. Every mountain looked like it had been painted in bright glowing shades of yellow and gold, and even the gentlest breeze made the aspen trees shimmer ,like they were kind of waking up. While…
The first time I stood beside an Alaskan river in late summer, I figured I was just gonna watch folks fish. But nope, I ended up seeing something that basically rewrote how I look at salmon. The water felt busy, like it was actually breathing with fish working their way upstream after years out in…
I never paid much attention to airport lounges until some delayed flight pretty much upended the whole thing for me. After hours of being stuck by a crowded boarding gate , hearing non stop announcements , and then kind of slowly looking around for a spare charging outlet, I finally slipped into a lounge during…
I had always pictured Africa as this endless, roaming wildlife place , with crazy dramatic scenery, but Uganda turned out to be something else. The country moves at a quiet pace, like it’s easing you in—at first it’s Lake Victoria, calm, almost too calm, then it’s Bwindi, all misty forest and low-hanging leaves, and later…
Our 10-minute taxi ride from central Porto somehow feels like it goes into this little maze of narrow steep cobblestone streets, which extends right into the historic Miragaia area, just a few blocks from the Douro River. People are strolling out there with dogs, kids are running nearby, and those yellow streetcars rattle now and…
When I first started traveling alone on vacation , I ended up at an all-inclusive resort, which seemed too perfect to be true. There were the rooms I was staying in , the meals, the drinks , the pool, the nearby beaches, and lots of sunshine. It was so simple; it was just what I…
Walking aboard the replica of HMS Endeavour at Sydney’s Australian National Maritime Museum felt like I was slipping into another century. I had to duck beneath low wooden beams and squeeze through narrow passageways , which instantly gave me that sense of being hemmed in. Only after walking through the 18th Century research vessel did…
I’ve been writing about Japan for four decades. And, honestly, some of my most vivid memories have come when I stopped running between tourism venues and sat down long enough to learn Japanese handicrafts. From indigo dyeing in Iwate to making creative designs with Japanese paper, small workshops that welcome foreigners as well as locals …
I showed up in northern Thailand hoping for misty mountains, old-school temples, and, loud colorful markets. But honestly what I didn’t see coming was that my most memorable interactions would happen a few feet from rescued elephants. Those calm moments, far from the usual, staged tourist setups, made me rethink wildlife conservation in a way…