Count me among the droves of disappointed summer travelers whose vacations were devastated by long airport lines, canceled flights, indifferent travel agents and lost luggage. My intention was to become acquainted with port wine and fado music in exotic Portugal. Instead, I settled for the intimacy of small-town charms in Iowa, a welcoming Midwestern state that has more attractions than I ever imagined.
Internet travel agencies turn the customer into the travel agent, requiring him to scroll through pages of itineraries and lodging options before paying the company for using its computer system. Though this process is stress-free for the ticketing company, it can be a nightmare for people on a budget. This tedious process conflicts with the mindset of Gen-Z and Millennials who are not looking for a luxury vacation; they just want to minimize costs and go on an adventure.
When I first moved to Portland, Oregon, in the early 1990s, one of my first friends was a man who self-published a high-brow zine about amusement park rides. He eschewed car ownership, although he was happy to ride in mine. When we played Scrabble, he favored long, obscure words over point value. For all of my friend’s quirks, he turned out to be a surprisingly typical Portlander. Those who found Portland too self-consciously hip could laugh at its liberal excesses as immortalized in Portlandia. But these days, Portland has acquired a layer of grit. Homeless camps and boarded-up buildings covered with graffiti dot the whole city. Does the promise of Portlandia live on? For the sake of journalism, I decided to take an unflinching look at my city. Read More
In 2013, when Detroit declared bankruptcy it was plagued by violent crime and racial division. Today, America’s Motor City is cruising in the fast lane. It has entertaining ethnic enclaves, a vibrant downtown, a tourist-friendly riverwalk and a growing local economy that is a source of civic pride.
Pilot shortages, rising fuel costs, constantly changing schedules and erratic weather have lessened the enthusiasm for flying. So why not hit the road for a summer vacation using one of these three diverse itineraries.
The best children’s museums transfix kids, introducing them and their attentive parents to the surrounding world. There are more than 200 children’s museums throughout the U.S. Here are some places perfect for youngsters you can stop on your summer vacation.
Chances are, wherever you travel, you’ll find an Agatha Christie paperback. With eighty detective novels and story collections to her credit, Christie’s work has been translated into 130 languages and ranks third in sales behind the Bible and Shakespeare. She loved nothing more than going away and was utterly fearless about trying new destinations. Of her “foreign travel books,” she later would write, “if detective novels are escape literature, the reader can escape to sunny skies and blue water as well as to crime in the confines of an armchair.”
Ah, college. Four years of meeting people you know will be friends for life. Going on road trips. Enjoying Spring Break. Why can’t the easy camaraderie attending the shared learning experiences of youth be recaptured later in life? The quick answer is that they can.
Most colleges and universities have an array of alumni programs. It matters little whether the institution is a small liberal arts college or a massive state university. Chances are it has an alumni association that offers former graduates an opportunity to travel together in small groups.
New Mexico is a land defined by its culture of green and red chiles. Chiles flavor the state’s history, cuisine, art and economy. New Mexico’s large Roman Catholic population may be shaped by its Native American, Hispanic and frontier heritage. But when it comes to food almost everyone wants theirs cooked with chiles. Both red and green.
Should you visit America this summer? Though statistically rare, violence against overseas guests has led several foreign governments to issue travel advisories. The Japanese Consulate General in Detroit warned of “potential gunfire incidents everywhere in the United States.” China cautioned its America-bound students that “shootings, robberies and theft have occurred frequently in the U.S.” Even Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry admonished its citizens to postpone trips to the U.S. “due to recent acts of violence.” And yet, with few exceptions, foreign arrivals in the United States have continued to climb every year since 2000. Are the rest of us missing something here?