How Green is Your Cruise?

In the Caribbean, many cruise companies have bought islands and turned them into private resorts for the exclusive use of cruise passengers who cavort in enormous wave pools, rush down 135-foot water slides with names like Daredevil’s Peak, and zip-line across wide beaches. But on Ocean Cay, an island 20 miles south of Bimini that…

Is Responsible Travel to Hawaii Fun?

In 2019, when a record 10.4 million people visited the islands, a breaking point was reached. By the time the pandemic hit, locals were relieved to have their home to themselves. In June, the Hawaii Tourism Authority rocked the tourism industry when it announced that, for the first time in more than two decades, it…

7 New Escapes in the Caribbean

If your idea of a winter vacation means trading snowmen for sand castles, it’s time to make your Caribbean escape. From Anguilla to Turks and Caicos, new hotels have sprung up across the region, including an off-the-grid, eco-chic hideaway, a getaway beside one of the largest reef systems in the world, and a resort steps…

Have We Reached Peak Christmas Ornaments?

American consumers’ spending on winter holidays including Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa has grown, rising from some $567.6 billion in 2012 to around $889.3 billion in 2021, according to data from the National Retail Federation, a trade group. Among the 93 percent of Americans that celebrate Christmas, according to a 2019 Gallup poll, a growing share…

American Rituals

Abiquiú, New Mexico Photography by Justin Kaneps At the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, a remote abbey beside the Chama River in northern New Mexico, some two dozen Benedictine monks begin their days in darkness. At 3:30 a.m. one Sunday this past winter, a bell summoned the monks to vigils, the night prayer. Under…

What Do the Objects You Own Say About You?

Ms. Khemsurov (a contributing editor to T: The New York Times Style Magazine) and Ms. Singer, who stumbled into design as journalists, met while working as editors at I.D., a trade magazine for the industrial design profession that folded in 2010. They began Sight Unseen as a two-person blog, writing and shooting their own material.…