For years, whenever I found myself in Miami with an afternoon to spare, I sneaked off west to where a road abruptly separates the urban grid from the Everglades. Depending on time, I drove as deep into the saw grass void as I could, parked, got out and gazed up at tropical clouds racing unimpeded…
The death toll from a novel coronavirus has now reached at least 76, with most of the more than 2,000 cases reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease. At least 10 other countries have also reported cases, and five people in the United States have been diagnosed; all had recently…
No one wants hassles on vacation, so this fall my wife and I accepted the offer of a rental car agent in San Francisco who suggested there was a fast, easy way to pay any tolls we might encounter. We were in California to see friends on a trip that took us north into Sonoma…
For many travelers, Honolulu is just a stopover en route to Maui or Kauai, with a goal of avoiding the overtouristed maze that Waikiki has become. In 2018, nearly 6 million travelers arrived by air to the island of Oahu, up 16.2 percent in five years. But there is still plenty to do and see…
If my circumstances had not been so dire — or rather, if my circumstances had been drier — I might never have found myself at the Zanzibar Curio Shop. At first glance, the store did little to distinguish itself from other trinket purveyors besieging the tangled lanes of Stone Town, the historic quarter on the…
The day dawned sunny and clear and I knew New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, white with snow, would loom brilliantly in the blue sky, so I packed my skis and headed north — past the rock-climbing headquarters where, in 2004, I heard Dick Gephardt appeal for votes; through the famous covered bridge in Jackson, the backdrop…
Browned palm leaves fan over the white-sand beaches of Caneel Bay Resort. Peeling paint buckles on the exterior walls of roofless cabins. Inside, white curtains, still knotted, drape like ripped cobwebs from windows, and mold-matted mattresses sag without their frames. A back door swings wide. Long considered the crown jewel of St. John, a small…
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The rocket launched. It exploded. SpaceX and NASA declared the blast a success. Usually the destruction of a rocket means a failed mission. But on Sunday, SpaceX was demonstrating a crucial safety system of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, a capsule that is to carry astronauts for NASA to the International…
Dear Tripped Up, Our family home in the Bahamas was recently destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. Nobody lost their lives, but the physical damage was catastrophic and the emotional trauma is ongoing. I am writing on behalf of my parents, who live there full time. Our family was scheduled to go on a trip of a…
They arrive by the busload and on ferries, many in pursuit of the perfect photograph for Instagram, others seeking the transcendence of a fairy tale land. Each year, one million travelers visit Hallstatt, Austria, a picturesque 16th-century hamlet they say inspired the fictional kingdom of Arendelle in the Disney animated blockbuster “Frozen.” Never mind that…