Dear Tripped Up, Last May, I reserved a two-bedroom apartment in London for eight days through Booking.com, using a credit card to hold the reservation. Soon afterward, I received what looked like an official email from the company offering me a 20 percent discount and insisting I pay the host directly, in advance, via wire…
“Throw the keys through the kiosk’s open window. We’ll get the car when we open later”: Those slightly unorthodox drop-off instructions I once received from a Hertz manager in Croatia illustrate some of the differences U.S. travelers might encounter when renting a car abroad. It pays to familiarize yourself with the local policies and protocols…
Memphis. Atlanta. Birmingham. There are certain American cities that are known for Black history. But African American history and culture can, of course, be found across the United States, in seemingly unlikely cities, like Portland, Maine, say, or Providence, R.I. Many of these places are included in the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom Program,…
I’d been waiting for months when I finally got the call from Alaska last March: Wild ice was on. A roughly two-week high-pressure window of cold and clear weather had frozen Portage Lake, the terminus of Portage Glacier, some 50 miles southeast of Anchorage, and it was solid enough to skate on its wild —…
On a recent Thursday morning in Queens, travelers streamed through the exterior doors of La Guardia Airport’s Terminal C. Some were bleary-eyed — most hefted briefcases — as they checked bags and made their way to the security screening lines. It was business as usual, until some approached a line that was almost empty. One…
An investigation is underway into how a woman boarded an American Airlines flight at Nashville International Airport and flew to Los Angeles without showing a ticket last week, officials said on Friday. Law enforcement met Flight 1393 upon its arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on Feb. 7, American Airlines said in a statement. The…
Before you board the chairlift at one of the continent’s most unusual ski areas, a sign tells you exactly what’s in store: “Steep Slopes. Cliff Bands. Exposed Rock Formations.” The slopes are not groomed. The trail map is a study in black: black diamonds, double black diamonds or even triple black diamonds. Of the 107…
As the chopper rose into the sky, my heart raced with excitement and a twinge of fear: This was my first helicopter ride. The man beside me glanced over and asked why I’d choose to visit the Gurez Valley now, when it had so little to offer. “Even the locals avoid it if they can,”…
When Marisa Coulson, her husband and daughter moved to Majorca from New York in 2019, she packed her collection of branded hotel items, including a sweatshirt from Sunset Beach Hotel on Shelter Island; a hat from the Dunmore in Harbour Island, the Bahamas; and an “ancient” sweater fraying at the seams from the Chateau Marmont,…
As repositories of valuable historical documents and other records, U.S. presidential libraries have long been important destinations for scholars. But you don’t have to be an academic or even a history buff to appreciate these destinations, as many increasingly offer museums, special exhibitions and unique programming — ranging from interactive situation room experiences to musical…