For the first time, Saudi Arabia is officially opening its doors to tourists interested in visiting the kingdom for more than religious reasons. The ultraconservative Middle Eastern kingdom announced a new e-visa program on Friday that will allow people from 49 countries to enter the country for tourism, for stays as long as three months.…
Penny Yim-Barbieri, 47, a freelance translator based in Las Vegas, didn’t have the Cook Islands on her travel radar when she got an email alert from Scott’s Cheap Flights about round-trip tickets to Rarotonga from Los Angeles at $495. She and her husband jumped on the deal and soon found themselves scuba diving in the…
Visitors to the Galápagos Islands will likely pay an increased park fee starting next year, a decision that reflects growing concerns that skyrocketing tourism on the Ecuadorean archipelago is harming its fragile and unique ecosystem. Visitors currently pay a $100 fee to the Galápagos National Park, with mainland Ecuadoreans paying $6. Last month, Ecuador’s ministries…
Just outside the train station in the Swiss town of Sion, a yellow signpost points hikers in two main directions with no fewer than 16 routes to choose from. As you cross the medieval downtown, keeping the Valère Basilica and the Tourbillon Castle on the right, aim for the Valaisanne Brewery. If you can resist…
When the Norwegian Encore, the newest ship from Norwegian Cruise Line, launches in November, it will carry no plastic water bottles to offer guests. The 4,000-passenger ship will instead carry Just Water, with a carton made mostly of paper, and a cap made of sugar cane. The company aims to switch its entire fleet over…
The 52 Places Traveler The two German cities made the 52 Places list because of their arts offerings, but the Traveler found himself pulled in other directions. Sept. 24, 2019 ImageMunich’s Marienplatz in the heart of the Old Town is the ideal spot to start a tour of the city’s landmarks. Our columnist, Sebastian Modak,…
In the casual opinion of most Americans, I am an old man, and therefore of little account, past my best, fading in a pathetic diminuendo while flashing his AARP card, a gringo in his degringolade. Naturally, I am insulted by this, but out of pride I don’t let my indignation show. My work is my…
From Chicago, there are a number of ways to travel the 300 miles to St. Louis. American, Southwest and United Airlines fly direct in about an hour and 15 minutes, with fares recently running $165 to $350 round trip. Normally, I drive the rear-numbing route through the corn fields, which takes about five hours and…
“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower,” wrote the French philosopher Albert Camus. In North America, most experts agree that the peak time of those “flowers” occurs around mid-October, depending on the latitude, altitude and proximity to the coast. David Angotti, co-founder of the SmokeyMountains foliage prediction map, said that the…
Any conversation about travel to New Mexico seems to start with Santa Fe, the tourist-magnet about 60 miles up the road from Albuquerque, the state’s largest city. But Duke City (so called for its namesake, the Duke of Alburquerque, the early 18th-century Viceroy of New Spain) has been emerging from its neighbor’s shadow ever since…