Nothing against relaxing on beachfront daybeds or doing the cathedral-monument-museum circuit, but for travelers like me (and, I’m guessing, like some of you) the ideal vacation is one that combines relaxation and sightseeing with unexpected finds down narrow streets, lively conversations with surprising locals and wrong exits leading to hidden treasures. Alas, such experiences are…
Our columnist, Jada Yuan, is visiting each destination on our 52 Places to Go in 2018 list. This dispatch brings her to Fiji, which took the No. 24 spot. It is the 45th stop on Jada’s itinerary. Remember to breathe I tried to remember my Fijian instructor’s directive: “The most important thing is to breathe.”…
After 30 hours of bumping along on planes and buses, at long last I stood in the darkness and gazed upon an immense night sky. My long journey seemingly had brought me to the shoreline of interstellar space rather than the high-altitude plateau that is Chile’s Atacama Desert. It was the first night of a…
The Boeing 737 Max, which the company unveiled in 2017, quickly became one of its most popular planes: 200 Maxes bought by airlines ranging from American to Southwest, are already in the air and more than 4,700 are currently on order. But, in the wake of the fatal Lion Air accident in Indonesia last month…
Economy seats, even for long-haul flights, are getting tighter than ever. As more airlines try to squeeze more passengers onto their planes — and then squeeze more money out of those passengers by charging for things that used to be free (like checked baggage and onboard snacks) — passengers are increasingly looking for, and willing…
Bucharest is like cilantro, a Romanian resident once told me: You either love it or hate it. But there’s much to love about a city that provides a less-expensive taste of Europe (Romania is in the European Union but not in the eurozone). Still grappling with allegations of government corruption and working to rebound from…
It’s a warm morning, the sky is cloudless and the marshes of the Hoo Peninsula, 25 miles downriver from London, are thick with daises and red clover. In the churchyard of St Mary’s in the village of Lower Higham there is a scent of cut grass. The whole scene, in other words, is distinctly un-Dickensian.…
If I may borrow a phrase: Winter is coming. And with that comes holidays, family gatherings and vacation time. Ski vacations are certainly popular during the winter months, but they’re not always easy to plan. Furthermore, prepping for a ski getaway can vary wildly, depending on whether you’re a single professional or a couple with…
Our columnist, Jada Yuan, is visiting each destination on our 52 Places to Go in 2018 list. This dispatch brings her to two places: Rotorua, New Zealand, which took the No. 45 spot on the list; and Fiji, which took the No. 24 spot. They are the 44th and 45th stops on Jada’s itinerary. All…
In the last two years, the state of California, where I live, has been ravaged by fires so unprecedented that a once rare term has now become routine: megafire. A megafire is a fire that consumes more than 100,000 acres. A few months ago, in an area near Yosemite National Park, the Ferguson fire raged…