I live on Cape Cod, and I have recently noticed something of a current trend in which beachgoers claim valuable (and sometimes scarce) real estate by arriving several hours early to set up chairs, blankets and umbrellas before leaving to return (in some cases several hours later) to eventually move into their pre-claimed territory. I…
The opening of the Eiffel Tower was delayed on Monday morning after security officials found two American tourists sleeping in the monument overnight, officials said. “They were detected in the early morning by the Sete security service, during daily rounds of checks carried out before the monument was opened to the public,” according to the…
For portraits, find the right backdrop Look for a clean background — a natural canvas with relatively solid coloring or shape, like a wall, open sky or foliage. If that’s not possible, move around the subject to find a backdrop that is less cluttered. Also, check that there are no upright objects, such as streetlamps…
A pot of birch sap simmered on Eva Gunnare’s stove. It was an early morning in May in Jokkmokk, a small Swedish town in the Arctic Circle, and outside the snow was melting. On the table sat a plate of cookies made with dried bilberries, a native fruit that Ms. Gunnare had foraged the previous…
As our hot, stuffy plane approached Bodrum, the seaside resort city on Turkey’s southwest coast, I closed my eyes and imagined a cool plunge into the crystalline turquoise waters of the Aegean. It was late July, and I was going home for vacation, despite warnings about the record heat. Southern Turkey is always hot in…
Amsterdam doesn’t know a low season. There’s the perpetual high season, and then there are two highest seasons: April (tulips!) and July (summer!). Despite the city pulling out all the stops in recent years to limit the number of tourists, the Dutch capital continues to lure visitors by the millions. And understandably so — you’re…
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Walking a dog during the summer in Phoenix begins with a test: Hold the back of your hand to the sidewalk for a few seconds. If your hand can’t take the heat, neither can your…
Dear Tripped Up, I was one of three adults who led a backpacking trip to the Colorado Rockies this past June with six teenage Boy Scouts from Troop 876 of Savannah, Ga. After seven nights camping, our eighth night — June 26 — was to be aboard a redeye to Kennedy Airport, followed by a…
On the last day of June, American Airlines agents at Gainesville Regional Airport in Florida canceled a North Carolina teenager’s flight after realizing that he had used a booking tactic called “skiplagging” or “hidden-city travel,” forbidden by airlines but used by some travelers to net flight bargains. The teen’s father, Hunter Parsons, said it was…
The back story of Breac House, a tiny hotel in northwest Ireland’s County Donegal, sounds like a cautionary tale: Two city-slickers, accountants from Dublin, who’d never worked at a hotel or served a scone, decide to open a custom-built, designer property on a remote, windswept peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Cue the…