Many of us are desperate to travel this summer after a pandemic stifled our plans for years. But travelers — and I’m sorry to be a killjoy — should beware: Those seemingly cheap plane tickets or hotel rooms advertised online may be a trap to make you spend more than anticipated. That’s because hotels and…
What books and authors should I take with me? One grand feature of border culture is the lure of a bargain. For decades, the clarion call of cheap muffler (“mofle”) shops drew tourists south; now, it’s cheap dentures and Viagra. So let us offer a one-stop classic, the anthology “Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots and Graffiti…
Born and raised in Oahu’s North Shore, the singer-songwriter Jack Johnson can still remember a time when going surfing in Waikiki on the other side of the island was a bit of a trip. “When I was a kid back in the ’70s, that drive seemed extra long. It was mostly dirt roads to get…
The nonstop, round-the-world Golden Globe Race has become a banner of “retro sailing,” or “sailing like it’s 1968.” Entrants for the competition, which begins and ends in Les Sable d’Olonne, France, are required to sail small boats alone, using only pre-1960s-era technology — no satellite communication, autopilot, cellphones or radar. Courses are plotted using celestial…
Two people recently harassed a bison calf in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming by approaching and touching it, officials said, prompting an investigation into the latest instance of park visitors overstepping boundaries with wildlife. National Park Service rangers have asked for help in identifying the two individuals who touched the bison calf on June…
It is a trek to Windy Oaks Estate Vineyard & Winery in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, a journey that includes passing through a forest damp with coastal fog. Storms battered Northern California this winter and, at one point along the route, a chunk of asphalt had tumbled into a soggy creek. A…
I fell for Ischia well before I ever visited it in person. In the 1999 film “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” the scene where Tom, the main character, “happens” upon Marge and Dickie, the couple he is pursuing, was filmed beneath the island’s Aragonese castle on its golden beach (the Spiaggia dei Pescatori, the beach of…
Although the celebration of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, as the end of slavery, has gained popularity in recent years, it’s long been a deeply personal holiday acknowledged by many African American families and communities. My family was one of them. Our house was decorated with portraits of my father’s hero, the abolitionist Frederick…
Websites like HotelTonight have long tried to solve the dilemma of when to book hotel rooms to get the best rates. Online travel agencies like Booking.com and Hopper have added price protection programs for the same reason. And still travelers complain about how hard it is to find a good deal on a hotel. Now…
A romantic island getaway in the Maldives. A safari in Kenya. A visit to the pyramids in Egypt. Apart from being popular on bucket lists, these vacations have one thing in common: Their destinations have strict anti-L.G.B.T.Q. legislation. In the Maldives, gay sex may be punished with lashes and up to eight years in prison.…