For sale: An uninhabited, 25-acre island with pristine views of the Scottish coastline. No one in sight for miles. Just you and the birds, all for at least 150,000 British pounds, or about $186,000. The catch: Reaching the island is challenging, and staying there for any length of time even more so. Barlocco Island was…
On a recent sunny morning on the banks of the Adda River in northern Italy, schoolchildren on a class trip to Imbersago — the “Town of the Ferry of Leonardo da Vinci” — gathered next to a moored boat and listened as a guide explained how the flights of the river’s birds, the formations of…
Last August, Marilyn Jones and her husband, Robert, set out from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on an eight-day Caribbean cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox. The couple, of Bonifay, Fla., were just two days into the trip when Robert Jones, 79, died of a heart attack. Celebrity Cruises presented Ms. Jones with two options, according to a…
This is mostly bad news for you, but I do have some good news: You got more money back from Spirit than you originally realized. The $279 you received in March was actually their second payment; apparently you didn’t spot a $457 Spirit credit to your card back in January, right after you missed your…
No royal heir in British history has waited longer than Charles III, the king formerly known as the Prince of Wales, to ascend the throne. When he is officially crowned, on May 6, Charles will be 74 years old — a full 47 years older than his mother, Elizabeth II, was at her own coronation…
To buy or to wait? Given the wild fluctuations of airfare prices, that is a frugal flier’s persistent dilemma. A fare found today may tick up tomorrow, double next week or fall. Now Google and other online travel platforms aim to take the uncertainty out of the equation by offering guarantees or freezes, often on…
Solo travel — curating a vacation perfectly suited to you and no one else — is the ultimate idiosyncratic experience. For some, the goal is to fully test their limits and develop confidence. Others say the allure of traveling alone lies in wholly embracing their desires and their own pace. It can also be about…
A couple of days later, I drank kava with the owners of Mana Coffee Kava Bar. Kava is a root that is dried, pounded and then soaked in water to produce a ritual beverage typically drunk on special occasions but also consumed more frequently by those who enjoy its mellowing effects. Most kava bars are…
Like rumbling thunderclouds or far-off explosions, the muffled booms broke the silence as we reclined on a slope of pulverized lava beads in a small passage near the top of a volcano in East Africa, nearly two miles up into the night sky. It was 5 a.m., and for six hours we had been scaling…
In honor of this year’s 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso, museums and other cultural institutions are pulling out all the stops, with about 50 exhibitions and events in the United States and Europe. Some offer novel perspectives on the celebrated artist’s seven-decade career: At the Cincinnati Art Museum, “Picasso Landscapes: Out of…