Category: Travel

Reintroducing an Icon: The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach

There’s no doubt that South Beach is hot, but today’s buzzy iteration of the picture-perfect slice of South Florida is not its first or only heyday. The barrier island was mere farmland through the early 1900s, when two Miami businessmen and visionaries had the idea to develop the island by building single-family homes; construction of…


Following the Paths of D-Day in Normandy

Today, it’s a sleepy town not far from the sea, but in the wee pre-dawn hours of the morning on June 6, 1944, Sainte-Mère-Eglise was wide awake. Fires and the repeating gunshots from automatic weapons lit up the skies. Allied paratroopers dropped from above, many paying a heavy price, descending into this burning hell to…


In Search of the Olympics, in Greece and Around the World

Once, say the ancients, Zeus tossed a thunderbolt on this place. Seated in his home atop Mount Olympus, the greatest Greek god apparently signaled with this fiery gesture that he would take up residence in Olympia, a placid place covered in olive groves on the Peloponnese Peninsula. According to the official record, the first Olympics…


Trip of a Lifetime: How to Visit the Galápagos

If the Galápagos Islands have long been on your bucket list, stop waiting for someday and start checking off boxes. There’s no time like the present, and that’s especially true when it comes to this mind-blowing volcanic archipelago that’s unlike anywhere else in the world. A Great Time to Visit If you’re interested in visiting…


Fjords, Waterfalls and Viking History: Sailing North in Norway

While it’s literally an everyday occurrence, the departure felt momentous, like a shipload of explorers launching north, searching for unknown worlds—with terra incognita, guaranteed. Having spent a few days knocking around the seaside city of Bergen, riding its funicular up a verdant mountainside believed to be inhabited by trolls, and browsing at the storybook waterfront…


Discover Windsor Before the Tourists Return

Out for a late Sunday afternoon walk without another person in sight, I turned around when a voice called out, “Move to the left.” That voice, in one of those so English of accents, came from a policeman wearing the stereotypical bobby’s uniform. Out of seemingly nowhere, a green Range Rover quickly approached me on…


A Whale of a Time in Thailand

I’ve spent plenty of time over the years on or around Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, its banks lined with historic buildings, hotels, temples, and restaurants, and its waters a thoroughfare for commuting ferries and barge traffic—so much to explore and ideal for a sundowner at a bar. But I’d never been to its final destination,…


Germany, France Urge Common EU Travel Line to Fight Delta Variant

BRUSSELS—German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron urged fellow EU leaders on Thursday to take a firmer line on travel from countries outside the bloc, such as Britain, to combat the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Merkel, arriving in Brussels for a European Union summit, said she would lobby for a more coordinated…


From Lawyer to Island Hopper: A Writer in Paradise

I know what you’re thinking. How did a seventh-generation attorney from Athens, Georgia, wind up writing fiction while kicking around the Caribbean on a boat? Like most things with me, it’s a long story, and there are twists and turns. Let’s just say I set out looking for a perfect coral reef, and along the…


Boondocks and Backroads: Costa Rica Off the Beaten Track

Emerging from the cocoon of a global pandemic, it would stand to reason that as fear dissipates, we may wonder what to do with “our one wild and precious life.” Like learning to walk again, it will take time to kick off the restraints that have held us steadfast to news on blast. But to…