Travel

Natchez draws 300,000 annual visitors to its antebellum mansions, creating parking nightmares and $250-per-night hotel rates during peak season. Meanwhile, 90 minutes south in Louisiana, St. Francisville preserves equally stunning plantation architecture with genuine small-town quiet and $85 lodging rates. This narrow ridge town of 1,470 residents sits just 30 minutes north of Baton Rouge. … Lire plus

The multicolored mountains rise like painted fabric against the Mojave sky. Calico Ghost Town sits quietly among these striped peaks, where weathered wooden storefronts tell stories of silver fortunes won and lost. This isn’t another theme park recreation. Walter Knott, the amusement park pioneer, created something different here in the 1950s: authentic frontier preservation donated … Lire plus

Grace Bay’s morning light reveals something impossible: white sand paths stretching 300 feet offshore, visible beneath electric-blue water barely knee-deep. These endless sandbars create geometric patterns across shallow lagoons where you can walk on submerged ribbons of powder-soft sand. The sensation defies logic. You’re technically offshore, yet standing on solid ground in crystal-clear water that … Lire plus

Forget Lake Como where hotel bills arrive like ransom notes at $400 per night to watch crowds photograph each other against turquoise water. Meanwhile, 1,200 miles east, Lake Sevan villages in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province deliver the same alpine lake magic at 6,233 feet elevation for $40 daily budgets. This winter, while European lakes drown in … Lire plus

The mist rises before you hear the roar. Driving Norway’s scenic Route 7, the first glimpse of Vøringsfossen reveals white water against dark basalt cliffs. This 182-meter waterfall drops into Måbødalen gorge where a steel bridge with 99 steps lets you walk directly over the cascade. Most waterfalls you admire from afar. Here, you cross … Lire plus

Morning mist rises from the Dordogne River as a medieval castle emerges from limestone cliffs 500 feet above the water. This French village of 550 residents occupies one of Europe’s most dramatic vertical settings, where cobblestone streets climb impossibly steep terrain to reach a 12th-century fortress that once defied English armies. In January, when river … Lire plus

The ferry from Maui pulls into Manele Harbor, revealing Hulopo’e Bay’s crescent of golden sand. Turquoise water meets volcanic cliffs where tide pools scatter like natural aquariums. Protected since 1976 as Hawaii’s first Marine Life Conservation District, this half-mile beach divides into six distinct zones offering different encounters with marine life. Each zone tells its … Lire plus

Stone bridges connect you to a medieval world floating on Adriatic water. Trogir spreads across a half-mile island where 13,000 residents live inside UNESCO walls built before America existed. Golden Venetian palaces rise from turquoise harbors just 19 miles from Split Airport. January mornings here feel like stepping into a living museum where church bells … Lire plus

This Idaho alpine lake sits at 7,000 feet where turquoise water creates perfect mirror reflections of jagged Sawtooth peaks. At dawn, the granite spires appear twice in one view. The glacial flour suspended in Pettit Lake transforms the surface into nature’s most reliable mirror, doubling a mountain skyline that rivals any Canadian postcard. Seven miles … Lire plus

The Margaret Chase Smith ferry cuts through Penobscot Bay on a January morning, carrying 20 passengers toward Islesboro’s rocky shores. This 20-minute crossing transforms travelers into temporary islanders. The lighthouse at Grindle Point emerges from winter fog, signaling arrival at Maine’s most quietly preserved island community. Islesboro sits 3 miles east of Lincolnville, home to … Lire plus