Compass
Amelia Island is a blend of cultures that lived under eight flags. It was a haven for pirates, con men, and hardworking settlers from many countries. From the Timucuans who met the first French and later Spanish settlers, to the Jim Crow era and the founding of American Beach, where African Americans could frolic freely, it has a unique history and offers a perfect vacation spot with fewer crowds than better known Florida beach towns.
Raised and educated in Spain, Pablo Picasso moved to the French capital in the early 1900s. Here he experienced decades of inspiration as part of the city’s buzzing Modernist art movement and bohemian atmosphere.
The official scientific name is the aurora borealis, but they have many names. The northern lights, the Green Lady, merry dancers, guovssahasat, and revontulet or ‘fox fires’. No matter what you call them, they have been tempting travellers forever.
In his sleek and self-illustrated volume ‘Jakhan Choto Chilam’ (When I Was a Child), the great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray vividly portrays kaleidoscopic cameos of Calcutta (now Kolkata) of the interwar years, a city where he grew up.
Though it’s best known as a religious pilgrimage, walking the Camino de Santiago does not need to be a spiritual journey and people from all walks of life can and do take this adventure for different reasons.
With spectacular mountains good for hiking and bicycling, dramatic castles, charming architectural cities, and a vibrant contemporary arts scene, Slovakia has much to offer tourists.
It was a hot summer day when a friend of mine and I pulled into the parking lot of Sombrio Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. We planned to be there for the day and set up a shady spot on the sand to enjoy our ocean views. We were hoping to see some wildlife — a bald eagle, a sea lion, maybe even a breaching whale.
Our Creole cultural exploration takes us just outside New Orleans to the Old Mississippi River Road where we'll share the story of a Creole family and a plantation named Laura--voted "Best history tour in the USA" by Lonely Planet Travel and a top travel attraction in Louisiana.
Since 2008, when the main city George Town was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, tourists flocked to Penang to savour the food, see the sites, and indulge in ‘heritage tourism’. Every day, you can see walking tours searching for the Insta-famous street art peppered across the Heritage Zone. However, heritage tourism is a double-edged sword; what they think is cultural heritage is, in fact, a brilliant tourism campaign promoting the historic image of Penang at the cost of the locals who live it.
A block from Havana’s famous Malecon, I found myself standing on a curb, sharing a bottle of rum with my good friend and traveling companion Sandra, and three strangers. We’d all met earlier at a nearby salsa club tucked in an alleyway between the Centro and Old Havana neighborhoods, a local joint.
Do I have to sleep on the floor? Is there only one bathtub for all the guests? What's with all the different slippers? These were just some of the questions I had about staying in Japanese ryokan before a recent trip. Minshuku are similar accommodations, offering tatami mat rooms with futons, but these traditional inns are often family-run with simple amenities, like shared toilets and bathing areas. It turns out that staying in Japanese-style lodging unveiled the delightful hospitality of my hosts, introduced me to all kinds of new foods, and offered more luxury than I expected.
As the world eagerly awaits the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, cities across the globe gear up to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new with awe-inspiring displays of fireworks. These dazzling shows have become synonymous with celebration, joy, and the promise of a fresh start. Join us on a captivating journey across continents as we explore the New Year's Eve fireworks displays that have captured the world's imagination. Since we will be ringing in the new year in Las Vegas, I’ll start there.
