Travel
Serene white sand beaches. Tropical cocktails garnished with slices of fresh fruit. Catamarans floating through turquoise water. Images like these tend to be the first to come to mind when thinking of the Turks and Caicos Islands. But this tropical destination, which has stringent COVID protocols, has much more than luxury resorts to offer travelers.
Hint: You won’t find it in Louisiana. “We really cherish all our Mardi Gras traditions here. We’re very proud of them.” It was that sentence uttered by the woman at the museum’s front desk that got my attention. I had certainly never thought of anything about Mardi Gras as a cherished tradition. This gave me an inkling that I was about to get a serious education for my $8.00 admission. To find the truth about Mardi Gras and its traditions, travelers need to visit the Mobile Carnival Museum in downtown Mobile, Alabama. Street view of the Mobile Carnival Museum. Photographed by Scot Terry. (Public Domain) My guide went on to say, “New Orleans has the larger Mardi Gras. Theirs is five times the size of ours, but ours is family friendly. You’d get arrested in Mobile if you tried half the stuff that they get away with on [...]
The small village of Cemoro Lawang is perched on the fringes of an undulating stretch of fine volcanic sand. This is Laut Pasir which, in Javanese, means Sea of Sand. My hotel, Bromo Permai, has a charming lobby that overlooks this unsettlingly unearthly territory.
Whitewater rafting in crystal clear waters. Horseback riding through the tall prairie grass. Purple mountains as the backdrop for local craft breweries. Sounds like a dream, but it’s actually Montana.
Climate change was one of the main factors Plunkett McCullagh presented to his family when he pitched using part of the family’s inheritance from selling their countryside pub to found Heyday Chalet, a new coliving spot for digital nomads in Morzine, France.
As selfies with tigers, primates and other wild species front Instagram and Facebook feeds, tourists are now forced to question the morals and ethics of their encounters with captive animals.
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.
