A feature about sustainable and authentic destinations around the world.
If you want to know how to take a vacation in your hometown, I have a few secrets to share with you. They involve taking a few detours, adopting a loosey-goosey definition of “vacation” and above all, being curious.
When’s the best time of the year to take a vacation? If you choose the right place, you can go at any time. But beware of any destination that bills itself as a “year-round” resort. There are always qualifiers.
When I tell people I have a National Parks Pass, they usually ask: Is it worth the cost?
My answer? Yes, the $80 a year I spend on my America The Beautiful card, which offers unlimited access to the National Parks, is worth every penny.
Can we talk about the most dangerous place to vacation? It’s not necessarily some far-off banana republic immersed in a civil war. It can be right here, in your own backyard.
Where should you go on vacation? If you don’t have to answer that question because you’re just planning to lie on the beach for a week or read a book while the kids splash in the pool, then wake up.
Chances are, you’re planning out your summer vacation itinerary right now. Our irreverent but eminently practical list of forbidden destinations can help you avoid boredom — yours and your kids’.
When you’re on the road, little things can make a big difference. Like extra bags, a deck of cards, and eating utensils.
Music is everywhere when you travel. It’s the soundtrack to your vacation, too often unacknowledged by, ahem, the people who write about travel. But there’s a trick to making the melodies work, and it involves developing an appreciation for music, knowing how to listen with a minimum of conflict, and connecting a song to a place.
If you don’t adapt, your next vacation could go down in flames. I mean that literally.
But also, figuratively. I had a rental home lined up for next month, and it fell through dramatically last week. After a month of exploring South Dakota, we were about to become homeless.
It’s not made of mashed potatoes or shaving cream, but Devils Tower still looks like a great landing pad for space aliens.
The mashed potatoes and shaving cream, of course, are from the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Remember when an obsessive Richard Dreyfuss can’t get that monolith out of his head? Yeah, that was intense.
