Americans mark autumn with two major holidays: Thanksgiving in late November, and Halloween on Oct. 31. The latter is a personal favorite: Ever since I watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! as a child, Halloween has been one of my anchor points for the fall season. Halloween as we know it, with the trick-or-treating and funny costumes, is for all intents and purposes a strictly Western practice. Though it has in recent years spread …
Browsing: Activities
Travel is full of enthralling encounters, of moments that stick with you forever — a glimpse of a wild gorilla, an African sunrise, your first sight of the pyramids.
But those moving moments wouldn’t seem so spectacular if they weren’t peppered with less exciting experiences. For every lion kill there’s a lame museum; for every gargantuan sculpture there is a giant ball of yarn. Here are eight utterly underwhelming tourist attractions, places that have you …
The popular image of cruising is a modern, mass market ship filled with literally thousands of people freighted from one familiar port-of-call to the next; not so eco-cruising. As the name implies, eco-cruising is all about the exploration of nature and the environment from the vantage point of the earth’s oceans, seas and rivers. The expanding appeal of environmental tourism in general and eco-cruising in particular is evident in the great number of options a …
Don’t laugh.
Often, when I travel, one of the first places I seek out is the local cemetery, and not just during Halloween season. Why? Because there, believe it or not, you can learn a lot about the place you’re visiting — about its people, about its history, about its lifestyle, and about its colorful characters and legends. You can be moved to tears, of course. But you may also find yourself laughing out loud, …
The beauty of Canada is undeniable, with its cascading mountains, huge lakes and flowing waterfalls, but beyond Montreal, Niagara and Vancouver, there is another part of Canada that people often forget. The Okanagan Valley has all the scenery of its fellow states and has also become a region known for its wine and food. It’s not a surprise considering the fish, fowl, fruit and vegetables grown throughout the area.
You can easily find Inniskillin (which …
Heading out to see autumn’s arrival on the landscape is not a popular pastime in Catalonia, Spain, despite the fact that there is plenty to see on the trees come November. During the fall, seasonal tourism has more to do with searching out delectable mushrooms in northern forests and hunting than admiring the way the leaves turn. Low season in northern Catalonia, autumn is an ideal time to find a deal on hotels, avoid crowds, …
Antigua’s small sister island Barbuda is truly unspoiled Caribbean at its finest, and we were enroute to Lighthouse Bay Resort www.lighthousebayresort.com sandwiched on a thin sandbar that snakes for some 17 pristine, private miles and accessible only by air, (small plane or helicopter) or a long ferry ride (three hours) and water taxi. But we were arriving in high style via Caribbean Helicopters http://caribbeanhelicopters.com/, as complimentary return passage by whirlybird is included with a seven …
You don’t get a nickname like the City of a Thousand Minarets without having earned it. A quick look at the Cairo skyline cements the Egyptian capital’s claim to the title: Everywhere you look, the spindled towers of mosques old and new puncture the clouds.
Rarely has a city been so cozy with ancient history. Cairo’s 20-plus million souls regularly pray in mosques centuries old; the call to prayer punctuates dawn and dusk from the …
To most, a trip around the world is a dream affordable only to those with ample money and time. But around-the-world travel is a growing trend among people from all backgrounds, professions and ages. With airfare costing far less than you might imagine, many travelers are turning their dreams into reality.
This Travelhoppers activity guide will give you an overview of the considerations you need to make before undertaking such a grand and unique endeavor. …
Shanghai. It sounds so exotic and glamorous. And let’s be frank, when you put those two adjectives together, you are often talking about expensive, as well. But the fact is that China has traditionally been and remains a budget traveler’s dream, as the Chinese RMB rises in value but the local way of life is cheap, cheap, cheap.
As in any place, budget travel in Shanghai is all about making the right choices. Hostel over …
Want a Halloween celebration full of fantastical costumes, throbbing music and jumping bodies? Welcome to the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval, the world’s largest Halloween street party. It’s a Halloween celebration that’s both family-friendly and hedonistic at the same time. If you love Halloween, dressing up, or just partying with thousands in the street, then making a pilgrimage to West Hollywood for the Carnaval is a must.
West Hollywood – known to locals as WeHo – …
I suspect that if you looked up the phrase “finding paradise” in the dictionary, one of the definitions you’d be given would read like this:
“the act of spending five carefree, abundantly sunny days exploring the idyllic Hawaiian island of Oahu.”
The Hawaiian islands are legendary. The image of arcing palm trees casting shade over a fuzzy-haired surfer as he waits for the tide to come in, has become so iconic in American culture that …
Every European country seems to have one: a city that thoroughly encompasses all that the nation holds dear. Bruges is such for Belgium, sitting there all proud and pretty, epitomizing the grandeur and perfection otherwise relegated to storybooks. With canal boats, horse-drawn carriages and bicycles, the ethnic spirit swallows visitors whole.
It is difficult to sum up the magic of Bruges placid bottle-green canals with steeped-roofed medieval houses, market squares and slumbering parks in just …
Call me weird if you want to, but I know I am not the only traveller who enjoys, yes, enjoys visiting cemeteries if the opportunity to do so presents itself during my travels. Maybe it’s because I am getting older, but there is something incredibly sobering and calming about visiting the last resting place of some of our fellow planetary citizens. There is also something of a sense of satisfaction knowing that no matter how …