Greg Lawrence crashed through the underbrush, eyes wide, binoculars swinging from his neck.
A century ago, what's now Silicon Valley, California, was called the Valley of Heart's Delight because of the region's mineral-rich soil and temperate climate (San Jose gets 300 days of sunshine a year). By the time I left for college in 1997, however, most of the cherry orchards had been gobbled up by office complexes. San Jose was in the hopeful early stages of the Internet boom, and although I didn't have an e-mail account yet, the technological advances that would change the world were already making their mark on my hometown.
The biggest challenge in creating a new tourist attraction at Niagara Falls is trying to live up to the main event.
This ancient capital city, long known for the architectural splendor of its centuries-old palaces and temples, is getting a new look that could have been plucked from science fiction.
Ron Alexander has long been intrigued with the true story of a young idealist who met his death in Alaska's unyielding wilderness in 1992.
Despite its urban image, the Bronx has 7,000 acres of park land, about 25 percent of its total area. In addition to Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Zoo, the borough's green spaces include the New York Botanical Garden; a 19th century garden overlooking the Hudson River called Wave Hill; and Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay parks, where you can bird-watch, play golf and ride horses.
Overheard recently from a tourist in one of Vienna's grand cafes: "Waiter, I'll try a slice of your soccer tort."
Two days before opening night of "The Lost Colony," Tony-award winning designer William Ivey Long was still working on costumes.
Sometimes we get away from home simply to do nothing. There's something seductive about spending time relaxing and getting to know yourself again. Lewes, a 377-year-old waterman's town at the mouth of the Delaware River, fits the bill.
Greg Lawrence crashed through the underbrush, eyes wide, binoculars swinging from his neck.
A century ago, what's now Silicon Valley, California, was called the Valley of Heart's Delight because of the region's mineral-rich soil and temperate climate (San Jose gets 300 days of sunshine a year). By the time I left for college in 1997, however, most of the cherry orchards had been gobbled up by office complexes. San Jose was in the hopeful early stages of the Internet boom, and although I didn't have an e-mail account yet, the technological advances that would change the world were already making their mark on my hometown.
The biggest challenge in creating a new tourist attraction at Niagara Falls is trying to live up to the main event.
This ancient capital city, long known for the architectural splendor of its centuries-old palaces and temples, is getting a new look that could have been plucked from science fiction.
Ron Alexander has long been intrigued with the true story of a young idealist who met his death in Alaska's unyielding wilderness in 1992.
Despite its urban image, the Bronx has 7,000 acres of park land, about 25 percent of its total area. In addition to Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Zoo, the borough's green spaces include the New York Botanical Garden; a 19th century garden overlooking the Hudson River called Wave Hill; and Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay parks, where you can bird-watch, play golf and ride horses.
Overheard recently from a tourist in one of Vienna's grand cafes: "Waiter, I'll try a slice of your soccer tort."
Two days before opening night of "The Lost Colony," Tony-award winning designer William Ivey Long was still working on costumes.
Sometimes we get away from home simply to do nothing. There's something seductive about spending time relaxing and getting to know yourself again. Lewes, a 377-year-old waterman's town at the mouth of the Delaware River, fits the bill.
Imagine that happy day around 1700 when the monk Dom Perignon, after much fiddling with the double fermentation of his grape juice, stumbled onto a bubbly delight. Having tasted the very first glass of champagne, he ran through the abbey shouting, "Brothers, come quickly ... I'm drinking stars!"
Come home from your next trip relaxed and smarter. Where to learn Spanish, whitewater rafting, astrophysics and more
The High Museum of Art is focusing on the civil rights era in two new exhibits that include 200 photographs, many of which have never been publicly displayed before.
Looking for a break from the usual Fourth of July doings?
The ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, in a vast and arid plain 40 miles from Shiraz in southern Iran, is the greatest ancient site between the Holy Land and India. This is a rare place that actually exceeded my high expectations.
The world's oldest tennis tournament retains many of the same customs and quirks 131 years after it was first staged. It's the only Grand Slam event still played on grass, despite perennial moans from the clay- and hard-court specialists who struggle to adjust. Players--who are always referred to as "gentlemen" and "ladies"--must wear predominantly white, and the courts are unsullied by conspicuous corporate logos.
Like many people, I have a "bucket list." It's something along the lines of the "top-10-things-to-see-or-do-before-you-die" lists published on travel Web sites.
With its tranquil beaches, the tiny northern island of Sylt is the country's best-kept summer secret.
Summer travel doesn't have to break the bank. Here are five smart ways to have a great experience your kids will never forget -- without leaving you with credit-card bills that make you wish you'd never gone in the first place.
For once, we're glad it's not a perfect blue-sky vacation day.
As I dodge Parisians walking their poodles and pushing baby strollers in a vibrant market street, I'm reminded that one of the reasons Paris is endlessly entertaining is because of its neighborhoods. On streets such as rue des Martyrs, real people make cozy communities in the midst of this vast, high-powered city. You find a warm and human vibrancy you miss when just hopping from big museum to museum.
Food is a huge part of any destination for me, and my home base -- Atlanta, Georgia -- is no exception.
At almost 8,500 feet in the Rockies, it can take a few breaths to walk up Central City's steep granite hills lined with Victorian homes, souvenir shops -- and an opera house that has served 19th-century gold miners as well as modern-day visitors.
A dirt path begins across the road from a bus-congested holy site on Israel's Sea of Galilee, winding up a hill covered with wild oat and thistle.
Cutting through the canopy some 60 feet high, Kew Gardens' new XStrata Treetop Walkway gives nature-lovers a look at a part of the forest that's seldom seen -- a view from the top.
One visitor might be drawn to the six-string Spanish guitar on which Bob Dylan composed some of his earliest songs.
Ninety minutes after pulling out of Lisbon, I'm driving into a different world -- humble but proud Evora, capital of Portugal's Alentejo region.
An invitation to a wedding in Colorado provided an excuse for a week's vacation exploring mountains and mesas, long-abandoned mining camps and sprawling ranches.
The kosher pizzeria on the rue des Rosiers smelled like hot cheese, and Jewish teens leaned skullcap-covered heads into the doorway, hoping to order one of Moshe Benjamin Engelberg's thin-crusted pizzas.
Stand beneath the Gateway Arch, and you can't help but feel proud to be an American. Not only does this architectural marvel connect East to West, but it's also a visual reminder of all that's great about the good ole U.S. of A. Planted on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, this silvery icon testifies to our unflagging pioneer spirit and good-natured optimism.
On July 3, 1608, French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a fur-trading post on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.
Tens of thousands of people head to Columbus every fall during Ohio State's football season. I'm as much a road-trip loving football fan as the next guy, but I actually never thought the Ohio capital was as charming as say Madison, Wisconsin, or Ann Arbor, Michigan. I obviously wasn't looking very hard. With a revamped downtown and a booming population (it surpassed Cleveland in size in the 1980s), the city has restyled itself from a college town into a fairly happening urban center.
With its membership in the European Union, many things are changing in Portugal. Day after day the roads here were messing up my itinerary -- I'd arrive in town hours before I thought I would. I remember a time when there were absolutely no freeways in Portugal. Now, the country has plenty. They build them so fast, even my Michelin map is missing new ones.
The sun hadn't even started to rise over the Quabbin Reservoir before would-be anglers arrived for the recent opening day of fishing season, their boats lined up at its three launch areas.
There was no space on the Inca Trail. "Estás seguro?" I pleaded with dormant Spanish, or "Are you sure?" in English. I was sitting face to face with the ninth Peruvian salesman that day to offer the same answer. He was positive. No space on the Inca Trail, entering Machu Picchu via the Sun Gate, but his alternative trek was the real deal, he said.
Charity Simon is sharing a bedroom and a bathroom with two other young women she has never met during her stay at the Tropics Hotel & Hostel in Miami Beach. But that's fine with her since she is saving a ton of money every night.
Charity Simon is sharing a bedroom and a bathroom with two other young women she has never met during her stay at the Tropics Hotel & Hostel in Miami Beach. But that's fine with her since she is saving a ton of money every night.
Salamanca's Plaza Mayor, Spain's grandest square, seems to celebrate life. Strolling across the square with Carlos, my guide, we passed a young man walking alone who suddenly burst into song. I asked Carlos why and he said, "Doesn't it happen where you live?"
The 165-year-old amusement park that inspired both Walt Disney and Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen offers style and charm of a kind often imitated.
It's well past the kids' bedtime, but no one is nagging the preschoolers and kindergartners to brush their teeth and go to sleep.
Surrounded by vineyards and filled with atmospheric wine-gardens, this small, tourist-friendly town (just 90 minutes by train from Frankfurt) is easy to navigate by foot or streetcar. Today, 25,000 of its 130,000 residents are students -- making the town feel young and very alive.
There are more than 300 hotels in the Celtic capital, so where should you stay? Here, T+L takes a look at four properties making news.
Mick Fleming arrived by dugout canoe; Lucy Fleming on horseback a day later.
On a supported bike tour, you don't have to worry about smelling like road kill after days upon days of cycling. There will be opportunities to shower along the way.
Some people call Wilmington, North Carolina, "Hollywood East" because of all the movies and TV shows filmed here. In the last three decades, more than 400 feature films, documentaries and television series have been shot and edited around town, drawing notable actors from Andy Griffith to Richard Gere.
The city of Mostar lies at a crossroads of cultures: just inland from the Adriatic coast, in the southern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mostar -- where Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks had lived in seeming harmony before the war, then suffered horribly when its warring neighborhoods turned the city into a killing zone -- provided me with one of the richest experiences of my travel year.
These days Croatia's Dalmatian Coast is inundated with tourists -- and understandably so. But after a visit to Dubrovnik, the "Pearl of the Adriatic," I'm in the mood for a good Balkan adventure and decide to drive directly inland ... to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It was a good thing nobody warned me about all those hills and the cars zooming by.
My vacation itineraries are usually determined by the fact that I am a lone woman traveling with three guys: my husband and two sons. If I want their company, then cooking classes, spas and quilt shows are out.
"Experience the Wild Beauty" is Montenegro's newest tourist slogan.
Tears welled in my eyes twice while hiking some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet -- once in mid-wretch gag and once in awe-struck wonder.
From laid-back Florida beaches to guided mule rides in the Grand Canyon's North Rim, our editors picked these getaways with the average American family's tax rebate of $1,200 in mind.
After a mile or so on the rugged Kalalau Trail, hikers who have slogged through red mud and climbed over slippery rocks stop abruptly. Far down to the right, the sapphire ocean shimmers. As the trail winds to the left, a cool canopy of deep-green foliage dotted with pink and orange blossoms awaits. In the distance, the coastline juts in and out, its steep cliffs dropping to the sea.
It's like something out of a movie: A boat filled with tourists -- drinking and happy, delighted with the exploits of the passing dolphins -- washes up to a rugged island whose exotic name conjures the mystique surrounding this place.
The Dordogne River valley is one of the most beautiful areas in France -- and there are plenty of stylish hotels where even a weak dollar goes far.
Shining with Orthodox golden domes that rise from forested hilltops, crisscrossed by narrow cobblestone streets, and speckled by quiet, leafy parks, Kiev draws visitors with an Eastern European charm.
With four-digit inflation and violent Maoist guerrillas, Peru for many years was hardly the place for a seaweed wrap in a swank hotel.
Sondra Bernstein shocked Sonoma 10 years ago with her tiny, Cab-free restaurant, the Girl & the Fig. No Chardonnay even -- just Rhône wines (many locally grown and made) and a gutsy southern French menu fashioned out of the county's bounty. And at nearby Cafe La Haye, John McReynolds and Saul Gropman had started turning out stellar California-French dishes in a kitchen they could reach across.
Bergen's old Hanseatic Quarter has a crude yet romantic charm. I crouch under creaky timbers, as I wander through the Hanseatic Museum. The oversized cupboards around me once housed humble Norwegians -- each miniscule "bedroom" giving them darkness and warmth through the cold, but not very long, Nordic night. Primitive paintings of buxom maidens with come-hither smiles decorated the doors, as if to bring sweet dreams to those rustic 16th-century lives.
Stockholm has a reputation for being one of Europe's most expensive cities. T+L hits the streets of the fashionable capital and proves otherwise.
Cheap hotels, every kind of food you can imagine. Plenty of sizzle, spectacle, first-rate theatrical productions, giant red rocks for climbing and water playgrounds.
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Washington Tuesday for his first visit to the United States in his three years as head of the Roman Catholic Church. His visit to Washington and New York includes plans for a Mass at the new Nationals Park, a meeting at the White House, a speech at the United Nations, a visit to Ground Zero and Mass at Yankee Stadium.
No doubt the Taj Mahal steals the breath away. But as a repeat visitor to India, I have often arrived at its gates too exhausted to have much breath left to steal.
Sitting on the top row of the ancient arena, I scan the ruins of Ostia, letting my imagination take me back 2,000 years to the days when this was ancient Rome's seaport, a thriving commercial center of 60,000 people. I marvel also at how few visitors make the simple commuter train trip from downtown Rome to what I consider the most underappreciated sight in all of Italy.
"Cow. Mustard plant. Dead body," our taxi driver said as we drove into town.
It's that time of year when New Orleans slathers up and chills out.
Tired of stressing about what your pale skin and flabby muscles are going to look like on the beach during your summer vacation?
Under the glow of a southwest Florida sun, sleek sailboats dance on turquoise seas. With every gentle lapping of the warm blue water on Captiva, a whispered tinkling sound settles around your bare feet. It's the murmur of the Gulf of Mexico tumbling pink, orange, red, gray and blue shells on the ivory sand.
The jammed parking lot outside Muir Woods is proof this stand of old-growth coast redwoods is a popular spot.
They're bright, blue and beloved. And they're showing themselves in small patches along highways.
Luxurious or rustic. Remote island or classic coastal hike. Whatever your style, you can make it green.
Morocco is probably best-known to American travelers for cities like Fez, Casablanca and Marrakech. But this country in the northwest corner of Africa is actually a place of dramatic variety. On a two-week or even one-week visit, it's feasible to fit in a trip to a major city or two, in addition to exploring rural areas.
The cobblestoned streets of Nantucket Town (Nantucket is the name of the Massachusetts island, the county and the main town) look like the prototype for Ye Olde Villages everywhere. In the eastern town of Sconset, the post office serves as a central meeting spot, as it has for the past 106 years. And all across the island, the biggest badge of local pride is a worn-out Jeep, with years' worth of beach permits -- the more, the better.
Goggles -- check. Helmet -- check. Headset -- check. "Bronco, I'm ready for takeoff." The engine rumbles, the propeller spins, and the faint smell of fuel rises around me.
Visitors are flocking to witness the spectacular eruption at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, despite explosions and toxic fumes.
I love to scamper, at low tide, shoes in my hands, far from shore, across the mud flat in the vast Bay of Mont St. Michel. Splashing across black sand and through little puddles, I head for a dramatic abbey reaching to heaven from a rock surrounded by a vast and muddy solitude.
Strap on 3-D glasses and watch holograms of cartoon sperm sprinting to fertilize an egg. Climb inside a gigantic nose, enjoy the smell of fresh hay, then feel the wind blast on your neck when it sneezes. Walk across a bouncy rubber tongue complete with taste buds and realistic burping noises in the background.
In late April, tiny pastel bits of a giant San Antonio party show up everywhere: trickling from your hair, embedded in the carpet under your desk, stuck to your furniture. The confetti comes from an egg that was cracked over your head by a mischievous friend or relative, and it's inescapable.
Siena seems to be every Italy connoisseur's pet town. More than a sum of places to see, Siena itself is the sight. Grab a gelato, join in the evening stroll, and end up at the town's glorious red brick main square, Il Campo. Lean up against a pillar as the setting sun plays games with the colors of the stone and the sky. At twilight, first-time poets savor that magic moment when the sky turns into a rich blue dome as bright as the medieval tower that holds it high.
Late each winter, when the snow gets sloppy and the streams get muddy, the same thought begins creeping ever more insistently into my mind: I need green. I need warm. I need spring.
Artists and other creative types are having their way with hotel rooms -- and they're thinking way outside the box.
Imagine you and your favorite travel partner dangling in your own private little gondola, gliding silently for 40 minutes as you cross the Mer de Glace or "sea of ice."
One disconcerting thing about sightseeing on these frozen Arctic islands at the edge of the polar ice pack: the biggest tourist attractions might be returning your stare. And to them, you're a potential meal.
Spring is the loveliest time of year to visit a public garden. Cherry trees bloom, lilacs perfume the breeze and tulips color the landscape.
Travel + Leisure, Headline News and CNN.com want to know which U.S. cities are your favorites -- and why!
The Loire Valley, two hours southwest of Paris, offers France's greatest array of chateau experiences.
As the Sky Train departs Beijing West Railway Station at 9:30 p.m., there isn't an inch of unclaimed real estate in the train's 16 carriages. Suitcases spill into the aisles, doubling as chairs for passengers without seats.
Like many Irish-Americans, I'm curious about my roots. Unlike most Irish-Americans, my surname, Nephin, gives little hint that I am of Irish descent.
We're barely out of our cars before the chorus starts: "I just want to see a ghost orchid!"
Everybody knows what the Empire State Building looks like. That's why Rick Bell, the head of the Center for Architecture, didn't put the famous skyscraper on his list of 10 great buildings to see in New York.
York is a highlight for any visit to Britain -- by far the best stop between London and Edinburgh. It has a huge church and, locals love to add, "A giant bell."
From butterflies to grizzly bears, we know where the wild things are.
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