Recent stories in Travel
Evora still glimmers
On the thread of this Portuguese city's history are Caeser, kings, Moors, great wealth, and long influence.
Holiday flying can be ... less painful
Short of upgrading, here are some strategies that can make flying more bearable this time of year.
A who's who says where to go
Prominent New Englanders, like pro snowboarder Seth Wescott, share their favorite holiday spots. Hopefully, their answers will inspire you.
Stay in style
Maybe it’s the fact that the First Family hails from here, but Chicago has lately upped its hipness quotient. Who needs the Olympics when the buzz is on in the city’s thriving art, design, and restaurant scenes?
Celebrated on the square
They're sprouting locally, small yet official-looking signs that proclaim an otherwise anonymous intersection is the Thomas F. Coughlin, or Wilfred "Freddie" Suozzo, or Edward Everett square. "Who are they?" you might ask. We toured them and others to find out.
A novel setting
With the surprise success of an American book, the little-known island of Guernsey, and its role in WWII, has been thrust from near-obscurity into the international limelight.
Behind their crafts are the high arts
The annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, from Nov. 11-15, features 195 artists who push crafts beyond being only a hobby.
Where the melting pot still simmers
Beacon Hill was settled in 1625 and its always diverse history is traceable - and walkable - nearly 400 years later.
Ways to the Glades
Exploring the wetland by car, foot, boat, and more, dispelling myths along the way.
Take 10: Foreign flair in New England
No room in the budget for global adventures? Skip the plane ride (and price tag) in favor of these 10 spots that will have you experiencing distant states and the world without leaving New England.
A memorable tour
Bountiful wildlife and dramatic landscape beckon visitors to Cape Town, South Africa, belying a people's long, brutal struggle.
The man behind Mickey and the theme parks
Explore San Francisco's Walt Disney Family Museum, which brings to life the story of Walt Disney from his childhood to his great success with Disneyland.
The spirit of Sleepy Hollow lives on
Enough landmarks have survived in this Hudson Valley village-turned-suburb to allow visitors the chance to retrace the tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.
- Plan New York travel guide
- Explore Halloween guide
Less costly safaris are within reach
Until a few years ago, a night drive in the African bush was a luxury reserved for the wealthy few. Fortunately, South Africa has come up with safaris for the middle-class masses.
13 frights
Whether aboard ship or gondola, wary of woods or castle keep, fear will surely factor in. Here are 13 ways to get a charge out of Halloween.
Walk it off
At this time of year, Rhode Island is a bastion of colors, sights, and sounds. Here are 10 walking paths to take it all in.
- Plan Rhode Island travel guide
- Explore Outdoor adventure guide
Down by the Bay
A kayaking tour of Essex Bay becomes a reminder of why September is New England's most serene month.
Beantown or bust
Travel and Leisure Magazine recently ranked America's favorite cities based on responses from both visitors and residents. From nightlife to the T, here's how our city stacked up.
- Plan Boston travel guide
In Baltimore, a heady mix that heats up
Hotels, shops, restaurants, residences, and night life kickstart the evolution of a waterfront city left fallow.
Capital come-ons
Shine and substance add allure to the Capitol, National Museum of American History, and Ford's Theatre.
Best iPhone apps for the road
Need to send an electronic post card? How about where to find cheap gas? As the people at Apple like to say, there's an app for that.
Promenade in parts
The Boston Harborwalk explores a waterfront of the city that mixes old and new, work and play.
Six great seafood spots
While there's obvious choices like Legal Seafoods and Summer Shacks, here's an insider's guide to other sumptuous offerings.
Eagle scout
The big bird has rebounded along the Mississippi, astonishing admirers with its robust beauty and power and profusion.
The road to real
After a distance of years and an ocean, seeking the roads and routines, the landmarks and laid-back nature of a home state.
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- plan New Hampshire travel guide
- Ride the road Take a foliage GPS tour
Behind the old-time veneer,
see an essential country store
Most country stores offer more than dubious snacks to summer tourists, they're a sustaining element in Vermont village culture.
Small wonders
While New York City can seem big, impersonal, and expensive, the city offers intimate, delectable tidbits for everyone.
Take 10: Best mountain biking spots
New England's parks and forests are compact and welcoming. Create your own route as you conquer one of these top-notch trails.
Black sea echoes
If there ever was proof of the attraction the landscape of our families holds for us, you need look no further than Wellfleet.
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Playtime is the rule
At the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine, tots to teens are not only expected, but encouraged, to touch everything.
Beyond the Bay of Fundy
In Nova Scotia, experience the Atlantic coast with echoes of Maine but in an earlier, less-McMansioned era.
- plan Canada travel guide
Peace and play on a war footing
Explore Fort Warren, the most popular attraction in the Boston Harbor Islands national park area, which has given rise to legends and ghost stories.
Savoring elegant, yet relaxed Bordeaux
The countryside around this French port city is stereotyped as a stuffy spot with cufflinks and expensive wines, but that goes down the drain in a whirl.
10 places to bask in barbecue
Contrary to myth, you need neither a bluetick hound nor a pickup truck to enjoy eating Southern barbecue. Here’s a guide to 10 of New England’s smokiest grills.
Vermont spa beckons, but first, to the kitchen
ESSEX, Vt. - French bistro. That’s what we would be tackling, a dinner starting with an appetizer of chardonnay-steamed mussels, then moving to steak au poivre, potatoes in truffle oil, sauteed chanterelles, and cherry tomatoes tossed in garlic and olive oil with tiny pattypan squash. The finale would be a fresh berry tart on a bed of lemon curd with ...
Nativity thrives on Naples street
NAPLES - It’s Christmas every day on Via San Gregorio Armeno in the heart of the city’s historic center. Although the tradition of Nativity scenes dates to the 13th century, Neapolitan artisans of the 18th century elevated the form to dramatic tableaus populated with saints, angels, animals, and figurines representing the trades. In the process, they launched a cottage industry ...
Things we can be thankful for
We feel a surge of regional chauvinism on Thanksgiving mornings when we shiver on the streets of Plymouth to bear witness to the Pilgrim Progress March. On a day dominated by football and gluttony, we’re thankful for the purity of this reenactment of the 1621 Thanksgiving service where the 51 surviving Pilgrims prayed for their dead and gave thanks for ...
Expats find provisions plum-pudding perfect
NASHUA - When Denise and Gerry Pressinger launched The British Aisles 20 years ago, their dining room table was the warehouse and their living room was filled with fellow British expatriates every Saturday afternoon. “They’d come over to stock up on things they missed from home,’’ Denise recalls. “Silly things, really, like HP Sauce and Heinz beans, all the biscuits, ...
New growths alongside Civil War sites
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - If you want a Civil War vacation, book a trip to Gettysburg. When wine country calls, Napa Valley and Sonoma lead the list. If you want history and chardonnay, try Fredericksburg.
An inland postcard from R.I. Route 102
Route 102 may not be the state’s longest road (it’s fourth), but it is one of the prettiest. Besides some of the most picturesque landscape, it has rural Americana dining at its hilly northern end, a sleepy seaside village at its southern terminus, and in between some of the quirkiest history Rhode Island has to offer.
A WHO’S WHO SAYS WHERE TO GO
Where will you take guests this holiday season and beyond? We asked some prominent New Englanders to share their favorite spots. Hopefully, their answers will inspire you.
This is no blip on the screen
DEC. 17-19 BROOKLYN, N.Y.
Flying around the holidays can be . . . less painful
With cramped seating, recycled air, and zero sustenance, modern air travel is not for the faint-hearted. Factor in a flu pandemic, fewer flights, airports thronged with the traveling masses, and the usual threat of winter storms, and choosing to fly over the holidays may seem downright masochistic. But it doesn’t have to be. Short of upgrading, here are some strategies ...
Making waking practically pleasant
I’m not a morning person, but I don’t mind chatting with my alarm clock. “Snooze,’’ I say when its bells start ringing, and the pocket-size device responds, “Snooze time, nine minutes.’’ “Temperature?’’ I say. “The temperature is 66 degrees,’’ it replies. The clever Moshi Voice Control Travel Alarm Clock responds to nine voice-activated commands, including time, set time, alarm, and ...
Fortunate Evora still glimmers
ÉVORA - “Where should we go for lunch,’’ a Lisboan will ask, and invariably, “Évora’’ is the reply. An hour and a half south of Lisbon, this UNESCO World Heritage site has been a favorite for millennia. Julius Caesar showered Évora with privileges. Portuguese kings made it their summer address. For a brief time, Évora was even a candidate to ...
No matter the neighborhood, pour the Fernet
A few days before I was scheduled to fly into the city, I spotted a listing online for the 2d annual Barback Olympics, a raucous event in which the city’s “top barbacks’’ compete in grueling races that primarily involve carrying kegs, running across car-tire obstacles, and rapidly drinking beer. More remarkable than the event itself was its sponsor: Fratelli Branca ...
New Orleans focuses on the visual
DEC. 1-13 NEW ORLEANS
These Western ski resorts offer a break from the familiar
Skiers and snowboarders tend to flock to a handful of Western winter resorts, but these hidden gems often have just as much powder and terrain with fewer lift lines and greater value.
Rich with history, high in Transylvania
BRASOV, Romania - Thick morning fog was lifting from Council Square, slowly dissipating as the sun pressed above the rim of the nearby mountains and pastel buildings glowed in the brightening light. At that moment, as the cool air carried a scent of burning from distant fields, it struck me that I was quite far from familiar things and that ...
Stay in style
Maybe it’s the fact that the First Family hails from here, but Chicago has lately upped its hipness quotient. Who needs the Olympics when the buzz is on in the city’s thriving art, design, and restaurant scenes? Hoteliers have made their own strong bid for visitors with a string of happenings, from newly updated institutions to newly opened stylish digs, ...
Snow conditions? Facebook, Twitter monitor in real time
No snow in the city might lead some people to think there isn’t much of it in ski country, either. Tom Daly, Waterville Valley general manager, has always kidded with his marketing staff that he would like to see a virtual billboard in downtown Boston that would show live video of the conditions 130 miles north.
Take the scenic routes to ski trips
There are quicker ways to arrive at your favorite ski destination. You'll probably save time if you take the highway, but you'll lose the flavor of New England along its various back roads. For skiers and riders, these journeys are not solely about a day on the slopes, but an immersion in the culture and history of the sport. Whether ...
A quick click and kids are 3-wheeling
Going for a ride? Let your children leave their bikes at home. Micro Mobility’s scooters have a sturdy, skateboard-like deck and a wonderfully responsive steering system that allows kids to zoom easily on three wheels. The Swiss-designed scooters come in two sizes, Mini (for 3- to 5-year-olds, $84.99, with traditional T-bar handles) and Maxi (6- to 10-year-olds, $149.99, with a ...
Chinese-Americans' history ascends new stages
Between 1910 and 1940, a million immigrants passed through Angel Island, a speck of land in the middle of San Francisco Bay. But the Chinese, about 175,000 of them, were singled out for detention and interrogation at the immigration station, packed into bunkhouses surrounded by barbed wire - some for two weeks, others for up to two years - before ...
Touches of class set this Brewster inn apart
BREWSTER - Perhaps it was the mattress that made us feel we were sleeping on a cloud. Perhaps it was returning from dinner to chocolate truffles on the pillow and classical music playing softly. Or maybe it was the warm, moist towels brought to the table after a delicious breakfast of blueberry buttermilk pancakes and real maple syrup.
Gearing up for downhill thrills
This year’s new ski and snowboard equipment reflects a burst of innovation and a focus on green products. Almost every manufacturer has incorporated rocker, or reverse camber, into its skis or snowboards, and many have created products that can perform both at the resort and in the backcountry. These new skis and boards can float on powder, carve on groomers, ...
Celebrated on the square
They’re sprouting locally, small yet official-looking signs that proclaim an otherwise anonymous intersection is the Thomas F. Coughlin, or Wilfred “Freddie’’ Suozzo, or Edward Everett square. “Who are they?’’ you might ask. We toured them and others to find out.
A museum shelter for art - and snowshoers
WILLIAMSTOWN - The surprising thing about the Stone Hill Center at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is not that it keeps a humble profile to blend in with the fields and forest around it, but that it puts those natural surroundings on display. In another time, this site, on a north-facing hillside squeezed among the Hoosac Mountains, the ...
Where they went: Costa Rica
WHO : Gabrielle, 49, and Frank Yetter, 54, of Marblehead. WHERE : Costa Rica.
Inside Boston.com Travel
10 tips for first-time skiers
You probably shouldn't expect to conquer double black diamonds your first time on the slopes, but that doesn't mean you have to stick to the bunny hill either.
Haunted New England
From lighthouses to inns to college campuses, check out some of the most haunted places across Maine to Massachusetts.
Beantown or bust
Travel and Leisure Magazine recently ranked America's favorite cities based on responses from both visitors and residents. From nightlife to the T, here's how our city stacked up.
- Plan Boston travel guide
Haunted haunts
Check out these Eastern Massachusetts spots that have been to known to make skin crawl.
Oktoberfests around New England
Can't make it to Germany for the annual festivities? No worries, we've got you covered with celebrations from Acadia, Maine to Harvard Square.
National parks photo contest
Legendary filmmaker Ken Burns chose a winner for our national parks contest. Check out the winning shot and all the finalists.
Go for the gold
Spectacular hikes, a wild raft ride, pumpkin pancakes, and more reasons to love New England at its brightest.
Fall might find you...
From film festivals and street parties to football games and balloon rides, there is more to celebrate in fall than pumpkins and foliage.
25 things to do under $25
From popular faves (like the Boston Jazz Festival) to less traditional fare (Boston Tweed Ride, anyone?), we've got 25 fall events and ideas that don't break $25.
Take a New England lighthouse tour
From Maine to Connecticut, lighthouses are defining landmarks of New England.
Fall events preview
From a pumpkin regatta to arts and craft fairs galore, keep your New England fall calendar full.
Three-day coastal wine tour
Looking to escape but don't have the time — or the energy — to plan a trip? Our GPS tour has you covered.
- Explore N.E.'s coastal vineyards
Best of secret spaces
Hidden T stations, behind the scoreboard, inside famous clock towers, and more — take a peek around Boston's hidden gems and secret spots.
Latest galleries from readers
Your fall photos
Have the leaves already started to turn in your backyard? Check out some readers' photos of fall in New England, and when you see color this season, send in your own.
- Submit Share your fall photos
National parks photo contest
Legendary filmmaker Ken Burns chose a winner for our national parks contest. Check out the winning shot and all the finalists.
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- Share Your Sox travel photos
- Plan Fenway fan guide
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