Travel Blog

Remember the saying for those of us who love to experience nature when we travel: “Take only pictures and leave only footprints.” Well, we have another piece of advice for responsible travelers – one you may find surprising. Social media has fueled a boom in “rock-stack art.” But now a crescendo of voices – from park rangers to indigenous communities – is asking everyone to leave the stones alone. The rock-stacking trend, and its downsideThey look harmless, peaceful, even. A few...

On November 2, Mexico City will transform into a river of color, culture, and remembrance as the Day of the Dead Grand Parade returns for 2025, featuring giant skeleton puppets, floats, music, dancers, and costumes. This extraordinary four-hour procession honors ancestors who have passed while celebrating the joy of life. At the same time, it offers travelers from around the globe an unforgettable immersion into one of Mexico’s most cherished cultural traditions. It’s a case of life imitating art!  Or even...

You’ll have a bright lip for your stylish ship! Holland America Line’s new ‘Blend Bar’ onboard experience allows guests to design their own customized lipstick or gloss – the first aboard any cruise ship. So you’ll have the perfect shade to reflect your cruise vacation mood. The exclusive, hands-on lipstick lab is guided by an expert beauty consultant and offers a palette of premium pigments, luxurious finishes, and signature flavors to craft a custom lipstick or gloss. So if you didn’t...

A new ‘olive oil’ train celebrating the fall harvest in Italy is the latest addition to a growing travel trend: combining a resurgence in the love of rail journeys with exclusive access to authentic, highest-quality, at-the-source, wine, spirits and culinary tastings with experts in famous designated regions. It’s the travel trend your taste buds will thank you for! Here’s more information about the world’s latest tasting train, plus some other favorites, from a few hours to days, where the route is...

Are you ready for your next trip to Europe? The European Union’s new, automated, digital entry and exit system for non-EU nationals – including citizens of the U.S. and Canada – will be implemented starting October 12, 2025. The EU’s long-delayed new digital border control process is called EES: Entry/Exit System. Sadly, for nostalgic passport stamp collectors, the new system will eliminate manual stamping. EES replaces the previous system with a digital process that includes the collection of travelers’ biometric data. That means...

While Munich’s Oktoberfest gets all the press as the world’s most famous fall festival, autumn is a season of celebration around the world. Ancient cultures thanked the gods for abundance and prayed for their families to survive the leaner months ahead. The harvest traditions that have been passed through the ages and centuries still today give us a wealth of unique flavors, rituals, and cultural insights. Here are ten festivals worth timing your autumn travels around. Festa della Vendemmia“Grape Harvest Festival:”  Tuscany,...

Solo travel keeps growing, and now there’s a river ship just for singletons to enjoy cruising together for the whole season! Riviera Travel is launching the first-ever cruise ship dedicated to solo travelers in 2027. Now there’s no need to wait until friends or family can join you on holiday – at any time of the river cruising season. Lots of cruise lines, ocean and river, offer solo travel promotions and Riviera Travel itself even offers whole solo itineraries – more...

The festive season is no longer just about gathering ‘round the hearth and home; it’s increasingly becoming the perfect time to pack a bag and head somewhere new. More travelers are choosing to spend Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and other holidays on vacation, whether that means a European Christmas market river cruise, a beach escape in the Caribbean, a snowy celebration on the slopes, or an exotic cultural journey. And we have some good advice to make your trip during the...

Instead of a to-do list to check off during your next tropical vacation, the island of St. Kitts invites you to celebrate slow travel: log off, unplug from your devices, and reconnect with yourself and nature with a range of restorative experiences the length and breadth of this 18-mile-long Caribbean island. St. Kitts is the larger of two islands that make up the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Green mountain ranges stretch from Mount Liamuiga in the north to the southern...

“Set-jetting” to locations in Britain means that you don’t have to say goodbye to the beloved characters of Downton Abbey, even if the final film has been released. The clever play on words has been coined by Visit Britain to reflect how popular visiting film and TV set locations is for visitors to the U.K. They say 87% of travelers to Britain are interested in walking in the footsteps of their favorite on-screen characters, and no wonder! The U.K. is the...

How is Celebrity Cruises bringing their revolutionary, ‘Edge-class’ ocean ship design and lifestyle to the rivers of Europe? The cruise line has now revealed at least part of its vision with renderings of their first two river ships: Celebrity Compass and Celebrity Seeker, prior to their launch on the Rhine and Danube rivers in 2027. This comes just a week after the first advance pre-booking access sold out in 6 minutes! We don’t know how many people put down their refundable...

New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel is one of just a handful of hotels around the globe that’s a household name synonymous with luxury, society and history. After closing in 2017, the legendary hotel has resumed its place at the apex of New York and global hospitality following a transformational restoration of ballrooms, suites, dining venues and more. The Waldorf Astoria, named after one of America’s first ultra-wealthy families, the Astors, pioneered luxury hospitality innovations. It was the first modern hotel in...

Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas has launched in a glittering ceremony. The line’s latest Icon-class ship’s christening event lit up Port Canaveral, Florida. You might say it was ‘written in the stars,’ as the mega-ship’s godmother, research astronaut Kellie Gerardi, named the ship and set it on its inaugural voyage. The ages-old tradition of bestowing safekeeping on a ship, its crew and guests “is close to my heart and a spirit that spans both sea and space,” says Kellie Gerardi,...

The hotels for the hip are joining the all-inclusive trend. W Hotels, known for avant-garde design, luxurious amenities, music, fashion, and art scenes that create buzzy social hubs for creatives and stylish professionals, is bringing its "Whatever/Whenever" service, distinctive local programming and iconic bars and restaurants to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, in its first all-inclusive location. W Hotels is just the latest hotel chain capitalizing on travelers’ desire to both extend their urban hotel experience to the beach – and simplify...

They say ’50 is the new 30!’ And now there’s a new brand of travel experiences - designed just for this new generation of travelers - with maturity, busy lives, high expectations, established tastes and as active as ever. Upscale guided travel company Tauck is tapping into the energy of travelers in their 40s and 50s looking for flexibility, soft adventure and one-of-a-kind experiences. “Roam by Tauck” launches in 2026 with a dozen itineraries across 6 continents by 2027. The high-end, small-group...

Private, after-hours Scenic Enrich cultural events, just for guests of Scenic ocean and river cruises, take a luxury voyage to next-level privilege. Here are my experiences of three Scenic Enrich events from recent ocean and river journeys. By: Lynn Elmhirst, cruise/ travel journalist and expert. Travel in any way makes us feel special and takes us out of our ordinary lives. A Scenic voyage makes you feel transported to a better world: your butler, onboard team, cruise director, restaurant servers, bar tenders...

Train travel within Europe – and to Europe from London via the Chunnel – just keeps getting easier and better. Eurostar, which operates the largest international high-speed rail network in Western Europe, has recently announced new routes that will tickle your itch to ride the rails. Its just-announced new destinations will be served by new trains, and highlight just how connected Britain still is to the continent, especially via the high-speed trains that whisk passengers through the tunnel under the...

There’s more than sushi and Mount Fuji in Japan! Travel to the poetically-nicknamed Land of the Rising Sun has never been more popular, but too many visitors never get beyond the country’s big three destinations of Tokyo, Osaka and ancient Kyoto. Of course, you’ll want to savor the skyscrapers, cutting-edge technology, anime, gaming, neon nightlife and street foods of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan’s two biggest cities. Not to mention the ancient temples, tea ceremonies and cultural heart of Japan in Kyoto. Japan...

National Dog Day is August 26 – during peak summer travel. Nearly three-quarters of pet parents travel with their furry friends every year on domestic and international trips, and there’s still time to plan your next getaway this season.  No matter how you’re traveling, bringing along Fido means extra steps to make sure your dog – and you – enjoy a relaxed, healthy vacation. And for many of us, those extra efforts to travel with our pet are worth it rather...

A 46-foot hummingbird sculpture has taken flight in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It’s the world’s largest – and celebrates the Caribbean country’s one-of-a-kind national bird, the streamer-tail hummingbird, found only in Jamaica.  While hummingbirds are found in many countries in North and South America, the streamer-tail, which is also affectionately known as the Doctor Bird for the resemblance of its long tail to the coattails of a 19th-century doctor’s frock coat, is found only in Jamaica. In local folklore, the Doctor Bird...