Blogs

For a fun and authentic New Orleans experience, all you have to do is attending a local festival. And in the home of Mardi Gras, you don’t have to try too hard to do that. Festival season is a year-round in the festival capital of the world, celebrating everything from NOLA’s best eats to music and culture.

So here are eight other New Orleans’s festivals worth making the trip down south for.

Sing Along at a Music Festival

The birthplace of jazz knows how to produce award-winning musicians and k

The Kimberley region is a rugged and remote area in northern western Australia. It can only be described as a magical place. It is largely uninhabited, but the scenery is beautiful, breathtaking, and very dramatic. You will need to rent a four wheel drive vehicle to traverse the rugged terrain, but the scenery is worth the bumpy road. One way to see most of the Kimberley is by taking the Gibb River Road, an adventurous road trip right through the Kimberley from Broome on the west coast to Kununu

Israel is undeniably a small nation, but it is rich in history and culture. This country has a great amount of history to offer its visitors.

Traveling to Israel? Here are some things to keep in mind before you go travel to Israel:

First off, passport stamps are no longer. Nowadays, a paper visa is issued at entry which shows your stamp. The visas are issued on arrival — free of charge — to Canadian, New Zealand, UK, Irish, and US passport holders.

For your protection, polio and typhoid vaccines

The Sounds of Fifes & Drums

Driving along the beautiful Colonial National Parkway along the York River toward Yorktown, one can almost hear the sounds of fife and drums, regimental bands and the blistering sounds of a cannonade. Yorktown, the pivotal battle in Virginia which caused British General Cornwallis to surrender his army to combined American and French forces led by George Washington has a whole new sound. The sights and sounds  of visiting Revolutionary history live!

With the recent op

The historic, atmospheric city of Essaouira, on Morocco's Atlantic coast west of Marrakesh, is fronted by 10 kilometres of white sand swept by the trade winds that are so coveted by kite surfers and windsurfers. These winds, known locally as Chergui, are ideal for surfers, reaching a speed of 30 knots in summer. The part of the beach that is closest to the town has calmer waters, whereas the leeward zone features bigger waves.

Essaouira beach is perfect for any level of expertise. The bay is quit

There is Mexico and there is the Mexican state of Yucatan. The former gets a lot of negative (and often unfair) press and the latter hardly gets mentioned (unlike the resorts of next-door state Quintana Roo, Cancun and the Riviera Maya).  Being inquisitive slow-travelers who prefer the “unusual,” we did a lot of research and discovered the essence of a fascinating destination.

Why the Yucatan Peninsula?

The Mayan Culture

The Yucatan Peninsula in the country's south has a mystical vibe due to the a

Discover Lagos this Christmas…

Lagos is the largest Nigerian city and the financial center of a metropolis known for its beautiful beach resorts, boutiques, and nightlife. Also, this is known as a home to the National Museum Lagos consists of cultural artifacts and craftworks. Tourists from all over the world would love to visit this city once in a lifetime for its fortress and picturesque sights. But most people enjoy a coastal buffet here featuring over a dozen mesmerizing beaches. People who a

Settled by Celtic peoples even before the Romans ruled the peninsula they called Hispania, the capital of today’s autonomous community of Castile and León holds a special place in this country’s history. It was the first capital of Castile, then after the game-changing “Catholic monarchs” Ferdinand and Isabella tied the knot here, also the newly united Spain. Cervantes and the notorious inquisitioner Torquemada lived here as well, and it’s where Christopher Columbus sailed off this mortal coil.

It's Thanksgiving Day in the USA, and despite all the world's controversies and problems, many pause to reflect on what in their lives they're thankful for, and perhaps, too, the travel-minded a bit on how they can give a little back of their own good fortune the next time they travel.

It's certainly true that more travelers than ever (especially young women, it seems) are taking a break from the usual “turn-and-burn” vacations or hedonistic city sojourns in favor of travel with a purpose. A

A cloudless sky, the song of birds carried in the wind laced with the calm sound of waves crashing into each other and scent of the sea filled air. White sands and a turquoise sea that is so clear you can see the fish swimming. Have you ever wondered what paradise would be like? Stop wondering, paradise is a plane ride away in Koh Tao, Thailand.

The name Koh Tao means Turtle Island. Koh Tao is one of the three islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Koh Tao is the smallest of them all. The island was

by Felice Hardy

Skiing in Italy‘s fabulous Sella Ronda in the Dolomites recently, I was stunned by the low prices I found for food and drink. In cute little mountain restaurants I paid 1.10€ for coffee, 2€ for soft drinks, and 4€ for a pint (half a litre) of beer… and that’s just the drinks. I was bowled over by a 6.50€ bowl of soup and pasta for 8.50€. Quite a change from France’s Val d’Isère, where coffee ran anywhere from 2.90€ to 4€, soup (soup!) set me back 13€, and let’s not even talk ab

It was the first week of November, and even though summer had officially ended only two months prior, the fam (my wife Sue and my daughter Diz) and I decided that we needed a break.

by Mary Gallagher / Photos by Will A. Davis

photo: Michal Ludwiczak

First off, let me grant that “adventurous” is a relative term. If you’re growing up in Iceland, for example, and rotted shark (hakárl) is part of your culture, it’s no biggie. But for most of the rest of us, that would qualify as “adventurous” eating.  So over the course of my travels, these are the 17 of the more offbeat local foods I’ve encountered in a few key destinations (though for the most part I’m leaving out sweetbreads, brains, marrow, tripe, and other internal

Europe has the ideal combination of tall mountains and lots of snow and that means it has plenty of great skiing destinations come winter.

Of course, you don’t want to waste your time hitting average ski resorts or slopes, we want the best there is. I will share my research on the top European ski resorts and what they offer. In preparation I went out and bought some new ski clothing and gear for the trip.

La Grave, France

If you want an ideal ski mountaineering location, you can’t do much better t

photo:  Lena Serditova


It is a January morning in Girona, an ancient city of modest size in Catalonia about an hour's drive north of Barcelona. From the window of the Hotel Ultonia, children in uniform can be seen crossing the street on their way to school. Around the corner, the chef at the L'Arcada restaurant builds a fire of cork and olive wood over whose embers mushrooms, leeks, and fresh fish will be grilled for the lunchtime crowd and wonders how the local teenagers can like the food at

Newly opened this past August on Canada Street running through the heart of Lake George Village, Courtyard Lake George represents a community effort to expand this iconic seasonal lakefront retreat into a year round destination.

Each year during summer, thousands of visitors stream into this village of 900 full-time residents only to vanish from October through March. 1950s era motels still dominate and are lovingly patronized across generations of summer vacationers but for years, village offi

When visiting the boisterous city of Salvador da Bahia, besides walking through the Pelourinho district, visiting the monuments and churches of the historical quarter and indulging in the street festivities, you should set aside an hour or two for the largest popular market in the city: the Feira de São Joaquim.

Of course Salvador has the famous Mercado Modelo, the best known market in the city and the traditional place where handicrafts such as ceramics, jewelry, leather goods, musical instrumen

Growing up in Miami, I always found found our neighbor just to the north a pleasant enough but somewhat nondescript place. Fort Lauderdale‘s main attributes appeared to be some impressive waterways, a decent ocean beach – and of course a rowdy, booze-soaked college scene when it came time for spring holidays (first made famous by the song/movie Where the Boys Are). And the locals a rather odd mix of yachties and some admittedly salty characters. Not exactly the place that first came to mind for

One of my very first introductions to Great Britain as a youngster was a short but sweet visit to an ancient, elegant city in the bucolic hills of Somerset some 90 minutes by train west from London (closer to three hours if you drive). A smallish, very walkable and liveable city of some 89,000, Bath could not of course be more aptly named – and a fine wallow it is – doable as a day trip but even better over a night or two.

Splish-Splash…

As you know, folks in the Roman Empire did love themselv