ArcaMax

By Margot Black

Our family recently had the pleasure of enjoying a late-winter wonderland at Heavenly Ski Resort, and it was undoubtedly one of the most picturesque places I have ever seen. Situated in South Lake Tahoe, it is the largest resort in the region and offers an absolutely phenomenal playground for family-friendly skiing and ...Read more

By Victor Block

Sure, it's great to ooh and aah at the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, be overwhelmed by the blistered desert floor and extinct volcanic craters in Death Valley, and hear the thunderous roar of Niagara Falls. But Mother Nature also has created countless other treasures throughout the country that while less well-known are ...Read more

By Fyllis Hockman

Decked out in snorkel equipment and wetsuit -- getting into and out of which was admittedly the most challenging aspect of the whole experience -- I entered the 200,000-gallon coral reef tank. It was filled with large and small residents -- more than 50 species of fish, sharks and eels -- into whose life I was about to ...Read more

By Victor Block

Tom and Betty Taylor settle down to spend the night in a Pullman train car. They snuggle between crisp sheets covering a comfortable bed. When they awaken next morning and peer out the window, the scene that greets them is exactly what they saw before turning off the light.

The train car in which the Taylors slept didn't...Read more

By Athena Lucero

"I love tannat! I've never tasted wine from this grape before," I excitedly commented to Jennifer McInnis, general manager at Bending Branch Winery in historic Comfort, Texas. But I wasn't at the bar with a tasting flight before me. I was at home and taking part in a Zoom webinar about off-the-radar winemaking in the ...Read more

By Victor Block

If the current "don't travel far from home" regimen has you down in the dumps, take heart. A world of wonder awaits, and it may be no farther away than where you live or close by.

The lock-down protocols that have curtailed far-flung excursions don't mean you have to hide the car keys, stash walking shoes, and postpone ...Read more

By Candyce H. Stapen

It looked so good on paper -- a week in a Caribbean villa with my two sisters, their children and mine. By sharing, we cut costs, gained more space than a hotel room and added such luxuries as a private pool. The rental house in Jamaica, our first villa rental, gave us time to reconnect instead of merely catching up ...Read more

By Victor Block

Betty Condon and Tom Butler are checking out a beautifully furnished room that was created for the use of U.S. presidents. Roger Price and Paul Beatty are enjoying a spirited game of tennis. Brothers Charles and Ted Brawner are sharing and comparing tastes at a state-of-the-art brew pub.

While none of these experiences ...Read more

By Glenda Winders

When most people arrive in Paris the first places they want to go are the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, but my rocker husband had other priorities. We went to those places, too, of course, but what he wanted to do first was visit Jim Morrison's grave. We had arrived on an evening Eurostar from London, so we went to our ...Read more

By Victor Block

As the Civil War drew to a close, soldiers of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiments occupied a plantation on James Island, South Carolina, which earlier had been held by Confederate forces. They were among the approximately 185,000 U.S. Colored Troops, as they were called, who fought with the North.

Visitors can ...Read more

By Fyllis Hockman

I'm a travel writer. Words are what I do. My stories may not always sing, but I usually can put one word in front of another succinctly enough to craft a well-written article. But when I heard about the newly opened Planet Word in Washington, D.C., I was so excited, I had no words. But I knew I couldn't get there fast ...Read more

By Victor Block

The advertisement for a Caribbean hotel touts "ocean view," and there is -- for guests who climb to a rooftop terrace and peer far into the distance. A restaurant website is replete with rave reviews that give no hint they were written by people who were paid for their positive ratings. The photograph shows people ...Read more

By Victor Block

Big cities have a lot going for them. New York's theater district, the monuments and museums in Washington, and major attractions of other urban centers draw visitors from throughout the country and around the world. But don't overlook what other towns, no matter how small, have to offer. Many boast of enough to hold one'...Read more

By Bonnie Neely

I married a man whose middle name is "go." He loves to drive and has built-in mental radar, which usually outthinks our GPS. He is fearless, and the more unfamiliar the territory, the more alluring it is to him. One afternoon he came home with a surprise.

"Come see what I got!" he said.

He had excitedly brought home a ...Read more

By Victor Block

If you've pushed dreams of visiting the Big Sur region of California, relaxing on a beach in Australia or mingling with Mickey Mouse at Walt Disney World to the back burner, turn up the heat.

You may not be able, or wish right now, to travel to those and other bucket-list destinations. However, that doesn't mean you can'...Read more

By Fyllis Hockman

Their bodies were sleek and graceful, the skin soft to the touch, their demeanor welcoming even if a bit skeptical. Still, they were more used to this than I was. I spread my arms out as instructed and flapped them in the water. Romeo and Pasku, two of my dolphin snorkeling companions, then swam under my outstretched ...Read more

By Athena Lucero

Our coach rolled through the Kent countryside 62 miles southeast of London toward the English Channel. Our destination: Sissinghurst Castle Garden, one of Britain's most famous gardens and among the most influential plant collections in the world. Combined with its history as a Saxon pig farm, an aristocratic manor house...Read more

By Victor Block

My wife, Fyllis, and I had long dreamed of visiting Costa Rica. We knew about its reputation for magnificent landscapes, abundant animal and bird life, and preservation of the magnificent environment.

We could have spent hours searching the Internet for flights and hotels, reserving a rental car and taking care of the ...Read more

By Gay Courter

Last Jan. 14, my husband, Phil, and I set out on the first of several international trips we'd planned for 2020. We would spend a week in Tokyo, two weeks cruising in Asia and another week in rural Japan. A month later we'd head to Kenya for a safari. After that, we'd visit grandchildren on opposite coasts, as well as the ...Read more

By Gay Courter

Our Diamond Princess cruise had been almost perfect. We had departed two weeks earlier from Yokohama, visited Kagoshima in southern Japan, stopped in Hong Kong for the Chinese Lunar New Year and celebrated again in Taipei. The festivities had been limited because a mysterious novel coronavirus had been discovered in China ...Read more