Georgia in Hawaii: O'Keeffe's Forgotten Island Travels
Posted on 08/01/2018, 2:15 PM
Georgia O'Keeffe had a strong sense of place, and that place was usually New Mexico. But having a powerful affinity for one locale didn't leave the painter immune to the allure of others, as she discovered, seemingly to her own surprise, during a 1939 stay in Hawaii. "My idea of the world," she wrote in a letter sent from the islands to her husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, " . . . h...
WWOOFing: Explaining a Different Way to Travel, Farm by Farm
A Life-Changing Conference for Would-Be Travel Writers and Photographers
Posted on 06/20/2018, 11:15 AM
Over the course of the year, I give about a dozen speeches on travel across North America. Inevitably, when I sign books afterwards, a familiar scenario will play out. I’ll hand back the book on which I’ve just scrawled my name and notice that the individual standing in front of me looks very, very nervous… and doesn’t want to move away from the table. He or she will chitchat for a few minutes be...
A Return to Northern Michigan With No Repeat Experiences
Posted on 06/14/2018, 12:30 PM
I’ve always taken the stance that when you return again and again to the same place for vacation, you’re only setting yourself up for ennui. I figured there were a few exceptions to this rule—namely, cities like Paris and Tokyo that are so huge and varied that you'll never exhaust the possibilities. But for the most part, I believed that vacations should be about the stimulating, the new, the un...
A New Book Makes a Compelling Case for Traveling Alone
Posted on 06/05/2018, 11:15 PM
Are you traveling with your spouse, your girlfriend, boyfriend, or best friend soon? What a shame. If you’d read Stephanie Rosenbloom’s new book Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude, you might have thought twice about inviting anyone along on your adventure. Rosenbloom, a travel columnist for The New York Times, makes a compelling case for vacationing alone. She...
Arthur Frommer: Experiential Travel Has Been Eclipsed by "Transformative Travel”
Posted on 06/01/2018, 2:00 PM
For several years now, conversations between travel professionals have been full of references to "experiential travel," a new variety of travel requested by more and more travelers. Unlike the standard, sightseeing-based programs, experiential travel stresses a more authentic contact with the life in various foreign locations, and it also immerses the travel passenger into those authentic experie...
Play the Casanova at New Museum in Venice
Posted on 03/19/2018, 11:30 PM
Giacomo Casanova belongs to the rare class of historical figures whose names became common nouns. Traitorous World War II-era Norwegian leader Vidkun Quisling and France's lecherous Marquis de Sade (lop off the "e" and add an -ism or an -istic) are in the same crew. It's a curious kind of superstardom where the legend outstrips the life to such an extent that the world often forgets there was ev...
The World’s Most Rewarding Source of Free Homestays Is, and Remains, Servas
Posted on 03/02/2018, 8:45 PM
Organizations come and go that arrange for you to stay free-of-charge in someone else’s home or apartment in the course of your travels. The latest leaders in this effort are Couchsurfing.com and Globalfreeloaders.com, which are sometimes criticized as having grown too large to be effective. But another such organization—USServas.org—is older by far and careful to hand-pick both hosts and ...
A Luxury Island Retreat Where Only Women Are Welcome
Posted on 02/02/2018, 3:15 PM
We told you women-only travel was going to be a big deal in 2018. To wit: In September, a private island off the coast of Finland will begin welcoming guests—and dudes need not apply. Christened SuperShe after a networking group designed to empower women, the luxury isle will specialize in wellness offerings such as fitness classes, healthy eating, and artsy activities. Founder Kristina Roth t...
Women-Only Taxi Service Debuts in Paris
Posted on 08/29/2017, 10:00 PM
Women have a new option for getting around Paris. A taxi service called Women Drive has debuted in the French capital. The business is staffed with female drivers and geared toward female passengers. The hope is that customers won't have to worry about "prying eyes or indelicate questions," as the Women Drive website puts it. The company also wants to provide job opportunities for women cabbies ...
