Tag: Travel

Pinot Noir, Hops, and Regeneration in the Willamette Valley

One hour’s drive south of Portland, Oregon, lies the Willamette Valley, land of world-class pinot noir, hops heaven, and change-makers who are transforming the future of travel. Towns thrive along the great Willamette River, including Portland, its largest city. It’s also home to Salem, the state capital, and more than half of the state’s population…


Enjoy Awarding-Winning Movie and Meet the Cast While Touring a Hudson River Castle

With summer arriving, give yourself a relaxing weekend on an island in the Hudson River, visit an old Scottish castle, and watch an award-winning crime movie. An island on the Hudson River, a castle, and a crime movie? The three things together sound a little outlandish. But on Saturday June 17, it’s happening. The director…


Truck Stops Help Car Trip Miles Speed By

Bob and Mary Wentworth, along with their 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter, were on the second day of a family road trip when Bob became distracted by a troubling toothache. While he went to a dentist’s office, his wife and children enjoyed more pleasant pursuits. Mary looked at the items available in an embroidery shop,…


Singapore’s Artisans in Cloth and Drink

By Alan Behr From Tribune News Service For anyone from the West who has not yet traveled to Asia, Singapore is a good starting point. Call it “Asia lite”—a cultural sampler in a clean and safe environment where nearly everyone you meet likely speaks English. The population of 5.6 million fills an island city-state slightly…


New MSP Airport Reservation System Lets Some Travelers Jump the Security Line

Minneapolis—Anyone who’s flown out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s Terminal 2 early in the morning or over a holiday knows: The security checkpoint bottleneck can feel interminable, with lines stretching across the skybridge to the parking deck. Now, there’s an option to jump the line. A pilot program that includes seven other U.S. airports has…


Give Dad the Gift of Travel This Father’s Day

By Lynn O’Rourke Hayes From FamilyTravel.com Is there a travel-loving dad in your world? Whether you go as a group or give as a gift, these ideas may inspire a new adventure. Go Caving Learn about dry and wet caves, the creatures that live in them, and the characteristics that create these natural settings with…


Top Autism-Friendly Vacation Ideas for Summer

By Donald Wood From TravelPulse Hitting the road for a summer family vacation with children can be very stressful, but the intensity of preparation and the scrutiny over every detail is amplified when one of the kids along for the ride is on the autism spectrum. As the father of an autistic daughter, planning autism-friendly…


Bizarre and Beautiful: These Strange ‘Earth Pyramids’ Have Giant Rocks Balanced Atop Them

Land deep in a forest on the border of Italy and Austria, and you’ll discover an otherworldly range of clay structures that look like an army of pyramids, topped by little hats. Also likened to organ pipes, the strange conical structures are almost 200 years old and the natural result of a huge storm that…


Two New Travel Insurance Gotchas

Over the years I’ve devoted lots of ink and pixels to travel insurance, but recent developments with a Boston-area tour operator have raised two new—or at least new-to-me—potential pitfalls. Both deal with a subject once more prominent than now: failure to pay legitimate claims. And to understand the situation more clearly, I’ll start with a…


Bern, Switzerland’s Classy yet Fun Capital

The sidewalk along the Aare River is congested with wet and happy Swiss, hiking upstream in swimsuits just to float back into town. I join them—marveling at how this exercise brings out the silly in a people who are generally anything but goofy. Every hundred yards a railing with concrete steps leads into the rushing…