Mountain tips

There’s something truly spectacular about the Northern Rockies, and more specifically, Glacier National Park. From its striated, sky-high peaks to its thundering waterfalls and alpine meadows brimming with wildflowers, there’s a little something for everyone at this Montana haven. Wildlife seekers will enjoy the chance to witness grizzly bears and moose in their natural habitat, and hikers will appreciate the opportunity to lace up their boots and tackle the park’s hundreds of miles of trails.

With cyclists in the French capital outnumbering carbon-spewing motorists and short-haul domestic flights outlawed in 2023, getting around la belle France has never been so green.

A century ago, the timber-and-iron tower had supported a tram carrying precious salt across the Inyo Mountains that had been mined from a remote valley in the California desert. More recently, it stood as an artifact in the Saline Valley, and it marked the edge of a hiking trail through the sun-baked wilderness.

An hour north of Cape Town, the Swartland, one of the largest wine-producing areas in the Western Cape, doesn’t receive nearly the same attention as its polished neighbors in the Cape Winelands; the clean-cut vineyards of Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschhoek, where a hop-on, hop-off wine tram runs through the valley. Instead, the Swartland is the opposite of a wine tourism hub, with dirt roads carving through golden wheat fields that form a pattern of stripes along the foothills of Paardeberg mountain. Along the highway, carefully stacked hay bales form a makeshift café—one of the sole roadside stops—and the only pop of color punctuating the blonde, desert-like expanse (which could double as a backdrop for a Clint Eastwood film) comes from the patchwork of old-bush vines and olive groves. After the winter rains, the native rhinoceros bush takes on an inky hue, which is how the Swartland (Afrikaans for “black land”) earned its name.

Women are the key ingredient for the travel market, not only in the planning and preparation process for families but for actual travel itself. According to estimates, 64% of travelers worldwide are female, and women spent $125 billion on travel in 2023. As such, the hospitality industry actively targets the female market, often by offering special “girl getaways” packages for weekend excursions and longer. The following girl getaways are designed with luxury in mind.

When a northern, sea-bound island goes by the nickname “The Rock,” you already have a good idea of what to expect. Newfoundland is a place of elemental beauty where the Earth’s mantle is one of the attractions. Stiff breezes can build to roaring winds off the cold Atlantic, pushing around icebergs and tossing fishing boats, even in coves protected by jagged cliffs where clouds of seabirds nest.

All around the world, ephemeral blooms add a magical new layer to our favorite travel destinations.

It’s no secret that Switzerland doesn’t top the list of “cheap getaways.”

The natural world is full of wonders, but is there anything more mesmerizing than swimming at night in a sea glowing with bioluminescence? Or spying on flickering fireflies in woodland as they dance through the air? 

"The wildest alpine valley I ever saw was not in the Alps, it was the valley Norangsdalen at Sunnmøre, Norway." William Cecil Slingsby, Pioneering alpinist

Jackson Hole offers adventure for every season. This wondrous Wyoming destination is irresistible to skiers eager to conquer the surrounding slopes, hikers longing to summit stunning peaks and naturalists excited to trek into some of the United States’ top national parks. The town, nestled amid the Rocky Mountains, makes a scenic base camp with luxurious lodgings to match. The next time adventure calls, Jackson Hole and its amazing accommodations await.

A piece of Canadian history, Banff National Park is the world’s third-oldest national park and, over the course of its 140-year existence, has managed to walk a fine line between easy access and careful environmental protection.

Ross Clarke recently returned from Fuerteventura where he was researching for the upcoming Canary Islands guidebook (publishing November 2024). This is his ultimate guide to planning your holiday to Fuerteventura.

Alberta is home to some of the most awe-inspiring scenery on the planet: rugged snow-capped mountains, massive glaciers, thick forests, impossibly blue lakes, vast prairies and other-worldly badlands filled with dinosaur bones. It’s a nature lover’s paradise, but that's only one side of this remarkable destination.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will officially open on June 28 at Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, the company announced Sunday night.

It's hard to resist the allure of Europe, where travelers can find iconic historic sites waiting around seemingly every corner. But the continent's perennial popularity has also meant that many of those best-loved spots are impacted by overcrowding – and the visitor caps, ticketed entry and other restrictions that follow. 

If you ask someone to rattle off Austria’s unmissable attractions, they’ll probably rave about Vienna and its lavish feast of palaces, coffee houses, concert halls and galleries, and the heart-racing trails and slopes traversing the Alps that ripple across half the country.

Imagine Austria and your mind might well drift to the lavish palaces and coffeehouses of Vienna, the snow-white peaks of the Tyrolean Alps, the river romance of the Danube and Mozart symphonies ringing out in the baroque concert halls of Salzburg.

For many of the world’s most famous mountain destinations, springtime can often be—for a lack of a better word—a dud. Snow is melting so skiing is no longer as exciting an option, but thawing mountains naturally leave a muddy trail in its wake, making activities like hiking more challenging, too. That’s why this two-ish-month springtime period is called: mud season. But not all mountain locales are made the same. Take the largest ski resort in North America: Whistler, British Columbia. In a lot of ways, unless you’re just begging for as much snow as possible to accommodate non-stop skiing, spring is a great time to be in this hilly hamlet tucked away in western Canada’s Coast Mountain range.

The mind boggles at the sheer scope of Canada.

With four official languages yet a distinct sense of national identity, Switzerland is a mix of cultures and at the same time innately Swiss – and that goes for its cuisine, too.