Hanalei Beach’s parking lot fills by 9am most mornings. Cars circle. Families wait. The famous North Shore crescent draws crowds for valid reasons: lifeguards, calm summer water, postcard views. But 1.5 miles south, a different beach offers the same dramatic coastline without the stress. Donkey Beach sits behind a half-mile tree tunnel that filters casual … Lire plus
Highway 64 crosses the Little Colorado River 12 miles east of Cameron. Most drivers keep going toward Grand Canyon’s South Rim. Pull over at the overlook and you’ll see what 99% miss: aquamarine water cutting through red limestone 800 feet below. This is the Little Colorado River Gorge, a 58-mile canyon system on Navajo Nation … Lire plus
M-22 curves through cherry orchards before the road opens to Lake Michigan. Leland appears at the river mouth where weathered gray shanties line still water. Population 400. Thirty minutes from Traverse City. The fishing village that never stopped fishing. Most Great Lakes fishing towns became museums or disappeared. Leland kept working. Two commercial fisheries operate … Lire plus
Highway 85 drops through creosote flats two hours southwest of Phoenix. Then the mountains part and white stucco walls appear around a plaza rimmed with palm trees. This is Ajo, population 3,500, where a copper baron built mission-style architecture in 1917 and the town froze when mining stopped in 1985. The New Cornelia open-pit mine … Lire plus
Santa Elena Canyon pulls 300 paddlers on spring weekends. Rangers manage parking. Shuttles run on schedules. The 13-mile float through Big Bend’s most famous limestone walls feels managed because it is. Mariscal Canyon sits 70 miles south on the same river. Ten miles of water. Walls pressing 1,400 feet overhead. Winter flow at 600 CFS … Lire plus
The unpaved lava road to Mahaiʻula Beach keeps most rental cars away. That’s the point. Drive it at 15mph and you reach white sand that holds maybe a dozen footprints by 9am. Three beaches, zero entry fee, monk seals resting in morning shade. Kona resorts 15 minutes south charge $300 per night for the same … Lire plus
“`html Tulum’s beachfront hotels charge $180 per night for rooms steps from turquoise water that 50,000 monthly visitors crowd into selfie queues. Southwest Bay on Nicaragua’s Big Corn Island costs $35 per night for cabanas facing the same Caribbean turquoise where you might count 20 people all day. Same water temperature. Same white sand. Different … Lire plus
“`html The highway north from Rome climbs through oak forests before the golden stone appears. Soriano nel Cimino sits at 1,380 feet on Mount Cimino’s slope, population 8,500. The Castello Orsini rises above medieval alleys built from peperino, a local volcanic stone that glows amber in late afternoon light. This castle held prisoners until 1989. … Lire plus
The ferry from Marsh Harbour leaves at 8am. Twenty minutes later, Great Guana Cay appears as a thin green line backed by white sand. The water between you and shore glows turquoise over a sandy bottom you can see 100 feet down. This is the Bahamas 150 residents kept quiet while Nassau built 400 hotels. … Lire plus
The ferry from Port-Blanc takes 5 minutes. You step onto Île aux Moines and hear what’s missing: no engines. Just bicycle bells, low voices, waves against stone docks. This Breton island outlawed cars in the 1960s and 617 residents kept it that way. The Gulf of Morbihan stretches 7 miles across. Île aux Moines sits … Lire plus