Travel

The ferry from Auckland touches down at Rarotonga International Airport. First sight: turquoise lagoon meeting black volcanic peaks. Second sight: what’s missing. No high-rises break the horizon. Buildings stop at coconut tree height. The law that saved this island was written in 1965, before the first resort opened. Maximum 40 feet. It still holds. Population … Lire plus

The ferry from Porthmadog cuts through morning mist, and suddenly the peninsula appears. Pastel towers rise against Welsh green. Ochre walls, pink facades, terracotta roofs. This is Portmeirion, where architect Clough Williams-Ellis spent 50 years proving Mediterranean fantasy could root itself in North Wales coastal rock. Population zero. Visitors 200,000 annually. Entry $20 winter 2026. … Lire plus

The train curves through the tunnel and suddenly Vernazza appears. Pink houses stacked against cliffs. A medieval tower rising from turquoise harbor. But the real moment happens at 6:30am when the water turns to glass and every facade doubles in perfect reflection. This isn’t Positano’s open coast where swells ruin the mirror. This is Ligurian … Lire plus

The Enchantments lottery opens February 15, 2026. Twenty thousand applications compete for overnight permits. Success rate hovers around 5%. Stuart Lake sits 13 miles from Leavenworth and requires no permit outside May through October. The glacial basin delivers identical turquoise water and granite boulders without the bureaucracy. Forest Road 7601 gates every winter to protect … Lire plus

Bryce Canyon’s parking lot fills by 9am in summer. Cars circle. Shuttles run 20-minute waits. Entry costs $35 per vehicle. The hoodoos glow pink at sunrise, but you fight for a spot at Sunrise Point with 200 other photographers holding the same angle. Zhangye Danxia sits 118 miles from Lanzhou in Gansu Province. The rainbow … Lire plus

The dirt road from Tepic climbs for three hours into the Sierra Madre Occidental. Pine-oak forests replace coastal palms around 5,000 feet. Then you see it: adobe ranchos with grass-thatched roofs clustered around stone shrines, no power lines anywhere. Population 130 in Nueva Valle. The silence hits first. This is Huichol country, where pre-Columbian shamanism … Lire plus

“`html Tahoe’s winter backcountry fills parking lots by 8am on weekends. Shirley Canyon requires permits. Echo Lakes charges $40 per vehicle. Castle Peak sees 50 people on Saturdays. You plan weeks ahead just to reach snow. Chaos Crags Overlook delivers what Tahoe lost: volcanic drama rising from 30-foot snowpack, zero crowds, no reservations. The 4-mile … Lire plus

The fog rolls into Pemaquid Harbor at 6am most February mornings. By 7am it hides the white tower on the rocks. By 9am the sun burns through and the lighthouse appears like a ghost becoming solid. This is midcoast Maine in winter: 2,800 residents, six working lighthouses within 30 miles, and almost no tourists. Lodging … Lire plus

Route 4 curves through eastern Vermont and the village appears without warning. Red brick buildings cluster around an oval green. A white church steeple rises against Mount Tom’s snowy ridge. Population 3,000. Two hours from Burlington. This is Woodstock in February 2026, where Federal-era architecture from the 1790s still frames daily life and preservation ordinances … Lire plus

“`html Yosemite Valley parking reservations sell out weeks ahead. Half Dome permits go to lottery winners at 20% odds. Vernal Fall sees 600 hikers per hour on summer weekends. One hour east, Kings Canyon’s Mist Falls delivers the same Sierra Nevada granite and 100-foot cascade with 8-mile trails empty enough to hear only water and … Lire plus