14 of the best things to do in Iceland

Kazakhstan and Iceland have emerged as favored destinations among Chinese tourists, while Thailand continues to struggle with perceptions of safety, according to Dragon Trail International’s latest Chinese consumer sentiment research.

In his semi-autobiographical novel, Roughing It, Mark Twain called Lake Tahoe “the fairest picture the whole earth affords.”

The shimmering beauty of Lake Tahoe makes travelers stop and stare.

Mainland Europe’s first total solar eclipse since 1999 is just 850 days away. Where will you be? As excitement dies down from the “Great American Eclipse,” eclipse chasers are turning their attention to Wednesday, August 12, 2026, when a 183-190-mile-wide moon shadow moves across remote Siberia, Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

With soft golden sand and clear, blue waters reflecting the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe’s beaches are astonishingly beautiful.

The totality of an eclipse is never long enough. My first total solar eclipse experience in 2017 made for the shortest two minutes of my life: the sun transforming into a blazing diamond ring, the beautiful delirium of darkness, that perfect circle in the sky. Before I knew it, the eclipse was over—and my friends and I were plotting how we could catch our next.

In Lake Tahoe, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada rise above turquoise waters so clear you can peer more than 70 feet below the surface. In winter, skiers prize the Tahoe Basin’s 14 ski areas, while in summer, people flock to beaches, hiking and biking trails. Perhaps the best time to visit Lake Tahoe is the shoulder seasons in spring and fall when the region is less crowded and hotel rooms are more affordable. 

It'll be two decades before the next total solar eclipse hits the US.

For big adventures this year, consider expedition cruising to discover engaging and enlivening destinations across the globe. Wilderness Travel has a curated line-up for 2024—2025, which includes tours to the world’s last frontier—Antarctica; journeys to the far north in the Arctic; exclusive once-a-year odyssey cruises to multiple locales around the planet like the coast of West Africa, northern Europe, and Asia; and dynamic river cruises on the planet’s most well-loved rivers—the Danube, Mekong, Amazon, Magdalena, and Rhine. Keep reading to plan out your next voyage.

If you just saw your first total solar eclipse—or you are desperate to see another—here’s where and when to go to experience another totality:

For many travelers, what the Eiffel Tower is to France or the pyramids are to Egypt, the Blue Lagoon is to Iceland.

Two of the great prologues of literature begin on the same seeping bank in the village of Slad. Start the circular Laurie Lee walk from where the infant was dropped from a cart in Cider with Rosie and from where the adolescent loped off to Spain in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. A well-managed schedule can see you enjoying the singular hospitality of the Woolpack Inn before and after your five-mile jaunt. Head clockwise or reverse to find primrose-bounded paths, skylark-serenaded pasture and slope-clinging beech trees. The ramble is punctuated by posts inscribed with poetry by the valley’s most celebrated son. Mathew Page