A group of excited tourists surrounded a grizzly bear and her two cubs at Yellowstone National Park, sparking a debate about how humans interact with wildlife

The first time I traveled solo, I was 15 years old. A shy and budding tennis player, I spent two months crisscrossing Austria, Switzerland, and Germany via Eurail on a junior tennis tour.

Scott Kelly was looking for accommodations as flexible as he is when he found a standby apartment. Actually, make that standby apartments.

Since 1885, travelers have been exploring the snow-capped Rocky Mountain peaks and aqua-blue lakes that define Banff National Park: Canada's first national park and the third in the world. This UNESCO World Heritage Site has served as a home for guests ranging from mountain climbers to Olympians to Queen Elizabeth, and has belonged to six indigenous tribes in the area for thousands of years.

A collection of tombs from Korea’s ancient Gaya confederacy, a Viking age ring fortress in Denmark, an ancient Thai town and a 2,000-year-old earthworks in Ohio are among the contenders for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List this year.

Editor’s Note: Monthly Ticket is a CNN Travel series that spotlights some of the most fascinating topics in the travel world. In September, we’re celebrating superlatives as we look at some of the world’s biggest, tallest and most expensive attractions and destinations.

There's a reason so many people refer to a theme park trip as a "once-in-a-lifetime vacation."

The cozy timber-frame lodge of Camp Denali bustled with morning energy just moments ago. Guests chatted with each other, lodge staff cleared the plated breakfast of pancakes with blueberries harvested from the tundra outside, and coffee mugs clinked on the long wooden tables reminiscent of dining together in someone’s home. But now the lodge is quiet. Guests have left for activities of their choosing, from guided naturalist hikes designed for a range of abilities, biking the park road, and canoeing on Wonder Lake to relaxing in their cabins and enjoying the view. It’s a good day for it; the peak of Denali, all 20,300 feet of it scraping the rare clear sky, gleams impossibly through the window like some snow-covered image of myth.

A Norwegian cruise ship with 206 people on board has run aground in northwestern Greenland, authorities said Tuesday.

It isn’t hard to find a bit of respite from New York City’s clamor. Really.

A 7-year-old girl got the birthday present of a lifetime when she discovered a nearly 3-carat diamond while digging in an Arkansas park.

With so much wilderness right on the doorstep, there's always something to do in Montana at any time of year. The state is highly in tune with the rhythms of nature, and activities vary with the weather and season.

Gleaming gypsum crystal dunes roll as far as the eye can see at White Sands National Park. With waves towering up to 60 feet tall, the composition of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert landscape is constantly changing due to wind and weather patterns. Hardy plants like yuccas, grasses, and shrubs have evolved to survive in the shifting sands, adding texture to the spectacle of shapes and shadows that define the scenery.