A Quick and Useful Guide To Big Sur, California

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, September 15. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Liesbet Collaert was about to blow up her life.

It's become an iconic image of travel in the United States – a red convertible with the top down, cruising such classic California thoroughfares as the Pacific Coast Highway or across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Whether it's pre-booking a ride from the airport or reserving a car with child seats already installed, ride-hailing services like Lyft regularly add new features to make rides easier and more efficient. Today, Lyft announced another new feature aimed at making women and nonbinary travelers feel safer when they ride.

With the Labor Day holiday now behind us, the year’s peak period for warm-weather travel has passed. Summer is winding down and, although the autumnal equinox doesn’t actually arrive until September 23, many fall fanatics cannot wait for crisper weather to roll in and the harvest season festivities to start. Some autumn enthusiasts will start amassing all things pumpkin spice, putting together the perfect Halloween costume or crafting Thanksgiving-themed decorations.

The key to seeing any celestial phenomenon is pretty obvious: You must be in the right place at the right time. While the exact location and time changes with every astronomical event, the right place is undeniably somewhere far away from any light pollution. These days, unless you make your way to a dark sky park, finding a spot on land that’s far away enough from civilization isn’t easy, so why not take to the seas? In the middle of the ocean, chances of street lights ruining your stargazing experience are very thin, that’s why cruise lines are ramping up their astronomy at sea offerings, including northern lights cruises, solar eclipse cruises, and more.

One of Web3's busiest buzz words is “community.” As is the case with many far-reaching words, it’s not always clear just what “community” promises. Sometimes it can mean readership, other times it reflects a steadfast fanbase and then there are times when it boils down to social media engagement. Perhaps at its best, “community” represents landing in a foreign land and meeting internet friends in real life.

Whether it’s a Moroccan-influenced Chicken & Shrimp Kefta with a Vietnamese-style Nuoc Cham dipping sauce, or a Green Thai Curry Hummus with both English and Wasabi peas, Chef Jason Neroni of the newly-opened The Desmond restaurant has California Cuisine speaking with a lot of different accents. “We’re buying everything we can from the area,” says Neroni, “then we craft it with global influences. That gives us no boundaries — we’ve got a lot of different palates traveling through here and we can make them all very happy.”

It’s no secret that California is home to some of the best and most picturesque wineries in the country, but it’s also home to some of the most sustainable vineyards that treat the environment with care while producing world-class wines.

Big Sur is an amazing place to visit and explore. It’s a rugged stretch of California coastline that has an incredible combination of mountains, ocean views, beaches, and redwood forests. Whether you’re looking for a relaxing day on the beach or more adventurous activities like hiking in the Santa Lucia Mountains, these Big Sur hotels ensure you’re within reach.

In 2023, the city of Carlsbad, just north of San Diego, launched an “All Paws Lead to Carlsbad” tourism initiative to encourage pet friendly travel to the Southern California beach town. Although the campaign officially ended in May, Carlsbad is always a dog friendly town that welcomes woofers of all breeds and sizes to many of its shops, restaurant patios, and hotels. There are also dog parks to frolic in and dog friendly beaches in the general vicinity for pups that like to swim, surf, or go for long runs in the sand.

I’m a 68-year-old solo traveler who was on a tour of Sicily in June 2022, when I fell getting off a bus, breaking multiple ribs, vertebrae and a pelvic bone. I had purchased the RoundTrip Choice plan from Seven Corners Travel Insurance, so I called, expecting they would help coordinate my medical care with Italian-speaking doctors. But they told me to seek help on my own, save the receipts and file a claim when I got home. Our tour guide was an angel, arranging drivers to take me back and forth to the hospital and even interpreting by speakerphone with doctors. Days later I got a doctor to fill out a form (which I had to Google Translate for him) saying I could travel home, as long as I was in a reclining position. My family chipped in to buy a business-class seat for the return flight, a day-and-night trip from Palermo to Munich to New York to Jacksonville. Seven Corners finally paid $5,772 for my bills and missed trip, but refused to reimburse me for most of my business-class fare. Far worse, I believe they failed to provide me the assistance they promised, essentially leaving me to fend for myself and leaving me unable to communicate with hospital staff. I have registered complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the state insurance agencies of Florida and Indiana (where Seven Corners is based), but I’ve gotten nowhere. Can you help?