A Swiss town is home to a 5-star hotel that welcomes everyone from the ultrawealthy to royalty. Take a look inside.

The tonka bean, a wizened-looking South American seed, is beloved for its complex almond-vanilla scent, often appearing as an ingredient in perfumes. Outside the United States, it has also long been utilized by chefs, but studies have indicated that coumarin, a chemical compound in the plant, can cause liver damage in animals, and the Food and Drug Administration banned the bean in commercial foods in 1954. Now, with reports that the minuscule amounts used to impart big flavor are harmless (and the F.D.A. seemingly not particularly interested in enforcing the ban in recent years), tonka is showing up on dessert menus here. Thea Gould, 30, the pastry chef at the daytime luncheonette La Cantine and evening wine bar Sunsets in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was introduced to tonka after the restaurant’s owner received a jar from France, where it’s a widely used ingredient. Gould says the bean is an ideal stand-in for nuts — a common allergen — and infuses it into panna cotta, whipped cream and Pavlova. Ana Castro, 35, the chef and owner of the New Orleans seafood restaurant Acamaya, discovered tonka as a young line cook at Betony, the now-closed Midtown Manhattan restaurant. Entranced by the ingredient’s grassy, stone fruit-like notes, she’s used it to flavor a custardy corn nicuatole, steeped it into roasted candy squash purée and grated it fresh over a lush tres leches cake. And at the Musket Room in New York’s NoLIta, the pastry chef Camari Mick, 30, balances tonka’s richness with acidic citrus like satsuma and bergamot. Over the past year, she’s incorporated it into a silky lemon bavarois and a candy cap mushroom pot de crème and whipped it into ganache for a poached pear belle Hélène. “Some people ask our staff, ‘Isn’t tonka illegal?’” she says. Their answer: Our pastry chef’s got a guy. —

Amid Greece’s peak travel season, raging wildfires near Athens are putting tour operators on high alert.

You don’t hear about Central Florida very often, and when you do, chances are it has something to do with Walt Disney World. But just over an hour north of the famed resort complex is the mid-sized city of Ocala, a destination bursting with superlatives, including “America’s largest spring” and “horse capital of the world.”

While most American cities aren’t considered easy to navigate by foot, a recent study by travel insurance experts AllClear ranked one popular Southern city as the most walkable in the country. AllClear examined topographical information for more than 240 cities around the world, taking into account average elevation and range, and assigned each city a score — and ultimately, it was New Orleans that was named the most walkable city in the U.S. and the fourth most walkable city globally.

This earnings season, global travel leaders have agreed that the industry is in a slowdown. An exception to that, however, has been the Middle East, which bosses like Accor’s Sebastien Bazin noted was the operator’s best-performing region in the second quarter.

Europe dominates in a new ranking of the world’s most beautiful cities, filling nine of the top 10 spots.

The Paris Summer Olympic Games are coming to an end this weekend, but there are still plenty of disciplines to go, including a new sport at the Games this year: breaking.

Welcome back to another episode of the TravelPulse Podcast!

You’re flying 34,000 feet over the Atlantic, finally taking that dream trip to Europe. You’re relaxed, considering reading the book you brought or watching that movie you never got around to seeing. Then you hear a commotion and realize there is an issue with the flight. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amanda Mrokez, an American student in Cologne, Germany. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Aug 2, 2024 • 11 min read

Holland America is out with another epic itinerary from North America to Europe and back — this time with an unusual twist.