Ask Skift: Why Are Destinations Adding Tourist Taxes?

United Airlines is once again flexing its muscle as the country's largest and most diversified international carrier.

Alaska Airlines announced a new partnership with Expedia designed to create a one-stop portal to book dream adventures, dubbed Alaska Vacations.

Global Travel Collection anticipates cruise bookings will significantly boost business for their advisors, with one agent already securing over £1 million in sales during their first year of booking cruises.

Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park is all about water. This unique national park features stunning glaciers and icy waters.

The best time to cruise Alaska isn't obvious—until you're quietly sailing along its calm waters under a cloudless, late-spring sky. It was on one such day that someone on board spotted a whale breaching. And then again. And again. Within minutes it seemed everyone on board had gathered at the railings on deck to watch. The captain of the ship nimbly repositioned us, giving both the port and starboard sides prime viewing, at a safe and respectful distance from the animals. With binoculars, cameras, and phones at the ready, the passengers and crew aboard UnCruise Adventures' 86-guest S.S. Legacy settled in for what turned out to be an hour-long private show by a juvenile humpback who had migrated from Hawaii to spend the summer in the nutrient-rich Alaskan waters.

Transatlantic and other lengthy, ocean crossings once defined sea travel, but in modern times only one true ocean liner remains. Aside from Cunard’s Southampton to New York service, travelers seeking a transatlantic cruise are mostly left with world cruises or lengthy grand voyages, but there is another option.

Grapes have been associated with pleasure since ancient times, a symbol of Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry. These days, clusters of plummy Concords, oval autumn royals and dusky kyohos are decorating dinner tables, doubling as cornucopian decorations and low-effort snacks. “You can get a beautiful, imperfect drip and drape from grapes,” says the interior stylist Colin King, 35, who overflowed a marble urn with abundant mounds of them for the launch of his furniture collection, a collaboration with the Future Perfect, in New York this past fall. Although he uses green grapes for daytime parties, for evening events he prefers the “moody, sensual vibe” of dark varieties — like the attenuated, oblong moon drops that the artist Laila Gohar, 35, mixed with red globes and flames to form an edible monolith for the recent opening of the Essentiel Antwerp clothing store in New York. The chef Mina Stone, 42 — who runs Mina’s, the cafe at MoMA PS1 in Queens, and is a go-to caterer for art gallery dinners — favors Thomcords, a sweet, seedless hybrid she often serves with dessert to “provide heft and a colorful backdrop” for daintier confections. She also likes to roast grapes alongside seared duck breast. In London, the pastry chef Claire Ptak, the owner of Violet bakery, offers what she calls fragolina cupcakes, named for the fragola (Italian for “strawberry”) grapes that she cooks down, then purées and adds to the buttercream frosting. The fragolas “taste like a berryish Concord,” says Ptak, 49, who tops each cake with a small cluster of fruit. The frosted treats “transport you back to childhood when you take the first bite,” she says, “and then you realize they’re also very grown-up.” —

Checking in a bag is becoming an increasingly expensive endeavor. 

I’d been waiting for months when I finally got the call from Alaska last March: Wild ice was on.

Alaska Airlines is making it easier to see April’s epic solar eclipse with a series of flights heading to destinations along the path of totality — and they're selling out. The specific routes, which fly to places like Mazatlán, Mexico, Texas, and Ohio, have seen a threefold increase in demand compared to previous years, Alaska Airlines shared with Travel + Leisure. And that increased demand has led to increasingly sold-out flights.

It was Christmas Day, and we were about to fly from Miami to Panama City. Before we even took off, my husband was ready to lose it, not because of something the airline did or an annoying passenger but because of the lack of space.

If you enjoy (responsibly) imbibing a crisp, cold beer now and then, you probably also enjoy trying new brews when you travel. Now, you don't have to wait until you reach your destination before popping the tab on a new-to-you beer when you fly with Alaska Airlines.