Brightline West: Everything We Know So Far About the High-Speed Trains

Amtrak is launching a new route between Chicago and Miami this fall that will whisk passengers from the Midwest to the Sunshine State in 47 hours.

As a beer aficionado, I've been to my fair share of brew festivals throughout the US, several of which were "Oktoberfest" themed.

Air France will become the latest major airline to offer free Starlink Wi-Fi.

Luxury cruise line Regent Seven Seas Cruises is offering nearly half-off trips around the world for next year.

Paris and Berlin will soon be connected by a new high-speed train service.

Wells Fargo Rewards has added a seventh transfer option to its growing list of airline and hotel partners. Consumers can now transfer their reward points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Virgin Red at a 1:1 ratio.

In May 2022, I rode the Rocky Mountaineer — one of the world's most luxurious trains. The Canadian train company operates four routes, and I was on its US route heading to Moab, Utah, from Denver.

Predating the Inca Empire by four millennia, a far-flung desert settlement in northern Peru preserves the oldest known civilization in the Americas. Although now inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a natural warm-up for the Sacred Valley, Caral and its astonishingly intact pyramids and sunken plazas have evaded the limelight since their rediscovery 30 years ago.

There are two types of train trip: The long, slow, and often luxurious train journey that takes you through beautiful scenery that you book specifically to spend time on the rails; and the speedy, no-nonsense, cheap train ride you take to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. In the first category, you’ll find grand trips like Australia’s The Ghan, South Africa’s Blue Train, and Britain’s Caledonian Sleeper. In the second, there are trips from London to Brussels in just two hours, from Rome to Venice in four hours, and from Miami to Orlando in three hours. And if you’re a train traveler who belongs to the second category and likes getting places fast without flying, there are plenty of trains in this world that do just that at speeds previously unimaginable on land, including the fastest train in the world and its closest competitors.

When most Americans think of cruises, they probably think of island-hopping in the Caribbean or cruising by glaciers in Alaska from afar. That may be appealing for some people, but for others, the idea of being lazy on a ship of thousands of people for a week doesn’t sound like much of a vacation.

“S cottsdale topped the list of destinations for my sister’s bachelorette,” says Alexis Vazquez. Vazquez wrapped her maid of honor duties last month. Her voice has an edge of relief as she chronicles the logistics of planning her sister Reina’s dream bachelorette in Arizona. “Planning a wedding can be a nightmare, but people underestimate how complicated it is to throw a successful multi-day bachelorette party.”

Germany’s got a big secret: It’s got islands. And not the rocky, desolate, and uninhabited kind, but islands with miles of sandy beaches, picturesque cliffs, peaceful, protected forests, and seaside luxury hotels. The Germans obviously are in the know, and because of their geographical locations, the Dutch and Danes are, too. But nobody else in in the world seems to remember that Germany has a coastline on both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, let alone that this coastline is peppered with dozens of islands. The biggest of all the German islands is Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, itself a wildly underrated area. While Rügen takes a little effort to get to, the trip is hardly insurmountable, and travelers who want to see Germany away from the big urban centers, internationally known beer festivals, and packed tourist attractions would be remiss to pass on it.