Celebrating 30 Years Of Mountain Gorilla Conservation

For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.

In 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General.

Standing on a frozen ridge at Bosworth Field, my feeling is that there are certainly less attractive places to draw one’s last breath. On this frigid December afternoon, I’m looking out at a mist-shrouded hinterland of crisscrossing fields as a milky orange sun sinks behind a distant smudge of cloud. Somewhere out there on that bleak horizon in August 1485, King Richard III died a violent death, made all the more visceral by the gaudy array of spiked weapons hanging on a wall inside the nearby Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024.

Southwest Airlines and its pilots’ union reached a preliminary labor agreement on Monday, ending three-and-a-half years of tense negotiations. 

“Last August, I spent two weeks in Africa with six of my best mates. I was at this point in my life when I didn't want to go chill on another beach or sit at a hotel or even party; I wanted to be out learning things and experiencing cultures. Africa had been on my mind—and I'd been to South Africa before—so we made our way across Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. In Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania, we missed the Great Migration but saw plenty of hippos and elephants. In Kenya, we visited the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary—a community-owned organization that takes in orphaned animals—where we got to feed baby giraffes. Another day, we flew to Mount Kenya in a helicopter. About three quarters of the way up, we hovered over one of its many beautiful volcanic lakes, and I jumped right in...like, straight out of the chopper and into the lake. It was absolutely freezing. One of the most rewarding parts of the trip was trekking through Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, where we hiked for two days through the jungle to spot gorillas. Along the way, we stumbled across these remote villages, meeting people who told us stories of their lives and kids who welcomed us with smiles and music. It was surreal to realize that my ancestors came from a place like this. But nothing prepared me for the moment when we finally saw the gorillas. We came across this flat piece of land, and suddenly there they were: a group of about 10 mountain gorillas within a meter of us. It was mind-blowing. Seeing them there, so relaxed in their natural habitat, was incredibly moving. I remember thinking, This is where they should be, in their homes—free.”

Whether you want to lose weight, live longer, get in better shape, enjoy your later years more or simply feel like you deserve some self-care, investing just four days in your mind and body can pay real dividends–if you pick the right four days.

No city knows how to celebrate like Las Vegas — and Sin City was in full throttle for the grand opening of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a casino resort years and years in the making.

As a kid, I’d write letters to George Bass, an American professor of underwater archaeology who used to contribute to National Geographic magazine. He actually responded, and we carried on this correspondence for many years — me begging him to take me along on one of his expeditions, him always finding a reason not to. Until, many years later [following Mensun’s studies in ancient history and archaeology], he asked if I could be on the Greek island of Kos in a week’s time. I didn’t ask any questions. This was my open door, and I walked through it.

Low-cost airline Breeze Airways is adding to its warm-weather routes next year with seasonal flights from Connecticut to Orlando and new service from the New England state to Orange County, California.

For most New Yorkers, Times Square is a place to be avoided at all times—especially and unequivocally on New Year’s Eve. The Ball Drop looks fun and exciting when watched from the warmth and privacy of your couch but in real life, it looks like a million people packed between police barricades and squished up against each other in the cold for way too many hours, waiting for a 10-second countdown. And there are no public restrooms.

Pelicans preen and glide. Jacana birds, precise as ballerinas, point their improbably elongated toes. Pied kingfishers flit in and out of their lakeside nest holes, saddle-billed storks patrol the grassy banks and skimmers speed across the silver-blue water, scooping up beakfuls mid-flight. Everywhere I look, there are birds in abundance. The safari boat is the perfect platform from which to watch: open-sided, smooth and near-silent.

Imagine the darkest time of year in Sweden, when the sun never climbs above the horizon in the northernmost part of the country, and in Stockholm, the capital, there’s a scant six hours of daylight. Every day is shorter and gloomier than the last until the nadir — the darkest day of the year — when a young woman appears dressed in a white gown with a blazing crown of candles on her head, singing a familiar song and spreading warmth and light on a frigid winter morning.