The Indonesian island of Bali is a sun-soaked paradise that attracts every type of traveler, from budget-conscious backpackers to luxury jet-setters.
30.12.2023 - 18:41 / forbes.com
Sporting a descriptive and undeniably epic name, Death Valley National Park is a unique location with an absolutely stunning landscape. Not just flat plains, but towering mountains, remarkable rock formations, and more. While you can visit in the summer if you’ve never experienced ultra-hot temperatures before, it’s far more beautiful and hospitable in the winter, early spring, and late autumn.
Death Valley shows how much beauty there is in a seemingly desolate place. There are volcanic craters, miles of hikes, and if you stay in the park overnight, some remarkably dark skies.
Here are 10 things you should know before you visit.
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Death Valley is actually one of the largest national parks, and the largest in the lower 48 states. Just driving from the entrance sign on State Route 190 to the Stovepipe Wells ranger station can take an hour. It’s another hour from there to Ubehebe Crater or Badwater Basin.
That said, the main attractions in the park are all on just a handful of roads, and occasionally weather makes them inaccessible. During my first visit in 2023, many roads were washed out due to the rains over the previous winter. During my second visit in 2023 just a few days ago, many of those roads were repaired, but others were damaged and closed due to the hurricane in the fall.
The park boasts being the “Land of Extremes” and that’s certainly accurate. For instance, the park entrance sign on SR 190 is 4,900 feet above sea level. From there you drive down into Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet below sea level. Around you are towering mountains. Death Valley is not some slow, gradual depression in the earth, it’s a jagged valley cut by violent tectonic energy. Summer temperatures are usually well over 100 degrees, sometimes getting over 120 or more. The highest recorded temperature in the world was recorded here in 1913, at 13 degrees.
People from cooler climates, where the temperature rarely gets close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, often catastrophically misunderstand what 120F/50C actually feels like. Tourists often require medical care from trying to over-exert themselves in the heat. If you visit in the summer, unless you really have experience hiking in that kind of weather, you shouldn’t attempt much beyond walking from your car to take a picture.
Even in the cooler winter months, it can still get quite warm in the valley. It’s also literally a desert, the Mojave to be specific, and as such it’s excessively dry. The National Park Service recommends 2-4 liters a day, per person. If you plan on hiking, at least that per hike. You can buy extra water from several
The Indonesian island of Bali is a sun-soaked paradise that attracts every type of traveler, from budget-conscious backpackers to luxury jet-setters.
With its immense buttress roots and leathery green leaves, the northern rātā tree isn’t to be underestimated. Carried on the wind, its seeds land in the canopies of neighbouring trees and begin to germinate. Then, over hundreds of years, each individual seedling’s spidery roots wrap around its host, eventually entombing it and consuming the rotting trunk.
Are you, like 300 million Americans and international visitors, thinking about visiting the US National Parks this year? Do you like to plan your summer vacation several months ahead?
I spent the first 30 years of my life in a small town in the Nile Delta, three hours away from Cairo.
Obsessed with visiting national parks in the US?
Over the holidays, Keri Wilmot’s 14-year-old son was flying home alone from his Massachusetts boarding school to Texas when mechanical issues caused a delay that dragged on long enough that the flight crew timed out. Falling squarely at the height of one of the busiest travel periods of the year, flights were of course oversold, meaning his best option was to wait through the 12-hour delay. Since American Airlines’ rules for unaccompanied minors required a guardian (in his case, a school chaperone) to get a gate pass and stay with him at the gate until the flight took off, he was never left alone—and his dad picked him up safely in Dallas at 1:30 a.m.
When hearing the term national park, many think of places like Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, Acadia, and Grand Canyon.
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To a first-time traveler, Cuba can seem like a confusing jigsaw puzzle, particularly if you’re breaking free of the resorts and traveling around on your own.
Scoring free entry into America's national parks like Yellowstone and Grand Canyon might just be one of the best deals in travel—after all, America’s great outdoors are home to some of the country’s most stunning scenery and significant historical and cultural sites. Entrance fees, ranging from $10 per person to $35 per vehicle, are typically charged at 109 of the nation's 400 national parks to help fund the government's maintenance of the spaces for millions of annual visitors. But in an effort to ensure accessibility for everyone, there are a number of programs that allow visitors free entry to national parks, and state-run sites too.
Spring is a sensorial symphony in the US and national parks its front-row seats. Here's where to see the most spectacular shows.
Known for its dual identity as a Caribbean and Latin American nation, Belize holds a world of wonders that will delight even the littlest of travelers.