With music blaring, I was surrounded by hundreds of people excitedly jumping up and down, waving their hands in the air.
You might be picturing a packed nightclub or a sweaty music festival but no: it was 6pm on a mid-January night. Temperatures hovering around minus four celsius, stars blinking in the inky sky and the snow beneath my feet crisp and white.
I was waiting, along with 500 other runners, at the start line of the inaugural Trails des Gets Hiver, a winter trail run through over snowy hills and through lush Alpine forests.
Les Gets is about an hour’s drive from Geneva Airport, in the Haute Savoie region and part of the Portes du Soleil ski domaine. It’s an authentic French ski town with traditional alpine chalets, small hotels and two parallel streets which are dotted with bars, restaurants and ski shops.
We stayed at the charming Chalet Bluebell in Les Gets. The owners set us up for the race with a warm welcome and hearty food, and even gave us a lift to the start line and cheered us on round the course. It’s this kind of local hospitality that makes you feel part of a community on a running holiday.
The dress code that night was, let’s say, eclectic. Surrounded by men in shorts and women gripping poles, my running buddy and I just had time to pull on our newly bought ice grips before the countdown began. Trois, Deux, Un! 500 head torches lit up the night sky and off we went, a gaggle of bobbing bobble hats and reflective strips.
The 10k route started in the centre of Les Gets and passed under the Chavannes gondola and chairlift lines before making a steady pull up the blue piste I’ve skied down many times over the years. I had a pinch-me moment - was I really running up a ski slope at night in the dark?!
I love a quirky running race. A few summers ago, I joined hundreds of others outrunning the tide on a causeway between the French mainland and Noirmoutier island. I also loved a women-only running festival in autumnal Austria. This time I decided to go full-on winter in the Alps.
Our illuminated throng moved in sync up the hillside, with even the elites seeming unwilling to strike out ahead into the pitch-black nothingness of the mountains. Soon, the path narrowed to single file and the fastest took their opportunity to forge ahead.
The snow was hard-packed but crunchy and we felt wonderfully sure-footed with our new ice grips. After the first kilometre, the path widened to a snow-covered road which led us through the pine trees before the ascent grew steeper.
Ahead of us, we followed the bright dots of the leaders as they climbed up the hillside. The going was tough but steady; every now and then the route would level out only to climb again.
After 5k of ascent, our legs were feeling it and we
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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vitus Stenhøj Schiøtz, 23, a Danish traveler who got a working holiday visa to live in Japan. He moved to Japan in late 2024 and works as a chef in a restaurant in Nozawaonsen, a small town northwest of Tokyo . It's been edited for length and clarity.
Once a bohemian enclave popular among surfers and backpackers, the Oaxacan town of Brisas de Zicatela (or “La Punta,” as locals call it), just south of Puerto Escondido, has evolved into a buzzing tourist spot, its big waves and boisterous mezcal bars now attracting a still young but decidedly less countercultural crowd. Hotel Humano, the latest offering from Mexico City-based Grupo Habita, both embraces the area’s lively ambience and offers a refined respite from it. The 39-room, three-level property opened in late December on a busy street that becomes a party strip every evening, but its striking design creates an elegant barrier between the action outside and the considered details within (while an enforced municipal ordinance also requires loud music to stop at 11 p.m.). The building, designed by Jorge Hernández de la Garza, follows the current fad, in local architecture, of disguising heavy concrete structures with earthy textures meant to evoke vernacular constructions; here, breeze walls made of pale clay bricks provide privacy and shade, allowing air to sweep through. Linen lampshades, toffee-hued glazed tiles and big stainless steel sinks by Madrid-based Plantea Estudio add a lighter, contemporary touch, most effectively in eight suites featuring terraces with soaking pools. Guests and visitors alike can enjoy Humano’s casual cafe and juice bar in the double-height lobby, French fare by the self-taught chef Marion Chateau served in the palapa-covered poolside restaurant and the rooftop bar’s concrete bleachers — La Punta’s best spot to take in the sky at dusk.
Like a lot of us, I often find myself fried from days spent staring at my computer screen and nights circling back to emails I haven't answered. So when I heard that the Sanctuary Beach Resort in Monterey Bay, California, offered a package known as the Burnout Recovery Journey, I had to try it. When I arrived, I was happy to find the kinds of treatments on the spa menu I've been seeing more and more of lately: science-based offerings like infrared light therapy, IV drips, and electromagnetic pulse therapy. My outstanding massage took place on something called a Pulsed Electromagnetic Field mat. I was grateful that the hotel offered signal-blocking phone bags for the ultimate unplugging experience. Then I realized the irony: I was treating my burnout with…more tech. One has to wonder: How did we get here?
Preferred Hotels & Resorts is the world’s largest independent hotel brand, and it’s looking to grow even more with the addition of ten new member properties that became members between October 1 and December 31, 2024.
"New Orleans is a city of mood,” chef Serigne Mbaye tells me one Wednesday morning in September. We've been discussing the merits of Parkway's po'boys and the old-school kitchen at Commander's Palace. While growing up in Senegal and New York City, Mbaye cooked with his mother, and his Uptown restaurant, Dakar NOLA, braids his memories of this time with his haute restaurant experiences and the deep-rooted African heritage of New Orleans.
It's going to be an exciting year at Disneyland as the park prepares for its 70th anniversary celebration this spring. The celebration will see the Southern California theme park debut new entertainment offerings, including a new attraction with an audio-animatronic figure of Walt Disney.
In 2025, travelers who are reluctant to abandon overcrowded hot spots likeBarcelona and Lisbon and take advantage of the near euro-dollar parity — which makes traveling to Europe more affordable for U.S. visitors — are instead striking a balance by booking quieter “detour destinations”: lesser-known places close enough to take a side-trip from a popular city.