For years, I dreamed of overwater bungalows in destinations like the Maldives and Tahiti. Then, I found one just a 6-hour flight away in Belize.

The luxe Baccarat Hotels brand is adding a Maldives property to its portfolio, but don't think it stops there in terms of expansion for the brand — or for its siblings, 1 Hotels and Treehouse Hotels.

The United Arab Emirates boasts an abundance of luxury accommodations where opulence and grandeur take center stage, offering guests an unparalleled level of hospitality. But for a select few like me who want something different, a trip to Ras Al Khaimah Emirati, an hour’s drive north from Dubai, comes highly recommended. Here the majestic Hajar Mountains (yes, UAE has mountains) rise almost 1973 meters, and lush mangroves hug the coastline. The new Anantara Mina Al Arab is the first of its kind that brings traditional Maldives-style over-water accommodations to the Middle East. The resort is set on a private peninsula that overlooks protected mangroves and the open Arabian ocean.

About 140 miles east of Miami, Royal Caribbean's private Bahamas island, Perfect Day at CocoCay, receives thousands of eager families virtually every day of the year.

Sure, the Maldives and French Polynesia are beautiful places for a tropical vacation, but this year Hilton has turned its focus to the Seychelles, a country made of 115 islands off the east coast of Africa.

The historic Troy Laundry Building — a Colonial Revival-style brick warehouse sitting at 1025 S.E. Pine Street in Portland, Oregon — has begun a new iteration. Constructed in 1913, the Buckman neighborhood building was an industrial laundry facility until 1983, served as an artist co-op for a few decades, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

India's smallest territory, Lakshadweep, is emerging as a must-see destination, with Indian tourists and forward-thinking experiential visitors. The area made headlines following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vacation in January when he posted multiple images of the stunning islands to promote tourism in the region. His heavy praise of Lakshadweep was construed as an attempt to lure tourists away from the Maldives. Soon after negative criticism came from a few ministers in the Maldives, an Indian "boycott" started, resulting in a 33% drop in visitors from India.

Uber-luxury line Crystal is out with a new world cruise itinerary that might be its most epic ever. It comes with an epic price tag, too.

Following the release of the PATA Executive Summary Forecasts Report for the years 2024 to 2026 released earlier last month, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) released a more comprehensive Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2024-2026 report, taking a deeper dive into growth projections, focusing on the source market-destination pairs from 2024 to 2026 for each of the three Asia Pacific destination sub-regions. This report covers 39 destinations within Asia Pacific forecasting from 2024 up to 2026 in a series of three possible scenarios.

$3,431: That’s how much it will cost to stay at the new Ritz-Carlton Reserve hotel in Saudi Arabia for a night. The super-exclusive, small key-count resort opens for bookings on May 26, hitting the market with the highest rates in the region.

The Maldives is renowned as a luxurious, fly-and-flop destination. Located 500 km from the southern tip of India and Sri Lanka, it's a serene string of 1,190 low-lying coral islands scattered across the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean. Here, you'll find white, sun-kissed beaches and warm, azure blue lagoons studded with colourful corals that are home to exotic marine life.

You don’t have to travel too far for adventure-filled vacations as there’s plenty of outdoor playgrounds across the United States where you can try everything from surfing on sand dunes to scuba diving to shipwrecks.

Ramadan Kareem fellow travelers!