Beneath a row of fir trees River Shannon Aloia walks along a remote dirt road on national forest land, scanning the ground for morels.
“Find it,” she commands her dog, Jasper.
The search pays off for Ms. Aloia, an avid forager: She spies a solitary honey-colored morel, and plucks it.
“Foraging changes your relationship with nature,” she said. “You are out in the woods using all of your senses. And it’s gratifying when you can identify something and take it home and prepare it for your family.”
Spring in the northern hemisphere is a favorite time of year for foragers like Ms. Aloia. It is especially popular in the American West because of the millions of acres of publicly owned lands that give foragers the freedom to roam and harvest to their liking.
Once the snow melts, a variety of fungi begin popping their heads above ground — oyster mushrooms, king boletes and several types of morels. A profusion of flowers and other edible and medicinal plants, including wild onions and asparagus, fiddleheads, nettles and miner’s lettuce, are also highly sought.
Come summer, the berry crop beckons in the Rocky Mountain West: chokecherries, wild strawberries and plump, purple huckleberries. In late summer and fall, other wild crops emerge, such as piñon or pine nuts in the Southwest and mushrooms like chicken of the woods, shaggy manes and the prized matsutake.
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Having a Priority Pass membership just got more valuable, as travelers can visit nearly a dozen more airport lounges in the U.S. before their next flight. “Escape Lounges has announced an extension of its partnership with Priority Pass, enabling Priority Pass members to access an additional 10 of its common-use airport lounges across the United States as well as the Escape Lounge at Syracuse Hancock International Airport,” the third-party lounge company shared on its website. Escape Lounges are primarily located in smaller to mid-sized airports, Priority Pass members can now enter with a confirmed airline ticket in any fare class at the following locations:
Biometric company Clear is once again expanding its TSA PreCheck enrollment locations, making it even easier to sign up for the beloved airport security program.
In December 2023, the State Department said it had brought passport processing times to their pre-pandemic levels of six to eight weeks. Two moves in the past two weeks could help bring them down further.
As one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world, the question invariably arises: Do you tip in Paris? For many of us, tipping at restaurants and for various services is an ingrained habit, depending on our local customs. But as always, when traveling to different countries, we inevitably should learn and respect another set of rules—and that includes how much to tip. Fortunately, especially for travelers from the United States, tipping in Paris—and in Europe generally—is really quite simple: Tipping is not expected in French culture, at least not as much as it is in American culture.
On June 14, Universal Orlando Resort debuted a new lineup of daytime and nighttime experiences spanning both theme parks and celebrating a broad lineup of Universal’s most popular franchises, including Shrek,Harry Potter, E.T. and Back to the Future. From a new kid-friendly DreamWorks Land to nighttime shows and a parade (debuting July 3) guaranteed to unlock core childhood memories for adults, Universal Orlando’s new summer attractions and entertainment offer a blend of upbeat playfulness and emotional nostalgia with plenty of appeal for the youngest guests and their families and adults visiting without kids.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to make workers’ tips tax-exempt could significantly impact the take-home pay of tipped workers. Hotel housekeepers and restaurant workers are potentially the largest affected group in travel.
New consumer preferences and habits have emerged in the first half of 2024 in an Asia Pacific tourism sector which is recovering from the pandemic years in an uneven manner.