Going Antiquing in France with Designers Clare Vivier and Kate Berry

Americans and other tourists visiting Sri Lanka will no longer need to apply for a visa beginning Tuesday, per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Even if you travel on many different airlines, it makes sense to focus on just one loyalty program in each of the Big Three airline alliances: OneWorld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam.

Koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake, is so beloved in Japan that it has its own holiday. And lately, chefs have been finding new uses for the fungus, which has a fruity aroma and an ability to make “anything it touches better,” says Jeremy Umansky, 41, the owner of Larder deli in Cleveland. He uses koji for almost everything: to cure pastrami; to ferment Chinese-style black beans, which are ground and swirled into chocolate babka to embolden the chocolate; and to sprinkle over salads and fries in the form of what the restaurant calls Special K, a seasoning of dried ground koji. “It’s a harmonizer,” he says. Bartenders, too, are taking note. At Nancy’s Hustle in Houston, the bar manager, Zach Hornberger, 32, adds it to the nonalcoholic Silver Brining cocktail, a sweet-sour-salty mix of pickle brine, grapefruit and lime juices, koji and tonic. “It brings this umami background to beverages, and it plays well with citrus, taming the high acid notes and rounding the drink as a whole,” he says. At the restaurant Fête in Honolulu, the bar manager, Fabrice McCarthy, 41, infuses rum with shio koji (a slurry of koji, water and salt) and shakes it into a mai tai to add salinity — the effect, he says, is similar to how salted peanuts make you want to drink more beer. Ryan Chetiyawardana, 40, the owner of the bar Lyaness in London, experiments with koji in multiple forms — for one cocktail, he ferments parsnips with koji, which he says unlocks the sweetness and delivers “a huge tropical brightness.” While koji often plays a supporting role, at Paradiso in Barcelona, it wraps around the entire lip of the glass used for the Fleming, named for Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, another influential mold. For this fungus-inspired cocktail, which includes grapefruit, tequila and miso, the manager of Paradiso’s research lab, Matteo Ciarpaglini, 30, one-upped a classic salt rim with a fluffy cloud of koji, its floral fragrance accompanying every taste. —

If you can't swing a trip to Italy or France, there are some amazing wineries in the US.

On September 1, SAS Scandinavian Airlines left Star Alliance and joined SkyTeam. The change came just days after Air France-KLM formalized its 19.9% shareholding in the Nordic carrier. With the Franco-Dutch group a cornerstone of SkyTeam, it was incomprehensible that SAS would remain with Star.

I dodged designer dogs — like shih tzus and Pomeranians — in Panama City's Punta Pacifica neighborhood.

There’s never a bad time to go to Paris, and Air France agrees, giving away a pair of roundtrip flights and a wardrobe incroyable so travelers can live their best French lives.

Ahead of Labor Day, Capital One launched a very lucrative Air France-KLM transfer bonus. From now through Sunday, Sept. 29, when you transfer your Capital One miles to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, you'll receive 20% bonus miles. Therefore, when you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles, you'll get 1,200 Flying Blue miles, making this offer a 1:1.2 ratio.

Driving between France and Italy this year? You may be forced take a detour as the Mont-Blanc Tunnel, which links the two countries beneath the Alps, is closing for 15 weeks for renovation work.

Scotland will be getting its first tourist tax, a levy in Edinburgh, but the local tourism industry is concerned it will make the destination less competitive.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 29, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The Air France-KLM Group has officially become a shareholder in SAS Scandinavian Airlines. The agreement marks the conclusion of one of the year’s biggest airline deals and heralds the latest phase of consolidation in the European airline industry.