Homemade food and stunning views: Swap Italy’s overcrowded cities for its most beautiful villages

Ski season is just around the corner, and the Ikon Pass is making it even easier to ski across the country by adding a new California mountain to the mix.

Holland America Line will open up grand voyages and pole-to-pole sailings to travelers hoping to book just a segment, making it easier to explore some of the coolest regions on Earth.

Clarksville, a historic district of Austin, Texas, has lately emerged as a stylish dining and shopping enclave. Among the area’s most compelling new businesses is La Embajada, a design shop housed in a 1923 Craftsman bungalow. Combining the hospitality and interiors expertise of its founder, Raul Cabra — who has designed tableware for some of Mexico City’s most celebrated restaurants, including Rosetta and Pujol — La Embajada presents a refined, regionally diverse selection of Mexico’s artisanal offerings. A series of small rooms display vintage and contemporary furniture, from stately midcentury armchairs and 1970s glass sconces to a minimalist agave fiber rug by the Oaxaca-based textile artist Trine Ellitsgaard. The house is also an actual residence. Cabra often stays in the bedroom up the creaky stairs, and he’s recently made it available for short-term stays (bookings include a daily basket of baked goods from Austin’s Swedish Hill). Guests can purchase the room’s handmade décor, such as a pair of sleek bedside lamps in milky white onyx, a 1960s La Malinche dresser and a bedspread from a Michoacan manufacturer that once supplied Herman Miller. Downstairs, glassware, candles and gifts fill a section modeled after a typical general store in a small Mexican town. But La Embajada’s heart is its inviting kitchen, where visiting chefs cook elaborate meals and staff prepare ice cream and coffee. In another twist, every bespoke detail — including a hammered copper sink, caramel-colored tiles and waxed pine cabinets — can be custom-ordered for one’s own home.

Once rather unknown to travelers, the Urla district in Turkey’s seaside Izmir province has recently been propelled into the limelight. That's thanks to a string of newly minted Michelin-starred restaurants (three with the famed stars, and three with sustainability recognition)—and trail of inventive and boutique wine producers called the Urla Wine Route. The area is a year-round reprieve that has managed to preserve and capitalize on its natural beauty; olive groves, fruit orchards, and vineyards here have become ground zero for the reinvention of modern Aegean cuisine and wine, inspired and sustained by the region’s fruitful lands. Today, Urla beckons with culinary delights, cultural treasures, and design-first hotels—here's how to experience the new nucleus of Turkey's fine-dining scene.

As the summer travel season comes to a close, travelers have a new way to save on fall getaways. JetBlue recently announced the «Game On» fare sale, which offers flights as low as $49. The promotion is a nod to the fall football season, however the fares can provide an affordable options for early fall vacations, or last-minute trips.  As an example, JetBlue shows a fare of $49 one-way from New York's JFK airport to Nashville, Tenn. for travel in both September and October.

When newcomers to Canada, the Italian couple had discovered along Quebec’s country roads the joys of the casse-croûtes, the food shacks that lie dormant in the frozen landscape during winter and then burst to life during the all-too-short warm months.

Holland America Line is offering travelers a unique opportunity to experience a taste of its renowned Grand Voyages by booking segments of its 2025 Grand World Voyage or 2025 Grand Voyage: Pole to Pole. These abbreviated segments, available for as little as $169 per day, allow guests to enjoy the grandeur and luxury of a world-class voyage without committing to the entire four-month journey.

Disney Cruise Line is sharing more details about its newest ship, Disney Destiny, including its inaugural sailing date and some itinerary details.

It’s a steamy May morning in Thailand’s lush Khao Yai National Park, just a two-hour drive northeast of Bangkok, and the tok-tok call of a gecko sounds as I stand on a balcony overlooking the GranMonte wine estate. Among its holdings are 7 guest rooms and 40 acres of vineyards at the edge of a tropical jungle, all baking in the 80-degree heat. The winery’s workers protect themselves from the sun, wearing wide brimmed hats and long-sleeved layers as they prune the vines that tangle and twist around dozens of constructed frames. Later in the year, the grapes that they bear will become bottles of Grenache, Verdelho, and Cabernet Sauvignon—all of them with roots, literally, in Thai soil.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Scarlett Kiaras-Attari, a marketing executive and education content creator who moved to the UK for her studies. It has been edited for length and clarity.

The night train boom is continuing with a new sleeper across Europe launching in 2025. 

As summer begins to wind down, travelers are starting to hunt for bargains on fall and winter travel. Allegiant Airlines, a discount carrier based in Las Vegas, recently released tons of deals on flights for under $50 on theirdeals section throughout November, which they describe as a «great value.» Customers can get flights to popular destinations throughout Florida including Tampa and Orlando, as well as vacation spots such as Vegas or Nashville.