How I earned almost 30,000 Amex Membership Rewards points with help from Rakuten

Maud Bailly is entering her third year as the CEO of the high-end collection of Accor brands like Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery and Emblems.

There are currently more than 100,000 people in Los Angeles who have been displaced by the ongoing wildfires. As Travel + Leisure shares hotels and vacation rentals with significantly reduced rates for Angelenos who are evacuating or have lost their homes, the question becomes: How much will insurance actually cover for short- or long-term hotel stays? Put another way, how significant do hotel discounts need to be in order to not cost displaced Angelenos money out of their own pockets?

Lawmakers in Greece are debating tough new rules for holiday rentals in a bid to crackdown on overtourism.

A bear-shaped kiddie camera, miniature tubs of Play-Doh, bilingual flashcards, an LCD doodle board—these were just a few of the things I brought and later abandoned on a 12-week, 14-country trip around the world with my 2.5-year-old son Julian.

Words can barely do justice to the devastation that has unfolded across Los Angeles this week amid the raging wildfires that have erupted everywhere from Pacific Palisades to Pasadena.Entire neighborhoods have been wiped off the map and residents have lost a lifetime of treasures.At last count, the death toll from the unprecedented four-day fire event stood at 10 and more than 9,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged.The Biden Administration has swiftly responded to the climate change-driven crisis. The president visited California on Wednesday and later vowed that the federal government will cover 100 percent of the disaster assistance costs for California for the next 180 days.“I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense to contain these fires,” Biden said. “We’re doing literally everything we can at the federal level.”The president has sent 400 additional federal firefighters to the state and more than 30 firefighting helicopters and planes. Canada is also providing firefighting aircraft.While all of these measures and promises have brought comfort to California, Biden only has 11 more days in office. And President-elect Donald Trump has taken the opposite tact, roundly criticizing California officials for the fires and  spreading misinformation and falsehoods that have since been debunked.In addition to the Biden Administration, the travel industry has provided an outpouring of assistance and support for Los Angeles and its impacted residents.Local organizations such as the Hotel Association of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board are pitching in, as are international, national, and regional tourism industry operators including Airbnb, Delta Airlines, Internova, and Signature. Here’s a closer look at what’s unfolding.

If a trip to Europe for Valentine’s Day weekend or spring break sounds like a good idea, American Airlines has just brought back some of its lowest fares to dozens of destinations for a limited time. 

While my 14-year-old daughter was with her first boyfriend, I became close friends with his mom. My teens aren't fans of cruise vacations, so when Disney Cruise Line opened its new private island, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, and my family didn't want to go, I asked my newest mom friend to come along with me to check it out. We decided to go on a multigenerational cruise — a stateroom made up of myself, my friend, her mother, and her 18-year-old daughter — and it was the most fun cruise I've been on in my entire life, thanks to the company.

Wildfires in Los Angeles County continued to burn on Monday, January 13, 2025, as firefighters worked to contain portions of the deadly Eaton and Palisades fires, at 14% and 33% containment as of Monday morning. A total of 24 people were reported dead on Sunday evening.

Jan 11, 2025 • 6 min read

The rampant wildfires consuming vast swathes of Los Angeles have forced around 180,000 people to evacuate. 

I’m a big bather, but I’m from the UK, which doesn’t have a strong bathing culture. I live near an abandoned Victorian bath house, public pools have closed across the country, andour rivers are not for swimmers.

Just over a year ago, my family moved from South Carolina to Madrid . There are so many cultural differences between the two countries, but what has surprised us most is what our kids notice when we return to visit the US.