How to Survive the Thanksgiving Travel Rush This Year

Paris prosecutors told AFP that two American tourists were found sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower on Monday morning.

My first solo trip — when I arrived in Nashville a few days ahead of a work trip in 2017 to revisit some old haunts from when I lived in Tennessee — was hardly the most inspiring. But it showed me that I could handle traveling by myself and that I actually kind of liked it.

I live on a cruise ship for half the year with my husband and it's often as glamorous as it sounds. After all, I don't cook, clean, make my bed, do laundry, or pay for food. 

There’s a reason “how to become a travel agent” has been a continuously trending search phrase on Google—it is a career path that offers a flexible work environment and schedule, ample travel opportunities, and an immersion into a supportive world-wide industry. It's a surprise to some in 2023: Once the internet became widely available, it was largely believed that needing a travel agent was obsolete. However, even though the brick-and-mortar agencies with punny names in strip malls have vanished, the career is on-the-rise.

While summer vacations may still be underway, travelers planning for a Labor Day Weekend end of the season may want to take new data into account. The holiday weekend, which traditionally marks the end of the summer travel season, will see travelers explore popular travel hotspots both in the United States and around the world. Friday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 4 will be the busiest days for airport traffic as flyers jet to and from their destinations around the world, according to new data from Chase Travel shared with Travel + Leisure this week.

With every terror attack that grips the world, we all pause to reflect. World travelers and frequent flyers, however, likely react a little differently: People with upcoming adventures abroad tend to follow the news more closely, start researching travel insurance, and keep tabs on safety alerts.

Yep, that’s “billion” with a ‘b’.

This month saw the launch of what many in the travel blogosphere are calling the best travel-rewards credit card ever: the Sapphire Reserve Visa card from Chase.

The Christmas travel season is upon us. While perhaps not as narrow and intense as the Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas is nevertheless an extremely busy time of year at airports across the country. In addition to an influx of travelers, late December is infamous for throwing weather curveballs that can further snarl already maxed-out airline operations.

Bike sharing has become a way of life for many Americans—a quintessentially Northern European trend that took hold of our hearts and wallets in recent years, and that grows each time someone moves to a city and opts for a two-wheel commute. Trendy and sustainable, bike sharing is now a major presence in every major U.S. city.

I cringe when the duty-free pitch starts at 35,000 feet, but according to a new study by HSBC, it’s the highlight of the flight for many travelers. HSBC polled thousands of flyers and found that Americans spend an average of $51.32 on in-flight purchases each time they fly, with the bulk of that splurge going to duty-free purchases ($32.53). Other top expenditures were for onboard Wi-Fi ($4.92), food ($11.68), drinks ($4.56), and alcoholic drinks ($4.76).

Looking for a new museum to add to your travel to-do list? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) has released the Travelers’ Choice Top 25 Museums of 2018, including the top 10 worldwide and the top 10 in the United States, with some surprising frontrunners. The findings also highlight bookable ways to see each winner—think VIP tours and scavenger hunts—with some offering the added perk of allowing you to skip the lines to get in.