I've spent hundreds of hours on long-haul Amtrak rides. Here are my 10 best tips for first-time riders.

Nestled below California's Laguna Mountainis Campo, a small unincorporated community that Deborah Jean Peck calls home.

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

There was a time in the not so distant past when airlines would slap on “fuel surcharges” any time the price of jet fuel spiked. What was worse, those unpopular levies often lingered even after the cost of oil dropped. The term fell out of favor a little more than 10 years ago after U.S. regulators said that carriers had to explain how they arrived at the specific fee for fuel surcharges, or any other fee that wasn’t directly imposed by the government. Most airlines simply chose to drop the label.

Melissa Dewalt caught the travel bug a decade ago when she drove from her home state of Pennsylvania across the country to California to visit her then-boyfriend. She then road-tripped north to Seattle.

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.

When Los Angeles–based designer Clare Vivier began decorating the 19th-century house she'd bought in her husband's hometown of Saint-Calais, in France's Loire Valley, she had a particular aesthetic in mind. “I love color and patterns but wanted something peaceful, so the intention was to create a dialogue between those two things,” she says. She wanted the house to have a blend of contemporary pieces, antiques, and textiles from heritage maisons to create a space that, much like her namesake handbag and fashion label, channeled both California fun and French sophistication. She also knew that she wanted her longtime friend Kate Berry, a designer and creative director, to help her make it happen.

Frontier Airlines unveiled 11 new routes across 15 airports that are scheduled to launch in October and November.

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.

Aug 23, 2024 • 7 min read

Aug 23, 2024 • 0 min read

I used to think that paying an annual fee for a credit card was a terrible idea and a waste of money. 

When Los Angeles–based designer Clare Vivier began decorating the 19th-century house she'd bought in her husband's hometown of Saint-Calais, in France's Loire Valley, she had a particular aesthetic in mind. “I love color and patterns but wanted something peaceful, so the intention was to create a dialogue between those two things,” she says. She wanted the house to have a blend of contemporary pieces, antiques, and textiles from heritage maisons to create a space that, much like her namesake handbag and fashion label, channeled both California fun and French sophistication. She also knew that she wanted her longtime friend Kate Berry, a designer and creative director, to help her make it happen.