Japan's best food and drink experiences

A cooking class booked in the first few days of your trip is the best way to get acquainted with a new destination. 

In its 25th year of judging airports based on passenger surveys, the aviation ranking website Stytrax revealed on Thursday the world's best airports for 2024.

In Japan, it’s not hard to find locals bathing in a public onsen and immersing themselves in the forest—wellness is woven into the fabric of everyday life. With nature considered divine in the Japanese indigenous religions of Buddhism and Shintoism, wellness in Japan is built around the prevalence of volcanoes, forests and hot spring pools. While you might see ‘forest bathing’ offered in the West, in Japan, it is more than a new-age wellness treatment, and considered a form of preventative healthcare. Likewise, ‘sand bathing’ is not a light-hearted children’s beach activity, but instead a therapeutic treatment whose benefits have been espoused for over 300 years.

One of the great pleasures of traveling to foreign shores is to dive mouth-first into the local cuisine. Whether it’s the tastiest Thai pad kra pao or the best German bratwurst, sampling national and regional foods is a fantastic way to get a true taste of new cultures. Also, most of them are delicious!

Japan’s tourist arrivals soared to a record-breaking high last month, with over 3 million visitors exploring the country, as reported by the Japan National Tourism Organization on Wednesday.

There's never a bad time to visit Washington, DC. Not only do brilliant events take place almost every day, but the district also undergoes breathtakingly beautiful transformations as the seasons change.

Logan Square

With more than 300 sunny days per year, daytime temps that rarely dip below 65, and an armada of resorts, Phoenix, Arizona is a great getaway for any group gathering that prioritizes pool time, day drinking, and a few rounds of golf. But the city's appeal goes deeper: The area's natural beauty inspired designers and artists like Frank Lloyd Wright, Maxfield Parrish, and Paolo Soleri. And despite its enormous growth (the metro area topped 5 million last year), the increasingly diverse city still retains a frontier spirit: Newcomers are reinventing everything from its food scene to its art circuit, making Phoenix one of America's best under-the-radar destinations.

Though K-beauty first landed stateside back in 2011 — when Dr.Jart+ flooded the shelves of Sephora stores across the country and spawned the BB cream craze — South Korean skincare products have experienced a resurgence in popularity in the past few years.

With the recent release of the acclaimed Hulu historic epic TV miniseries Shogun, travelers are itching to explore firsthand the land of samurais, geishas, picturesque villages and urban centers throughout Japan that epitomize the thrilling spirit of Shogun. Based on James Clavell’s 1970s novel, Shogun is the story of William Adams, better known as Anjin-san, who rose to become the top advisor to Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in feudal Japan in the early 17th century.

Travelers dreaming of aspirational destinations like Bali and the Maldives can now get there more easily with airline miles.

Educational travel and voluntourism often serve as a conduit for experiential learning. An educational vacation or community service travel can enrich knowledge of places and customs in ways that can’t be taught via textbooks, especially for younger kids who tend to soak up hands-on lessons like a sponge. Through cultural exploration and immersion, students become enriched as global citizens, while developing a stronger knowledge of language and geography as well as an increased confidence and problem solving skills.