Lonely Planet’s Best Father’s Day Gifts

With summer just around the corner, beach lovers are eager to find the best sandy spots in the U.S. The person with the answers: Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, also known as Dr. Beach.

Short-term rentals are experiencing a boost for this year’s Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is a chance to honor U.S. military personnel and to celebrate the distinct history and landscapes that make this country so unique. The three-day weekend has become the unofficial kick-off to summer and one of the year's busiest travel weekends. More than 42 million Americans traveled over the weekend last year, and airlines and experts expect a similar number this year.

In need of some Father's Day gift inspo? We've got you covered with multiple options sorted by interest so you can find the right thing for every dad, uncle, grandpa, significant other, and father figure in your life. How about a new e-reader for the bookworm dad, or a smart new bike helmet to help him look his best when rolling around town? Plus, gifts for the dads who are in charge of vacation dinner reservations, and the ones who can never seem to get enough caffeine. As a reminder, Father's Day is Sunday, June 16, this year—so there's still plenty of time to order him the perfect gift. Read on for our favorite travel-friendly Father’s Day gift ideas for 2024, or jump straight to the section that fits your recipient best.

Family vacations are the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with loved ones and strengthen family bonds. One study found 40 percent of parents planned to spend more on international travel with their families this year. There is also a growing trend of multiple generations traveling together.

WHEN STEFANO SECCHI was growing up in Dallas, the end of every school year meant the beginning of a great adventure. His parents, intent on maintaining a connection with their relatives in Italy, put him and his two brothers on a plane, and off they flew to Sardinia, where the sprawling Secchi clan clustered around and tended to the family farm. He remembers the sheep and cows that grazed on the hillsides, the tomatoes, wild fennel and zucchini that grew in such abundance. He remembers the long sunny days and the nearby sea. But more than any of that, he remembers the Sunday meal.

A forecast from AAA estimates Memorial Day weekend travel will be up from last year with boosts in travelers across modes of transportation — but still shy of the all-time record set in 2005.

Strip off your sweaters; the official start of summer is coming in hot. Gear up for a long weekend where the smell of bonfires, the taste of freshly grilled hamburgers and the feel of the ocean wash all the winter blues away. Memorial Day Weekend — when millions of Americans take off for vitamin D-drenched destinations from sea to shining sea — is just around the corner.

Happy Saturday! If you're heading out this weekend, here are 11 things a bartender wishes people would stop doing — including asking them to play your favorite song.

It was the small and enigmatic Berlengas archipelago that drew us to Peniche harbour. Peniche, 60 miles north of Lisbon, is famous for its surfing beaches, but the islands off its coast often get overlooked. Every morning a couple of hardy passenger boats bounce over eight miles of waves from the peninsula of Peniche to Berlenga Grande. We took our seats on deck between sacks of onions and oranges and, flecked with sea-spray and followed by flocks of screaming gulls, we watched green hills emerge from blue waves ahead. At the port, the goods are unloaded with gulls wheeling and cawing overhead.

The Bay of Arcachon, on the south-west coast of France, is a happy place. It must be, because I’ve been visiting it with my family nearly every year for the past 15 years. We usually rent a small apartment in Arcachon town for four or five days, but such is the draw that we have been known to make a two-hour drive just to spend the day there when we’ve been in that part of the world. Everything about it speaks of summer joy: the promenade thrumming with cyclists and strollers; the parade of bistros serving moules, oysters and buckets of chilled rosé; families playing beach tennis on the sands; and a bay brimming with pleasure boats and ferries. It’s like a scene from a Raoul Dufy painting.

I have travelled all over Spain for both work and fun in the past two decades, but the Catalan seaside town of Cadaqués had somehow failed to register on my radar. Last year, my husband was working in Catalonia and when he had a few days off between jobs, I proposed an impromptu tryst. The brief: somewhere by the sea.