My Packing List for a Portland, Oregon, Trip With Lots of Walking (and Eating)

Want to get a jump on planning next year’s vacations? OvationNetwork, a luxury travel agency that’s part of the Virtuoso group of travel advisors, recently revealed its list of the 24 best places to travel in 2024. Among the destinations recommended are Sardinia, Italy; San Sebastián, Spain; Jeju, South Korea; and Ha Long, Vietnam (above), a UNESCO World Heritage site where a junk boat voyage is a must.

Over the past few years, many small regional airports across the country lost some or all of their commercial flights due to pilot shortages and other challenges facing the airline industry.

The United States is supersized, from its sprawling big cities to its epic natural splendors. And its citizens? When it comes to friendliness and national pride, we can be a little “extra” too.

A burger and fries by the beach in San Diego, California. (Photo Credit: sophia_ross/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus)

The year’s supermoon bonanza may be behind us, but the sky has a host of stargazing treats in store this October. Get ready for two meteor showers, bright planet sightings, and arguably the most anticipated astronomical event of the year: the annular solar eclipse come mid-month.

Alaska Airlines will expand its presence in San Diego next year, adding a new flight from the Southern California city to Atlanta.

The “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse will, for most people in the U.S., be merely a partial solar eclipse. Only if you get into the 125 miles wide path that stretches from Oregon through Texas will you see the “ring of fire”—and only then for just a few minutes.

When it comes to veg-friendly cuisine, few cities have as much to offer as Portland, Oregon. It’s the best city for vegans and vegetarians in the U.S. for the fifth year in a row, according to new research from the financial website WalletHub.

When it comes to veg-friendly cuisine, few cities have as much to offer as Portland, Oregon. It’s the best city for vegans and vegetarians in the U.S. for the fifth year in a row, according to new research.

With a bit of planning, visiting the USA can be fun and done on a tight budget.

On the PBS show America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston, the second season of which is airing now, each episode showcases a gorgeous spot in the United States, and the ways in which a half dozen or so local residents enjoy the place. In an upcoming Oregon episode, Emmy-nominated host, producer, comedian, and writer Baratunde Thurston checks out a roller derby in Portland, cowboys on a sustainable ranch, forest bathers, an underwater kelp forest, a community garden recultivating native foods, and more. As spectacular as the settings are, it’s the people he’s met and their dedication to the planet that he finds endlessly remarkable.

If you sail into British Columbia’s Desolation Sound Marine Park on a slightly smoky afternoon, as I did recently (there were still more than 900 wildfires burning across Canada), make sure you watch out for the huge tides and the weather. B.C.’s largest marine park might have the warmest water north of Baja, but here nature still rules.