Negros Island: Sugar heritage and marine wonders of the Philippines

Jan 10, 2025 • 8 min read

Last year, open water swimmer Amy Appelhans Gubser became the first person to swim from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands, a craggy, mostly uninhabited archipelago off the Pacific coast that is known for its frigid, shark-infested waters. The 55-year-old fetal cardiology nurse coordinator from Pacifica, California, completed the 29.6-mile distance in 17 hours, three minutes. “It was so foggy that I only knew when it was daylight because the sky was a lighter gray,” she says.

Are you looking for an out-of-the-ordinary cruise adventure across the globe? Holland America Line has just announced some epic new itineraries you need to book.

Southwest Florida is a vacationer’s dream. That comes as zero surprise to anyone who’s had the pleasure of digging their toes into the warm, white sands that stretch from Fort Myers to Sanibel Island and beyond. You could happily spend your vacation trawling for seashells and building pint-sized castles, but there’s a lot more to this region than its beaches — including some unique experiences that you might only find here.

Jan 7, 2025 • 9 min read

What was the most on-time airline — and airport — in the world in 2024?

As Paul O’Neil was tending to his new beehives one day, a family with three young children walked by. 

When I was in my 40s, if you had told me I'd be writing this from Mauritius after months of traveling across Europe, I would have laughed.

Dec 30, 2024 • 7 min read

Choros maltones, for which the town of Nehuentúe is famed, grow plump and sweet at the brackish mouth of the Imperial River on the coast of La Araucanía, a southern Chilean region with a large Indigenous population. These mussels get so big that they're nicknamed zapatos, or shoes. All of the divers who harvest them are men, except for Cecilia Sanhueza. She's the chef-owner of El Estuario del Maltón, one of nine restaurants in Nehuentúe's Centro Gastronómico cooperative, located on an estuary where painted dories bob.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew Jernigan, CEO of Insured Nomads. It has been edited for length and clarity.

After two nights at Kilindi, I wondered how there were any hibiscus flowers left on the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania. Each day, the bright pink orbs were strewn across my king-size bed, garnished my daily coconut water, and were thoughtfully stuffed into rolled-up beach towels.