Slow travel: how to get from Seville to Lisbon by train (and a bus)

San Antonio and San Diego are poised to land new nonstop flight options to Washington, D.C. as soon as early next year.

In 2014, when the artist Dan McCarthy moved from Brooklyn into a converted schoolhouse in upstate New York, he decided the grand hall would be a future gathering spot for his many Facepots: large, wonky vessels decorated with a spectrum of grins and grimaces. The earliest ones, about a decade old, recall a time of emotional swings. “I hadn’t even found the clay that worked,” McCarthy says of that experimental phase, “so a lot of the pots were breaking in the kiln.” He learned to relinquish control, repairing the salvageable works using the Japanese technique known as kintsugi, in which mended seams are accented in silver or gold. The Facepots brought a new openness to McCarthy’s practice, as did the Hudson Valley. Absent the city’s pressures, he explains, “I was like a kid — on my hands and knees, lost in making a thing.” “Freedom,”a new monograph of McCarthy’s work, charts that arc, with nods to his Southern California upbringing, seen in rainbow-colored paintings of surfers and songbirds perched on guitars. Birds also animate new ceramic works in his solo exhibition at the Tokyo gallery Kosaku Kanechika, on view through Nov. 16. For McCarthy, these first faceless pots offer a shift in narrative. “Instead of a vessel, maybe it’s a nest,” he says, describing a fascination with his neighborhood birds. Kintsugi-like detailing appears on these pieces, too: Silver-leafed slabs camouflage the occasional split, while shiny rectangles evoke the little mirrors tucked inside birdcages. For the artist, fresh off his first flight to Japan, it’s a time of possibility. “I’m 62, which is old and not,” McCarthy says. “I think I’ve got another act in me. It should be an adventure.”

Dorey Poder and Damir Konjicija didn’t have a vision for their wedding, because they didn’t think they’d be lucky enough to have one: Damir fled war in Bosnia as a child and grew up in a refugee camp in the Czech Republic, and then the southern United States (Kentucky), while Dorey was raised in a very conservative town in California. “We didn’t know if we would ever get married in our lifetime, so when the time actually came, we looked at each other like, do we want to have a wedding? Or is this just an ‘us’ thing?” says Dorey of the brief consideration to get hitched at city hall.

From the rooftop pool deck of the Kimpton Sawyer in Sacramento’s Downtown Commons (DOCO) mall, I gazed down at a crowd of hyped-up circus fans buzzing around Golden 1 Center. Home to the Sacramento Kings basketball team, the arena also hosts concerts and special events like the Greatest Show on Earth, which happened to be in town during my visit.

A last-minute trip to Europe is as romantic as it sounds. Not only is the spontaneity thrilling, but European countries lend themselves very well to travelers who appreciate local customs and enjoy exploring new places without a rigid itinerary. Often, impulsively turning down a cobblestoned street will lead you to an exceptional hole-in-the-wall wine bar, a short-notice boutique hotel booking will be the best place you’ve ever stayed, or a chance encounter with a local will lead to a life-long friendship. But come 2025, you will need to do a little planning before you cross the pond. Next year, the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) will come into effect. This rule will require visitors from visa-exempt countries to obtain a travel authorization before entering 30 European countries and this includes US travelers.

Death Valley; the name alone conjures up images of lonely viewpoints that’ll send a quiver down your spine. Home to the powerful landscapes of Badwater Basin and Artist’s Palette, even the rocks have a mind of their own in this national park while the sand dunes are known to sing. While Death Valley may be ​​unforgiving, lodging around the park is anything but. Properties skirt the park limits with accommodation in Nevada and California giving you the option to sleep near amenities or out in the wilderness. These surreal Airbnbs near Death Valley National Park let you experience the unique scenery of the desert without forfeiting comfort.

Point Panama offers one of the best views of the Central American capital from its impressive viewpoint. (Photo Credit: Valentín Fuentes)

While women have been traveling the world on their own for decades (centuries, really), a 2024 report from Booking.com reveals that solo travel is surging this year, in particular.The booking engine says 54 percent of women are embracing solo journeys.A separate report from Road Scholar, which offers educational travel for older adults, says up to 85 percent of the company’s tour participants that travel solo are women. These reports underscore what plenty of female travelers have long known: Solo women travelers are a force to be reckoned with. Write us off at your own peril.Within the travel industry itself, there are a number of high-profile solo female travelers who are constantly serving up an inspiring look at what it’s like to be a woman exploring the world boldly - doing so with comfort, ease, and a level sheer joy that’s contagious.So, rather than publish another staid round-up of destinations that might be worth considering if you’re a woman traveling alone, we asked a handful of these fearless, globetrotting women what their favorite destinations are to explore solo and why.Consider this your insider’s destination guide, curated by a handful of women who, collectively, have visited nearly every corner of the globe and have done so with abandon.

There's a new way to get from the U.S. to Japan — and it's even quite affordable.

My family of six recently visited both Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood.

United Airlines will launch flights in eight brand-new cities next year, marking what the airline called the largest international expansion in its history.

When TPG Senior Writer Ben Smithson alerted me to Air France-KLM Flying Blue's July Promo Reward sale — flights from Denver International Airport (DEN) to Europe started at 15,000 Flying Blue miles each way — I was excited. Deals like this aren't exactly rare, but most of them depart from either the East Coast or West Coast, and I'm based in Colorado. I've considered booking positioning flights to take advantage of past deals, but the cost and hassle never ended up being worth it.