Condé Nast Traveler

With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, it's high time to start shopping for the moms, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and mother-in-laws in our lives again. Whether you're celebrating with a large family brunch or taking your mom out for a spa day, a well-thought-out gift is always appreciated. For those who can’t be with their mothers this year but still want to send something to make her smile—we’ve got you covered. Below, we've rounded up dozens of thoughtful Mother’s Day gift ideas for all kinds of moms, from the ones who taught you to love the great outdoors to the ones who appreciate a trip to a winery, and the ones whose ideal vacation is sitting in a beach chair with a good book in hand.

Floating in a warm ocean, sun on my belly—this is what I’ve dreamed of my entire pregnancy. After spending the majority of it in New York, I was caught off guard by the sudden ease I felt in my body and brain as I waded into the ocean and the weight I’d been carrying lifted off of me for the first time in months. I’ve always found the term “babymoon” a bit off-putting, overly indulgent even. It's not as widely accepted into the vacation lexicon as a honeymoon, bachelorette, or 50th birthday. In fact, the term was first coined in the early ’90s and referred to a period of time for parents to spend alone with their new child soon after their birth.

The most important step in every skincare routine: face sunscreen. Wearing and reapplying a daily sunscreen can help protect your skin from sun damage and prevent premature aging. Whether you're headed out for a day swimming at the beach or dodging puddles in the rain, sun exposure of any kind can be damaging, so finding a solid sunscreen routine is crucial. As important as wearing a facial sunscreen is, the greasy feeling, clogged pores, and oily shine some leave behind can make you want to skip that step altogether. That’s why it’s important to find a product you actually want to wear every day.

Meet your astrologer

Riding one of the longest flights in the world is already an undertaking—then I had to do it with my talkative son in tow. Even though flying with a toddler can be tough, I was determined to introduce him to the paternal side of my family who I hadn’t seen for over 20 years. So we embarked on an 18-hour journey from London to Bali. Here is what I learned about flying with a toddler after the trip—and what I wish I had known before.

Whether you’re hopping on a plane en route to a dreamy, faraway beach or road tripping for a closer-to-home sandy retreat, packing the right bag helps ensure you have just what you need to make your trip to the beach as easy and relaxing as possible. Of course, a solo traveler’s idea of the best beach bag can be quite different from someone on a family vacation who is in charge of carrying everything for everyone. We’ve got both of those needs covered, and everything in between.

On April 15, 2019, the world held its breath as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris teetered on the edge of collapse following a severe fire—the precise origins of which are still under investigation. Five years later, the damage has been cleared, the stone inside the cathedral shines anew, and the structure’s mighty spire has been rebuilt and secured in place. With an end in sight to the most significant restoration works, the city’s majestic icon is on track for its grand reopening on December 8, just as President Macron vowed.

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Since 2022, when World's 50 Best first began ranking North America’s 50 Best Bars, New York City and Mexico City have vied for the top spot. Always the bridesmaid, CDMX's Handshake Speakeasy has earned second place for the last two years in a row (first trailing Attaboy, then Double Chicken Please—both beloved Lower East Side joints). This year, however, the Colonia Juarez cocktail bar takes first place at long last.

From Maine to Florida, the East Coast is home to some beautiful stretches of coastline, amazing views, and of course, remarkable beach towns. Whether you're looking for a summer hotspot full of excitement and entertainment and brimming with crowds, or want to escape to a quieter small town this season, the shores on the East Coast have a little something for everyone. From charming, historic New England towns to tropical Southern getaways, there is so much to explore this summer.

Flight delays and cancellations are some of the most un-fun issues to deal with while traveling. Even more of a headache? Trying to get a refund from the airline for your airfare or for any extra fees you paid for, like checked baggage.

It’s inevitable: Every spring when we pull together the Hot List, our annual collection of the world’s best new hotels, restaurants, and cruise ships, a staffer remarks that this latest iteration has got to be the best one ever. After a year’s worth of traveling the globe—to stay the night at a converted farmhouse in the middle of an olive grove outside Marrakech, or sail aboard a beloved cruise line’s inaugural Antarctic voyage—it’s easy to see why we get attached. But this year’s Hot List, our 28th edition, might really be the best one ever. It’s certainly our most diverse, featuring not only a hotel suite that was once Winston Churchill’s office, but also the world’s largest cruise ship and restaurants from Cape Town to Bali. We were surprised and inspired by this year’s honorees, and we know you will be too. These are the Hot List's restaurant winners for 2024.

We didn't do it on purpose. It was actually quite late in the process of assembling this issue that we realized it contained two stories which, though very different in many ways, were about parents taking their children on important trips. One is Ashlea Halpern's luminous meditation on the week she spent in Oman with her toddler son amid an epic three-week adventure following her father's death. The other is my own piece about watching my kids reenact the summer rituals of my childhood on Washington State's San Juan Islands. Both ultimately come to a conclusion we talk about a lot here: that travel is a gift to be shared and that passing it along enriches the lives of both the recipient and the giver.

It’s inevitable: Every spring when we pull together the Hot List, our annual collection of the world’s best new hotels, restaurants, and cruise ships, a staffer remarks that this latest iteration has got to be the best one ever. After a year’s worth of traveling the globe—to stay the night at a converted farmhouse in the middle of an olive grove outside Marrakech, or sail aboard a beloved cruise line’s inaugural Antarctic voyage—it’s easy to see why we get attached. But this year’s Hot List, our 28th edition, might really be the best one ever. It’s certainly our most diverse, featuring not only a hotel suite that was once Winston Churchill’s office, but also the world’s largest cruise ship and restaurants from Cape Town to Bali. We were surprised and inspired by this year’s honorees, and we know you will be too. These are the Hot List hotel winners for 2024.

Presented by Capital One

On an otherwise unremarkable Saturday in Tucson last month, I visited the intersection of the Harlem Renaissance and romance lit with Netflix darling Tia Williams, brushed up on global security threats with MSNBC contributors Barbara McQuade and Frank Figliuzzi, got an easy Roman-Jewish cake recipe from cookbook wunderkind Leah Koenig, and caught a dramatic reading by National Humanities Medal winner Abraham Verghese. All before lunch. And tens of thousands of people around me were doing much the same thing: making the rounds at the famed Tucson Festival of Books, where I’d decided to spend a few hours on a trip to see my parents. As I began to realize the more people I met in line, many had come to town just for this.

There's nothing that gets a traveler's heart racing like the impeding doom of missing a connecting flight. We've all been there: wildly sprinting through the airport terminal, hoping against hope that the boarding door hasn’t closed yet. Then, the worst feeling of them all: finding the door closed shut but the plane still there—and you're not allowed on it.

As a first generation Taiwanese immigrant, Kathy Yen says she feels a “profound significance” being an Asian American business owner.

Last week, Hawaiian Airlines held the inaugural flights aboard its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner plane, a moment six years in the making. The plane was named “Kapuahi” after a star that holds cultural and navigational significance to the Polynesian wayfinders, some of the first people to make this voyage across the Pacific.

Pulling up to the red boat slip under a fiery sunset, no one in the boat was looking at the vivid pinks of the Caribbean sky. Instead, our eyes were on the towering hilltop ahead of us, with its wind turbines and precarious Balinese-style treehouses. Night was falling, and glowing ambient lights flickered on as if by magic to light up a maze of jungle-nestled villas and dirt paths. A man in well-tailored dress pants, a button-down, and loafers emerged; not the billionaire we’d come for, but one of the many trusted Sir Richard Branson whisperers in a staff of 134 we'd encounter over the next few days. “Welcome to Necker,” Eddie beamed.

Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Qatar was just named the best airport in the world in the 2024 Skytrax awards, knocking 12-time winner Singapore Changi Airport down to second place.