Whether you're booking your first voyage or your tenth, narrowing down the best Alaska cruise in 2025 is a complicated task.
25.09.2024 - 14:46 / matadornetwork.com
Waiting in a rental car line is high on my list of things I try to avoid after a flight. This was confirmed on a recent trip to Washington when I saw hectic crowds squeezing around the construction at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. This time around, I avoided them all with Kyte, a rental car company started in 2020 that delivers cars right to you or offers pick-ups and drop-offs at lots near select airports.
I rarely rented a car on my travels before I became a dad in late 2022, either for my frequent work trips as a travel writer and editor or for my own personal trips. I always packed light, and kept my schedule flexible to accommodate whatever public transportation had to offer (which often also meant a fair bit of walking). Traveling with a kid comes with a lot of literal baggage that’s not public transportation friendly. Another benefit? It opens the door to more easily explore rural areas around the cities I visit most.
The concept of Kyte will be familiar to anyone who has used any of the app-enabled services that have popped up over the last decade and a half: minimum human interaction (about 10 minutes with someone to check in and drop off a car, zero interaction with other people using the service); booking, verification, and alerts all handled immediately through an app; and often lower rates than the old way of doing things.
It does differ in a significant way from the Ubers and Airbnbs of the world, however. Kyte is not a peer-to-peer service that’s part of the “sharing economy.” Kyte owns all of its vehicles through a fleet provider, and professionally maintains the cars for the up to two years the company uses them.
“I previously worked at Uber and saw that people were always in search of convenience when it came to traveling,” Kyte cofounder Nikolaus Volk says in an email. “No one wants to wait in lines or be waiting for a driver. There were only these outdated methods when it came to renting a car and that always involved going to the airport or car rental storefront. There wasn’t an option to get a car for those short trips (and one that comes to your doorstep), and that’s where we started to design the model from.”
Kyte started during the pandemic, and only operates in a select set of cities. That limits use to people traveling to or using 12 major cities as a base where they can pick up or drop off their rental. More metro areas in the United States, as well as international, are set to be announced in 2025 as growth continues, Volk says. It’s important to note that currently cars are only available for use in the US. Users are responsible for the full cost of anything that happens if a vehicle is taken into Canada or Mexico.
Kyte is available in the following markets as of
Whether you're booking your first voyage or your tenth, narrowing down the best Alaska cruise in 2025 is a complicated task.
Amsterdam, like many other European cities, is facing an overtourism problem. The numbers don’t lie. In the year 2000, the Dutch capital broke a record when it welcomed over 4 million visitors. In 2019, the city’s enthusiasm for unbridled tourism had curbed: 10.2 million visitors came to Amsterdam, which has a population of about 820,000, that year and spent 21.8 million nights in the city.
When most Americans think of cruises, they probably think of island-hopping in the Caribbean or cruising by glaciers in Alaska from afar. That may be appealing for some people, but for others, the idea of being lazy on a ship of thousands of people for a week doesn’t sound like much of a vacation.
The best thing about August isn’t the searing heat – it’s the fact that summer has matured and there’s been (hopefully) plenty of time to get out and test new gear. Matador’s editors tested everything from socks and underwear to luggage to mountain bike gloves this month, and below is the stuff we loved most. The editor who recommended each is listed, so if you have beef – or a competing product – you know who to contact. Preference was given, as it should be, to brands working towards more sustainable production methods.
“S cottsdale topped the list of destinations for my sister’s bachelorette,” says Alexis Vazquez. Vazquez wrapped her maid of honor duties last month. Her voice has an edge of relief as she chronicles the logistics of planning her sister Reina’s dream bachelorette in Arizona. “Planning a wedding can be a nightmare, but people underestimate how complicated it is to throw a successful multi-day bachelorette party.”
When you board Amtrak’s Auto Train, you’re doing something unique that happens on no other train within the Amtrak system. First of all, you and your vehicle (car, motorcycle, van, small trailer, or SUV if it meets the measurement limits) must both be on board. You can’t go without it and it can’t go without you.
There are plenty of amazing leaf-peeping opportunities in the US. A romantic road trip to see the covered bridges of New England is one, taking an air balloon ride to see the foliage from above is another. But the most relaxed and nostalgic way to experience fall in all its glory is by train. There are multiple vintage railroads in the United States that will transport you back in time while you admire the fall colors, but few do it as well as the East Broad Top railroad.
The network planners at Delta Air Lines have been quite busy.
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Dubai-based airline Emirates is expanding its premium economy service in the United States by bringing an upgraded cabin to six new routes.