The Best Luggage in the World: 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards

Oct 2, 2024 • 7 min read

Amtrak is launching a new route between Chicago and Miami this fall that will whisk passengers from the Midwest to the Sunshine State in 47 hours.

Read more about the winners for the best airports in the US here.

With holiday travel approaching using airline miles and points is a smart way to avoid a possible hefty price tag. However, certain award currencies provide better value than others during peak travel times.

Sep 30, 2024 • 3 min read

In 2019, while on a trip to Marrakech in Morocco, Gary He, a Brooklyn-based photojournalist, received an unexpected surprise with his regular McDonald's order.

There’s never a wrong time of year to visit the Berkshires, the mountainous stretch of western Massachusetts located just 140 miles north of New York City. You can thank the fall’s vibrant display of foliage, summer’s Tanglewood music festival that draws crowds from all over the world, and a steady tide of new hotel openings to take advantage of as cozy winter getaways and for ski season. The region also has strong roots as an artists community, with a robust community of galleries, independent boutiques, and museums. And for city dwellers looking to stretch their legs, the Berkshires is also home to scenic hiking trails and winter slopes for every activity and ability level.

Since the dawn of time, the romance of railways has seduced poets, spellbound novelists, and dealt directors the perfect hand for capturing fleeting friendships, illicit affairs, and all manner of crimes and capers. A ticket is not just a permit to ride, it’s permission to trespass on the intimacies of other people’s lives. Trains bring us up close and personal—both inside and outside the carriage. On board, passengers chat politics in Finnish dining cars, clamber into couchettes above strangers on the Trans-Siberian, and share samosas on India’s many raucous mail trains. Outside, the world flashes by, a slideshow of rivers growing into oceans, deserts rising into mountains and cities sprawling then receding into darkness as the train thunders on through the night.

There are two types of train trip: The long, slow, and often luxurious train journey that takes you through beautiful scenery that you book specifically to spend time on the rails; and the speedy, no-nonsense, cheap train ride you take to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. In the first category, you’ll find grand trips like Australia’s The Ghan, South Africa’s Blue Train, and Britain’s Caledonian Sleeper. In the second, there are trips from London to Brussels in just two hours, from Rome to Venice in four hours, and from Miami to Orlando in three hours. And if you’re a train traveler who belongs to the second category and likes getting places fast without flying, there are plenty of trains in this world that do just that at speeds previously unimaginable on land, including the fastest train in the world and its closest competitors.

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.

Renting a car from the airport is a vey convenient way to explore a new city independently, but convenience has a price, and it’s often very high. Once you’ve added the airport fee, the damage insurance, and the liability insurance on top of the price of your rental, you’re often looking at a daily amount that reaches three figures. Car rental companies do vary their prices from one airport to the next, however, and some are significantly cheaper than others.

Recently, Phocuswright's Global Travel Market Report 2024 revealed the industry exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2023 with a 24 percent increase in gross bookings and a total spend of $1.5 trillion.