The Best Reykjavik Hotels Within Walking Distance of Hallgrimskirkja, the City’s Iconic Church

Looking for trip inspiration can be a frustrating experience especially if you’re super reliant on tour books. You’ll find quickly that you’ll be overloaded with tons of recommendations for busy tourist traps open only during the day.

Over half of all travelers consider taking a solo trip. Often times, such retreats center around individuals searching for an enlightened approach to their everyday existence, and the focus can be on relaxation, wellness, adventure, stress management or even romance. Solo travelers report that traveling alone can enhance one’s sense of self-awareness and inner tranquility. And while the approaches may differ, the ultimate goal is the same: to experience the world from a unique perspective.

A slice European, a pinch cosmopolitan New York and fully its own quirky, unique self, Montréal is Canada’s artsiest, coolest city, worth spending days and days exploring.

Stretching along an island in the St Lawrence River, Montréal has a complicated soul thanks to its blend of French and English heritage. You can explore this dichotomy and much more – art, music, dining – in its diverse neighborhoods. 

A moonscape of volcanic craters, lava fields and belching thermal pools, northern Iceland is as starkly elemental as the country gets. The region has remained little known to UK visitors, partly due to its remoteness — until now, reaching it usually meant a five-hour drive from the capital Reykjavík or a 40-minute connecting flight. This stretch of the country’s wild coast is coming into the limelight this autumn thanks to scheduled direct flights with EasyJet, set to take off on 31 October. 

Paris is always a good idea. And now travelers can escape to the French city and more European hotspots for less with a new Icelandair sale that has flights starting at just $349 round trip.

Hotels are always opening across the U.S. as hospitality giants such as Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt expand their footprint and charming new boutiques pop up.

These days, the hotel world is abuzz with “sleep tourism,” a clever albeit trendy marketing term used to describe programming that extends beyond blackout curtains and soft, plush bedding. A 2016 study in the Current Biology journal expands on the “first-night effect” in human sleep research — stating that new environments often cause tossing and turning. So, then what’s a weary traveler to do while — trying— to sleep in New York City (aka the city that never sleeps)?

Sergio Jimenez has traveled to Denmark and Iceland. He’s made his way to the outskirts of Copenhagen and Reykjavik and buried himself in the culinary art of one of some of the world’s most acclaimed chefs. He’s trekked up and down the California coast delving into the origins of America’s farm-to-table movement. Jimenez has basked in the flavors of the globe’s freshest menus, absorbed the experience around him. He’s taken notes. And he’s taken those notes home to San Diego.

Early on a Sunday morning in July, two brothers from Boston sat on Reykjavik’s rocky coast, with their faces turned toward the chilly waters of the bay and their feet soaking in what felt like a warm bath. Ben and Lucas Zheng had landed around 4:30 a.m. at Iceland’s international airport, and didn’t have too many early-morning options for how to spend the start of their eight-hour layover before flying on to Venice. So, taking advantage of the season’s round-the-clock daylight, they walked 40 minutes from the city center toward the northwestern tip of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula. There on the stony beach, they rolled up their pants and sat for a couple of hours, their legs submerged in the naturally warm Kvika pool, which, at 12 inches deep, is more foot bath than hot tub.

As the days grow shorter and the evenings cooler, Labor Day Weekend in the United States marks a bittersweet moment: it serves as the unofficial conclusion to the summer travel season.

The world is a big place, but it becomes happily smaller when you experience true connection with other people, places and ways of life.