These 7 Lake Como Hotels Are What Italian Dream Vacations Are Made Of

In the Gilded Age, Boston and New York grandees flocked to western Massachusetts. They built scores of homes called Berkshire Cottages that were, in fact, cottages in name only. Many of these impressive villas and grand estates are thankfully still there, some thriving under new guises.

Although vacation home sales are down since their pandemic surge, they’re still a great way to get away with the family. In many ways, for parents of babies, they offer the easiest travel option because once you’ve stocked the house, you can travel so much lighter and will be more apt to actually go.

A week before a Journee mystery trip, the traveler receives a sealed envelope in the mail. 

It’s hard to know if Milan’s fashionistas are bemused more by my driving or by my vehicle as I stall, splutter and crunch the gears while double-parking the tuk-tuk on Via Monte Napoleone, the city’s swankiest street. Both it and I look comically out of place on a thoroughfare dripping with designer shops and high-end motors. I’ve just seen a Hermès shirt with a €10,500 price tag and spotted the Argentina World Cup winner and Inter Milan star Lautaro Martínez laden with Gucci shopping bags, and bouncing into a blacked-out Hummer with his girlfriend and minder.

In 2015, website Booking.com, the world’s largest online travel agency (OTA), released its first ever Sustainable Travel Report. 62% of respondents said they planned a trip staying in sustainable accommodations within the next 12 months. By 2021 this number had skyrocketed to 81%. The 2021 numbers, garnered from surveying 29,000 travelers, also showed that a substantial majority of global travelers (87%) want to travel sustainably and 61% said the pandemic had made them want to travel more sustainably in the future. The most common answer to the question of “What sustainable travel means?” was staying in eco-friendly or green accommodations, yet half (49%) still didn’t think there were enough sustainable lodging options.

With summer vacations currently in full swing, travelers have now blurred the seasonal lines making the summer the Caribbean’s new high season. According to several reports, air travel to the Caribbean for the period from June through August 2023 (typically low season) shows almost a 50% increase in booked flights over the same months in 2019. As more tourists seek beach getaways to the Caribbean this summer, the demand has increased for beachy Caribbean villas where travelers can gather with friends and loved ones while enjoying luxury accommodations and near-perfect beach weather.

July delighted stargazers with the year’s first full supermoon, and there’s more where that came from this August — a lot more. This month will see not one but two supermoons, along with multiple planet sightings, the peak of a powerful meteor shower, and ideal star-cluster viewing.

Haven’t made your summer vacation plans yet? Still searching the web to find the best deals? Fear not, there is still time to plan an enjoyable summer vacation with friends and loved ones. These vacation destinations offer easy access from major cities along with a variety of activities suitable for the hot days of August. From surfing lessons on crystal clear waters to enjoying talented performers, these destinations are sure to please those procrastinators who wait until the last minute to plan their summer vacations.

Summer brings new perks and amenities to many top hotels and brands around the world. Dozens of new hotels and resorts are opening for the first time this season, but others are adding new features and renovations that repeat guests will be eager to see. From do-it-yourself goodies to eco-friendly changes, here is some of the latest news from the hospitality industry and properties around the world.

The car was dead silent, and I felt panic set in among my group of friends. 

It happened at an indoor wall for the sport of “bouldering”. I was standing watching some athletic young men conquer a tricky route that was beyond my abilities, half-listening to their banter, when I suddenly understood what they were discussing. A proposal to climb outdoors. They had never done it. They dreamed of it, but were uncertain how to go about it.

Norwegian Air, famous for offering ultra-low fares to Europe, has long had its legitimacy challenged here in the U.S. At question is the airline’s subsidiary headquartered in Ireland, which is seen as (possibly) a way of dodging local labor standards. Despite these concerns, the Department of Transportation (DOT) approved to fly to and from the U.S.