Freedom tips

As a TPG staffer, I have a pretty solid credit card portfolio. I love using The Platinum Card® from American Express to earn bonus points on flights, Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express for bonus cash-back on grocery and transit purchases and American Express® Gold Card to earn bonus points when I dine out.

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As a prolific reader, I've loved Amazon since it was just an online bookstore. However, now we can find almost anything we want or need on Amazon, delivered to us within two days with our Amazon Prime subscription.

Few things beat the sense of freedom of the open road. Whether it’s an epic motorcycle ride along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way or a leisurely pootle around the Italian lakes by car, a road trip is a brilliant way to explore a country at your own pace, enjoying varied scenery and discovering less-known spots en route. We’d love to hear about your favourite journeys in Europe – where did you go and what made it so special? The best tip will win a holiday voucher.

This guide equips you with the knowledge and strategies to help cancel your timeshare successfully.

Italy’s most famous coast is also one of its trickiest to navigate, thanks to winding clifftop curves, a lack of train service between cities and (sorry, but it's true) tourist traffic.

Ever heard of “fifth freedom flights” and “the freedoms of the air”? The latter may sound more like poetic prose than legal jargon, but this phrase—unbeknownst to most casual fliers—actually denotes the five official rights that make international air travel possible.

I learned how to maintain dignity and self-respect, even in the face of humiliation, from my grandmother. My mother’s mother was widowed suddenly at the same age I was when I started Accidental Icon. She sold everything she owned, including her home in Connecticut, and moved to Dallas to live with her two sisters, all three widowed during the same year. As young women, the sisters performed as a trio; one sister played the harp, one the piano, and my grandmother the cello. They traveled often, and that is what they did for the next twenty years—this time without their instruments and husbands. We saw my grandmother during this period maybe four times a year. She would call and tell us to meet her at the New York piers or the airport, when she and her sisters were embarking on a European adventure or a trip to Asia. My grandmother, in an exquisitely tailored bouclé suit, would envelop us in a cloud of expensive perfume. The jingle of the charm bracelets she wore on her slender wrist announced her arrival. She would bring gifts—pearls from Japan, or perfume from Paris—upon her return. For me there were geisha dolls, books of watercolor scenes of cherry blossoms on rice paper with transparent covers, carved perfume bottles, and netsukes made of wood.

What makes one passport more powerful than another? The best-known passport ranking, from London-based investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners, focuses solely on visa-free travel. Essentially, the more countries a citizen can visit without a visa, the better. In that ranking, six nations—France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain—tie for the top position, with 194 visa-free destinations apiece. (In 2024, the U.S. is tied for sixth, with 189.)

Transferable points are some of the most valuable rewards currencies in the travel world. The best ways to redeem these points is typically to book travel or to transfer them to airline and hotel partners.

This guide aims to illuminate the myriad benefits of travel trailer ownership.

Last year, my parents took their first-ever group tour to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. You know, those tours where you share a coach bus with 30 strangers for a week, stop at popular tourist draws, stay in pre-arranged hotels, and go on guided city walks with bright orange audio boxes that might as well be “look at me, I’m a tourist” placards. I tried to dissuade them, offering to plan their entire Eurotrip myself, but they ultimately opted for the tour’s convenience and relative all-inclusiveness. Now they’re absolutely hooked, with two more tours under their belt this year.

A version of this article originally appeared in Condé Nast Traveller UK.

Memphis. Atlanta. Birmingham. There are certain American cities that are known for Black history. But African American history and culture can, of course, be found across the United States, in seemingly unlikely cities, like Portland, Maine, say, or Providence, R.I.

When applying for a new credit card, you always want to find the best welcome offer — the one that offers the most bang for your buck, the most points, the most cash back.

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A passport is more than permission to travel across borders; holders of the world's most powerful passports have access to different ways of living that other passport holders do not. Heading into 2024, new data reveals not only the passports that give access to the most countries, but also where you might find a better quality of life.

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When Disney World reopened in July 2020 after a brief closure during the pandemic, the Central Florida resort did so with a lengthy list of procedures intended to control and monitor crowds for health and safety purposes. Most were done away with long ago, like temperature checks at the front gate and six-foot distance markers in ride queues. But a few have stuck around since the park reopened...until now.

After more than a decade of negotiations, Romania and Bulgaria are on track to become part of the border-free Schengen Area — beginning with air and sea borders — by March.

One of my favorite parts of a new quarter is learning the Chase Freedom (no longer available to new applicants) and Chase Freedom Flex's bonus categories. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are the rewards I use most frequently, so I love deciding on my strategy to maximize bonus points with my Freedom Flex each quarter.