Glacier tips

It's not often that Marika Favé, our impish, fast-talking mountain guide, falls silent. It's a spring morning on the packed, sun-streaked gondola to the peak of the Marmolada glacier, the highest point in the Dolomites. A former national skier for Italy whose family has lived in the Fassa Valley for generations, Favé has been telling Jack, the photographer I'm traveling with, and me about the grimly determined Austro-Hungarian soldiers who dug a small city into the ice up here during the Great War. But as the gondola passes another rocky bluff and great blankets of untouched shadow-draped powder come into view, the war stories cease and a grin spreads across her face. We don't know exactly what the plan is when the gondola clanks to a halt at the Punta Rocca, a viewing platform at 10,700 feet that looks out over all of the Dolomites. But the mountain air seems charged with the palpable sense that, on this exact Thursday morning, something very good is about to happen.

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Holland America is out with yet another epic Alaska itinerary that is unlike anything we've seen before.

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Oct 31, 2024 • 9 min read

Add one more cruise line to the growing list of brands that will offer Alaska sailings in 2026. Following brief stints sailing from New York and Los Angeles, new 2,770-passenger ship Brilliant Lady — the fourth in Virgin Voyages' fleet, set to debut in late 2025 — will offer cruises to the Last Frontier as part of its spring and summer 2026 schedule.

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“It’s a Dall sheep!” the train tour guide exclaims as we swoop past a jagged cliffside dotted with fuzzy white creatures impressively balanced on their rocky perch.

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