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Outside the tiny town of Simon in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, an NGO called Foundation Conservation Carpathia is creating a 66,000-acre national park. It’s against that backdrop that the hotelier Bogdan Calulanu opened Matca, a 16-room hotel with 10 private villas. is the Romanian word for “queen bee,” the name a reference to the beekeeping practiced in this honey-producing corner of Transylvania and also to the pastoral serenity of a region that’s barely changed since the Middle Ages.

Welcome to Where Chefs Eat on Vacation, a column in which chefs tell us what they ate on a recent trip. All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

These days, Viasat is likely a household name for many frequent flyers.

They say you can never go back, but that’s only true in part, and doesn’t apply to travel at all. Visit a place a second time, and you go with a seasoned pair of eyes, and all the buoyancy and confidence of familiarity. My second time in Saint-Louis, Senegal, I was better at fending off the touts, better at finding the best grub, better at dealing with the heat. I picked a better hotel—the La Résidence, with its antique whiff of cigar smoke, its old-world comforts, and its rooftop views of the city. And this time, I would go further—I’d be spending a week gliding up the Senegal River, 125 miles from Saint-Louis to the trading town of Podor, on a river cruiser, the Bou el Mogdad.

On the northern coast of Puerto Rico — about an hour’s drive west of San Juan, off a wisp of a road threaded through dense green foliage — there exists a long, empty beach that has haunted my dreams for years. On Google Maps, it appears as Punta Caracoles Beach, but I have always thought of it as Perfect Beach.

As you begin holiday shopping for all of your loved ones, you might be stumped on what to get the hardest person to shop for on your list—a teenager. Finding the best gift for the teen traveler in your life can be quite the challenge—no one stays up to date on the latest trends quite like them. But don’t worry, we have plenty of gift ideas that your teenage daughter, grandson, or niece will appreciate.

Despite the La Niña weather pattern that dumped snowfall by the foot last winter at many mountain resorts in the western United States, global warming fundamentally threatens the survival of the ski business. In response, ski areas are increasingly investing in efficient snow-making and carbon emissions reductions. Some areas, especially in the West, are also pursuing another method: developing terrain higher up mountains where colder climes or steeper, tree-filled terrain are more likely to hold the snow.

In this article, we will delve into the ways in which GPS technology is reshaping travel and all its possibilities.

Proper planning of all movements and accommodation booking will create good conditions for relaxation.

With the holiday season upon us comes the scramble to find the right gifts for the special people or pets in our lives. So, we turned to our Nat Geo staffers for ideas on items they have loved to give (or receive) over the years—gifts that are practical, unique, or quirky without creating a gaping hole in the wallet. Here are 12 suggestions accompanied by links on where to purchase the items and bit of reasoning behind the choice. Happy shopping!

Airline network planners kicked off the holiday season dreaming about warm-weather destinations.

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Know someone who feels perpetually drawn to America’s most beautiful spaces? Treat them to a National Park-themed gift for the holidays. From hand-drawn maps to outdoor apparel, these gifts will keep National Park enthusiasts connected to the most cherished landscapes in the country. Some of these treasures might even put new parks on their radar, inspiring their next adventure in the great outdoors.

When it comes to shopping for the runners in your life, one thing is clear: They have a need for speed. But what else they have a need for can be more mystifying to figure out. After all, it’s not just about the gear needed to pound the pavement, but also for recovery (often more important!), as well as celebrating memorable finishes.

Breeze Airways announced two new routes and one new city Wednesday as the startup carrier continued to fill in its route map.

Born and raised in Hebei—the province that, on the map, appears to wrap two arms around Beijing in a loving hug—restaurateur Amy Li moved to the Chinese capital some 26 years ago to live and work. In the time since, she and husband Jonathan Ansfield have run several food businesses (the latest, Vietnamese restaurant Susu, was conceived after a friend observed a dearth of such cuisine in the city.) Li loves Beijing's multifaceted nature, citing both the “powerful sense of order” wrought by such landmarks as the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Wall as well as the messy chaos of Old Beijing's hutong—here, she lays out what you can't miss of the old as well as the new on a visit.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly flight down south—you’re in luck. Southwest Airlines has announced it will be expanding its international flight schedule by next summer—with new routes flying to Mexico, Costa Rica, Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos, and more.

In August 1944, the coastal Breton city of Saint-Malo was nearly wiped off the map. The opening scene of the Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See conjures the ferocity of the battle: an American squadron traverses the English Channel in darkness, dodges anti-aircraft fire, then releases its bombs on the Nazi-occupied French port.

Australia is a country designed for road trips, with a diversity of landscapes and a scale that’s almost unrivaled anywhere in the world. 

When is walking in circles a good thing? When following a trail through villages, forests and fields using open-access paths that begin and end at the same train station.

When the young adventurers are done discovering the joys of the island themselves, the team will then treat them to a guided tour at the Butterfly House, where they can learn all about the extraordinary life of the butterfly.