Pilgrimage tips

Sometime in the late 18th century, a sign appeared outside a shambly butcher’s hut in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon: “The Immortal Shakspeare was born in this house,” it announced, using a then common spelling of his name. Devotees began making pilgrimages — dropping to their knees, weeping, singing odes: “Untouched and sacred be thy shrine, Avonian Willy, bard Divine!”

I’m lying on my back. Directly above me is “a vault of heaven” with great wooden beams. I’ve never woken before under such a high ceiling – but then I’ve never gone to sleep in a church before.

TOULOUSE, France -- A restored Notre Dame Cathedral, severely damaged in an April 2019 fire, will reopen to individual visitors daily from 7:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. beginning on Dec. 16. Continuing previous practice and in accordance with French law, entry will be free to all comers.

It’s dawn when we step off the train at Lelant, a village tucked into a bay near St Ives. The early morning light is still intensifying as the distinctive, repetitive shrill of a song thrush wakes this sleepy corner of west Cornwall.

Start Housesteads Fort Finish Brocolita Roman TempleDistance 4¼ miles (use regular AD122 bus to shorten, if needed)Those who walk the whole 84 miles of Hadrian’s Wall in a week may refer to it as a type of pilgrimage. But in the last few years the ever innovative British Pilgrimage Trust has worked with English Heritage to devise historical pilgrim trails – incorporating ancient sites across Britain – including the 23-mile section between Housesteads and Corbridge. For a pilgrimage with Roman flavour, begin at the Roman fort of Housesteads – a place where it is said “hooded gods” were worshipped, and walk east taking in the milecastles, turrets and the temple remains dedicated to Mithras, the Roman god of light (use the Hadrian’s Wall bus to return to the start).

“My wife, Victoria, and I went on a Buddhist pilgrimage this past winter. We wanted to go to Bodh Gaya, in Northeast India, to see the Mahabodhi Temple, where Buddha originally sat under the Bodhi tree and attained enlightenment. It was New Year's Day, and we got to the temple right when it opened at 5 a.m. A lot of people spend time making circumambulations, where you walk clockwise around the temple. We did that and meditated within the temple complex. I only practice Tibetan Buddhism, so it was interesting and moving to be around Buddhists from other traditions and countries—from places like Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and China. You hear everyone doing different chants and prayers all day long. It's humbling being there. I felt grateful to be connected to this tradition that has been passed down since the time of the Buddha more than 2,500 years ago, from teacher to student, in this unbroken line. We sat near the Bodhi tree, a descendant of the original tree that the Buddha sat under. A lot of people like the idea of having a leaf from it, but the leaves are quite high up, so you have to wait for them to fall. That wasn't something we were pursuing, but once in a while you'll see a leaf drop, and someone will run over and grab it. Some people sell them. At one point, a Thai monk walked up to us and handed Victoria a leaf. It was so random, out of nowhere—and I was wearing a face mask, so I doubt it was because he was a fan of The Sopranos. I offered him money, but he just smiled and walked away. It was so moving, his generosity.” —as told to Megan Spurrell

“You’re going back to Mongolia in winter? Aren’t temperatures -35 F and isn’t Ulaanbaatar the coldest capital in the world?” They were sentences I heard not just from one friend, but several.

The luxury Mexican spirits and hospitality brand Clase Azul Mexico has done it again with another hit on its hands: today marks the release of Clase Azul Mezcal San Luis Potosí ($370), the third mezcal in its collection that includes Clase Azul Mezcal Durango and Clase Azul Mezcal Guerrero.

After the travel frenzy of 2023, all signs point to increasing interest in far-flung destinations, villa rentals, private jet bookings and personal pilgrimages in 2024.

Winslow Dumaine was heading to a store on Chicago’s North Side when he saw it: a hole in the sidewalk on Roscoe Street with an uncanny resemblance to a rodent.

Unveiling Jordan’s baptism site’s significance, the insightful interview with Rustom Mkhjian highlights interfaith harmony and future collaborations in religious tourism.

The principals of the innovative London and New York-based travel company Black Tomato made their name by assembling detail-oriented and sometimes very out of the way travel plans for exceedingly curious, adventurous clients. Having surveyed the market to ascertain what their clients are interested in now and the changes they see in the travel landscape, they’ve come up with the ways they see that travel happening in the next year and in what parts of the world those ambitious travelers could be.

Each December, visitors from around the world descend upon South Florida for the annual Miami Art Week. Over the past few years, the region has also had an influx of new residents. An array of restaurants, boutiques and other businesses have opened alongside the community’s longtime favorites, with both the new and the old appealing as much to out-of-towners as they do to Miamians.

LOS ANGELES -- For visitors atop Mount Lee, getting this close to the Hollywood sign is no less an American pilgrimage than visiting the Statue of Liberty.

“Vive Saintes-Maries!” comes the rousing cry from a man in a fedora and green silk shirt, his neck strung with silver pendants depicting hedgehogs, caravans and saints.

Having witnessed a surge in demand for group travel over the past couple of years, Black Tomato–renowned for its imaginative and boundary-pushing experiential travel–has taken this as inspiration for its latest offering. It’s in step with a rising trend of travelers wanting to travel together and reconnect–particularly post-pandemic–with family members and groups of friends.

From Elvis and Frank Sinatra to Sia and Leonardo DiCaprio, Palm Springs has been a chic escape for decades and the desert resort area in Southern California is always reinventing itself for a new generation. (As anyone who has attended Coachella knows.) For a sneak peek at what’s ahead for Palm Springs in 2024, veteran Forbes travel writer Jim Dobson reveals the hot hotels, spas and restaurants to check out next year.

Peru may be known as one of the cradles of ancient civilization, but its topography also makes it a wonderland of adventure.

Travel, the movement of people from one place to another, has always existed. But long before we thought to travel for pleasure, we traveled for purpose: for commerce, and for faith.

Eighteen months ago, when the New York-based T writer at large Aatish Taseer began planning his reporting trips for this month’s three-part feature story — an exploration of religious travel in Bolivia, Mongolia and Iraq — he was already well acquainted with the idea of pilgrimage. His first book, the 2009 memoir “Stranger to History,” opens with what is arguably the world’s best-known faith-motivated journey, the hajj to Mecca, and ends with what he describes as a personal pilgrimage to meet his estranged father in Pakistan. In Delhi, India, where Taseer grew up, quick trips for the purpose of worship were commonplace. “People would do a pilgrimage on an ordinary Sunday,” he says, “instead of going to an amusement park.”

Almost two years after I completed it, my mind frequently wanders back to my time on the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago.