UPS tips

If it’s the last Wednesday in August, it’s got to be the world’s messiest festival.

There is no worse feeling at the end of a perfect beach day than having to lug a heavy, sandy, soggy beach towel back to your car. Thankfully, beach towels have come a long way over the years, with features like sand-resistant fabric and roomier dimensions that mean your legs won't be dangling onto the hot sand.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® are two of our all-time favorite travel credit cards. They've got similar names and they earn the same kind of points, but that's largely where their similarities end.

I'm a frequent United Airlines flyer. I pretty much have to be since I live near Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) — a United hub where most of the gates in the airport belong to the legacy carrier.

Virgin Voyages will introduce its fourth ship next year on a tour of North America with stops in iconic destinations from New York City to Los Angeles, Alaska, the Panama Canal, and beyond.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a country that packs so much to see and do in such a compact area.

If you've spent any time around TPG, you know that the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of our most beloved cards. We often recommend it as a great travel rewards card for beginners and travel rewards veterans alike for its solid earning potential, excellent point redemption options and relatively low annual fee.

As someone who has been running award programs for the last decade, it’s safe to say I have seen my fair share of award submissions – the good, the bad and the ugly. So today, I am going to share some of my insider tips to make sure that your Skift IDEA Awards submission stands out in the crowd.

The conditions are just about perfect for this weekend’s Eta Aquarid meteor shower peak, a spectacle known to produce up to 50 shooting stars per hour — but you’ll have to wake up early. The meteor shower peaks Sunday and Monday night, and is best visible between 3 a.m. local time and dawn, according to Space.com. Unlike last year, when the bright moon washed out the Eta Aquarids, this year’s peak coincides with a 10 percent illuminated waning crescent moon. That means optimal dark skies and even better shooting star odds.

Tom Calahan started blogging about luxury travel in 2106 after starting a successful software company. After his blog became a cult hit, he and his wife Lucie went on to found Dorsia Travel

We could all use a little glamour on our weekends. While Vancouver may be known more for its striking natural setting and myriad outdoor adventures than for its opulent eating, the city can surprise you with its celebratory weekend brunches.

Rap careers, much like in any other musical genre, are fleeting. You can have a viral hit today and be the subject of a “What ever happened to…” podcast tomorrow. All of which makes what L.A. native O’Shea Jackson Sr. (that’s Ice Cube to me and you) has accomplished over his career so amazing. A member of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A in the ’80s and an influential solo artist in the ’90s, Cube had a wall of platinum plaques up by the time Drake was in kindergarten. N.W.A was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. He’s still selling out arenas today.

“About 25 years ago, I was asked by Marie Claire to visit the Arctic Circle in Canada to build an igloo, as one does, and to write a story about the process. I said yes because my best friend had recently died by suicide and I just wanted to get away. My faith in the universe was shaken and I needed something to happen. We went to Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, and my now husband, Chris, came with me. The minute you get there, everything on you freezes. It was so cold that, if you went outside to pee, it'd freeze. We met our Inuit guides, who brought these sled dogs. The dogs are workers. You don't pet them—you feed them and make them mush. So when I got down on the ground with them to say hello, the dogs flipped over, exposed their bellies, howled, and got all up on me. They were thankful and sweet. I don't think they knew they wanted affection. When I left, they snapped right back into work mode. Later, I rode a sled being pulled by a trainee team of dogs. During the run, one of them couldn't keep up. He started yelping, then tripped and fell. The dogs were all tied to each other, so he was flipping around in the ice and snow like a fish out of water. I turned into Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits, screaming and crying, begging the musher to stop. One of the guides got the dog detached, and we flew past him—just left the dog. I was sobbing: ‘We have to go back! We have to go back!’ And they said, ‘The dog didn't make the cut.’ That night, before building the igloo, I saw this big blue glacier reflecting the moonlight. It was immense. This is what [my friend's] depression must have felt like, I thought, so overwhelming, like this glacier that's bigger than the Empire State Building. I started walking toward it, getting really close. I wanted to say a little prayer for my friend. As I moved to touch it, my guide came running and screaming. He stuck his spear into the ice ahead of me to show me it could've shifted, and I would have fallen right into the water and died. Being there made me really appreciate the fragility of life. Oh, and by the way: The dog found his way back.”

Napa Valley has long been a mecca for wine lovers. Who doesn’t fantasize about sipping wine while overlooking a vineyard? But wine country vacations are getting expensive: tasting room fees have risen sharply since 2019, according to Silicon Valley Bank’s 2023 Direct to Consumer report. With premium tasting experiences often costing an average of $128 per person per winery, a weekend getaway can quickly add up. And long gone are the days of traversing Highway 29 and popping into places on a whim; reservations, a practice that gained traction during the pandemic, remain firmly in place.

I grew up vacationing in a beach town called Nags Head on the Outer Banks, the string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. My parents did, too — they were high school sweethearts — and their stories about hitchhiking to Nags Head as teenagers in the 1960s and seeing bands like the Drifters perform at the local dance hall were the stuff of legend in my mind. As a kid in the ’80s, I loved climbing the massive sand dunes at nearby Jockey’s Ridge State Park and fishing at Cape Hatteras. So I was excited to learn that this month, Steidl will publish a book of images the photographer Joel Sternfeld took in Nags Head in the summer of 1975. Sternfeld’s weatherworn cottages and roadside snack bars bring back memories real and imagined, and I’ll enjoy reliving them with my mom. The book is currently available for preorder, so, in the meantime, I’m eyeing some other ’70s-inspired gifts for Mother’s Day. Vacation’s Orange Gelée sunscreen is reminiscent of the vintage tanning staple Bain de Soleil, and this portable wine chiller designed in 1978 by Richard Carlson is easy to find on eBay. It fits two bottles of wine. Alternatively, Cann Social Tonic’s zero-proof Roadie pouches, infused with 2 milligrams of THC, travel easily to the beach. And for a nostalgic summer pants set, turn to the Rockaway Beach-based Zingara Vintage. The designer Erin Silvers custom makes her ZingaraTerry loungewear from vintage YSL towels produced in the 1960s and ’70s.

It can be hard to know where to start on a trip to the Swiss Alps, such is the region’s abundance of unmissable scenery, exhilarating activities, nerve-shredding alpine roads and high-altitude accommodation that makes you feel like you’re sleeping in a cloud.

Like your margarita with a little bit of heat?

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Finding the best graduation gift can be tough. You want to celebrate this important milestone with a thoughtful gift that both acknowledges the graduate’s accomplishment and is practical and useful for the next chapter in their lives. While some may be shopping for a graduate they don’t know very well, others are searching for the right gift for a person they know inside and out—either way, we have you covered. Whether they're stepping into the professional world, furthering their education, or pursuing their passions, our curated list of 37 unique gifts ensures that every graduate receives something truly special to mark this achievement. This selection includes the latest tech gadgets, luggage for the jet-setting grad, and travel accessories that will help make their next trip smooth and comfortable.

More than 15 million visitors are expected to travel to Paris during the 2024 Summer Olympics, which will take place from July 26 to August 11. But as the world's attention turns to the City of Light, even non-Olympic related trips to France may feel the ripple effects of the games over the next few months.

Thwack! My knee slams into the boxing pad my coach, Win, is holding up. “Power!” Win yells.  “More power!”  Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! My kneecap feels like it’s about to explode. Sweat dribbles off my nose and onto the mat, little raindrops of exertion. “Harder!” he says. “Stronger! You can do it!”