US tips

From the Renaissance splendour and symmetry of the Boboli gardens in Florence to the trickling fountains and rose gardens of the Alhambra in Spain, Europe has no shortage of “must see” gardens, but a tranquil escape from the tourist crowds they are not. Instead, we’d love to hear about your favourite “secret gardens” in continental Europe; oases of green that offer cool respite from a busy sightseeing itinerary and where you won’t be jostling for elbow room with coach parties of tourists. It could be a leafy public park, the grounds of a museum or gallery, or a botanical garden that turned into an unexpected highlight of your trip.

It would be incorrect to describe Iceland's Play Airlines as a startup anymore. Launched in 2021 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline is on the cusp of its third summer under the leadership of a new CEO.

Several U.S. airlines are joining forces in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's recent rule that would require carriers to display the full cost of a flight — including crucial add-on charges — upfront.

The United States is a large and very diverse country, being the third largest country in terms of land mass and home to everything from forests to mountains to planes to deserts to even rainforests.

As people in the United States prepare for the Memorial Day holiday travel period, Airlines for America (A4A) expects that carriers will transport an estimated 271 million passengers around the world this summer.

Several major airlines in the United States have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) over the new fee transparency rules approved by President Joe Biden and his administration in April.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation and emails with Gladys Nkengasong , a 27-year-old consultant who moved to the UK from Atlanta in 2021. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Major US airlines sued the Department of Transportation on Friday over a rule that requires upfront fee disclosures for costs like baggage and itinerary changes.

A national park is meant to be an oasis — a reprieve from the traffic and crowds of urban life. Unfortunately, though, many people seek this same reprieve, meaning some national parks have become extremely crowded during peak seasons.

Take it!" shouted my mother, throwing me her backpack. "We can use the rope inside to get to shore."

It’s an unfortunate truth that air travel has become an overall frustrating experience. With shrinking seats, crowded flights, and rising fees for services like checking a bag, it’s enough to make even the most savvy of travelers exasperated. But a select number of airlines continue to stand out from the rest, with refreshingly smooth operations and passenger-friendly cabins.

Could the summer air travel season be impacted by a potential Congressional amendment?

Los Angeles, California — The United States has “serious problems” when it comes to international inbound travel that must be resolved if the country is to regain its competitive edge.That’s the assessment of the U.S. Travel Association and its leader Geoff Freeman, the organization’s president and CEO.Freeman delivered his sober take on the problems plaguing inbound travel to the United States during a press conference today in Los Angeles, California where a travel industry convention is taking place.“The United States remains the world’s most desired nation to visit, but at the end of 2019 we had 79 million visitors internationally and in 2023 we had 67 million international visitors," Freeman told the media gathered for the IPW 2024 convention. “That’s only 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels.”“When you look at travel as an export - before the pandemic we had a 12 billion [person] travel trade surplus. At end of last year we had about a 50 billion [person] travel trade deficit,” Freeman added.There's a handful of challenges that the United States currently faces when it comes to attracting international visitors and significantly ramping up inbound numbers, said Freeman. And some of those challenges are within the country’s ability to fix, while others are not.There’s not much that can be done, for instance, about the strength of the U.S. dollar, which makes this country very expensive to visit from many other parts of the world. Similarly, there’s not much U.S. officials can do about the current prohibitions surrounding flights over Russian airspace, which pose a major obstacle for airlines coming to this country from China.However, visa wait times continue to be a significant roadblock for international visitors — and that’s an issue U.S. officials can — and should — be able to fix, Freeman said.“On the visa side, I checked this morning — if you're a Columbian and want to come to the U.S. the wait times are over 600 days to get an interview at a U.S. consulate,” said Freeman. “If you’re in Mexico, the wait times are over 800 days.”By contrast, for visitors from India the wait timeline for visa interviews has recently been reduced to a somewhat more reasonable 150 to 200 days. Similarly, wait times for those visiting from Brazil have been reduced drastically — from what was once 500 days down to just 21 days, according to the U.S. Travel Association.“It shows us that it can be done. When the State Department uses their ingenuity and gets creative and puts resources in the right places, this problem can be solved,” explained Freeman. “But it’s been going on for far too long. It needs to be solved now.”

Amid the fanfare of a press conference about the growth of inbound United States tourism, Brand USA Today officially introduced its new president and CEO and bid goodbye to its longtime leader after a dozen years of service.Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States, welcomed Fred Dixon into the DMO’s top role. Dixon is the current president and CEO of NYC Tourism + Conventions.He will take over in July for Chris Thompson, who announced his retirement from the role last year. Thompson held the role of Brand USA president and CEO from 2012 until 2024.

Whitening. Herbal. Charcoal. Color changing? I'm in the toothpaste aisle at Target, dumbfounded by a selection that runs several shelves long and as many high. After more than 20 years in Cuba, where Close-Up and La Perla were the only choices for most of that time, I'm overwhelmed by the number of options. If Target triggers paralysis, I shudder to think what terror Costco might elicit.

It’s already spring, which means summer is just around the corner. Not only does summer mean beach vacations and hot weather, but it also means celebrating Pride. The Stonewall Uprising began on June 28, 1969, in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. Queer people fought back against the police, and the subsequent uprising lasted for six days. One year later, thousands marched from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in what we now know was the first Pride parade in the United States.

American tourists are flocking to Tenerife in record numbers. 5.6 million tourists visited the Spanish island in 2023, and more than 26,000 came from the United States between January and September of 2023.

National parks are hotter than ever. In fact, the National Park Service saw over 325 million visits in 2023 — the highest visitation since 2017. However, not everyone who visits the parks likes to hike.

The U.S. Department of State has just raised its travel advisory for Germany to Level 2: Exercise Increase Caution due to the risk of terrorism. “Terrorist groups keep planning attacks in Germany,” says the State Department’s advisory. “Terrorists may attack with little or no warning. They target tourist locations and transportation hubs.”

An airport in Japan says it has never lost a piece of luggage in 30 years of operations.

Cowboys are so often depicted like John Wayne—meaning, as a white man on a horse. For a long time, this representation has overshadowed the existence, and importance, of Black cowboys, but in the 19th century, an estimated one in four cowboys was Black. They were often barred from competing against white riders, and went on to form their own rodeos—yet to this day, Black rodeos continue to thrive.