Weekend tips

This summer’s travel boom is showing no signs of slowing down during the Labor Day weekend, especially for the growing number of Americans looking to vacation overseas.

An eastern peninsula swimming with history, culture, and a vibrant art scene, Halifax is much more than its caricatured seaside fishing town. While, yes, you’d be doing yourself a disservice to opt out of the fresh seafood and seascapes while you’re in town, there are also handfuls of world-class and drinking dining to be done in the city.

The art world is gearing up this fall as Chicago prepares to host its inaugural Chicago Exhibition Weekend from September 29 to October 1, 2023. This event focuses on the city's vibrant arts landscape, bringing together over 55 galleries, institutions, and artist-run spaces across Chicago's diverse neighborhoods to present exhibitions that encourage everyone from seasoned collectors to those new to engaging with Chicago’s visual arts scene to explore unique programs, extended hours, and more.

It’s been a boom year for travel thus far (to put it mildly) and the upcoming Labor Day weekend period will prove no exception. If heading out of town to celebrate this September holiday, which traditionally marks the unofficial end of summer, prepare yourself for more intense crowding and congestion than last year.

Straddling the mouth of the Douro River with elegant bridges and painted houses tripping up gentle hillsides, Porto has soared in popularity with travellers in recent years. Many come to sip and slurp at the city’s historic port wine houses, climb the narrow streets lined with baroque churches and 19th-century merchants’ houses, and bounce between cafe terraces in the labyrinthine Ribeira district. But equally appealing is the call of the outdoors – Porto’s riverside views and coastal position encourage all manner of active pursuits, from paddleboarding and kayaking to bridge climbing and e-biking. Here’s the perfect itinerary for an active weekend break.

I don’t know about you but in my mind there’s nothing sweeter than the last few weeks of summer: The days are warm but by no means brutal, we’re truly at peak corn and tomato season, and languorous fried-chicken-and-Champagne picnics at the park are still an acceptable way to pass a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Shrewsbury, a gorgeous medieval market town, was put on the art map in 2021 with the launch of the Shrewsbury Arts Trail. The event goes from strength to strength: this year it boasts three sculptures by Salvador Dalí. Two are outdoors: the 5-metre-tall Surrealist Piano startles visitors to the castle grounds and Homage to Terpsichore dominates the courtyard of the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery. Inside the gallery, the Dalínian Dancer is part of the Inspirational Exhibition, which also includes work by LS Lowry, Man Ray, Barbara Hepworth, Damien Hirst and Banksy.

Flights to and from the UK are facing delays Monday after the air traffic control operator suffered technical problems.

On the southern cusp of the Lysefjord, in southwest Norway, Stavanger is where the country’s coast begins to splinter into a thousand islands, skerries, waterways and inlets. It’s little wonder, then, that this city — the fourth largest in Norway — should have been defined by water, both geographically and culturally. It first made big bucks in fish canning, then in North Sea oil, as two of its main museums recount. Yet, today, it surprises visitors with newfound urban cool. 

Atlanta is a great food city, home to fine dining from James Beard Award-winners (Chai Pani, Lazy Betty and more) and Top Chef contestants (Gunshow), as well as some of the best burgers you’re ever likely to try (Vortex, Slutty Vegan). Many British visitors simply pass through Hartsfield-Jackson airport en route to other US destinations, but food alone is reason enough to spend the weekend. 

Philadelphia is the ever-evolving City of Brotherly Love. While it will forever be the “birthplace” of the United States—and that is a great attraction—we've come a long way from the Liberty Bell. The vibrant feel of this historical city is undeniable, legendary, and on the rise.

Something shifted this weekend, the zeitgeist on the real possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) became excitingly, palpably and perhaps scarily real these past few days, with the launch of the first large-scale, general purpose chatbot using OpenAI‘s GPT3 AI engine.

Hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese visitors have descended on the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau for the Labour Day holiday, packing tightly into its narrow cobblestone streets and placing bets in its glitzy casinos.

This week was packed with so much short-term rental news that we’re worried it may overshadow next week’s sold-out Skift Short-Term Rental Summit (but not  worried, especially since you can still register to watch the livestream). First it was the release of our big list of the most-influential 250 brands in short-term rentals. Then it was a flurry of activity on Friday as Airbnb sought to put an end to New York City rules that will restrict certain types of activity in the city. We have everything covered, below.

Scores of travelers are expected to hit the road for the Labor Day holiday weekend, but there are still ways to avoid most of that traffic with some strategic planning. 

I’m a travel and food writer based in London. Long intrigued by all I had heard about up-and-coming Albania, my partner Dan and I booked a four-day weekend in the capital, Tirana.

Istanbul is a bright and buzzy city where spice markets explode with color and streets vibrate with activity.

If there’s one meteor shower to stay up for this year, it’s by far this weekend’s Perseids. The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak from around midnight on August 12 into the early morning of August 13. With a nearly new moon to keep the skies inky dark, timing for this year’s Perseids couldn’t be more perfect.

While summer vacations may still be underway, travelers planning for a Labor Day Weekend end of the season may want to take new data into account. The holiday weekend, which traditionally marks the end of the summer travel season, will see travelers explore popular travel hotspots both in the United States and around the world. Friday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 4 will be the busiest days for airport traffic as flyers jet to and from their destinations around the world, according to new data from Chase Travel shared with Travel + Leisure this week.

The end of summer is coming fast, so it’s time to start planning your last hurrah for 2023.

I'm a 42-year-old mother of two, and one of my favorite places to go when I need some time alone is Walt Disney World Resort. I visit the park regularly with my husband and teenagers, but there's something special to me about strolling through EPCOT's World Showcase alone or renting a pool cabana at a Disney hotel and spending the day reading. Even if I'm not inside a Disney theme park, it brings me joy to know I'm hanging out on Mickey's turf.