Why Planes Avoid This Area That's Four Times the Size of Texas

Don't ask me how, but August is leaving and September is knocking — and while there are technically still a few weeks of summer left, I'm already dreading its end. This summer has been a good one for me, full of travel, friends and family. This month has been full of hotel news, too, including a few exciting things you might have missed.

Clarksville, a historic district of Austin, Texas, has lately emerged as a stylish dining and shopping enclave. Among the area’s most compelling new businesses is La Embajada, a design shop housed in a 1923 Craftsman bungalow. Combining the hospitality and interiors expertise of its founder, Raul Cabra — who has designed tableware for some of Mexico City’s most celebrated restaurants, including Rosetta and Pujol — La Embajada presents a refined, regionally diverse selection of Mexico’s artisanal offerings. A series of small rooms display vintage and contemporary furniture, from stately midcentury armchairs and 1970s glass sconces to a minimalist agave fiber rug by the Oaxaca-based textile artist Trine Ellitsgaard. The house is also an actual residence. Cabra often stays in the bedroom up the creaky stairs, and he’s recently made it available for short-term stays (bookings include a daily basket of baked goods from Austin’s Swedish Hill). Guests can purchase the room’s handmade décor, such as a pair of sleek bedside lamps in milky white onyx, a 1960s La Malinche dresser and a bedspread from a Michoacan manufacturer that once supplied Herman Miller. Downstairs, glassware, candles and gifts fill a section modeled after a typical general store in a small Mexican town. But La Embajada’s heart is its inviting kitchen, where visiting chefs cook elaborate meals and staff prepare ice cream and coffee. In another twist, every bespoke detail — including a hammered copper sink, caramel-colored tiles and waxed pine cabinets — can be custom-ordered for one’s own home.

Southwest Airlines has extended its bookable flight schedule through April 7, 2025.

Frontier Airlines unveiled 11 new routes across 15 airports that are scheduled to launch in October and November.

Exciting news, Carnival Cruise Line fans: A visit to a massively revamped private island is in your future.

If you're traveling to Switzerland, a few things will likely be mentioned.

Low-cost Frontier Airlines is expanding its domestic network in New York, Los Angeles, and beyond by rolling out nearly a dozen new routes.

The State Department has released new dates for its nationwide Special Passport Acceptance Fairs, continuing to help first-time international travelers score a passport. The new schedule has passport events in Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia throughout the rest of this month, September, and October. For example, travelers in Atlanta, Georgia can get assistance at the Atlanta Passport Agency on Saturday Aug. 24, from 8 a.m. through 11 a.m., and appointments are required. Travelers from Cincinnati, Ohio can visit the Downtown Main Library on Monday, Aug. 26 from 12 p.m. through 7 p.m. for assistance, and appointments are also required.  Additional events are taking place at local government offices in Bridgewater, New Jersey; Burleson, Texas; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, among others. A full listing of events is located on the State Department’s website.

Hostels are my preferred option when I'm traveling alone.

Southwest Airlines is expanding its flight schedule and adding new destinations.  The airline known for low fares and free checked bags recently expanded its flight schedule to April 7, 2025, and added new flights to popular spring break destinations such as Punta Cana and Cabo San Lucas. In total, the airline added six different routes to its spring schedule, according to a news release.  From the music city of Nashville, Tennessee, Southwest will begin weekly, Saturday service to both Cabo San Lucas / Los Cabos, Mexico, as well as Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on March 8, 2025.

A man was arrested after climbing out of a plane's emergency exit on Thursday, airline Jetstar confirmed to Australian media.

Cruise giant Carnival is about to add a new routing to its lineup of Panama Canal cruises — one that no line has ever offered before.