You May Be Able to See the Northern Lights Tonight — What to Know

During my last hours at the beloved Blackberry Farm in eastern Tennessee, honored in this year's Readers' Choice Awards as the number six hotel in the South, I piloted my golf cart past a grassy hillock with a little white dollhouse of a church peeking over the top until I reached a trailhead. From there I plunged into the latticework of hiking paths that crisscross the southern swath of the property. I huffed and puffed up Horse Slide Trail, which is called that for a reason, until I reached Blackberry's boundary with Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There was not a soul in sight—just sun-dappled forest, the whir of insects, and me alone with my footsteps and my thoughts.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tobi Oluwole, a 30-year-old former sales manager at a Big Tech firm who recently relocated to France. His former employer is known to Business Insider but is not named for confidentiality. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Over the past decade, tourism has boomed in and around Asheville, N.C., with visitors drawn to the temperate climate, green mountains and beautiful waterfalls of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The number of second homes in the area has multiplied, as have the number of short-term home rentals.

Low-cost carrier Wizz Air is banking that price-sensitive customers will book its new no-frills narrowbody planes to save money on long-haul flights — and it's not being shy about the cabin.

Last week, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm before ripping through six states leaving a path of destruction in its wake and killing more than 100 people. The record-breaking storm – which clocked 140 mph winds and a storm surge that reached more than 15 feet above ground in the Florida Big Bend region – has left millions to deal with flooded roads, flattened homes and buildings, and power outages. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama have all made disaster declarations as emergency responders work to rescue missing persons and more than 1.2 million are still without power as of Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us. Popular North Carolina mountain towns – including Asheville – which have become top tourist destinations in the fall, have been reduced to debris as residents are left to rebuild their lives. Carrie Tucker of Charlotte, North Carolina, told Travel + Leisure in the wake of Hurricane Helene, western North Carolina is “completely cut off from life – no roads, no gas, no food.”

This October, the astronomy world will be abuzz with night-sky happenings, from a bright and potentially naked-eye-visible comet sighting and a ring-of-fire solar eclipse to multiple meteor showers and Earth’s temporary second moon.

Sep 30, 2024 • 6 min read

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Thursday and started her devastating path up through the southeastern United States.

Sep 30, 2024 • 6 min read

Luxury cruise line Regent Seven Seas Cruises is offering nearly half-off trips around the world for next year.

London has no shortage of luxury hotels, from the Savoy to the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park to Raffles London at The OWO.

Everyone wants to save money on vacation, but steep discounts are rare for most — unless you are a high-profile celebrity, influencer, or, it seems, the mayor of New York City.