Circling Back: A Return to Mount Abu
“When I was twenty, I dropped out of college and travelled alone, overland to India. I didn’t tell my parents where I was until, some months after my disappearance, I…
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Destinations
52 posts
The Best Travel Watch
Think about your travel watch now so you’ll never have to think about it while traveling.
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Diving into Macau
A young woman stands on the ledge of the high building, tears welling in her eyes, shaking with fear—is she going to jump? I try to catch her eye, waving…
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Brush with Greatness: Whale-watching Along the Dominican Republic
I had already gotten a full dose of the natural beauty and adventure along the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. But if I had to choose my favorite moment,…
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Wonder All Around: Unexpected Grace in Turkey
Often the best travel experiences are the ones that take us completely by surprise.
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Sailing the Heart of Myanmar
An hour after coming ashore, I am climbing brick stairs that are warped with wear from the elements and the bare feet of the faithful over several hundred years.
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Magico: Deeper into the Yucatan
The overwhelming number of U.S. visitors to the Yucatan stick to the coasts. And that’s a shame. Unless all you really care about is working on your tan, resolve…
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Beyond Istanbul: Exploring Anatolia
While one could spend an eternity exploring the rich layers of culture and history in Istanbul, what lies deeper into Anatolia is equally wondrous. If you have the time, perhaps just…
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Starstruck at Yosemite
I’m standing on an outcropping of rock at Glacier Point looking out over Yosemite National Park when the sun finally disappears over the horizon. I’ve brought my wife and eight-year-old son here,…
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Trinidad and Tobago: Two Islands, One Glorious Melting Pot
Heads of state sometimes gather in Port of Spain to jockey for position, with some reaching out and some more antagonistic. Often overlooked is a lesson in personal diplomacy that…
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Getting Hammered in Sicily
I don’t know about you, but when I hear Mardi Gras, I think drunken revelry and “show us yer boobs!” A driver in Trinidad once told me the ladies’ Carnival…
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Letting Go at Green Lake
“It’s time,” I whisper to my sleeping eight-year-old son. At the sound of my voice, his eyes open a crack, then go wide as he remembers our plan from the night…
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Splurging and Skimping at Disney West
Disney raised admission prices this month for all of their theme parks. While this comes as no surprise—regular increases have become the norm over the years—it’s a good reminder for…
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On the Road to Stratford
Ontario’s Stratford Festival is one of the great live theater attractions in North America, and they’re celebrating the 60th anniversary this year with yet another splendid season of theatrical excellence. The question…
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The Docent of the Travel Section
Hear the original WUWM 89.7 NPR broadcast by clicking on the player below. I rounded the corner to the little eddy where the travel books lived at the very back…
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Escape from Family Thanksgiving!
SHHHHHHH! Don’t be afraid, I’m a friend. Listen to me: They’re coming, they’re hungry, but we won’t be here when they crash the place. Don’t worry, you’re not trapped, we’re…
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A Thanksgiving in Istanbul
Hear the original WUWM 89.7 NPR broadcast by clicking on the player below. Around Thanksgiving, I always recall the time my wife and I were in Istanbul near the end…
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Cordoba: Green Again
It’s well over 100 degrees and the Spanish sun feels like a physical weight on my skin as I descend dusty stone steps to the skeletal ruins of Madinat…
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Letter to Walt: The 40th Anniversary of Walt Disney World
This year is the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World. And 40 years ago, I was a nine-year-old boy visiting the brand-new Disney World with my family. We could not…
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Heavenly Moments at The Abbey
My six-year-old boy just caught a fish. We’re standing where the edge of the green lawn meets the boat docks on Lake Geneva at The Abbey Resort and, after only a…
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Illogical, Magnificent Kerala
There’s a wonderful illogic about India that drives many mad, but is also a great part of its appeal. The printed sign outside the Kathakali dance venue summed it up;…
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Toledo: Finding the Fourth Church
It’s getting late and I’m lost in the winding lanes of medieval Toledo. Normally I wouldn’t mind — it’s one of my favorite cities in the world to be lost…
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Sanctuary in South Carolina
Hear the original WUWM 89.7 NPR broadcast by clicking on the player below. I was born and raised in South Carolina. Even after my family moved north in my early…
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Abandoned America: The Carrie Furnaces
For quite some time, the Carrie Furnaces in Rankin, Pennsylvania were open to anyone intrepid enough to hike there. After making your way through an overgrown employee parking lot, down an embankment…
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The Venice of the Yucatan
In the dream, I’m lying facedown on a broad, six-foot-long leaf while being drenched from above by a warm tropical rainstorm. The rushing water cascades off my back and pools…
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The Real Treasury of Jordan
If Jordan had a calling card in the tourism industry, it would most likely be The Treasury. The rosy-colored, rock-cut star of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra had…
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Palace Hopping in Rajasthan and Gujarat
Reggie Singh, in a blazer, white shirt and old-style cravat, greets us with a billiard cue slung nonchalantly over his shoulder. Traditional jazz music is blaring out of his huge…
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Paradise Found: San Diego’s Mission Bay
I’m closer to a wild Great Blue Heron than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s just across the water from me, maybe twelve feet away, standing at the base…
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Fire and Renewal in Grand Teton
It’s mid-September, and the Grand Teton National Park is on fire. Slender tendrils of smoke rise into the sky like the flags of an invading army laying claim to enemy…
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Feria Tale: The Rice Festival in Arles
I’m standing on the sidewalk on a bright, sunny September afternoon in the south of France. A lovely young woman dressed in late 19th century clothes walks past me, her eyes modestly…
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Roanoke: Virginia’s Country Cool
I hope the city fathers of Roanoke, Virginia know what they have here. But I’m not certain they do. They’re building buildings, flaunting their God-given resources, and dreaming up events…
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Thailand Surfaces
Thailand is underwater. That’s what people think right now with the massive flooding that seems to have been going on for months – since July, in fact. And unless you’re…
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The Galapagos Islands
I am the last human being on the island. Dusk is slipping down over the menagerie behind me like a velvet curtain full of sparkling pinholes. The sea lions, the…
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The Simple Pleasures of Geneva, Illinois
Among the greatest satisfactions of small town life is the savoring of simple pleasures. Sure, sometimes you want to travel to destinations that will set your pulse pounding. But often…
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Door County: The Jewel in our own Backyard
On a trip to London in 1998, my wife and I stayed at the home of a dear friend who had lived in London for half a century. While I…
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Falling into the Map: Sky Knights
Click for audio on this topic from a WUWM broadcast below: Friday night, 7:30 p.m.: It’s time for my young son to go to bed, and we’re lying together and…
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A Return to Frinton
It’s not in the trendy tourist brochures, it’s not in a Royal County, and there are no castles, stately homes or dead rock stars buried here. If you want the…
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Other-worldly Bangkok
I’ve been coming to Bangkok since 2006. That year student protests disrupted a couple days of my business trip and a month later there was a nonviolent coup. I was…
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Finally, Washington: A Capital City Turns the Corner
I had been living in London for a year, finishing a screenplay. I managed to wrap it up just as my visa was expiring, and needed to figure out where…
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Israel: Along the Dead Sea
My friends and I pull over to the side of the road where a sign shows a single black line across its center: Sea Level. This real-life travel moment requires…
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To the Top of the Volcano
Towering proudly over the Quetzaltenango basin in the highlands of Guatemala is nature’s perfect cone. Santa Maria, a now dormant volcano—one of thirty volcanoes in this country—can be seen from…
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Building Up to Angkor
Tip and I stood in line to get our three-day passes for Angkor National Park. Once the clock struck five, we purchased the tickets for the following day, yet we…
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Visiting with New Orleans
Last February, a very dear friend of mine was going through a tough time. A terrible thing had happened to him, and I was frustrated by the distance that separated…
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Father’s Day: A Pilgrimage to Oregon’s Tillamook Museum
I don’t know where I’m going. My driver won’t reveal our destination. But he promises me I’m going to like it. The driver is one of my oldest friends, Portland…
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Mountain Time: Park City, Utah
Silence. It’s what I was hungry for all these months, though I didn’t recognize the lack of it until I was immersed in it. The quiet is startling at first,…
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Kenya’s Wild Kingdom
The radio is a constant hiss of static and occasional comments in Swahili and Steve, our driver, keeps it on but seems to ignore it as we bump along a…
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Miracle on Michigan Avenue: Christmas in Chicago
Chicago has been called “the most American of American cities,” so it should come as no surprise that a Chicago Christmas offers visitors some of the most archetypically American holiday…
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Redefining Detroit
Detroit, Michigan has filed for bankruptcy. The city’s emergency manager made the decision last Thursday. So that’s that. Detroit is finished. Again.
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What I Ate on My Summer Vacation
Some of us believe that to travel is to become a temporary local and that it is essential when traveling to immerse yourself in the local culture as completely as…
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St. George Island: Landing on the Forgotten Coast
I dined with a friend of mine last Friday, and he reported that he was preparing to visit St. George Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast. He goes there a few…
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St. Louis Freestyle
I’m walking in St. Louis’ City Museum through a menagerie of beautifully crafted stone and gleaming white terracotta. Everything around me has been salvaged from venerable old buildings that fell…
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Scottish Soul Food
On the drive between Oban and Kilmelford on the west coast of Scotland there is a sign pointing you to the Isle of Seil and the Bridge Over the Atlantic.…
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