It almost seems like an anachronism. Taking a trip by train is like something out of the past.

Now, Amtrak is looking to double in size.

By using funds from the 2021 infrastructure bill, Amtrak is making improvements at some of its biggest and most popular hubs. Those include train stations in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia.

“Amtrak is making significant investments to modernize our stations,” said EVP Laura Mason, who is overseeing the company’s internal infrastructure overhaul.

Amtrak’s budget is expected to zoom. Annual capital investments alone are slated to rise to $2.5 billion by 2025. They were $785 million as recently as 2019.

Improvements and renovations are scheduled for Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, New York’s Penn Station and Chicago’s Union Station.

Penn Station in Baltimore, which is over 100 years old, is also expected to undergo improvements and renovations. The station has not seen a refresh in almost 40 years.

The renovations could bring a whole new life to the national railroad company.

In August, Amtrak ordered 10 more Airo trainsets as part of its modernization efforts, bringing the total to 83 trainsets, which are expected to first debut in 2026.

The Amtrak Airo trainsets, which consist of both locomotive and passenger carriages, will modernize Amtrak’s fleet across the country, with greater comfort for passengers, more space for luggage and a greater focus on sustainability, producing 90% less particulate emissions than on traditional diesel trains.

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©2023 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

You’ve probably heard of “workcations” that combine work travel with leisure trips, often in desirable locations. But there’s a new twist on this trend: The “hush trip,” in which employees don’t tell their bosses they’re actually working from vacation locales. These secret getaways by remote workers while on the clock seem to be gaining in popularity and frequency, although many companies frown upon this activity.

Thinking about taking a hush trip, especially during the upcoming holiday season? Read on to learn more about the benefits and risks of this practice, what employers think of hush trips and ways to pay for your next holiday trip.

Understanding the hush trip phenomenon

A hush trip can be defined as an excursion where an employee works remotely, usually in a vacation spot, without disclosing to their boss or colleagues where they’re temporarily located, according to Vicki Salemi, a career expert with Monster.

“Hush trips are growing more popular because more workers see opportunities to work remotely in places other than their homes,” she says. Salemi cites a recent Monster poll that reveals approximately one-third of workers didn’t think their managers needed to know that they were working from somewhere other than their home. A further one-fifth of respondents didn’t think their managers would approve of a “workcation,” and 16 percent believed their managers and colleagues would have a negative view of hush trips.

Joshua Bienstock, an associate professor at New York Institute of Technology’s School of Management and a practicing employment and labor lawyer, says he understands why hush trips have become more common.

“Employees are stressed out in a 24/7 world,” he explains. “As more workplaces recognize the utility of remote work, many employees can do their work in any place. So the thinking seems to be, ‘Why not combine my work and vacation by taking a hush trip?’”

Peter Strebel, president of RateGain, a provider of SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality industry and former chairman of Omni Hotels & Resorts, isn’t surprised by the rise of hush trips.

“Many times, they occur when workers do not have vacation time to spare or are saving vacation days for a longer trip. Hush trips are in-demand among remote workers because they allow them to do their jobs during work hours and take advantage of amenities after work or on the weekends,” says Strebel. Given that 64% of full-time workers support fully remote work schedules, according to Bankrate data, there’s clear demand for the type of flexibility that enables hush getaways.

Pros and cons of taking a hush trip during the holidays

Thinking about taking a hush trip? It’s important to weigh the pluses and minuses of this decision.

“The pros of taking a hush trip during the upcoming holiday season are to combine the best of both worlds — being able to work from an enjoyable location and get paid for it,” Salemi notes. “As soon as you log off, you can quickly toggle to vacation mode, which may make you happier and more productive.” Further, she says, more than half of those surveyed by Monster report feeling less anxious when taking hush trips because they get a change of scenery without tapping into their paid time off.

Hush trips can also enable you to travel at non-peak times, such as flying mid-week on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, when rates are often cheaper.

“This allows you to avoid the peak vacation travel time of weekends and the higher rate of business travel on Mondays and Fridays,” Stebel points out. “For example, a person planning a hush trip from Boston to New York City for the holidays could take an early flight on Tuesday morning, work from the hotel lobby until the room is ready and plan to take in Rockefeller Center after work.”

On the other hand, it’s easy to get distracted during a hush trip. “The holiday season can feel more chaotic and stressful than non-holiday times of the year. Being in a new location and trying to concentrate on work with distractions at your fingertips may be challenging and could compound your stress,” cautions Salemi.

Strebel agrees, adding that traveling anywhere during the holiday season can be complicated. “A large number of travelers are on the move at this time of year, which increases the risks of flight delays or hotel overbookings,” he continues. “A delayed flight, for example, could force a remote worker to take calls from the airport, which is not an ideal scenario.”

Likely the biggest disadvantage of engaging in a hush trip is that your company could find out. This could land you in hot water with your employer — perhaps jeopardizing your job.

What do companies think of hush trips?

Hush trip acceptance and employer policies vary from company to company. But rest assured that most employers would like to know ahead of time if you expect to work in a different location than your home.

“The issue essentially comes down to whether you can effectively do your job with a host of distractions nearby. It’s up to you to ensure your work is done well and without disruption,” Strebel says. “I believe employers should consider flexibility with hush trips, as blanket policies condemning them can hurt morale. Similarly, an employee should tread carefully when on a hush trip, as it could cause tension with coworkers.”

Andrew Lokenauth, a personal finance expert and owner of BeFluentInFinance.com, says hush trips are discouraged by most businesses. “Employers have concerns about productivity, security and liability,” he says. “But some will tolerate a hush trip if it’s done discreetly and the work is completed to satisfaction.”

Ideally, employers would encourage workcations, creating cultures in which employees don’t need to keep secrets — including where they’re working from — from them.

“But other employers may have the mindset that everyone needs to be accountable and only work in the office or from a home office where they know your technology is reliable and where you can be easily reached,” Salemi explains. “Even though you may be doing an amazing job and can work well or even better while sitting on the beach, there may be a stigma around it.”

“A hush trip can positively impact employees who plan on traveling for the holidays,” adds Salemi. “For instance, maybe the trip involves staying with relatives who bring you immense joy. Rather than having to choose between working from home or seeing your relatives, you can do both.”

Paying for a holiday hush trip

If you’re expecting to travel this holiday season and make it a hush trip, think carefully about how you’ll fund this getaway. Cash always comes in handy, but using credit cards can make it safe, convenient and simple to pay for a flight, hotel stay, food and other transactions.

Consider that the majority of credit cards provide zero-liability fraud protection for unauthorized charges, as long as you report them within 30 days. Even if your card issuer doesn’t offer zero liability, the Fair Credit Billing Act limits your liability for unauthorized charges to a maximum of $50.

Moreover, if unauthorized charges occur on your credit card, you can often address the issue before your payment is due, preventing any actual loss of funds. That’s one reason using credit cards while traveling is preferred to using a debit card: If the latter is stolen or compromised, resolving the matter can be more time-consuming, as you’ll need to wait for the funds to be restored to your bank account.

With the right credit card in your wallet during a holiday hush trip, you can also earn cash back, points or miles on your typical expenditures. When you open a new rewards credit card, you may also qualify for a welcome bonus after reaching a specific spending threshold.

To maximize credit card rewards, it’s crucial to select a card that aligns with your spending patterns. For instance, frequent travelers might prefer a travel credit card, which earns points or miles for future travel and offers perks like lounge access and credits for traveler programs like TSA PreCheck. Alternatively, a cash back card with bonus rewards on everyday spending categories such as groceries and gas stations might provide more value for others.

Additional credit card perks can significantly enhance your experience, including travel protections, no foreign transaction fees, annual statement credits for specific purchases and discounts with partner brands.

Just remember to be careful when using credit cards during a hush trip. If, for instance, you use a credit card given to you by your employer, they may be able to track where your purchases were made. This could get you in trouble if your company doesn’t know where you’re working from.

The bottom line

Think carefully about taking a hush trip between now and New Year’s, rather than telling your employer you’re going on a “workcation.” The latter may prove less risky and stressful, but still allow you to enjoy some needed leisure time in a desirable spot.

“Do your research ahead of time to ease worries and anxiety,” recommends Salemi. “Your destination should have a dedicated workspace and fast Internet speed so you won’t miss a beat. Consider time zone differences, as well. If you are going overseas and it’s six hours earlier, ensure that you are working the same six hours that you would have been if you had remained at home.”

Lokenauth agrees. “Be discreet when taking a hush trip, and don’t publicize your actions on social media,” he advises. “Try to sync your schedule with your coworkers to avoid suspicions. And limit long or frequent hush trips to avoid getting caught.”

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(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

©2023 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Admit it, you’re long overdue for a vacation. But saving money in the process makes the reward even sweeter.

As a frequent flyer out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport myself, I’m proud to say I’ve mastered the art of finding deals on travel.

From the best websites to catch flight-and-hotel-deals to taking advantage of mileage programs and more, here are three of my top tips for saving money on your next vacation.

Take advantage of flight deal websites

I first learned of flight deals a decade ago. A few of my social media friends posted a link to a website advertising flights from New York City to Dubai for $189 round trip. Of course, I thought it was too good to be true initially, but after doing my research — and biting the bullet to purchase the deal — I found that there were several websites solely created to post similar travel deals.

A few of my old faithfuls and most trusted websites for deals are:

—The Flight Deal

—Air Fare Spot

—Secret Flying

—Fare Deal Alert.

All of these websites are free to use, and you can get on their email lists, as well, without any paid subscriptions. Also, the sites all occasionally include hotel deals, as well — mostly for international destinations.

Going (previously known as Scott’s Cheap Flights ) is another favorite of many of my colleagues. This site has free options, as well as premium and elite level subscriptions, at $39 and $199 per year, respectively.

Airline mileage programs are your friend

Signing up is the hardest part of joining an airline mileage program, but after that, it’s smooth sailing — or, should I say, flying.

Most airlines have expanded their mileage programs to include additional ways to earn miles from purchases on everyday things. For instance, each time I use my linked debit card at Cuzzo’s Cuisine— the lobster mac has me in a chokehold — I am able to earn miles toward travel. Airlines also allow earnings at certain retail stores, as well as from using rideshare apps. Once you’ve stacked up miles, you can then use them to purchase flights, hotels and even rental cars.

Timing is important

The long-time airline industry rumor has been that fights are always cheapest on Tuesday afternoons and that it’s best to purchase a flight right around six weeks from the day you want to travel. While I can’t 100% vouch for those, I will say that timing does matter.

Luckily, as technology advances, so do the tools that AvGeeks (aviation geeks) conjure up to make our jobs easier.

Flight search engines like Google Flights and SkyScanner allow us to get a bird’s eye view on the best days, months and even times for us to fly to specific destinations.

You can even set fare alerts to let you know when the price of your potential flight increases or decreases. That way, you don’t have to worry about checking back daily, or even hourly, like I used to — especially since airfare can change by the literal second.

I hope that these tips come in handy and help you save on your next getaway!

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©2023 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LOS ANGELES — There are 63 national parks in the United States, but at the start of 2023, I’d made it to only one.

So when my partner, Reanna, bought us tickets to see Big Thief and Lucinda Williams at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, we had an exciting (though surely unoriginal) idea: What if we made it a road trip?

As I began researching the best routes from Los Angeles to Denver, I found variations of what’s been called the Grand Circle road trip, a loop of national parks that typically spans Utah, Colorado and Arizona. It’s popular for its efficiency: If you plan well, you can hit the Southwest marvels of Zion, Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon in about two weeks. Because we’d be driving through California regardless, our own Grand Circle route expanded into an oblong shape — not quite an oval, but perhaps a seal balancing a ball on its nose.

Over the course of 12 days, we were able to fit in nearly a dozen national parks, 3,350 miles of driving, thousands of photos and a shameful amount of roadside hamburgers. (For scale, that distance is similar to driving from L.A.’s Santa Monica Pier to the easternmost point of the contiguous U.S. in Lubec, Maine.)

We would’ve happily spent an extra day in each place to break up the driving, as the quick pace of our trip made us feel absolutely loopy during the last few days when we spent hours in the car forcibly listening to every radio station play the Luke Combs version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”

This is an exhaustive recap of our 300-or-so hours on the road, chock-full of small joys, roadside eats and things we should’ve planned better.

To make your own trip as smooth as possible, here are a few crucial tips:

—Buy the America the Beautiful National Park Pass. It costs $80 for the year, and visiting all these national parks would’ve cost us $325 in individual fees.

—Write down essential addresses in advance. Some of these roads (and nearly all of these national parks) have spotty cell service, and you can’t ask for directions if you don’t know where you’re going.

—Bring along a cooler and (at least) one case of bottled water. Hopefully you’re not doing this trip during the peak of summer heat like we did, but it’s vital to have extra water with you in the more remote areas of this trip.

Off to a rocky start

After loading up my car and filling the gas tank, we found ourselves waiting for a tow truck by the Getty Center, just seven miles into our ambitious journey.

My beloved car Marshmallow had broken down on I-405, and though that would’ve sucked on a normal day, it was especially upsetting at the start of a huge road trip. But after crying, calling AAA, my mechanic and my editor, and then looking up rental cars with the help of my wonderful co-worker Chris, we decided it was too late to call it quits.

After picking up a rental, we agreed that heading to Death Valley — where it was 116 degrees — was probably not worth the extra hours on the road. Instead, we made up for lost time by driving straight to Las Vegas, with one bathroom break at EddieWorld.

Our first night on the road was spent at the Venetian in Las Vegas, not because we needed to see a Cirque du Soleil show and people-watch at the local Taco Bell Cantina, but because Vegas is only two hours from the south entrance to Zion National Park.

Exploring Utah’s red rocks, fruit pies, urgent care facilities

As we entered the Beehive State, dropped our car at Springdale’s Under the Eaves Inn and hopped on the town shuttle, Reanna gave me a crash course in Mormon history a la “Under the Banner of Heaven.” But as soon as we entered the park, our minds went virtually blank.

ZION

Zion is one of those places that’s so mind-bogglingly vivid that just riding on the park’s shuttle can be meditative and emotional.

“This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” Re said, gazing out the window. We spent the rest of the ride alternating between staring at the unfathomably large rocks and exchanging silly remarks.

“The dinosaurs saw this s— and now I’m seeing it — nuts!” Re mused.

And though there are a multitude of trails and opportunities for adventure in any national park, Reanna and I are more like lizards than mountain goats. By that, I mean we are not confident hikers, and would rather bask in a cozy place than reach new heights.

So instead of embarking on a challenging trek like Angels Landing or the Narrows, we decided to spend our day exploring the more leisurely Riverside Walk that leads to the start of the Narrows. About a two-mile round trip from the Temple of Sinawava shuttle stop, we were able to take in Zion’s bright orange rocks, admire the park’s lush greenery and take a dip in the electric blue Virgin River. (If you’re hoping to swim at Zion, I’d recommend bringing a dry change of clothes for your journey back to the park entrance, since there’s nothing worse than walking with chafing legs.)

Splashing around in such a picturesque place made me feel a deep sense of reverence, the kind of awe I only experience when I have a moment to appreciate how beautiful and vast the world can be when nature is left to its own devices.

Though we ended our long day before the last shuttle out of the park, we missed the last shuttle back into Springdale, since the two systems are, oddly, not aligned. As we walked back to the inn, we decided to get dinner at the Spotted Dog, where I devoured an ice cream-covered chocolate lava cake with such gusto that I probably scared our waiter.

At the recommendation of a reader named Kathy, who responded to my Essential California newsletter about things to do this summer, we planned our next morning around driving east on Zion’s Highway 9 to take in some of the park’s best red rock scenery. We were devastated to find that the Thunderbird Restaurant she recommended is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays — meaning we couldn’t try any of its “ho-made” hot apple pies with buttered rum sauce — but we picked up snazzy bolo ties at the gas station across the street.

BRYCE CANYON AND CAPITOL REEF

By the time we made it to Bryce Canyon National Park, the temperatures picked up again and Reanna’s tonsils started battling an illness that we later dubbed “demon strep.” As we drove up the park’s southern scenic drive to Yovimpa and Rainbow Points to see the greatest concentration of hoodoos on Earth — tall, totem-pole-like rock pillars formed from weathering and erosion — it became increasingly clear that Re had to see a doctor. They sat in the passenger seat as we descended the scenic drive, and at each lookout point I ducked out of the car to take photos so Re could see the hoodoos we were passing.

Though we hustled through the park for Re’s sake, I found the hills of spindly hoodoo spires quite hypnotizing. It’s odd to encounter terrain that’s entirely different from anything you’ve ever seen before.

After a stop at the hospital — where the doctor looked at Re’s inflamed tonsils and said, “Oh, good heavens!” — we picked up some amoxicillin at the only pharmacy in town and got back on the road to Capitol Reef. On the way to Torrey, Utah, I got a call from my mechanic, who said my car was fixed and ready to go, and found some lovely open ranges where I got to greet herds of free-roaming cows. Our luck seemed to be turning around.

But the next morning, after sleeping in one of those underwhelming clear geodesic domes that are all over Airbnb, Re somehow felt worse. After they attempted to eat breakfast (and instead had a harrowing bathroom trip), I drove us over to Capitol Reef and we continued our routine: Re sat in the passenger seat like an Oregon Trail character with dysentery; I hopped out to take photos of the cool surroundings; I showed them the photos in the car; and we dutifully carried on.

And though the rocks were stunningly red, my favorite part of Capitol Reef was stopping at the park’s Gifford House, which sells thousands of fruit pies every year between Pi Day and November. While I picked up a phenomenal strawberry-rhubarb pie and an equally delicious apple pie, Re got to hang out with a beautiful horse who lives near the park’s homestead. (Utah has a ton of roadside cows and horses, if that tickles your fancy just as much as it did ours!)

On the way farther East, I was determined to find a small market called Mesa Farm in Caineville, Utah. Though it doesn’t come up properly on digital maps, we followed the mile markers on Highway 24, counting until we hit marker 102 and saw the hand-painted Mesa Farm Market sign with rudimentary illustrations of goats.

Mesa Farm Market isn’t a restaurant — you’ll likely get a cutting board with a few knives — but the atmosphere is absolutely lovely. We got to sample an array of five goat cheeses, which were so delicious that my soft-cheese-hating partner even gave them a taste, and talked with the young farmer who’s been living there (with no running water and limited Wi-Fi) and helping the farm and market this summer.

As Re and I sat on the porch with a loaf of bread, a few cheeses, a French salami, some fresh pesto and two cups of sun tea, we talked about how nice it would be to live in a more rural area like this for a little while.

“If I ever lose my job, maybe I’ll move to a place like this,” Re said.

“We could write books and live totally off the grid,” I said as I ripped another piece of bread. “Get a few cows and never look back.”

And though we entertain that fantasy of living off the land every once in a while, I know deep down that we are both divas who need access to warm showers and movie theaters, so we bid the farm dog Zig adieu and continued on our journey.

GOBLIN VALLEY, CANYONLANDS AND ARCHES

Though it’s not a national park, we wanted to check out Goblin Valley State Park, which is best known as the backdrop for the movie “GalaxyQuest.” On our way there, we made two stops: The first was an art project on the side of Highway 24 called Carl’s Critter Garden, which is filled with metal dinosaurs, tiny prisms and lots of musings about a creature called “zen dog.” And after paying our respects to zen dog and his friends, we filled up our tank at Hollow Mountain — a gas station carved into a big rock.

Goblin Valley is a bit out of the way but cool nonetheless (and for those who only know “goblins” as grotesque little creatures, the word doubles as a title for the park’s unique mushroom-shaped hoodoos). There, among these bobble-headed rocks, we visited the Three Sisters and learned about the odd landscape of hard sandstone and soft siltstone that created the many goblins inside the park. And on our way out, we realized we were driving alongside a galloping pronghorn, which easily kept up with the car since these animals can run at a pace of about 60 miles per hour.

By the time we made it to Monticello, Utah, Re’s throat was feeling worse, but the dysentery jokes got infinitely funnier when we checked into our Airbnb for the night: It was a covered pioneer wagon.

The next morning we rose early, since we were trying to fit two different entrances for Canyonlands and a trip to Arches into the same day. (Sometimes we must set ourselves up for failure and learn the hard way.)

As we made our way into the Needles district of Canyonlands, we realized every other car heading into this region was a Jeep with four-wheel drive. Most of the roads in that district are backcountry roads — meaning our little rental wouldn’t get us very far — but we visited Newspaper Rock, did a dutiful lap of the short scenic drive and hit the road as soon as Re thought their throat might be closing. Truly, what’s a worse place to have a medical emergency than inside a remote region of a national park?

When we finally got to an urgent care in Moab, we realized we probably wouldn’t have time to explore the park’s popular Island in the Sky district — so it goes.

At our second urgent care, Re got an unpleasant penicillin shot that’s often referred to as “the peanut butter shot” because the medication is so thick. But after spending several hours there, we decided to stop at Moab’s Thai Bella for a much-needed bowl of tom kah soup and a phenomenal sous vide duck. Finally, we bravely continued to our last Utah national park.

Arches National Park is a bit too small for the number of visitors it attracts, but that’s why they now use timed entry reservations. We decided to go after 4 p.m., since that’s late enough to forgo a reservation and miss the peak temperatures of the day, which meant the roads were fairly empty.

After seeing the rest of Utah’s parks, Arches’ popularity can be a bit mystifying. “Why is Delicate Arch the most famous?” I heard one child ask a park ranger, referring to the iconic structure that graces Utah’s license plates.

Perhaps it was just the end of a very long day, but we both felt like we had seen enough once we checked out the various roadside overlooks and visited one particularly gross bathroom. (I was admittedly warned that the park is a bit of a tourist trap, but I’m one of those stubborn people who likes to determine things firsthand.) The drive from Arches to our next abode in Fruita, Colorado, passed a lot of towns with no gas, restaurants or bathrooms, so I’d recommend getting your business in order before leaving Moab.

Cooling off with Colorado’s canyons, sand dunes and UFOs

Fruita is a small town about halfway between Moab and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park that’s best known as home to Mike, a local chicken that was able to survive without a head for 18 months in the 1940s. After a night of blissfully cool and quiet sleep there, we made a pit stop at Dinosaur Journey, where Re cried because they were so excited to see all the local fossils, and I bought a glow-in-the-dark T-rex shirt that was definitely meant for a child.

BLACK CANYON OF THE GUNNISON

By the time we made it to Black Canyon of the Gunnison, we were pretty excited to see something other than the hoodoos and arches that we were starting to take for granted. This park was like a full reset: The temperature dropped, the crowds thinned out and the rocks looked like nothing we had ever seen.

Though some people will understandably rank parks based on how challenging or expansive they are, I’d rather remember the way I felt when I visited. So, if you’ll humor me and indulge in that mindset, I can safely say Black Canyon of the Gunnison was one of my favorite parks on this trip, with soaring drop-offs and magnificent metamorphic rocks that made us feel tiny and inconsequential in the best possible way.

As we stood at the edge of the painted wall overlook, Reanna raised their arms to catch the wind as it moved through the canyon. We stayed there for at least half an hour, taking photos for strangers and returning to the edge several times to catch the air under our arms and inhale the crisp breeze.

We decided to grab dinner in the town of Gunnison at High Alpine Brewing Company, which made a great day even better. By the time we hit the road an hour later, I was happily stuffed with a beet and goat cheese salad, half a High Alpine pizza (with lemon-basil ricotta, veggies and garlic oil), and a smoked cherry old-fashioned that was presented in a dramatic glass cloche.

From there we were about two hours from Leadville, which claims the title of “highest incorporated city in North America” at 10,152 feet above sea level. After driving past lakes and through national forests, we made it to the Colorado Trail House, where we were able to snack on a few Twinkies, do a much-needed load of laundry and take a glorious bath in our room’s bright purple tub.

The next morning, after we stopped for breakfast at my aunt and uncle’s house on our way to Denver, Reanna spotted a sign for Rocky Mountain National Park and asked the toughest question of the trip: “Why aren’t we stopping at that park?”

And though I wish I had a better answer, the truth is that I was too distracted planning our visit to the nearby Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. (And though I neglected the most popular park in Colorado, my colleague Chris was able to write a few of his best tips on our road trip map.)

We had just arrived in Denver before we had to drop our bags at the Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast and head to Red Rocks to claim a seat for the Big Thief and Lucinda Williams concert. And though a nasty thunderstorm nearby didn’t seem to be working in our favor, we endured a rainy two-hour wait for the venue’s doors to open.

The whole process felt a bit like a pilgrimage — driving over 1,000 miles to face thick sheets of rain and waves of thunder — but eventually the venue gave the OK to move inside. We bought some dry shirts and ponchos and settled on an open bench. As everyone watched the show, lightning bolts seemed to come down when the music would swell to a climax, underscoring Adrienne Lenker’s impassioned wails and giving the whole night a mystical feeling. After experiencing Red Rocks’ phenomenal acoustics, national park-worthy red sandstone rocks and an otherworldly performance, our elaborate journey to Colorado and back felt completely vindicated.

GREAT SAND DUNES AND MESA VERDE

In the morning we were back on the road, heading to the largest sand dunes in North America. This was an especially fruitful route for roadside attractions, so we stopped at the Sasquatch Outpost in Bailey and later the UFO Watchtower in Hooper. (If you couldn’t already tell, we are fascinated with otherworldly creatures.)

After leaving some snacks, pens and several hot sauce packets from my car at the UFO Watchtower garden (which is thought to overlap with two large vortexes of energy), we picked up sand sled rentals and hit the slopes.

As we approached the sand dunes it felt quite bizarre, like someone hastily dropped a randomly generated feature on Earth without wondering whether it actually belongs there. With another storm rolling in, we didn’t get to ascend any of the park’s tall peaks, but we had enough fun wandering around the lower planes of the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. This area is an exercise in admiring the unusual, offering the chance to marvel at a landscape that’s equally simple (it’s basically a huge sandbox) and perplexing (scientists still don’t know how old these massive dunes are). On our way out, there was even a double rainbow, which only added to the enchanting and strange vibe of the surrounding San Luis Valley.

Once we realized our Airbnb was in a fairly remote town with few restaurants, we decided to head in the opposite direction for dinner at the Rubi Slipper, where we ordered two of the most satisfying diner hamburgers on our burger-heavy trip and Re contemplated trying Rocky Mountain oysters (though they chickened out).

As we drove back toward the park to drop our sand sleds and head to Crestone — which is one of the major spiritual centers of America — Re began feeling disconcerted by how dark and empty the surrounding area looks at night. Like being outside on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, there was virtually nothing around us but pitch-black roads, which are understandably freaky if you think about them for too long. If you’re afraid of wide open spaces, perhaps rural livin’ is not for you.

But after a night of sleep in our Crestone dome, we woke up to the quaint and strange little town, where the majority of residents were wearing mala beads and natural deodorant. As we left one of the few local coffee shops, we overheard people chatting about the full moon and passed a lone shirtless man strumming his guitar from the back of his parked pickup truck.

Colorado had already yielded a wonderful array of natural wonders, but our final stop in the state was Mesa Verde National Park, the nation’s largest archaeological preserve. The hottest commodities in the park are the ranger-led cliff dwelling tours, which include visits to balcony house and cliff palace, but we felt fine seeing cliff palace from the adjacent overlook. Though the dwellings are incredible, we spent the most time hanging out at the highest lookout in Mesa Verde: Park Point. Because most of the foot traffic is around the cliffs, we had the 8,572-foot-high area all to ourselves, so we stopped to feel the breeze, marvel at butterflies and admire the checkerboard of different greens that covers the surrounding area.

At this point you might be wondering: Can glamorous travelers like us sleep inside national parks without camping? The answer is a definite yes: Many of the national parks have rustic hotels and lodges within them, so we spent the night at Mesa Verde’s Far View Lodge, which had absolutely no cell service. Though it was too rainy to join the park’s nightly stargazing program, we decided to grab dinner and a few drinks at the Metate Room. The food was nothing to write home about, but our mediocre meal was supplemented by respectable cocktails and an even better view of the sunset.

The next morning we woke up to wild horses walking by our balcony. We did one last lap around the cliff dwelling lookout points before embarking on one of our longest driving days and heading toward Arizona.

Gazing at petrified wood, the Milky Way and the grandest canyon

The No. 1 tourist trap in the world is apparently the Four Corners Monument, but that didn’t stop us from paying $8 apiece to see where four states converge (and if you plan on going, bring cash since there’s a high likelihood that the card reader won’t work). Inside, we got some delicious Navajo frybread and took some silly photos at the point where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah come together.

PETRIFIED FOREST AND FLAGSTAFF

Our three-hour drive through New Mexico was simultaneously brief and exhausting, so by the time we got to Petrified Forest National Park we were feeling a bit restless.

But the best way to get through the Petrified Forest is in a vehicle, since the park spans 28 miles, and it made the most sense for us to enter one side and exit the other. So we relished every lookout point, wandered the Crystal Forest — which had some of the park’s most impressive fossilized wood — and then begrudgingly continued on our journey to Little America Hotel in Flagstaff.

By the time we reached Flagstaff, we had spent at least 10 hours in the car, which made our brains and bodies feel like absolute mush. After a week of eating burgers and various forms of gas station starch, we were also craving some kind of fresh, veggie-forward meal. This led us to Tinderbox Kitchen, where we had what was undoubtedly the best meal of our whole road trip. After downing a spring salad, a ponzu-brined chicken over miso potato puree, and a divine duck with Brussels sprouts, we rolled our way back to our room to watch a years-old ESPN mullet championship on cable TV and fall asleep.

After thousands of miles on the road, waking up just an hour and a half from the Grand Canyon felt like racing toward a finish line (even if we still had eight hours of driving and another national park to go). Once we picked up sandwiches at Proper Meats + Provisions we were back on the road, pumped to spend the whole day at one of the most spectacular places in the world.

GRAND CANYON

The Grand Canyon is overwhelming, with nearly 600 miles of paved and unpaved trails that get millions of visitors each year. So we started with something basic: following the Trail of Time along the South Rim to learn a bit about the canyon’s geologic timeline. Once that was completed, we were able to hop on a shuttle to explore a few different viewpoints in the park before returning to the El Tovar Hotel, where we were spending the night.

If there’s any time to splurge on a nice hotel, it’s when the hotel has been built right on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Even the second most visited national park empties out significantly by sunset, which meant we were able to sit by the rim and watch as the sky painted new hues on the canyon.

But after the sun went down, we realized how vast the sky really is when it’s uninterrupted by light pollution. Elusive stars began to emerge, dappling the stretches of sky that often look empty between streaks of red and green aircraft lights and astronomical divas like the North Star or Big Dipper. Like many national parks, the Grand Canyon is an international dark sky park, which meant we were able to see the Milky Way hanging over our heads before the moon rose. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, it brought me back to the elation of being at summer camp for the first time, where the air was filled with giddy crushes and late-night gossip. For the rest of the night, we earnestly reflected on our trip, which gave us so many magical opportunities to sample new lifestyles and states of being together.

To optimize our time gawking at the stars and cuddling on porch swings, we made a late-night dinner reservation at the El Tovar Dining Room, where the food was forgettable (like most national park fare). But we still had a silly time doing math problems on the children’s menu, ordering virgin prickly pear margaritas and sharing two delicious house-made desserts.

By this point, you could imagine the breakneck pace of driving from one rock-gazing spot to another — back to back to back — was proving to be a trial of the human spirit. But the next morning, we reluctantly got in the car to drive six more hours to Joshua Tree National Park, which was somehow our most exhausting day on the road. Though it wasn’t our longest stretch of driving, we were feeling extra tired, homesick and cramped by our rental car full of wares and stale snacks.

We broke up that stretch a bit by stopping in Seligman, Arizona, which was the birthplace of historic Route 66 and the inspiration for the Pixar movie “Cars.” After getting another burger at Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In — a restaurant where they’ll hand you a thimble-sized cup (with a straw cut to size) if you dare to order a small Coke — I paid a visit to Angel Delgadillo’s barber shop and bought a delightfully gaudy Route 66 button-down.

Back to California

Once we finally made it to the south entrance of Joshua Tree, we realized we should’ve booked a room closer to the north exit of the park instead of Palm Springs so we could enter one side and leave the other. (This is why I’d recommend you stay in Pioneertown if you chose to do this trip — don’t make the same mistakes I did!)

But after exploring Joshua Tree and paying visits to a few of our favorite jumbo rocks, we were more than excited to head to the Palm Springs Margaritaville, where we got to lounge in the pool, watch the movie “Cars” and order fish tacos and lava cake to our bed. If room service is a dying art, we are some of its most dedicated patrons.

The final day of driving (a mere three hours back to L.A.) felt like absolutely nothing compared to how far we had already traveled, and we relished having cell service and familiar roads at our disposal. After weeks of driving through different states at all hours of the day and night, Reanna even said that L.A. freeways felt like “driving on easy mode.”

And after throwing out a shameful amount of car trash, watering my plants and doing several loads of laundry, I was relieved to be home again. As some wise stranger on the internet once said, the best feelings in the world are always leaving L.A. and coming back to L.A.

©2023 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

I’m from the other camp. I want to hold onto summer, savor fall and not rush (as much as I love the ski season!) winter along by starting the holidays too soon.

That said, when I want to get into the spirit of next season: I want it and I want it NOW!

Luckily, there’s a way to dive head first into the holidays even minutes after the last piece of turkey is carved.

A weekend trip to Mount Washington Valley (https://www.visitmwv.com) post Thanksgiving dinner (or pre) is an easy pass to all the holiday cheer you crave.

Scenery, décor, amazing shopping, special meals and yes, even some snow-covered peaks are all there for the taking.

Mount Washington Valley is an easy shot from Boston up 93 and the Spaulding Turnpike. You know you’ve arrived when the decorations begin: the sight of crossed skis with wreathes on telephone poles has long brought me my first twinge of holiday cheer. The lights are aglow and trees decorated by the time Thanksgiving rolls around. And even when the ski areas are yet to open (the first week of December is the hopeful date for most up there), stately Mount Washington and the rest of the Presidential Range usually have some snow to show by then.

There’s everything holiday to do while there.

Let’s talk shopping first. An outlet store hub, the Valley always has deals. From Black Friday on, they get even better. You can meander the many shops of Settler’s Green (https://www.settlersgreen.com) and the many other outlets along the main drag of North Conway. You can find unique treasures at classic spots like Zeb’s (https://www.zebs.com), which is worth the wait you may have outside, or Flossie’s General Store (https://flossiesgeneralstore.com) up in Jackson. There are art galleries, clothing shops and of course, snow sport shops. You could easily cross off everything on your list.

There’s food, too. Restaurants and hotels rev it up for the holiday season with special dishes and special events.

Consider the Christmas Farm Inn (https://christmasfarminn.com) in Jackson, where they take their name to heart. You can book a special family weekend with Mrs. Claus. The two night package includes dinner with Mrs. Claus and a reading and book signing with her, along with meals.

Grown ups who love the holidays can visit Dec. 10 when they host a wine dinner with Mrs. Claus herself.

You can get your tree fix too. And while they may not have as many decorated trees as my friend Dina, they have a massive and beautiful tree festival (http://www.nhfestivaloftrees.com) peppered with cocktail hours and live entertainment. It’s like a big, beautiful holiday party in a storybook setting.

To really win praise from the family, there’s a way to head out of Mount Washington Valley and directly to the North Pole. The Conway Scenic Railway hosts their annual Journey to the North Pole  (http://www.journeytothenorthpole.org). In just two hours, you are transported to the North Pole where you visit the workrooms, elves and Santa himself, and then brought back to the Valley.

Where to stay is never an issue in the Valley. There’s every type of lodging, from upscale swank to intown ease to cozy cottage types. For a classic New England feel (with incredible decorations) that’s tucked in the woods but just a quick jaunt to the center of North Conway, consider the White Mountain Hotel (https://www.whitemountainhotel.com).

For lovely rooms and breathtaking views of Mount Washington, consider the Glen House (https://theglenhouse.com) where you can enjoy firepit ‘smores and an indoor pool.

Most all, though, is the thing no other town can recreate: the setting. Tucked into the base of majestic Mount Washington and surrounded by the Presidentials, The Valley mixes modern and classic; fun and formal. It just feels like the holidays there.

To all those who want a holiday vibe ASAP,  Mount Washington Valley awaits.

Glittering salt flats. Sky-poking volcanoes. Teal lagoons painted pink with flamingos. These are the wonders that await guests traveling to the resort town of San Pedro de Atacama — an oasis amid the greater Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which is the driest (non-polar) place on Earth.

The 51-room Our Habitas Atacama, which opened on Sept. 15, is shaking things up as the most recent opening in a destination that rarely sees them. “The timing for Habitas is bang-on because the Atacama is red-hot right now,” says Harry Hastings, founder of bespoke travel company Plan South America. He says it’s one of his best-selling destinations.

What sets the property apart, Hastings says, is not just the design and culinary ambitions but something far simpler: With starting rates from $300 per night, it’s the only luxurious hotel in the area that isn’t priced on an all-inclusive basis. It gives travelers rates far lower than those of such competitors as Awasi, Nayara and Explora, which can charge $1,000 nightly per person.

Anyone who’s flown on a budget airline knows that unbundled rates can add up fast — particularly when the point of coming to a desert is to get out and explore it, perhaps by horseback riding across towering sand dunes, hiking through geysers, or quad biking across the Valley of the Moon. Still, Hastings says he’s been recommending the property to clients who want the freedom to explore the desert at their own pace.

The Atacama outpost is the latest landing spot for Our Habitas, a company born out of Burning Man whose ethos revolves around sustainable design, cultural experiences, and community empowerment. The company’s first outpost in South America, it exemplifies the brand’s quick-fire ascent: Our Habitas has grown since 2016 from a single boho-chic hotel in Tulum, Mexico, to 11 locations across four continents. (Recently, the brand raised eyebrows by announcing a $400 million expansion in Saudi Arabia, where it is building a circuit of at least four individual lodges.)

Chief Executive Officer Oliver Ripley says that a notable aspect of the property, a conversion of the former Altiplanico Hotel, is how it preserved the sturdy adobe bones while upgrading its interiors—a combo that was intended to lower the carbon footprint (and cost) of building the new lodge.

When seeking expansion opportunities for Our Habitas, Ripley says, “There is always an emphasis on discovery, adventure (and) nature.” In the Atacama, he found them all, thanks to the destination’s strong Atacameño identity and otherworldly landscapes in which NASA tests instruments for use on Mars.

Here’s a look at some of the most unique features at the new Our Habitas property, from a steamy sweat lodge to its hyperlocal desert cuisine.

Local design touches abound

Setting foot inside the property’s 51 rooms is meant to feel like entering a traditional Atacama home, with thick clay walls made of temperature-controlling adobe and grass roofs lined in brea, a native flowering plant. Pottery and wall tapestries come from Atacameño artisans who live in neighboring ayllus (Indigenous-run communities), while the sturdy wood furnishings come from Chilean craftspeople in the nation’s forested south.

Upcycled materials are a design feature

In refurbishing, Our Habitas made a point of “reusing and relocating existing elements of the hotel in new and exciting ways,” says Ripley. That’s why you’ll find the steel security gate from the former Altiplanico serving as the base of the new bar. Similarly, bricks from an exterior wall now tile the restaurant, and clay sun blockers once used to shade the parking area act as roofing for the wellness zone.

The spa highlights Atacameno practices

A highlight at the Atacama property is the clay sweat lodge, or temazcal, which is common among Indigenous groups of the Americas. Users set forth their intentions for the experience as a trained guide from the Indigenous community of Collasuyo pours herb-infused water atop fiery volcanic stones, heating the dome-like lodge with increasing levels of steam. The idea is to detoxify your body and remove stress in your mind. Additional wellness treatments inspired by Indigenous practices include a holistic Willka Kuti massage named after an Indigenous Amyara solstice celebratio, which uses using energizing coca leaf oil. Another is a Maqui Facial, which employs the endemic maqui berry, which is rich in antioxidants. Chakra alignments and Andes-inspired meditation sessions round out the lengthy wellness menu whose rates run from $100 (for a 60-minute Maqui Facial) to $170 (for a 90-minute Willka Kuti massage).

Dishes tend to tell a story

The onsite restaurant Almas (“souls,” in Spanish) has an “earth-to-table” approach that tries to share the history of the Atacama through flavor, using as many endemic ingredients as possible. Several dishes feature native herbs, including a red quinoa risotto with salty cachiyuyo leaves or the fresh razor clams from the Atacama coast, sprinkled with minty and citrusy rica-rica. (It adds a great punch to pisco sours, too.) Others showcase local cooking techniques, like the lamb chop baked in a traditional clay oven. Chef Guillermo Riviera Reyes’s menu features kalamata-like olives from the nearby Azapa Valley; plates sprinkled with a prized, high-altitude oregano from Socoroma; salad dressings based around the hazelnut-like legume chañar; and a flan made with the tamarind-shaped pods of the algarrobo trees that tower above the property.

Excursions reveal unearthly sights

Our Habitas is rare among San Pedro’s upmarket hotels in that it does not include guided adventures in its (much lower) room rates. Guests choose à la carte among a lengthy list of excursions (from $100-275 per person), including hikes and scenic drives up to the high-altitude plateau, or Altiplano, at the border with Bolivia and Argentina. Here, in parks such as Los Flamencos National Reserve, travelers find flamingo-filled lakes, blinding-white salt flats and lagoons so saline that swimmers bob on the surface like human ice cubes. Further north is the famed El Tatio complex: The largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere is filled with gurgling mud puddles, sputtering fountains and prismatic pools.

Cultural experiences are free

Although the hotel isn’t all-inclusive, some wellness activities (like yoga classes) and most of the cultural programming come without further charge — all part of the hotel’s plan to “emphasize the importance of experience,” says Ripley. Sound baths and movement classes help visitors tune in to the environment and tune out unnecessary noise. By night, the Atacama sky — studied by astronomers the world over due to its almost complete lack of cloud cover, moisture or light pollution — offers priceless spectacle. Local Atacameno musicians regularly play Andean music (think panpipes and flutes) in the evenings. Workshops on ceramics or medicinal plants give guests a greater appreciation for local arts and traditional wisdom, though they are conducted by a staff that includes just two Indigenous members. (Ripley and hotel staff declined to discuss the extent to which the Indigenous community helped shape the cultural programming; the programs are generally offered multiple times a week.)

The location combines village life with arresting vistas

The hotel’s location on the edge of San Pedro (population 5,000, about the size of Moab, Utah) makes it easy to explore village museums, cafes and craft markets by foot — the main plaza is merely a 12-minute walk down dusty roads — while also enjoying serene desert views that properties in town can’t offer. “I think you’ve got the best of both worlds,” says Hastings. “There’s easy access to town and easy access to get out of it.”

The grounds are meant for walking

Outdoor pathways wind through the property past native vegetation, including spiky cacti, feathery foxtail grasses and a newly planted herb garden. Ripley says this “encourages guests to wander around and take different daily routes to explore and discover new corners.” The ultimate goal, he adds, is “total immersion into the natural world.” Still, plenty of space is designed for connecting and communing with fellow guests.

Cocktails by the pool come with a view Guests kick back in loungers under the scorching sun with pisco cocktails and sauvignon blancs or semillons from Chilean valleys with cooler climates, such as Itata or Casablanca, as they tan by an L-shaped pool overlooking a bushy tapestry of desert flora. The poolside menu features such light plates as ceviches or lamb-filled empanadas.

The rooms have personality The hotel includes four distinct room types, all designed to sooth sun-weary eyes with cooling earth tones. The Pioneer Studio (from $300) is the smallest and sleeps two in a plush, king-sized bed. The Adventure Room (from $345) is slightly larger, with an additional lounge chair. The Explorer Suite (from $360) is nearly double the size of the Pioneer Studio and includes a desk area useful for remote work. The Trekker Villa (from $450) is the largest option; its private terrace comes in handy after sundown as the Milky Way flickers in the inky sky. Standout room features include wood-carved floor lamps with hand-woven shades and outdoor rain showers that are ideal for washing away the dust of the desert.

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©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

As someone who cares about my environmental impact and spending as little money as possible, life is full of fraught decisions.

Should I buy organic milk even though it’s twice as expensive? Or choose an electric car for $40,000 rather than a friend’s run-down Corolla for $3,000?

Should I make eye contact with the person on the street raising money to fight climate change or awkwardly pretend to be on a phone call?

The point is that my aversion to spending money often means I’m cutting corners environmentally. Yet when it comes to air travel, these preferences aren’t in conflict. In fact, reducing one’s travel carbon footprint can actually mean spending less on airfare.

The only downside: It means flying with airlines that pack you in (and treat you) like sardines.

The high cost of legroom

Flying burns a lot of fossil fuels — there’s no way around that fact. If the entire commercial aviation industry were a country, it would rank sixth (between Japan and Germany) in total emissions, according to an October 2019 report from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

But not all means of traveling by air have the same impact. More expensive seats, such as premium economy, business class and first class, burn more fuel per passenger than the sardine-like conditions at the back of the plane.

How much more? A lot.

Flying in first class on a widebody jet creates a carbon footprint nine times larger than flying in economy, according to a report from the World Bank’s Environment and Energy Team, Development Research Group.

That’s the first bit of good news for cheap, environmentally conscious travelers like me. You can save money and shrink your carbon footprint at the same time by choosing economy fares.

And that’s not all. Because not only does what cabin you fly in matter, but so does the plane’s layout.

Enter budget airlines

Imagine two types of bus: One that carries 50 passengers and one that carries 25. Assuming the fuel consumption is roughly similar for both, which bus would be more efficient in terms of gas burned per passenger mile?

Obviously, the more packed bus is more efficient.

Yet we often overlook the parallel with air travel. Some Boeing 737s, operated by low-cost airlines, carry far more passengers than the same 737s operated by airlines with first- and business–class seats, simply because they lack a first-class cabin.

That’s why budget airlines Frontier and Spirit ranked best regarding carbon dioxide emissions per seat mile (in grams) in a 2022 analysis by IBA, an aviation consulting firm.

In fact, the report specifically cites the high density (i.e., sardine-like) seating of Frontier’s aircraft as a major reason why the airline ranked so well.

Another reason budget airlines are dark-horse climate winners: They offer several nonstop flights.

For example, the new low-cost airline Zipair offers four routes from the U.S. directly to Tokyo. Flying direct in this way reduces emissions simply because it covers less distance and burns less fuel.

Flying direct often means paying more, but these low-cost airlines have turned that logic upside down. That means you can spend less, emit less and spend less time in the air.

So what’s the catch?

No such thing as a free soda

Low-cost airlines might be more environmentally friendly on the whole, and their fares can be cheaper on the surface, but actually saving money with them can be challenging. That’s because they generate much of their revenue through add-on fees on top of the base fare.

Expect to pay for everything from a can of soda to the opportunity to select your own seat. In fact, the cost of a flight with an airline like Spirit can quickly balloon past the cost of the same flight with a traditional carrier if you’re not careful.

That’s where stoicism comes in. Yeah, you’re paying and emitting less, but only because you’re giving up on “frills” like legroom and free drinks. That might be fine for a two-hour flight, but it will test even the steeliest nerves for a trans-Pacific one.

The trick is to pay for only the frills you actually care about. Budget airlines will try to push countless add-ons during checkout, from bundles to trip cancellation protection.

Some of these might be important to you, others less so. Being ruthless in turning down the latter is the only way to keep these costs low, and keep budget airline travel something you will want to continue doing in the future.

I like to treat this add-on fee system like a game that I’m winning by refusing to bite on needless add-ons. The fact that I’m reducing my carbon footprint while saving money is just the cherry on top.

The article Ask a Travel Nerd: Environmentally Friendly Air Travel for Cheap Stoics originally appeared on NerdWallet.

Trick or treat? Why not treat your family to a haunted holiday. Here are five to consider:

1. New Orleans, La.

A recent TripAdvisor survey ranked New Orleans as the spookiest city in the U.S., based on the number of spooky tours and events available to visitors. Among the options in NOLA is a family-friendly, small group tour during which your clan will learn about the legends that are part of the French Quarter’s storied past. It’s a spooky, but not over-the-top wander through an historic neighborhood said to be frequented by ghosts and goblins.

For more: www.Viator.com

2. Great Wolf Lodges

Choose from 18 resorts across the country where seasonal décor — think Fall leaves, pumpkins, and other ghostly treats — await youngsters. During October, select resorts will feature special packages through which families can swim through a sea of floating pumpkins to find their favorite gourd, embark on an immersive journey to reunite a little pumpkin with its family, and enjoy seasonal treats like cider and donuts while they decorating pumpkins.

Also, be on the lookout for Trick-Or-Treat Trails, a Monster Bash Dance Party, Howl-O-Ween trivia and engaging crafts. Visit the Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains, Pa., Gurnee, Ill., Grapevine, Texas, LaGrange, Ga. or Garden Grove, Calif. and you can check into a Pumpkin Spice Suite. That means you’’ll have access to bottomless Pumpkin Spice Lattes from the coffee shop located in the lodge, a daily amenity service that includes warm buns with pumpkin cream cheese frosting and sleep in a room with pumpkin pillows and pops of oranges and browns to further celebrate the season.

For more: www.GreatWolf.com

3. Sleepy Hollow, New York

Check out the brilliant autumnal display while hiking, biking, visiting historic attractions and celebrating the spooky season. Take in the Jack-o’-lantern Blaze where more than 7,000 individually hand-carved and illuminated jack-o’-lanterns glow in a historic, riverside landscape.

Learn more about Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow during a spine-chilling tour on the Irving estate. Take part in a literature-themed scavenger hunt and take in a special exhibit that highlights how the Legend has lived on in popular culture.

Take your chances during a haunted hayride and pay homage to the author and the season with a visit to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where Washington Irving is buried.

For more: www.visitsleepyhollow.com

4. Virginia City, Montana

Perhaps it’s the ghost of Calamity Jane who saunters back into town. Or maybe it’s the gold miner whose luck ran out. No one knows for sure, but the colorful mining town is said to be “spirited.” Once home to as many as 10,000 residents, lively saloons and dance halls, Virginia City was considered the capital of the Montana Territory.

Today, travelers who make their way to this well-preserved treasure are treated to old-time theater, music, train rides, living history demonstrations as well as walking or horse-drawn carriage tours. And, plenty of good ghost stories.

For more: www.virginiacity.com; www.visitmt.com

5. A haunted house near you

Sticky cobwebs, spine-chilling music, hair-raising sights. If you dare, find a haunted place near you and go boldly into the night.

During this spooky season expect fields of screams, terror in the cornfields and whole towns devoted to scaring you out of your wits. If you dare, you can find a chamber of horrors to suit your family’s tastes.

For more: www.hauntedhouse.com

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©2023 FamilyTravel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The City of Angels offers tourists a heavenly number of star-studded attractions. Many come with sky-high price tags, but not all. Some of the best sights, sounds, attractions and activities in the city are free.

Visitors can join Angelenos at play, gain an insider’s appreciation of the city and indulge in a plethora of pleasures without paying a penny.

Here’s where to go and what to do to maximize the Los Angeles experience:

Beaches

Life is a beach in LA. As if ocean, sunshine and long stretches of soft sand aren’t enough, LA beaches come with all sorts of enhancements. The beaches are free for the access, but they vary in style, substance and extracurricular activities (that may come with fees).

Santa Monica State Beach

All day and well into the night, the Santa Monica State Beach brims with fun. During the day, over 2 miles of sandy coastline lures beach lovers with surfing, swimming, sunbathing and a variety of sports. The 114-year-old Santa Monica Pier (the iconic end point of Route 66 — selfie anyone?) is a bright and buzzing spot from which to watch the sunset over the Pacific. The pier’s fee-based fun includes an amusement park, aquarium and food outlets.

Venice Beach

Tourists from around the world head to Venice Beach, not so much for sunbathing and swimming — although there is that, but rather to soak up the vibrant, boho spirit. Stroll along the2-plus-mile boardwalk rich with street performers, art galleries, casual food outlets and quirky souvenir shops. Gawk at the scantily dressed skaters who whiz around and the perfectly toned bodybuilders working out at Muscle Beach, an outdoor gym where the famous train. Participate in activities on the fishing pier, at the skate park, on different sports courts, or simply stroll and savor the scene.

Trails

Mellow weather. Flourishing flora and fauna. Panoramic views. LA provides the perfect setting for year-round hiking. These two exceedingly popular urban parks are filled with trails ranging from easy to challenging. Note: Best to wear sunscreen and hydrate when tackling any trail.

Griffith Park

This city-owned park spreads over 4,200 acres at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountain range and offers hikers a broad range of excitements, including breathtaking trails leading to the Griffith Observatory (free to visit — except for planetarium shows). Griffith Park is also home to the Hollywood Sign, as well as some of its best viewpoints. Leashed dogs are welcome on the trails.

Runyon Canyon Park

Highly popular with locals, so a bit crowded (think celebrities and those who come to see celebrities), Runyon Canyon Park covers 160 acres in the heart of Hollywood. Trails offer workouts of various difficulties and steep rises yield sweeping views of Hollywood, downtown LA and even Catalina Island on clear days. Don’t miss Rock Mandala, a meditative circle designed by artist Robert Wilson. The park sports some off-leash areas for canine companions.

Art Museums

Some are large. Some are small. And most are just right to delight a variety of special interests. LA hosts a wealth of museums dedicated to different subjects. While some charge hefty fees, a few display their treasures free of charge.

Although entrance is free, these museums require advance reservations with timed entrance (available on each museum’s website). Prepare to be wowed!

Getty Center

This crown jewel of the LA art scene sits at the top of a hill in the Santa Monica Mountains in Brentwood. Visitors must park in a designated lot (for a hefty fee) at the hill’s base and take a free, four-minute tram up to the center. With more than 120,000 objects in its collection, the center’s exhibits cover a broad time frame — from the Middle Ages to today — and a wide range of subjects including illuminated manuscripts, photography, decorative arts, sculpture and painting (from Rembrandt to Manet). Captivating modern architecture, lush landscaping and spectacular views complete the picture. More information at getty.edu/visit/center

The Broad

A modern architectural wonder located downtown, The Broad is a must-visit for fans of contemporary art. Galleries showcase works of more than 200 artists including such popular favorites as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. Timed entrance tickets give access to Yayoi Kusama’s incredible Infinity Mirror Room — one of the most popular installations in Los Angeles. More information at thebroad.org

Ethnic Enclaves

The ethnic communities of LA cover the world. Take your pick: Thai Town, Chinatown, Cambodia Town and the “Littles,” such as Little Saigon, Armenia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Moscow and many more. These are the places to explore different cultures, try special foods, shop for imports and enjoy unique festivals that express the neighborhood’s celebratory joy. Two to try:

Koreatown

The 3 square miles that make up Koreatown are packed with trendy fun. Shops, bars and particularly restaurants draw customers from all over Los Angeles. According to DiscoverLosAngeles.com, Koreatown not only houses more Koreans than anywhere else in the world outside of Korea, but also holds one of the largest concentrations of nightclubs and 24-hour businesses and restaurants in the country, and contains more large malls than any other similar-sized area in the U.S.

Little Tokyo

Little Tokyo began life in the 1880s, was recognized as a historic landmark in 1986, and remains the culture core for LA’s Japanese descendants. Covering an area of about five city blocks in downtown LA, the district holds the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center; the lovely, serene Garden of the Clear Stream; Buddhist temples; and shops selling video games and anime. Eateries specialize in Japanese delights such as ramen and sushi (the famed California roll was supposedly invented here).

Nightlife and entertainment

Yes, it is possible to go clubbing, attend concerts, discover new comedians and enjoy assorted entertainment in LA for free. Check online for free listings and tickets at TimeOut, Eventbrite and Discotech.

Only window shopping is free, but there are two areas where one can window shop and people watch — win-wins easy on the budget.

Rodeo Drive

A 2-mile street flashing famous shops, glitzy boutiques and legendary fashion houses, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills draws the wealthy Hollywood crowd. Pretty women shop here. Celebrities with tons of money do too. Good place to see how the other half fills their closets.

The Grove and The Original Farmers Market

Referred to as an open-air mall, The Grove in LA’s Melrose neighborhood emits an upscale, small-town main street ambiance. A double-deck trolley (free rides) travels the central corridor, looping around a water fountain that dances to piped tunes of Frank Sinatra and his contemporaries. The mall offers popular retail shops (See’s Candies gives free samples — yippee), a movie theater and restaurants. Next door, The Original Farmers Market, dating to 1934, draws both locals and tourists to enjoy shopping at the stalls of gourmet food purveyors that fill the market.

Catching the Vibe

Tour downtown to see rich and diverse architectural gems. Don’t miss the shining, stunningly dramatic Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Pay tribute to celebrities at both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in the forecourt of the nearby TCL Chinese Theatre (also known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre).

Drive (or stroll) through Beverly Hills to see celebrity homes (from a distance).

Cruise along Mulholland Drive (avoid rush hour) for glorious views captured in many movie scenes.

Look here, there, everywhere to behold awesome street art. Sculptures sit on street corners. Installations front buildings. Murals cover walls. Graffiti brightens alleys.

Color, creativity and pizazz thrives in most neighborhoods, but particularly in Venice and downtown’s Arts District.

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Many travelers are looking forward to a much-awaited vacation this year. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), daily traveler numbers for 2023 are approaching pre-pandemic (2019) levels.

If you’ve been considering applying for TSA PreCheck to streamline the process of airport security, here’s your guide to how it works, the interview process and more, along with some tips for using your membership for the first time.

What is TSA PreCheck?

TSA PreCheck is a Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) designed to expedite the process of getting through airport security. The program is managed by the TSA and gives passengers access to special security lines at participating airports in the United States. TSA PreCheck membership costs $78 (previously $85) and is good for five years.

TSA PreCheck is available in more than 200 airports and with 85 airlines across the United States. When you get to the security line after check-in, an agent will direct you to the PreCheck line after confirming your membership via your boarding pass.

This membership allows you to keep your light jacket, shoes and belt on, and liquids and electronics (like laptops) can stay inside your luggage, too. Then, it’s as simple as walking through a security scanner and you’re good to go to your gate.

How to participate in TSA PreCheck

Becoming a member of the TSA PreCheck program will require a few steps, starting with your application. To apply for TSA PreCheck, you must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or lawful permanent resident. There is no age restriction for applicants, and children of age 12 and under can use their parents’ or guardians’ memberships and need not officially apply.

Once you’ve applied with an enrollment provider, you’ll need to schedule an appointment at an enrollment center to complete a background check and fingerprinting. At this appointment, you’ll pay your membership fee and find out if you’ve been approved. Once you’ve been approved, you’ll receive a known traveler number (KTN) that you can use whenever you book a flight. It can take up to 60 days to receive your KTN, but most applicants receive their KTN within three to five days.

Complete the online application

The application for TSA PreCheck can be found on the TSA website under “Apply Now.” When completing your application, it’s very important that your name appears exactly as it does on your government identification. Some of the information you’ll need includes:

—Full name

—Date of birth

—Gender

—Preferred language

—A preferred method of contact (email or phone)

When you complete your application, you’ll be directed to set your appointment for your background check and fingerprinting, and you’ll be given a list of enrollment centers to choose from in your area. You’ll also have the opportunity to set a time and date for your appointment.

Complete the in-person interview at an enrollment center

TSA PreCheck allows walk-ins for interviews, but applicants with appointments are prioritized. Appointments are scheduled to last about 10 minutes (if the enrollment center is busy, it may take a bit longer). It’s best to schedule a TSA PreCheck appointment while completing your application, and the earlier you can schedule it, the better. You’ll be given the option to choose from a variety of enrollment centers in your area, along with different days and times.

At your appointment, you’ll be required to present approved identification documents. This includes an unexpired U.S. passport or else a valid photo ID and a document that meets citizenship requirements (such as a U.S. birth certificate). You’ll also be fingerprinted and pay your membership fee. Membership fees are nonrefundable and can be paid with a credit card, debit card, money order, company check or certified/cashier’s check.

The interview itself is pretty low-key. You’ll be asked to verify the information on your application and may also be asked about your employment history and travel habits. If you have any criminal history, you should be prepared to give more information about that.

How to get TSA Precheck for free

Getting the most out of TSA PreCheck actually starts before you use the service. In fact, many travel credit cards provide a statement credit to cover the cost of TSA PreCheck or Global Entry membership. So, if you have an eligible credit card — like the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, for example — you’ll get reimbursed up to $100 for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry.

To receive the credit, you’ll simply pay the fee with your eligible credit card. Also check out Bankrate’s travel toolkit for tips and tricks on how to maximize travel with a credit card.

Using TSA PreCheck for the first time

Once you have your TSA PreCheck membership, here are some tips that can help you make the most of it:

—Make sure you use your KTN whenever you book a flight to ensure TSA PreCheck shows up on your boarding pass.

—If you’re a frequent flyer, add your KTN to your profile.

—Do online check-in for your flight 24 hours ahead of time to make sure your PreCheck status is there. If it isn’t, contact the airline.

—Arrive at the airport at least two hours ahead of your flight to make sure your PreCheck status is confirmed (if you aren’t able to do so online or by phone).

—Be sure you are traveling through an airport with TSA PreCheck services.

Does one TSA PreCheck membership work for families?

The short answer to this question is no. TSA PreCheck membership doesn’t automatically transfer to your family members. The one exception is children of age 12 and under. Children in this age category can go through the TSA PreCheck line with a parent or guardian who has membership in the program.

Children of ages 13 to 17 may also be able to use the TSA PreCheck lane if they’re traveling with a parent or guardian who has TSA PreCheck and if they have the TSA PreCheck indicator on their boarding pass. However, their use of the lane is not guaranteed, and they may be required to go through standard security screening.

How to update personal information for TSA PreCheck

Your TSA PreCheck membership is good for five years. If during that time your personal information changes, you’ll need to update it as soon as you can with the provider that enrolled with. The most direct way to do so is to call it at 855-347-8371 (for IDEMIA) or 833-777-1811 (for Telos), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET. You can also send an inquiry online to get information about how to change your personal information. This may take a little longer, however, because you will have to wait for a response.

The bottom line

If you do any domestic travel, having TSA PreCheck can be a real perk. Participating in this Trusted Traveler Program will enable you to breeze through security lines. While there is a membership fee of $78 to participate in this program, several credit cards offer members credits that cover this application fee. There are other Trusted Traveler Programs from the government that offer different benefits. If you’re looking to have a quicker re-entry into the U.S. after international travel, Global Entry is the program to look at — and it includes TSA PreCheck membership, too.

________

Key takeaways

—TSA PreCheck membership can help you get through airport security faster.

—With TSA PreCheck, you can keep a light jacket, shoes and belt on, and you won’t have to remove your laptop or liquids from your bag.

—To apply for TSA PreCheck, you’ll need to fill out a short online form and complete an in-person appointment at an enrollment center.

—Many travel credit cards offer a statement credit to cover the entire cost of TSA PreCheck membership (currently $78).

©2023 Bankrate online. Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Paele Kiakona is not ready to go back to work. Still reeling after August wildfires ravaged his hometown of Lahaina, he doesn’t want to serve tourists, pouring brut champagne or topping their mai tais with honey-liliko’i foam.

“I’ve seen people dead on the street,” Kiakona said. “My grandma’s house is gone. My whole town died.”

The 28-year-old Hawaii native who worked as a bartender at a farm-to-table restaurant north of Lahaina is wary of fielding questions, including what he says is now the ultimate dreaded icebreaker: “Did you lose your house in the fire?”

In this moment, he said, visitors aren’t the ones who need his care.

“Our aloha is reserved for our family right now,” Kiakona said. “It’s not just endless aloha.”

Hawaii is famous for its “aloha spirit,” a concept rooted in Native Hawaiian culture that long ago was commodified into the guiding philosophy for resorts and other businesses catering to tourists. More than a chill tropical greeting — an exotic salutation used in place of hello and goodbye — aloha is defined by state law as “mutual regard and affection” and extending “warmth in caring with no obligation in return.”

It’s a spirit that’s been in abundance among locals as people helped each other after the fire. But as tourists return to West Maui, edging closer to the charred ashes of a disaster in their search for paradise, some Hawaiians are reassessing what “aloha” means to them, and how much of it, exactly, they want to give to strangers when so many in their community have lost homes and loved ones.

They’re not withdrawing aloha, they say, just redefining and redistributing it.

“Aloha has commercially been sold as mai tais and a good time, and that the arms will be welcome and ready for you,” said Kaliko Kaauamo, 37, a taro farmer and curriculum writer for the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. “Aloha, it’s not always happy and sunshine and rainbows … sometimes having aloha is screaming and crying and being there to hold people in their grief.”

Ninety-eight people died from the fire that raged through the historic town of Lahaina on Aug. 8, destroying or damaging more than 2,200 structures. This month, the state reopened West Maui, even though many blue-collar residents say it is too soon to greet visitors with warm smiles, alohas and fresh flower leis.

Hawaiian hospitality is a core part of Maui’s economy. With nearly 40% of the island’s gross domestic product linked to tourism, Gov. Josh Green has argued that thousands of jobs and the region’s economy would be jeopardized if West Maui resorts remained shuttered to visitors. But a significant number of workers say they should not be expected to welcome tourists at the hotels and condos north of Lahaina until they have schools and stable housing.

More than 6,800 Lahaina residents are sheltering in hotel rooms or rental condos with no firm reassurance of how long they will be able to stay.

Kiakona, an organizer of the grassroots activist group Lahaina Strong, warned that tourists who flock to the golden sand beaches and hotels with swim-up grotto bars and spas offering $200 massages could face backlash from locals who fear they will be priced out of their hometown.

“We made our plea. You decided not to listen,” Kiakona said. “The blood is on your hands.”

As one West Maui resident wrote on a sign to protest the reopening: “FRESH OUT OF ALOHA.”

::

Tension has long existed between Hawaii locals and visitors.

In 1778, British explorer Capt. James Cook was welcomed when he anchored off the Hawaiian islands by locals eager to trade cuttlefish, breadfruit and pigs for nails and iron tools. But he and his sailors eventually overstayed their welcome, depleting supplies and spreading venereal diseases. Cook was eventually stabbed to death.

In the early 1800s, Christian missionaries arrived in Hawaii, encouraged by Native refugees who had fled after the brutal wars of King Kamehameha’s conquest and urged Westerners to evangelize the islands.

Then sugar and pineapple magnates from the U.S. and Europe followed, destroying the ecosystem by digging up native taro and banana trees and draining the wetlands to irrigate their plantations. They overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Queen Liliuokalani in 1893, and five years later the U.S. annexed Hawaii.

By then the commercialization of “aloha” was already underway. George Kanahele, the late native Hawaiian historian and activist, wrote that aloha-themed souvenirs were popular among Hawaii’s earliest tourists. Among the bestsellers was sheet music for the song “Aloha Oe,” written and composed in 1878 by Queen Liliuokalani, when she was a princess. Later came the Aloha shirt, patented in 1936.

The allure of aloha as a slogan only grew after 1959, the year that Hawaii became a state and Pan American Airways inaugurated jet travel to Honolulu — part of a campaign by state leaders to reduce economic dependence on plantations by expanding tourism.

Today “aloha” is printed on cheap souvenir T-shirts, shot glasses and postcards depicting women in grass-skirts. It is etched below a rainbow on every Hawaiian vehicle license plate. It is even part of a job title as resorts hire “Aloha ambassadors” to share traditional Hawaiian cultural practices.

But Aloha goes deeper for many native Hawaiians. “Aloha” literally means [Alo] ‘presence’ and [Hā] ‘breath.’ Hawaii’s government introduced the Aloha Spirit law in 1986, an effort inspired by Pilahi Paki, a Maui-born poet and philosopher who spoke of the aloha spirit at a 1970 conference on the islands’ future.

At a time when the U.S. was entrenched in the Vietnam War and many Hawaiians felt they were losing links to their history, culture and language, Paki argued that “the world will turn to Hawaii as they search for world peace because Hawaii has the key … and that key is ALOHA.”

This idea of aloha as a radical act of love with no conditions attached has some wondering whether it allows outsiders to take advantage. Some Hawaiian cultural experts say aloha is a complex and fluid idea, too often misconstrued as a sweet and servile way of tolerating visitors.

“To suggest that Hawaiians avoid direct confrontation out of fear or some false notion of aloha is to ignore the whole set of operative values that Hawaiians respected, such as aggressiveness, courage, dignity, honor, competitiveness, and rivalry,” Kanahele wrote in “Ku Kanaka — Stand Tall: A Search For Hawaiian Values.”

After the fire, Kaauamo said, Maui residents were resetting boundaries.

“It’s Aloha 2.0., in that, as much as we serve others, it’s time to serve the self,” she said. “And as much as I give so freely to strangers, I will now give that to my neighbor, to people closer in the bubble.”

::

When Mahealani Criste sees tourists driving around the Lahaina bypass or carrying folding chairs to the beach, she wants to scream: What the hell are you guys doing here?

The 37-year-old reservations agent for a vacation rental company applied for a leave of absence without pay this month because she could not face going back to her job curating perfect vacations for visitors.

Answering questions about snorkel cruises and lomilomi massages felt like too much after her apartment complex — one of the few affordable housing units in town — collapsed in the fire. As she struggled to find a new rental for herself and her two children, she worried she might hang up on tourists, or scream, or cry.

“You’re making vacation dreams come true, setting their itinerary, but there is no itinerary,” she said flatly. “Our town burned.”

Still, some residents who lost their homes are welcoming tourists.

Beberlyn Aveno, a 56-year-old Filipino immigrant, was back selling puka shell necklaces at her kiosk at the Whalers Village shopping mall in Kaanapali recently. She wished more tourists were back; some days she made only $20.

But Aveno said it wasn’t just the money that kept her working; she would go crazy, she said, if she stayed in her cramped, temporary hotel room.

“It’s good to get out and have people to talk to,” she said. “I accept everyone. It’s healing.”

Grace Tadena, a 55-year-old Filipino immigrant and front desk agent at the Ritz Carlton 10 miles north of Lahaina, said she was glad the resort had reopened for tourism.

“It is the bread and butter. We can’t survive without our business.”

Most tourists, Tadena said, had been kind — and she, in turn, was not holding back her aloha, a value she embraced after moving to Hawaii in 1989. “Aloha stays with me wherever I am,” she said.

But many locals say they no longer have the bandwidth to overlook some visitors’ entitled or insensitive behavior.

Just days after the fire, locals were outraged when a charter boat brought tourists to snorkel around Lahaina before search and rescue teams had finished scouring the water for bodies. A few residents have almost come to blows with tourists who stopped on the side of highway to snap photos of the burn zone.

Courtney Lazo, 33, a real estate agent who grew up in Lahaina and lost her family home, could not bring herself to show properties — or aloha — to visitors as she struggled to find housing for her husband, two teens, father and 81-year-old grandma.

Tourists at the resort where she is staying have stopped her with questions. However well meaning they might have been, she finds it infuriating to explain her situation over and over to strangers.

“You’re choosing to vacation here in Lahaina and create memories in the middle of our broken lives and burnt downtown.”

::

Many visitors to Hawaii are charmed by the idea of aloha, locals say, without grasping the impact of their presence of the island.

“There’s postcard Hawaii — Elvis and Don Ho and grass skirts — what everybody comes here for,” said Naiwi Teruya, 35, a cook who worked before the fire as an executive chef at Down the Hatch seafood restaurant. “They don’t understand the struggles that the people who live here have been going through, like fighting for water for many, many, many generations.”

The fire, many locals argue, is a direct result of colonial and modern development practices that uprooted native trees and diverted water. Over the last half-century, a string of upscale resorts with tropical gardens, lavish pools and golf greens have risen north of Lahaina, draining water from local land and contributing to a housing crisis.

In recent decades, a growing number of visitors snapped up condos as second homes and short-term rentals. Now the median home price in the Lahaina area is $1.7 million, out of reach for blue-collar workers earning $20 to $25 an hour.

Many of those who are trying to find housing — to replace apartments that burned or to stay in while their homes are rebuilt or remain off-limits — blame outsiders for driving up prices.

Tiffany Teruya, 37, Naiwi’s sister and a single mother who lost her rental apartment in the fire, said she could not find a new place to live on west Maui for her and her 13-year-old son without government assistance. The cheapest apartment she could find cost $3,000 a month — more than double what she paid before the fire.

It is time, Teruya believes, to purge the island of short-term rentals.

“I would like to see vacation rentals gone from every neighborhood on the whole island,” Teruya told the city council. “Lots of us lost everything, and the very little some of us may have left, we going to fight for that.”

::

Among locals, there is no shortage of aloha.

In the days after the fire, as little aid came from the government, Lahaina schoolteachers, surfers, lifeguards, bartenders, roofers and carpenters rallied to help their neighbors.

They hauled in water, gas, air purifiers and respirators in boats, trucks and dugout canoes. They set up a network of relief hubs in parks and front yards offering displaced residents fresh water, cans of Spam, and bags of rice, diapers and medicine. They provided massages and acupuncture and story time for kids.

Local fishermen hauled in blue striped snapper from the sea, hunters caught wild boar in the mountains. Cooks fried up the fish and roasted pork for their neighbors.

The bonds between islanders, Naiwi Teruya said, had gotten closer.

“I don’t want to serve everyone who has everything,” Teruya said after finishing a shift frying fish at a distribution hub at Honokōwai Beach Park. “I would much rather take care of people suffering.”

Still, even though Teruya preferred that West Maui remained shuttered to tourists, he said he would keep on giving aloha to everyone.

“We have a sacred aloha,” he said. “We say it because no matter how down we are, we can still deliver the greeting and the feeling behind it, because we’re not a weak people.”

The word sets the tone, Teruya said, and it reminds people, even strangers, that they’re part of a community.

“The word ‘aloha’ is not just this thing you do because your job tells you to do it,” he said. “It’s our way of saying, ‘I can see you, you’re a person. And I’m also a person.’ “

©2023 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Art lovers will want to head straight for the Seattle Center, where Chihuly Garden and Glass houses Dale Chihuly’s dazzling, vibrant glass sculptures — and the museum’s new restaurant lets you sip and dine among his collections. But you can also visit glass art studios around town, watch glassblowing demonstrations and even try making a molten glass keepsake yourself.

Consider it an immersive adventure of the most artistic sort.

Explore the Chihuly legacy

You’ll find Chihuly’s wildly creative glass installations at museums and venues around the world, from the Toyama Glass Art Museum in Japan to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, which holds the largest permanent collection of his work.

But Washington holds a special place in the heart of this legendary Tacoma-born glass artist. You’ll find his works displayed at the Tacoma Art Museum, on the University of Puget Sound campus — where the alum dedicated a glass installation to his favorite professor — and, of course, in Seattle where Chihuly’s studio lies just a few miles from the 74-acre urban park that houses Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Just steps from the Space Needle, the museum’s striking glass edifice and sculpture garden showcase towering glass structures both indoors and out. The massive, suspended scarlet and yellow Glasshouse Sculpture was installed in 2012, when the museum first opened. Indoors, you’ll find the colorful Mille Fiori — a floral garden of glass that practically glows — and boats filled with ikebana and glass floats and so much more.

If you’re curious about how glass is made, glassmiths or gaffers give outdoor glassblowing demonstrations at the museum’s retrofitted 1967 Airstream — it’s known as the Community Hot Shop — daily starting at 11:15 a.m.

Set a new bar

Many museums have cafeterias or restaurants. This one has a cocktail bar — dubbed simply The Bar. It’s a testament to the Pacific Northwest, with locally sourced ingredients and seasonal menus that complement the cocktail program; they also serve beer and wine.

The Bar is almost a second museum with 25 of Chihuly’s private collections on display. Antique accordions hang from the ceiling, small glass bottles and other trinkets nestle under the glass-topped dining tables and Chihuly drawings line the walls.

Sip a barrel-aged negroni or a pistachio-infused rye and bourbon Inkwell ($17 each) alongside warm, smoked king salmon dip ($13) and crispy calamari ($11), showcasing the PNW’s oceanic offerings (there’s also fish and chips, soft shell crab and miso clams). Or opt for a Columbia Valley wine alongside slightly spicy Bolognese pasta ($16) or wagyu beef sliders with smoked scamorza cheese ($17 for two).

For those abstaining from alcohol, the housemade sodas are anything but basic — think red wine vinegar, blood orange and cedar smoke ($9). And for those who came for the social experience, communal cocktails ($55, serves four) are available as well.

Blow your own

Once you’ve accumulated enough inspiration (but preferably not immediately after indulging in a cocktail), head to the Seattle Glassblowing Studio, a half-mile walk away. Here, a team of talented artists waits to open their kilns and share their knowledge of glassblowing with you as you embark on a DIY project in the hot shop.

The studio gets hot, and protective gloves and goggles are required, but the experience is surprisingly interactive. So choose a project from the wall of beginner options — paperweights, bowls, perhaps a decorative pumpkin — and let the pros help you get started.

There are a few safety rules and tricks — the practice requires constant movement, for example, so the melted materials don’t fall back into the oven as you’re working. Follow the studio’s guidance, and you’ll be just fine.

Paperweights offer the most creative control. But — happy surprise — you can use the bowls you make here, as long as you keep them out of the heat. Don’t put them in a dishwasher, for example, or microwave. (Tip: Ship your handmade glass art home, so your creation makes it safely.)

Start a collection

Looking to do a little shopping? The shelves at the Seattle Glassblowing Studio shop offer everything from large vases to animal trinkets; some, perhaps, created by the pro who just assisted you.

Then explore more glassblowing studios and shops. Among the possibilities: Seattle’s Totally Blown Glassworks, Glasshouse Studio, Avalon Glassworks, DeCicio Artisan Glass, Karaba Art Glass and Fremont Antique Glass Co., as well as galleries such as Edge of Glass and Blowing Sands.

Think outside the box when choosing blown glass. You can buy artwork to grace your shelves, of course, but many blown glass items — drinking glasses, lamps, jewelry dishes — are made to be used. They’re beautiful and practical at the same time.

If You Go

Chihuly Garden & Glass: Admission is $26-$35. The museum opens at 10 a.m. daily at 305 Harrison St. in Seattle. The Bar is open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 pm.; www.chihulygardenandglass.com.

Seattle Glassblowing Studio: The studio is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 2227 Fifth Ave. Hands-on glassblowing experiences ($70 and up) are available daily by reservation; www.seattleglassblowing.com.

Totally Blown Glassworks: Hours vary. 5607 Corson Ave.; www.dehannajones.com.

Glasshouse Studio: Opens at 10 a.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. Sundays at 311 Occidental Ave. in Pioneer Square; www.glasshouse-studio.com.

Avalon Glassworks: Open noon to 4 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at 2914 SW Avalon Way; www.avalonglassworks.com.

DeCicio Artisan Glass: Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays at 5416 Shilshole Ave. NW; www.decicioglass.com.

Karaba Art Glass: Opens at noon Mondays, 11 a.m. Tuesday-Sunday at Pike Place Market; www.theglasspumpkin.com.

Fremont Antique Glass Co: Make an appointment to view glass production and shop at the warehouse by emailing fremontantiqueglass@gmail.com. 3614 Second Ave. NW; www.fremontantiqueglass.com

Edge of Glass Gallery: Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 513H N. 36th St.; www.edgeofglass.com.

Blowing Sands: Call 206-783-5314 for hours or to shop by appointment. 5805 14th Ave. NW; www.blowingsands.com

I’m not on safari nor near a zoo. I’m at Pennsylvania’s Nemacolin, (nemacolin.com), the poshest resort you’ve probably never heard of.

But like that lion’s morning roar (a rescue by the resort’s owner), Nemacolin is making itself known.

Tucked into Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains – about a 90 minute drive from the Pittsburgh Airport – Nemacolin came about on something of a whim: Lumber magnate Joseph Hardy (84 Lumber Company), purchased a hunting lodge on the property for his daughter Maggie when she was 21, mostly because she loved the outdoors.

But Maggie Hardy, who still oversees the resort’s operation along with her son PJ Magerko Liquorice, found her calling on those grounds and built over the years an expansive, welcoming resort.

It’s moneyed roots are evident: statues rise out of water and peer down from rooftops, museums display historic planes and cars, among other treasures. Hallways and great rooms are lined with art – you glance up from your evening cocktail and see a Botero.

There’s camp too: Zoltar from the movie “Big” greets you in one hallway, and there are all kinds of other surprises as well.

There’s lots to do: Two Pete Dye championship golf courses, mini golf, pools and more pools, a golf academy, a sporting clay range, enormous spa, a fishing set up, off-road driving programs, restaurants and just about every type of lodging (from basic comfort condos all the way up to butler serviced Chateau rooms). You can get gourmet ice cream in a classic shop or spend some time reflecting at a piece of the Berlin Wall.  In other words, if you want it, they’ve probably got it.

Their tagline is “Real Life Magic,” and it shows. Nemacolin is eclectic, amped with elegance. And it holds 24 Forbes stars for its hotels, restaurants and spa.

Now, with a half a billion dollar upgrade in motion, it’s not going to be that top spot you’ve never heard of much longer.

While I was there mostly for the golf, I love a trip that weaves in several experiences.  I was wowed by the food, from the thick, perfect steaks at Rockwell’s Bistro to the amazing breakfast sandwich I grabbed at Patisserie, to the pasta I made with my own hands at an on-site cooking class.

The resort is sprawling: all that fun is laid out over 2,200 acres. But their shuttle service means you don’t need a car.  When, while on my way to the spa, I mentioned I’d yet to visit the on-site car museum, my driver said “I can drop you off any time and pick you up any time. If it’s not open, I’ll open it!” That’s service.

There are family pools and adult-only pools, and a huge one – open year round –where you can float and watch a movie, football game, the World Series or whatever big thing is going on at the time.

And while I was there in warm weather, there’s a small ski area poolside, a perfect spot to learn the sport or grab a few runs.

I found my favorite spots at Nemacolin. On the 16th tee, high above the course, stands the statue of Chief Nemacolin, namesake of the resort and friend to George Washington. Outside the grand entrance to the Chateau stands a bronze statue called “Awakening to Freedom.” It depicts a woman, arms wide open, ready to take all of it in – every notion, moment, taste and sight.

That’s a great thing about Nemacolin: There’s always more to savor.

According to data provided by FlightAware, an online tracker of worldwide daily commercial airline activity, the Miramar-based discount carrier led the industry with 98 flight cancellations as the day unfolded.

“We’ve canceled a portion of our scheduled flights to perform a necessary inspection of a small section of 25 of our aircraft,” Spirit said in a statement. “While this action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, the impact to our network is expected to last several days as we complete the inspections and work to return to normal operations.”

Neither the FAA nor Spirit identified what the inspections entailed.

“The FAA is aware that Spirit Airlines removed approximately 25 of its Airbus airplanes from service to conduct a mandatory maintenance inspection,” the agency said in a statement provided to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “The FAA will ensure that the matter is addressed before the airplanes are returned to service.”

It remained unclear how broadly the cancellations are affecting Spirit’s route network, which includes destinations across the U.S., in Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

The FlightAware data showed flight cancellations in general were nominal Friday morning at South Florida’s three international airports in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

What customers should do next

In its statement, airline management encouraged passengers to “monitor their email and check their flight status on spirit.com or the Spirit Airlines App before heading to the airport.”

Travelers whose Spirit flights are canceled can accept a rebooking on the next available flight. Or, they can cancel their booking entirely and ask for a refund, “which may be credited back to your original form of payment or as a Spirit Airlines flight credit,” according to the personal finance website NerdWallet.

The U.S. Department of Transportation says if a traveler’s flight is canceled, and an airline cannot rebook the flier or the person decides not to travel, the customer is entitled to a full refund of the unused portion of the trip. That also includes fees charged for services such as seat selection and baggage checking.

Spirit, known as an ultra low-cost carrier, is poised to be taken over by discounter JetBlue Airways of New York for $3.8 billion.

But the Biden Administration has sued to stop the combination. An antitrust trial on the matter is scheduled to start Monday before a federal judge in Boston.

Still in our Debbie Downer costume, we must note that cruise vacations are not exempt from holiday hazards at the hands of heisters, or worse. While it’s almost always smooth sailing for passengers onboard, conditions onshore can get choppy if one isn’t cautious.

Whether arriving by land, air or sea, tourists are prime targets for crime because they typically carry fat wallets and other personal valuables while being distracted. Lacking in the local landscape, language or culture adds to a visitor’s vulnerability. Those coming by ship can be more at risk because they are typically less likely to report an incident so not to eat into their fleeting time in port.

Scary stuff, but consulting with a travel advisor named Uncle Sam in advance of your trip could quell some nerves. The U.S. Department of State offers country-specific safety and security information at www.travel.state.gov/destination. The Bureau of Consular Affairs’ travel alerts and advisories are especially beneficial when choosing a cruise itinerary. Looking at voyages to the Caribbean that include calls to Roatan and Puerto Quetzal? Popular as these stops in Honduras and Guatemala are, respectively, the U.S. government strongly suggests you think otherwise as rampant crime is a chief reason both countries at press time were at Level 3, the tier that comes with the warning of “reconsider travel.”

Not everything is “irie” in Jamaica, either, as the local slang for “all right” contradicts alarming crime statistics that earn the home of three of the most popular ports in the Western Caribbean — Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios — the second-most severe level. Jamaica is notorious for its reckless drivers, sketchy tour guides and aggressive vendors whose wares aren’t necessarily the kind allowed back on the ship.

The fact that cruise lines go where trouble follows, sometimes several times a day at a single port considered high risk by the U.S. government, isn’t lost on maritime lawyer and TikTok star Spencer Aronfeld (www.aronfeld.com).

“Cruise lines have an obligation to keep passengers safe, and yet they still make calls in countries and port neighborhoods deemed dangerous to visit by the State Department,” said the Miami-based Aronfeld. “Every season, tens of thousands of passengers are dropped off in ports in Level 3 countries without warning. What the cruise lines are doing in the process is lulling people with a false sense of security.”

There is no specter of sugarcoating where the current fighting between Israeli and Hamas forces is involved. Since the latest war in the Middle East broke out on Oct. 7, cruise lines making calls to the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa have either canceled voyages outright or altered itineraries to send ships elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Celebrity, Holland America, MSC, Norwegian, Oceania, Princess and Regent Seven Seas are among the cruise lines that have announced schedule changes effective through at least November, if not the indefinite future.

While no place is 100% safe, dozens of cruise favorites around the globe are in solid standing with the bureau and other influencers that publicly track crime statistics. Level 1 countries that roll out the welcome mat on gangways include Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Curacao, French Polynesia, French West Indies, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Singapore and Sint Maarten/Saint Martin (so, the Dutch and French sides of the island).

With more than a million visitors in post-pandemic 2022, nearly 75% arriving by ship, George Town in Cayman Islands is the busiest international cruise port in a Level 1 country. And why not? Cayman has stunning tropical beaches, world-class luxury resorts, superb food and extremely low crime that many contribute to the nation’s high quality of life. At the Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort & Spa, for example, a perfectly sunny day this past summer was made even more idyllic when not a single peddler or suspicious character shared the white sandy shore with us holiday makers — a rarity in the Caribbean, where on most beaches the wise don’t all go into the ocean together; someone must always stay back to mind the stuff.

Destinations given Level 2 status come with an “exercise increased caution” advisory. Mexico is on that sublist mostly due to such violent crime as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery, which the U.S. government says is “widespread and common” south of the border. Turkey also was at Level 2 at press time, but for different reasons; the government considers it a target for terrorism. The average tourist, however, is more likely to encounter snatching and pickpocketing within the country’s economic and cultural capital of 16 million people; frenetic Istanbul is a common stop on Mediterranean cruise itineraries. Venice is in the same gondola. Petty crime against visitors is a big issue there, which makes wearing a money belt as smart as getting gelato where the longest lines are. Rome, Florence, Pisa, Naples and even Vatican City are other havens for unsaintly activity in and around Italy. Infamous as Italy is for its petty crime on tourists, the main reason the country is at Level 2 is, like Turkey, the threat of terrorism.

Not all nations share the same dangers, of course, but each does have its good and bad sections — something that the State Department’s travel advisories don’t often factor in. After all, if the United States was listed, would it be fair for Honolulu, considered the safest American city with over 300,000 people, to be lumped in with St. Louis, supposedly the most dangerous? If it were, all of America would likely be at Level 2 or 3. The U.S. Department of State does issue a warning for one domestic cruise destination: While in Puerto Rico, travelers are advised to take necessary precautions to avoid such petty crimes as theft and muggings. Like on the mainland, PR also has its share of public protests, something else to avoid.

The U.S. government’s one-size-fits-all approach for its advisories effects cruise mainstay Haiti as well. The country is assigned to the same Level 4 (“do not travel”) category as Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Iraq and Iran, but several cruise lines operate private destinations there. These private islands, as they’re called, are regarded as some of the safest places in the world for shore excursions. That why it’s probably best to heed these travel advisories, but not as gospel. To wit, Jeddah is an up-and-coming cruise port in Saudi Arabia — the region is rich in UNESCO World Heritage archaeological sites — and while reported crime on tourists is low there, the country, itself, is at Level 3. Justification for the harsh ranking is an apparent threat of missile and drone attacks on civilian facilities, but the hot zones indicated by the State Department are far from Jeddah and likely inconsequential to cruise ships.

“I know it might be hard for Americans to believe, but Jeddah is one of the world’s safest ports,” said maritime lawyer Aronfeld. “They don’t have the same day-to-day crime that tarnishes so many otherwise amazing cruise destinations.”

Whether traveling to Montego Bay, Newport Bay or anywhere on holiday, taking a few precautions can make a globetrotting world of difference. Here are some common-sense tips for safekeeping:

• Be extra cautious where and when risks are moderate to high.
• Avoid isolated areas and travel in groups when possible.
• Leave valuables in your stateroom or hotel safe, and what you do wear or carry should always be secured, if not inconspicuous.
• Two words: money belt.
• Two more words: drink responsibly.
• Go on YouTube and TikTok to familiarize yourself with local scams.
• Have local emergency numbers handy including your country’s nearest embassy or consulate.
• When personal safety could be at risk, ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”
• Trust your instincts.

Safe travels!

Travelers encountered many weather surprises this summer, from wildfires in Europe to knee-deep mud at Burning Man. Indeed, it was the hottest summer on record around the globe, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a prepared statement published Sept. 6. “Our planet has just endured a season of simmering — the hottest summer on record. Climate breakdown has begun.”

Shifting weather patterns are raising questions about where, when, how and whether tourists will travel.

For example, does it still make sense to visit Italy in July, despite high temperatures, large crowds and minimal air conditioning? Or should “peak” travel season move to the more hospitable autumn or spring months?

Tourism destinations are starting to take note — and get worried — about the toll climate change could take on this enormous industry.

Hot destinations

Escaping to the Spanish coast for the summer used to sound like a dream. This year it turned into more of a nightmare for Mediterranean travelers. The coastal city of Valencia, Spain, saw temperatures reach 116 degrees Fahrenheit in August, a record high. That came amid Spain’s limits on air conditioning use in public spaces, leaving tourists to sweat it out.

These trends are only likely to get worse, driving travelers away from hot beachside destinations in Europe, according to a July report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Southern coastal regions such as Greece, Italy and Spain are expected to see a drop in tourism if temperatures continue to increase.

On the other hand, colder destinations in Northern Europe could actually see more vacationers. Denmark, France and the United Kingdom could receive more tourists because of higher temperatures, according to the report. Greenland, which is mostly covered with ice, is expecting to see far more tourists in the coming decades, with a new airport set to open in 2024.

Closer to home, many popular destinations have already been affected by rising temperatures. The namesake glaciers of Glacier National Park have lost an average of 40% of their size between 1966 and 2015, according to the National Park Service. Florida’s coral reefs were bleaching and dying under the stress of record ocean temperatures this summer.

Peak travel seasons

Summers are for vacations — that’s a truth so universally acknowledged as to be almost self-evident. Families travel while kids are out of school, and office workers flee to vacation in ideal weather.

Yet, as summers continue to warm, these vacations could give way to “shoulder season” alternatives in spring and autumn months. In other words, tourists could change when (rather than where) they visit.

Indeed, this change may already be taking place. Short-term rental analytics platform AirDNA reported that occupancy rates at mountain and lake destinations in October 2022 were nearly as high as 2019’s peak occupancy (in July), bucking the typical sharp downward trend after the summer.

Cherry blossoms in Japan are flowering 11 days earlier than they used to, according to a 2022 report in the journal Environmental Research Letters. This has shifted the tourist-attracting cherry blossom festival from April into March.

Changes in flexible working conditions, as well as pent-up demand from the pandemic, could also be contributing to the rise of shoulder season travel.

Yet as more travelers take stock of changing weather patterns, they will likely adjust their schedules to avoid stifling summer heat. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre estimates that southern coastal regions could lose as much as 10% of tourists during peak summer months.

A climate catch-22

A changing climate will affect how and when tourists travel. Yet this causation runs the other way, as well: Tourism is itself affecting the climate.

Tourism accounts for about 8% of global emissions, according to some estimates. A single trans-Atlantic flight would require an acre of forest to absorb its carbon emissions. Although the airline industry is racing to reduce emissions, it lags far behind other major emitters, such as passenger vehicles, in making meaningful change.

What does that mean for airline passengers? Either they must begin reducing the number of miles they fly, or governments may begin imposing restrictions in order to reduce emissions.

For example, France has already banned short-haul domestic flights for routes already serviced by rail. That is, if travelers can get there in less than two and a half hours on a train, they can no longer fly. Similar bans could appear throughout Europe as countries get more aggressive on combating climate change.

Some advocates have even proposed a frequent flyer tax that scales with the number of flights a traveler takes — an effort to curb these large carbon footprints.

Whether these or similar measures take off in coming years or not, this much is clear: The days of unfettered jet-setting could be coming to an end.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

The article How Climate Change Could Affect When and Where People Travel originally appeared on NerdWallet.

CHICAGO — In Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood, a modest two-story home sits on North Tripp Avenue. While typically unassuming, dozens of people lined up outside it Sunday, some in clothes featuring Mickey Mouse, waiting for a chance to peek inside the green and gray wood cottage.

Walt Disney’s childhood home opened to the public for the first time this weekend as part of Chicago Architecture Center’s Open House Chicago. Organizers said they hope to keep Disney’s legacy alive, give insight into how the pioneer of animated cartoon films grew up, and inspire other young people in the neighborhood to pursue their dreams.

“We are in an inner city of Chicago, so the understanding of dreaming and doing and achieving, because you truly never know who you’re going to become. You never know who you’re going to inspire,” said Angel Reyes, an ambassador for the home and Miss Illinois USA 2022.

Elias Disney, Walt’s father, purchased the property at 2156 N. Tripp Ave. in 1891. The following year he got a permit to build the two-story wood cottage for $800, and Flora, Walt’s mother, crafted the architectural plans. In early 1893, the couple and their two sons, Herbert and Raymond, moved in. Their third son, Roy, was born soon after. In a second-floor bedroom, Walter Elias Disney was born on Dec. 5, 1901.

“(Elias) was a contractor who built homes like this one, and he was the one who built this house. Flora was the one who designed it,” said Rey Colón, project director of the Walt Disney Birthplace. “Very progressive that both Flora and Elias’ names were on the deed. He didn’t just have her listed as wife. She was an equal partner with him in his business ventures.”

The tour began at the parlor on the first floor, the space where the family entertained. Colón said much of the original wood trim and walls were removed over the years, and that there was just one closet that had samples of the wood. He said they re-created the original rosettes and trim from one tree, “which we believe is the way Elias would have wanted it done.”

There’s also a colorized photo of Walt and his younger sister, Ruth, at the home in 1905 inside the parlor.

Tour guide Rich Frachey said Elias had many other jobs during his life — furniture-maker, orange farmer and even a fiddle player. Inside the parlor, Frachey said it’s easy for him to imagine him playing the fiddle or telling stories about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago where he was a construction worker.

“All the innovations that were debuted there, including the first Ferris wheel, Cracker Jacks, Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum, a machine that would wash the dishes, elevators, typewriters and more,” Frachey said. “Did they sit in this parlor and read the book called ‘The Wizard of Oz’?”

Some biographers speculate Elias’ stories of the fair influenced Walt’s creation of Disneyland and some of its popular attractions such as “Tomorrowland,” “Frontierland” and “Main Street, U.S.A.”

The tour then went through the family’s dining room and kitchen, which included items such as a washboard, a butter churn and a rug beater. Inside what is now a closet on the first floor, Elias built a toilet, which organizers said was innovative for the time.

Upstairs, after climbing a set of steep stairs, people glimpsed at a bigger bedroom belonging to Herbert and Raymond, while Walt and Roy shared a smaller one. The home the Disney family lived in was 1,200 square feet. Later on, organizers said, additional rooms were added in the back of the home, which they now use as office space.

The Disneys moved out in 1906, relocating to Missouri. They eventually returned to Chicago in 1917 when Walt was a teenager. They lived in the North Lawndale neighborhood, and Walt attended McKinley High School.

Colón said even with Saturday’s rain, more than 550 people showed up for the tour. While attendance was less on Sunday, he still expected a sizable turnout. Before they only did private tours, he said.

According to Walt Disney Birthplace, Chicago attempted to designate the property as a historical landmark in 1991, but the owner fought the designation and won. Today, the new owners are working with the city to restore the home to its 1901 state.

Colón said there’s been around 10 years of fundraising to get the home to its current state but more contributions are needed to fully restore and furnish it. He said it’s exciting to see lots of interest in the home, and they hope to organize more tours in the future.

“We’re still trying to figure out how, how do we go about the registration process, getting people in, how often do we do it,” Colón said.

For Reyes, who was born and raised in Hermosa, the turnout was “overwhelming but in a good way.”

“Just to see how many people are still interested in knowing the front story, when Walt began and what that looked like for him, we’re definitely thrilled,” she said.

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©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The resurgence of the latter might have been unimaginable in March 2020, but there’s no doubting cruising’s comeback. New and refurbished ships are sailing, and first-timers are clambering aboard for domestic cruises, CN Traveller’s editors note.

Globe-spanning cruises, such as Regent Seven Seas’ 34,000-mile itinerary for 2024 — a $400,000 cruise for two with stops in 31 countries  — sold out in 2.5 hours, according to ThePointsGuy’s Gene Sloan. And the company’s 2025 lineup broke that record, with every cabin booked before reservations even opened to the public.

The CN Traveller awards divide cruise lines into six categories, with Norwegian Cruise Line topping the “mega ships,” which carry 4,000 or more passengers, and first place nods for Virgin Voyages in the large ship (2,500 to 4,000) lineup; Viking in the medium ship (500 to 2,500), river and expedition categories; and Emerald Cruises for small ships carrying fewer than 500 people.

Here’s a look at the river cruises ranking. Find details on all the CN Traveller’s awards for hotels, resorts, destinations and more at www.cntraveller.com.

Top 10 River Cruises

1. Viking

2. American Cruise Lines

3. Tauck

4. Oberoi Hotels & Resorts

5. Les Bateaux Belmond

6. Grand Circle Cruise Line

7. Pandaw

8. Uniworld River Cruises

9. Sanctuary Retreats

10. AmaWaterways

Uber for Business and JetBlue announced a new partnership designed to benefit airline passengers impacted by qualifying travel disruptions.

As part of the deal, JetBlue would offer complimentary Uber vouchers to its passengers who experience a qualified flight delay or cancellation, with the program currently available across the United States in every city where the carrier operates.

Uber and JetBlue also revealed plans to expand the service internationally, beginning with major airports in Paris, London, and Amsterdam.

“We always work to give our customers a great onboard experience and get them to their destination safely and on time,” JetBlue President and COO Joanna Geraghty said. “Sometimes travel doesn’t go as planned, and flights can get delayed or cancelled.”

“In those cases, when the disruption is due to something in our control, our partnership with Uber for Business will make options for our customers more seamless,” Geraghty continued.

For passengers to qualify for the service, a delay or cancellation must be within JetBlue’s control and meet the following criteria:

— If a JetBlue flight is delayed three hours or more from scheduled departure time and the delay is due to a Controllable Irregularity which results in the customer not being accommodated until the following day, JetBlue will offer ground transportation from the airport to/from a local airport area hotel.

— If JetBlue cancels a flight due to a Controllable Irregularity, and it results in the customer not being accommodated until the following day, JetBlue will offer ground transportation from the airport to/from a local airport area hotel.

JetBlue chose to partner with Uber for Business as around 170,000 organizations trust the company’s platforms to improve operations and customer service solutions.

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©2023 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Hotel room rates in major cities from Boston to Mumbai are expected to jump by double digits, even after predictions that prices were finally hitting a ceiling, according to a new report.

Buenos Aires takes this year’s crown, with rates that are set to jump by 17% year over year, according to the Hotel Monitor 2024 report from American Express Global Business Travel. It examines how hotel prices are fluctuating in more than 80 cities around the world, with forecasts based on criteria such as currently listed prices, broader macroeconomic trends, hotel pipelines and historic data.

Hotel prices reflect much more than a destination’s current popularity with travelers. In the Argentina capital, rates are largely being driven by the country’s ongoing hyperinflation crisis, which in September reached its worst levels since 1991. (Notably, the Amex study calculates rate hikes in the local currency.) In other words, the rising prices in Buenos Aires are still likely to translate to deep savings for most anyone visiting from abroad.

Second-place Mumbai has a more straightforward narrative. Its hotels are expected to rise in cost by 15% year over year; that’s undoubtedly a product of fast-growing domestic wealth and a long-delayed post-pandemic travel recovery. And given both of those factors apply country-wide, it’s no surprise that India claims three cities in the report’s top 10 list: Chennai and Delhi ranked fourth and seventh, respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 are cities where tourism has been booming. Whereas Cairo has benefited from a largely leisure-driven audience, Chicago, Paris and Boston rank in the top 10 thanks to gains in business travel. The region with the most moderate rate increases is Australasia, where no single city is seeing projected increases greater than 6.8%.

Prices are expected to rise at least somewhat in all 80 cities examined in the report.

David Reimer, executive vice president of global clients at Amex GBT, sees several macro trends continuing to influence hotel pricing at a global level. Staffing shortages continue to be a problem in the hospitality industry, forcing some hotels to limit inventory — meaning they’re leaving rooms deliberately unsold — as a coping mechanism. That spreads soaring operating costs among fewer customers.

Then there’s the issue of supply — the number of hotel rooms in any market — not keeping up with the demand.

“Where there is lagging supply but demand remains high, rates will also rise,” Reimer says. The inverse can also be true. Rates are predicted to rise only moderately in cities such as Riyadh and New York City, which will add a large number of new hotel rooms in the coming year. The report predicts that prices in those markets will be up 4.6% and 6.8%, respectively. (The report caveats that recent legislation curtailing short-term rentals in New York City may drive prices up in ways that are not reflected by Amex GBT’s data models.)

Boston, on the other hand, has few new hotels in the works — which will be problematic for consumers as the city continues to show strong growth as a business travel hub, in addition to its perennial leisure and university-related travel demand. That explains the city’s sharp 11.5% projected spike.

“Although there’s been a lot of talk with respect to the continuation of remote work, we’re seeing some kinds of business travel actually surpassing 2019 levels,” Reimer says. Specifically, it’s people traveling for trade shows or small internal meetings of 20 people or fewer, he says. At some companies, he adds, trips related to those more-intimate corporate functions have surpassed 2019 levels by as much as 25%. “We think that that will continue to be our fastest growing segment,” Reimer says.

Of course, even with the projected hotel rate increases, some of these cities still offer deep value. A room at an over-the-top hotel in Buenos Aires during peak season, for example, can cost just $600 a night; a 17.5% increase would add just a little over $100. Compare that to $2,000 a night in Paris during high season — the current going rate at a palace hotel — and the smaller-seeming 11% increase, valued at around $200, adds twice as much sting in absolute terms.

Here are the top 10 cities around the world where hotel prices are set to soar most dramatically — along with how much more you can expect to pay in local currency, compared to last year.

10. Jakarta, Indonesia: 10.9%

9. Boston, US: 11.3%

8. Paris, France: 11%

7. Delhi, India: 12%

6. Chicago, US: 12.6%

5. Bogotá, Colombia: 14.1%

4. Chennai, India: 14.6

3. Cairo, Egypt: 14.6%

2. Mumbai, India: 15%

1. Buenos Aires, Argentina: 17.5%

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©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

There’s the downtown with its cobblestoned Church Street area dotted with cool shops, great eats and most days, free live entertainment.

There’s the college scene: UVM is perched above downtown, with lovely buildings, grounds and people that add to the cool vibe of the city.

There’s Lake Champlain in its glory, reflecting the sepia-toned mountains behind it.

And there are great, great places to stay right in that downtown area (Hotel Vermont is a personal favorite; the Hilton on the waterfront is a nice spot with a lovely view).

I visit whenever I can. But there’s one part of Burlington I’ve long been drawn to: Burlington Heights, as locals call it, a tree-lined neighborhood that sits way uphill looking down on the lakeside city.

Lined with breathtakingly beautiful Victorian homes (and right up against the edge of the UVM campus), I’ve long wished for a friend to invite me to pop in for a stay.

My wish was answered.

The “friend” who invited me was the newly opened Blind Tiger Burlington (https://www.larkhotels.com/hotels/blind-tiger-burlington), a 14-room stunner. A stay at the Blind Tiger might just be the perfect icing on a Burlington getaway cake.

The term “blind tiger” was prohibition-era slang for a speakeasy, prompted by the original Blind Tiger location in Portland, Maine, where a lower room was once used as such a speakeasy during that era.

Blind Tiger properties pay homage to their city’s cultural and culinary ties through the eyes of some of its more influential locals. Room designs are guided by local restaurateurs, artists and well-known residents.

The Blind Tiger brand, part of the Lark Hotels, just debuted in this spot that was most recently the Willard Street Inn but goes way back to 1881, when it was built as a family home for banker and politician Charles W. Woodhouse.

The rooms feature a blend of old and new; about 75% of the furnishings and art are antiques; the rest were chosen to reflect the cultural essence of the city.

The wood floors are original (a staff member told me they were – of course — hidden under carpet for years).  In the dining room, designers from the Massachusetts-based firm Elder & Ash stripped the wall down to its original plaster and let one lovely piece of local art do the talking. Its lovely, sublime and soothing.

My room was large and comfortable. The gas fireplace adds ambiance, and the art and fixtures each tell a story. On my bedside table was a book on the history of Burlington, perfect reading in this spot.

Downstairs, there’s a self-serve coffee bar where you’ll find freshly baked cookies each day and other snacks. There’s a cozy living room with a leather couch area, and a bright solarium with conversation areas for chatting and small tables for your own quiet or work time (I wasn’t the only one on a laptop in there).

Outside brings you the best “room” of all. Rich, blooming gardens are dotted with benches and comfortable seats; there are even small tables should you want to have a drink or breakfast out there.

The Blind Tiger does serve breakfast, and while it wasn’t full-on B&B breakfast, it was just right for me. Staff set it out on the dining room table for guests to help themselves to bagels, local breads, cheese, egg bites, fruit, a yogurt bar and other small bites.

Downtown proper is just a quick walk downhill (which means uphill on your way home; but it’s doable). Should you not love walking, parking downtown is a snap. But with free parking at the Inn, I chose to walk most times. Plus, it helped me justify my dual Ben & Jerrys and Lake Champlain Chocolates visit.

The staff is on site daily until 7 p.m.  and can guide you to great choices for while you’re out and about in the city. Once they leave, the front door opens with your key, making you feel all the more like you’re staying with a close friend who trusts you in their house.

Now we all have a friend whose door is open to us in one of the prettiest parts of Burlington.

I’ll be back. A city I love to visit is all the better with this newly reimagined spot.

With holiday travel, I’ve always been a Grinch. Paying too much for airfare rubs every cell in my body the wrong way. Shelling out $1,000 for a domestic round-trip ticket for a route that usually costs half that just feels wrong, you know? So, while I’m happy to travel the world the other 49 weeks of the year, I typically try to stay home at the end of November and December.

For years I’ve waged a campaign within my family to observe Thanksgiving a week or two early. Shifting our calendar slightly would mean we could all feast together without all the headaches of holiday travel. So far my campaign has, well, failed.

I’m slowly coming around to the idea that holiday travel is important for a reason. Yes, it’s inconvenient. Yes, airports are clogged with screaming kids (including, now, mine). And yes, it’s just plain expensive. But it’s about something bigger than budgets — it’s about family.

OK, my small Grinchy heart hasn’t grown big enough to ignore price tags altogether. I still try to spend as little as possible when traveling for the holidays, even if it’s more expensive than a regular trip. Here’s how I think about it.

Step 1: Book right about … now

Recently, it’s been hard to know when is the right time to book holiday travel. The pandemic messed with how and when people traveled, leading experts to disagree about when airfare prices would be lowest.

Those data wrinkles have been ironed out, and now the picture is coming into focus. The best time to book mid-to-late December travel is right now — about 10 weeks before departure, according to a recent report from Google Flights. That’s true for domestic flights as well as those to Europe.

That’s right, despite what your high-strung parents might have told you, booking months in advance doesn’t actually save money. According to data from Hopper, a travel booking platform, prices for December trips have dropped about $40 since this summer. But they won’t drop much longer: After bottoming in October, Hopper expects fares to rise rapidly through November and by as much as $40 per day in the week leading up to the holidays.

Another factor that could affect airfare prices moving forward: Fuel costs. After bottoming early this summer, oil prices have been on the rise. This could put even more pressure than usual on prices for holiday travel.

All the more reason to book soon.

Step 2: Travel when others won’t

Everyone wants to know the secret to scoring cheap airfare during the holidays. The secret is that there is no secret: Prices are high throughout Thanksgiving week and the last two weeks of December, period.

Even using points and miles doesn’t always help. In fact, based on a NerdWallet analysis of hundreds of airline routes, booking award travel during the holidays usually yields a lower cent-per-mile value than booking award travel at other times.

Put simply: Using miles during the holidays is not a good way to avoid high prices. You’ll just spend a ton of miles rather than a ton of cash.

There’s really just one option: Do something inconvenient that other travelers are unwilling to do. Options include:

• Booking on the holidays themselves. Hopper estimates that flying on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day can save about $114 per ticket on domestic routes, for example.
• Taking a long trip. Flying the Monday of Thanksgiving week and returning any weekday of the following week can save you over $100 on flight costs, according to Hopper data.
• Pitching a new holiday for your family in early December, when airfares are low. This has a roughly 0% success rate, according to my own data.

Step 3: Consider total costs

It’s easy to get hyper-focused on airfare costs around the holidays and do everything possible to avoid high fares, even if it means an overnight layover at LAX or extending your trip to three weeks.

But airfare is only one of many travel expenses during the holidays. It might sound great to save $100 per ticket by leaving a few days early, but what about the additional costs of the trip?

For example, if you’re not staying with family, two days of lodging costs will easily eliminate (and potentially exceed) those airfare savings. And then there’s the pet sitter, the restaurant dinners you might buy to avoid another awkward meal with your family, etc.

The point is, the sticker shock of $1,000 fares in December can cause some people (OK, me) to find elaborate workarounds, but the workarounds can end up costing more in real dollar terms, or mental health expenditures. Do you really want to stay on a futon for three weeks?

Grinching pennies

You could be a Grinch like me and avoid holiday travel altogether. Or you could book travel willy-nilly and accept whatever ludicrous fares are available.

Better to take a middle road: Being cost-aware without getting lost in the weeds. Book travel in October if you can, avoid the absolute peak dates and consider traveling when others won’t, like Christmas Eve. Keep total travel costs, including accommodations and pet sitter in mind and remember that airfare isn’t everything.

Most of all, focus on what matters: Connecting with family.

But not, you know, too much.

The article Ask a Travel Nerd: 3 Steps to Booking Holiday Travel originally appeared on NerdWallet.

The 75-mile stretch along Oregon’s Highway 101 from Astoria to Tillamook offers a day trip full of surprises. Also known as the Oregon Coast Highway, this route can be accessed a couple of hours from Portland and includes traversing the Northern Oregon Coast Range.

The diverse topography and charming towns make this a beautiful way to spend a day on the road.

Astoria

Located in the northwest tip of Oregon lies the state’s first city, Astoria, and the largest on this trip. The Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean at this point, and, alongside the Astoria-Megler Bridge, this historic city offers a rich map of walking tours and water activities.

The Riverfront Trolley is a deal for $1, which gets you a one-hour round trip covering three miles on the River Walk with stops including the Columbia River Maritime Museum. The Museum offers multiple interactive experience about shipwrecks, information about the treacherous bar crossings and features a U.S. Coast Guard bar pilot pulling boat.

Take a drive up to the top of the hill overlooking city, to The Astoria Column, a monument to the Pacific Northwest and the people who settled there, as well as the Chinook Indian culture. If you are able-bodied enough to climb to the top, you’ll hold bragging rights to a 360-degree view of the city, bay and river. At night The Column is colorfully lit up for all to see from below. This city is full of cinematic history, also, with The Goonies having been filmed in town and, further south, in Cannon Beach.

Seaside

A short drive south on Highway 101 you will find the town of Seaside. From kite festivals to sandcastle competitions to bumper cars, this family-oriented spot offers tons of things to do with the kids. Local eateries tempt you with freshly caught crab and other seafood or, if the kids are clamoring for a dose of fast-food fries, you’ll find them on 101, along with other national chains.

A stroll along the Promenade (or The Prom, as the locals call it) offers a 1.5-mile paved path along the coast. A history lesson about the Lewis and Clark expedition is found along the walkway in the form of historic landmarks and culminating in a bronze statue commemorating The End of the Trail. This is the spot where the explorers ended their 4,000-mile journey and turned around to return home.

Ecola State Park

Back on Highway 101, traveling south toward Cannon Beach, the road veers inland a bit around Ecola State Park. Stretching nine miles along the coastline, this park offers amazing views of the Pacific Ocean, hiking trails and glimpses of the famous Haystack Rock. Head into the town of Cannon Beach, where you can get a closer view of this massive rock.

Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach presents itself as a higher-end, artsy community, of galleries, shops, restaurants and bars. No fast-food chains here and a bit pricier than its northern neighbor. Parking is ample throughout town and it’s an easy walk to the beach for a view of Haystack. When the tide rolls out, you can walk up to it and search the various tide pools for colorful sea life.

Home to the largest onshore population of tufted puffins, in the continental U.S., you might catch sight of them between April and August. Recent sightings of stranded cougars, during high tide, have put beachgoers on alert but this is an uncommon event.

Leaving the town, you might want to choose to drive along South Hemlock Street, eventually merging with Highway 101. This is a popular place to see elegant elk, munching on local homeowners’ lush landscapes. Herds have also been spotted on the beach during sunrise and sunset, close to Haystack.

Manzanita

Back on the road, a few miles south, you will find a trio of sweet towns, Manzanita, Nehalem and Wheeler. You’ll need to first stop at a couple of scenic overlooks from Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain before you get to Manzanita’s main street. These spots offer jaw dropping views and photo ops of Manzanita Beach and the Pacific Ocean, with a trailhead available from the south viewpoint.

From there head south to Manzanita’s Laneda Avenue for a drive down to the beach through this pleasant town, offering shops and restaurants run by locals. If you’re in the mood for a casual food truck, check out Manzanita Mudd Dogs for an authentic Chicago hot dog, or have it custom-made to your liking. You will find a nice selection of eateries for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The beach is easily accessible with the Neah-Kah-Nie in full view, reaching into the surf.

Nehalem

Don’t blink when you get to Nehalem or you will miss an opportunity to check out the North Coast Pinball lounge, the local distillery Spirits of the West, and Buttercup, a gourmet chowder and ice cream restaurant. Watch while your choice of chowder is created in front of you, then enjoy it on the banks of the Nehalem River. Don’t forget to taste their homemade ice cream creations before you leave.

Wheeler

Next, check out the antique shops and marina in Wheeler for a dose of old village charm before heading south for more discoveries. On the way to Rockaway Beach, keep an eye out for the old crabbing boat at the entrance to Kelly’s Brighton Marina. This is the place to go for lessons in crabbing and the kids will love this campground with boat rentals available for your adventure.

Rockaway Beach

On a clear day, Rockaway Beach offers a gorgeous view of the Twin Rocks but be prepared for the fog banks to roll in on a moment’s notice. Kites are a big deal here and, if you’re a fan of corn dogs, the Original Pronto Pup is a must see.

Tillamook

A visit to Tillamook Creamery, before entering the downtown district, offers an opportunity to see how your favorite cheese and ice cream is made. Entry is free and multiple samples are offered. Touted as the House Cheddar Built, this facility offers tours, tastings and ice cream treats. After your visit, check out the Dutch Mill Café for lunch on Main Avenue, where you will be immersed in an authentic 1950’s diner.

Oceanside

To wrap up your trip along the northeast coast head due west on Highway 131 for 6 miles to Oceanside along the Three Capes Scenic Loop. On a clear day you can spot the Three Arch Rocks as you make your way up to the Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse. You’ll get an up close view of the beacon as well as amazing views of the Pacific.

This trip represents only a fraction of what the Oregon coast has to offer but can easily be completed in one day. You’ll need to schedule a few more days to fully appreciate the entire coastline.

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©2023 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A temporary platform at the Lynn commuter rail station is expected to be up and running in December, nine months ahead of schedule, the MBTA announced on Wednesday.

The development, Lynn officials and representatives say, brings much needed relief to city residents who, since last October, have been taking a bus to Revere for subway service or Swampscott to hop on the commuter rail there.

“Finally, Lynn residents will have commuter rail access back,” U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, said in a statement. “While it is simply unacceptable that Lynn residents have been without a safe, reliable, and affordable public transit option for this long, today’s announcement marks a positive step in the right direction.”

Lynn station has been shuttered since Oct. 1, 2022, as the MBTA addresses deterioration issues and is in a years-long $72.5 renovation. Officials don’t expect that project – a complete rebuild of the original station – to be done until about 2030.

The temporary platform, located on Silsbee Street, three blocks from the original station, will be accessible for all riders and include emergency generators, wayfinding, and variable messaging systems, said Abdellah Chajai, CEO and general manager of Keolis Commuter Services.

Officials are still in the process of planning stops for connecting bus routes, Chajai said in a release, adding locations will be announced closer to the opening of the platform.

Initially, the T looked to close Lynn station in late July of last year but decided to halt the closure until October after the plan met a collective pushback from local leaders. T officials also anticipated the temporary platform opening not until sometime in 2024.

“Due to the station’s important role in the community and after working closely with local leaders, the MBTA expedited the construction of the temporary platform at Lynn to restore service as quickly and safely as possible,” officials wrote in a Wednesday release.

Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson said he hopes the commuter rail will be stopping more frequently in his city and that riders will be offered an affordable fare. He always felt a sense of excitement whenever he saw the train coming into the city with a population of nearly 101,000.

“Over the last year that excitement very quickly turned into regret and frustration that that train was not going to stop in the city,” Nicholson said at a news conference Wednesday. “I am so grateful that we have been able to work with the T, that they’ve heard us to be able to step up and accelerate this so that the train will stop in Lynn again, as it should.”

The anticipated early opening of the platform comes after T officials in late September made a pilot commuter rail program between Foxboro and Boston’s South Station permanent.

Not all things are positive, as passenger service on a commuter rail expansion to southern Massachusetts is not expected to begin until next summer, about half a year later than prior forecasts, officials said late last month.

“The MBTA continues to overcome years of disinvestment,” MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng said in Lynn, “but we are committed to restoring service here as quickly as possible, and using examples of this as building blocks for showing how we can expedite projects in the future.”

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Virginia has long been a favorite destination for travelers, thanks to its beautiful beaches, breathtaking mountainous scenery and storied American history. (It was home to four of the first five U.S. presidents.)

It’s also a great place to see spectacular fall foliage and drink a glass of wine, whether your prefer a full-bodied red, a crisp white or simply want a taste of Norton, America’s oldest native grape.

In the 1980s, the entire state had only six wineries. Today, there are more than 300 wineries and 4,000 acres under vine in eight distinct American Viticultural Areas, says Anne Boyd, director of the Virginia Wine Marketing Board,

Virginia’s $1.73 billion wine industry has created more than 10,000 full-time jobs and has been a boon for tourism, drawing about 2.6 million visitors a year, according to Boyd.

Loudoun County boasts more than 50 wineries and tasting rooms of varying sizes, styles and wildly different personalities. Some are situated on mountaintops with sprawling views of the Virginia countryside; others are tucked along country roads with cows and sheep grazing in nearby pastures. In a few, you might even find the winemaker pouring your sample.

There may be no better time of year to sip in the heart of Virginia’s wine and horse country than fall, when the canopy of leaves turn from a lush green to spectacular shades of red, orange and yellow (peaking around Oct. 22). The weather’s gorgeous, the mosquitoes are mostly gone and if you time it just right, you might even see the grapes ripening on the vine.

If you haven’t visited in a while, it might seem like the wineries have popped up out of nowhere. But it’s actually been a long and steady build, says Boyd.

When the general assembly passed the Virginia Farm Winery Act in 1980, it uncorked would-be winemakers’ ability not just to grow grapes, but to also make and sell their wines on the same property. The creation of the Virginia Wine Board four years later helped root the industry even deeper by providing the research and education needed to make better wine, along with marketing know-how to sell it. Oenologist Bruce Zoecklein schooled growers on the science and various styles of winemaking while viticulturist Tony Wolf advised them on how to plant and harvest.

“[Wolf] came to Virginia and started doing research on what grapes grow the best in our soil and climate, and also the pests, which are wildly different that on the West Coast,” Boyd says. And for the next 30 years, he was the industry’s biggest cheerleader, devoting his career to advancing Virginia wines before retiring from teaching at Virginia Tech last year.

In the 1970s, Virginia was considered a cold climate region good for Rieslings and Chardonnays, but by the ’90s, it had morphed into the warm category thanks to hot and humid summers that routinely reach over 90 degrees. So many winemakers pulled up those vines and started experimenting with warm-weather varietals such as Petit Verdot, Viognier, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. And when they started to take off? Well, “it was off and running,” says Boyd.

Jennifer Breaux is the second-generation president and general manager of Breaux Vineyards in Purcellville, which has 105 acres under vine. She agrees there wasn’t a lot of good local wine when many winemakers started.

“While there are general rules of thumb, there was no East Coast guidebook for such a diverse climate where the only consistency is inconsistency,” she says. “It took years of trial and error, of figuring out what will do well in our soils and climate and what to do when.”

But learn they did, and today, “we wouldn’t be where we are without quality,” Breaux says.

Many Virginia wines regularly win awards. One — Stone Tower’s 2022 Kristi Chardonnay — was even served at the White House during a state dinner.

“We still battle a bad rap, but people who only drink Napa Cabernet are never going to be drinking Virginia wine anyway,” says Boyd. “But that’s OK because it’s a big wine world out there.”

“It’s all about perception,” agrees Jenny Travers of Leesburg-based Greenhill Vineyards. “If someone says you can’t get good wine [here] that means they haven’t tasted enough of it. You have to look for a quality product.”

Wine drinkers also need to understand what they’re looking for might not be what the region can provide, adds Travers. “It’s all about respecting the region you’re in and getting to know it.”

With that in mind, here are six wineries in Northern Virginia worth visiting while leaf peeping. Each has its own distinct personality and signature pour. Some allow children, pets and outside food for picnics while others are adults-only and have their own menus. All offer guided tastings, along with individual glasses and bottles.

Breaux Vineyards

36888 Breaux Vineyards Lane, Purcellville (www.breauxvineyards.com)

This popular hillside winery got its start almost by accident. North Carolina real estate broker Paul Breaux and his wife, Alexis, bought the 404-acre former soybean farm in 1994 as a second home and to raise horses and cattle. While clearing the fields one day, they discovered some Chardonnay grape vines that had been planted by the former owner as an experiment on three acres.

“And so he started making bathtub wine with a hand press for family and friends,” says his daughter, Jennifer.

The wine was so popular that they started making more of it from fruit grown on 35 acres. Breaux Vineyards opened to the public in 1997, and kept growing. Today, it’s one of Virginia’s largest wineries and grape producers, with 104 acres under vine and more than a dozen varietals. It’s still 100% family-run.

Nestled at the foothills of the Blue Ridge and Short Hill Mountains, “our site is magnificent for fruit,” says Jennifer Breaux, who became general manager in 2005. So much so that they sell about 40% of what they grow to other wineries.

The winery was greatly expanded in 2011 to include landscaped terraces and a patio (you’ll think Napa or Tuscany). There’s also a lot of wrought iron in the tasting room as a nod to the family’s Cajun roots in Louisiana.

“The goal is to take people away,” she says. “You can be in Virginia and be surrounded by Virginia-grown fruit but feel like you’re somewhere else.”

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Vibe: Relaxed Tuscan/Napa estate

Tastings: $14-$35 for five wines. Flights (five wines) are $14-$18. Outside food is permitted only in outdoor areas.

Crowd: Family- and pet-friendly; there also is a patio for those 21+ with no dogs

Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through October; closes at 5 p.m. weekdays November through March.

Recommended pour: For those who love reds, the vineyard’s signature grape is the full-bodied Nebbiolo from Northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Also, “our Meritage [blends] are just beautiful,” says Jennifer Breaux.

Cana Vineyards

38600 John Mosby Highway, Middleburg (canavineyards.com)

This family-friendly winery on 43 acres was nothing more than an open hay field with sweeping views of the Blue Ridge Mountains until 2012, when the first vines were planted. It opened as a winery in 2015 and the Petty family purchased the spread in 2018.

Today, Cana Vineyards has 7 1/2 acres under vine with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Norton, Petit Manseng and Petit Verdot grapes. All are harvested by hand and turned into award-winning wines under the careful hand of Melanie Natoli, the first female winemaker to win the modern Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.

Everything about the winery screams “relax,” whether you’re enjoying the hillside views outside on the deck, hanging on the covered porch or gathering with family and friends in the Harvest Room pavilion, where a wood-burning fireplace and an infra-red heating system warm toes and fingers when the weather gets chilly.

The site also includes picnic tables and fire pits.

“We’re a very lazy space where people can spread out,” says tasting room manager Don Johanson. “Our front lawn is tremendous.”

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Vibe: Chill with a view

Tasting fee: $24 for six wines and three-wine flights are $12. Outside food permitted, but no buffets or large spreads. The winery also offers charcuterie, cheeses and other light fare.

Crowd: Family- and pet-friendly

Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun.-Mon. and Thurs.-Fri.; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. Closed Tues.-Wed.

Recommended pour: Winemaker Melanie Natoli’s 2019 Unité Reserve, a blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from the estate, won the 2022 Virginia Governor’s Cup. Also, the Albarino and Le Mariage, a signature red blend.

Chrysalis Vineyards at the Ag District

39025 John Mosby Highway, Middleburg (www.chrysaliswine.com)

You can’t really have the full Virginia wine experience without tasting a wine made with its native American grape, Norton. And nobody does it better than Chrysalis Vineyard, which boasts 40 acres of Norton vines at two separate vineyards.

Serial entrepreneur Jenni McCloud worked in the computer industry in the 1970s and ’80s before deciding to become a winemaker in 1995 after attending a wine conference on alternative grape varieties, including Norton.

“I just fell in love with the grape,” she says.

Norton was renowned in the 1800s but had nearly died out by the 1920s, when Prohibition shut down the American wine industry.

After planting her first vines in 1998, McCloud built the winery along Rt. 50 in 2000, followed by a small tasting room the year after. Today’s windowed tasting room, high on a hill with a large wraparound deck, opened in 2015.

The 70 acres under vine on the 412-acre site also include Alberino, a white grape grown in Spain and Portugal, along with Viognier, Nebbiolo, Tannat, Petit Verdot and Petit Manseng. The winery also sells farm products, including a hot sauce made with its vineyard red wine vinegar, Norton jelly, dips and spreads, and artisan cheeses made on site by Locksley Farmstand Cheese.

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Vibe: Modern rustic

Tasting fee: $20 for five wines. Flights (four wines) are $15. No outside food permitted, but pizza, flatbreads and other hot food menu items are available from its Little River Bakehouse.

Crowd: Family- and pet-friendly (outside only); separate spaces for 21+

Hours: noon-6 p.m. Monday and Thursday.; noon-8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; noon-7 p.m. Sunday. Closed Tues.-Wed.

Recommended pour: Chrysalis’ flagship wine is its Locksley Reserve Norton, but it’s a “big wine” that probably offers the biggest reward after being cellared for a few years, says owner Jenni McCloud. For everyday drinking, she suggests the more approachable Barrel Select Norton, which is aged in Virginia oak and is “big and round in the mouth.” If you prefer whites, the Albarino is delightfully refreshing.

Greenhill Vineyards

23595 Winery Lane, Middleburg (experiencegreenhill.com)

Originally known as Swedenburg Winery, this elegant boutique, adults-only winery on 128 acres was first planted with 11 acres dedicated to Vitis vinifera grapes in 1985. After being sold in 2013, it reopened as Greenhill Vineyards and since has expanded to 17 acres under vine.

It’s a working farm, with beef cattle and horses in fields opposite the grapes, and it also has apiaries. The setting at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains is spectacular, and guests are encouraged to enjoy it from the many Adirondack chairs on the lawn. There also are umbrella-topped picnic tables for small picnics.

The emphasis here is on getting to know the grapes. The winery prides itself on a well-trained staff that’s versed in explaining the specific nuances of the wines served — or what assistant general manager Jenny Travers calls “the Greenhill experience.”

The winery went to 21 and over in 2017, but they still allow pets outside. “It’s about creating an environment and experience that is all about the wine,” she says.

What also sets Greenhill apart is its carefully curated cheese and charcuterie boards. “And we’re continually rolling out new wines on our tasting menu,” says Travers.

Winemaker Ben Comstack works with 20 experimental varietals and can pick from Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier along with Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and a small amount of Chamboursin, one of the world’s most popular hybrid grapes.

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Vibe: Understated elegance

Tasting fee: $20 for six wines. Outside food is allowed only for outdoor seating.

Children/pets: age 21 and up; pets allowed outside.

Hours: noon-6 p.m. daily

Recommended pour: Cabernet Franc

Stone Tower Winery

19925 Hogback Mountain Rd., Leesburg (www.stonetowerwinery.com)

Lacey Huber’s family bought this 400-acre, windswept cattle farm atop Hogback Mountain in the early 2000s because it was beautiful, and her parents — who own Belfort Furniture — wanted to “do something in agriculture.” After engaging soil scientists and viticulturists, they decided the land was perfect for grapes.

They planted their first vines in 2009, starting making wine two years later and in 2013 opened the vineyard to the public. It quickly snowballed into “quite the project,” says Huber, with 95 acres now under vine. “My dad likes to joke that he failed at retirement,” she says with a chuckle.

Much of the focus is on Chardonnay, one of the most-planted varietals in the world. “It’s a classic for a reason,” notes Huber. “It takes on the character of the terroir and also of the winemaking styles.”

They also grow Sauvignon Blanc and several red grape varietals such as Nebbiolo, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir to the tune of around 17,000 cases a year.

The original Harvest Barn tasting room has a rustic and casual farm vibe that spills out onto a patio and is great for families. There’s also a more upscale adults-only Tower tasting room geared to those looking for a Napa-style experience “but never thought they’d find anything like that in Virginia,” says Huber.

The view is such that on a really busy day, the winery can host upwards of 1,000 guests. “But even when it’s really busy you can find a spot. That’s the beauty of a big, spacious property.”

They don’t offer flights, but they are passionate about their tastings and special tours, which include a behind-the-scenes tour of the cellar.

“It’s really about sharing our story and the passion that goes into making a bottle of wine.”

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Vibe: Family-oriented, with incredible views

Flights: A signature tasting costs $25. Outside food not permitted.

Crowd: Family- and pet-friendly

Hours: 11 a.m-6 p.m. Thursday-Monday. Closed Tues.-Wed.

Recommended pour: Wind Swept Hill, a Bordeaux blend with notes of chocolate, black cherry, plum and blackberry, is a customer favorite. If you prefer white, “we’re really excited about our 2022 Kristi Chardonnay,” says Huber. It was served at a White House state dinner this summer in honor of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Zephaniah Farm Vineyard

19381 Dunlop Mill Road, Leesburg (zephwine.com)

Bill Hatch and his wife, Bonnie Archer, were dairy farmers looking to reinvent themselves when they decided to became winemakers in the early 2000s.

On a trip to visit daughter Emily during a semester abroad in the Italian Alps in 2001, they enjoyed a bottle of wine so much they wondered aloud if they could grow something similar in Virginia. Knowing their background as farmers, one of her professors exclaimed, “Just plant the damn grapes!”

“And so we did” the following year, says Hatch, to the tune of 1,000 vines. A successful harvest two years later led to some equally successful experimental winemaking, and a tasting room in their 1819 brick manor house a few years after.

They sold their first bottles of Cabernet Franc and Merlot in 2008 and in 2015, with the business growing, “borrowed three wheelbarrows of money” to expand the tasting room into a new barn with exposed beams, high ceilings and a covered deck.

In addition to reds, the winery offers Chardonnay and Viognier along with Muscat Ottonel and Chamboursin. Every one of the 14 acres of grapes under vine are hand picked, sorted and crushed before pressing.

“There are vineyards in California that are planted and harvested mechanically and have never seen a human hand,” says Hatch. At Zephaniah, every acre requires at least 250 hours of handwork per season. “We’re farmers, and this is what we do.”

Now in its third generation, the property is still a working farm, with sheep and Black and Red Angus and Holstein steers grazing nearby. The winery is just as peaceful, with just a whisper of music in the background.

“We want to put people at ease,” says Hatch.

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Vibe: Relaxed country farm

Tastings: $20 per person, includes four wines. Flights (outside only) are $20; a glass $15. Small picnics permitted.

Crowd: 21 and up, no pets allowed

Hours: 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday

Recommended pour: Adeline, a delightfully floral white blend of mostly Muscat Ottonel, is a crowd favorite. It has less than 2% residual sugar “and the aroma on this grape is heavenly,” says winemaker Bill Hatch.

Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay.

(c)2023 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Scoot over, Singapore Airlines, there will soon be a new sheriff in town, er, in the sky, as competition for the world’s longest nonstop flight is winging its way forward. The world is about to become smaller, its farthest-flung corners closer than ever before, and it happens all in one long, long, long flight.

Although ultra-long flights are nothing new, every few years or so, an airline embarks on a journey to stretch the limits of imagination and set a new record that makes traveling the globe nonstop easier. This time around, it’s Qantas, the national airline of Australia. Qantas is taking off in 2025 with a Sydney to London Heathrow route that will cover 9,190 nautical miles and take almost 20 hours to complete.

Before that flight takes off and you want to sample the current world’s longest nonstop flight, look to Singapore Airlines. According to OAG Aviation, the company that officially keeps track of aviation fun facts, the recordholder since 2021 for the world’s longest flight in distance is Singapore Airlines’ New York JFK to Singapore Changi route, clocking in at an extraordinary 18 hours and 40 minutes and leaving in its vapor trail a distance of 8,279 nautical miles, calculated using great-circle distance.

Its next competitor is, well, itself, with a flight from Newark Liberty International to Singapore Changi measuring in at 8,277 nautical miles, just two miles shorter than the blue-ribbon winner of JFK to Singapore. Both flights are operated by the comfortable ultra-long-range Airbus A350-900.

Rounding out the top five longest flights is Qantas’ Perth to Heathrow flight at 17 hours and 45 minutes and 7,829 nautical miles, followed by yet another Qantas flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Melbourne at 17 hours and 35 minutes for 7,814 nautical miles.

The list rounds out with a tie between Qantas and Air New Zealand for the Auckland to New York route for 7,671 nautical miles and clocking in at 16 hours and 15 minutes. Each of these flights is aboard the Boeing 787-9, a workhorse for international aircraft.

Nautical miles differ from land miles and are based on the circumference of the earth. A nautical mile equals one minute of latitude. The Singapore Airlines flight from JFK to Singapore, then, is 9,537 land miles as compared with its 8,279 nautical miles.

Consider this nonstop flight in perspective. A satellite-tagged bar-tailed godwit, a beautifully feathered, sandpiper-like wading bird equipped by Mother Nature for long-distance travel, flew directly if not tenaciously across the Pacific from Alaska to Tasmania, some 8,425 miles, without stopping for food or rest. The journey took 11 days and one hour, and not once did it complain of jet lag.

Also just for fun, consider that the International Space Station travels nonstop at lightning speeds of 17,500 miles per hour, meaning it orbits Earth every 90 minutes or so. Every day, the crew is treated to 16 sunrises and sunsets.

Whether aviation, avian or aeronautics of space, there’s always a record to be broken.

The upcoming Qantas flight from Sydney to London, part of the airline’s Project Sunrise program, takes off in 2025 with a specially designed widebody Airbus A350 that generously will have fewer seats than other long-haul aircraft. Instead of the 300-plus passenger count that is normal for long-haul flights, these marathon flights will have just 238 seats, which in turn means more legroom and cabin space. That means more comfort for passengers as the plane whisks across the continents.

Project Sunrise is, according to Qantas’ website, “the final frontier of aviation,” with the goal of delivering more direct routes to Australia and significantly reducing travel time of up to four hours as compared to one-stop flights. Qantas also promises a “second to none” flying experience inspired by medical and scientific research. With the timing of the flights, passengers could wake up to two sunrises within one flight.

Of course, if you pony up to fly first class for the epic flight, Qantas plans for extra-wide beds, a 32-inch ultra-high-definition television, a 22-inch wide recliner lounger chair and access to its sophisticated and snazzy first class lounges at airports around the world, all of which come complete with world-class restaurants in case you plan to eat before you fly to leave more time to sleep onboard the aircraft.

As a veteran of several long-haul flights — I’ve flown New York to Johannesburg on South African Airways, Newark to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, Atlanta to Istanbul on Turkish Airways, and most recently Los Angeles to Brisbane on Qantas — I wonder how airplanes can stay up in the air for so long and not drop out of the sky. In a nutshell, it’s because long-haul aircraft makers like Boeing and Airbus use more fuel-efficient, lighter materials and better aerodynamics.

Crew fatigue isn’t an issue, as flight attendants and pilots are swapped out and rest in private compartments hidden away behind secret staircases. Meals, of which you can expect two or three on most ultra-long-haul flights, are often overseen by renowned chefs. Qantas lounges and inflight meals, for example, are directed by Chef Neil Perry, one of the best known chefs in Australia, while Singapore Airlines’ International Culinary Panel consists of epicurean titans including Georges Blanc of France, Matt Moran of Sydney, Sanjeev Kapoor of Mumbai, Yoshihiro Murata of Kyoto, and Zhu Jun of Shanghai.

Rejoice, global nomads, rejoice. With nonstops that take as long as the Qantas and Singapore Airlines routes, you’ll worry less about missing a tight connection or losing your luggage and instead enjoy the time above the clouds and catching up on reading or napping, noshing on gourmet food and snacks, and catching a sunrise or two.

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For more info

For more details on Qantas Airways and Project Sunrise, visit www.qantas.com.

For more fun facts on aviation, including statistics and flight databases, visit OAG Aviation at www.oag.org.

For those who want to experience the current world’s longest nonstop flights on Singapore Airlines, visit www.singaporeair.com.

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©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

California scored four shout-outs in all, including Yosemite National Park at No. 6 and Napa Valley at No. 8. Humboldt County’s Redwood National and State Parks landed at No. 11, thanks to its towering redwoods and serene trails. And anyone heading to San Francisco (No. 19), the site says, can “enjoy days filled with farmers markets, street fairs and football games.” (They were so perky about it, we don’t have the heart to tell them the stadium is in Santa Clara, an entirely different city an hour’s drive south.)

Here’s just a peek at the list. Find all 31, along with sightseeing and hotel suggestions, at www.purewow.com/travel/.

Pure Wow’s Top 10 Fall Destinations

1 The Poconos, Pennsylvania

2 Acadia, Maine

3 Eastern Shore, Maryland

4 Woodstock, Vermont

5 Sedona, Arizona

6 Yosemite, California

7 Aspen, Colorado

8 Napa Valley, California

9 North Fork, Long Island

10 Grand Canyon, Arizona

The drive — two hours from the Bay Area, when highway 580 cooperates — is beautiful. Cityscapes evaporate, giving way to scenic pastures, fruit stands and orchard groves, and eventually depositing you at the quaint intersection of two country roads, where Amador City offers plenty of big city sophistication in the littlest one there is.

Friday night: Settle in

Check in at the recently renovated Imperial Hotel, which has ruled the city’s crossroads since 1879. The Sanguinetti family rebuilt the historic brick edifice after an 1878 fire that basically decimated this Gold Country town.

The boutique hotel reopened in April after extensive renovations to the property, guest rooms and restaurant, which is under new ownership by Kevin Carter, founder of Banded Hospitality Group, and partner Cassie Davis. Their Banded Family Ranch is up the road, where produce and hops are grown for their local businesses, which include Break Even Beermakers, as well as the hotel and its restaurant, bar and “snug,” a lounge.

The updated boutique hotel is true to its historic roots, but filled with modern creature comforts. So after settling into your room, with its exposed brick walls and crisp white linens, head for the bar for a legit cocktail. Try a Bitter Solstice, perhaps, their spin on a negroni with cocoa nib-infused Campari, a California Spritz or a milk punch. The bar menu offers elevated bites that range from a crispy chicken sandwich ($14) with aioli and pickled onions to ahi  poke ($17) with avocado and wonton crisps. When I was there, they were serving chopped tartare with pickled shallots and nori chips.

Details: The bar, restaurant and snug are open Wednesday-Sunday for dinner and drinks, plus weekend brunch. Rooms at the Imperial Hotel start at $200. 14202 Old Highway 49, www.imperialhotelamador.com

Saturday: Eat, sip and play

Start at Small Town Food & Wine, a labor of love by Ginger Budrick-Carter, who returned home after working in restaurants around the state. Those Chez Panisse posters on the wall are family keepsakes; her father, Jerry Budrick, was an early partner at Berkeley’s iconic restaurant before moving to Amador County to open a place of his own, the now-closed Caffè Via d’Oro. Grab some coffee and a breakfast burrito and peruse the paper while eavesdropping on local mountain bikers talking politics.

Then head out for a walk in any direction, up scenic Amador Creek Road or along Old Route 49 to the Keystone Mine, which was founded in 1851 and produced some $24 million in gold for the next century.

Once Amador City’s shops open — around 11 a.m. — you can spend several hours strolling along, browsing the artfully displayed windows and shopping at Meyer’s Antiques & Victorian Closet or the tastefully sparse, French-driven Dreamy Whites boutique. Duck into the Amador Whitney Museum (free!) for an eye-opening exhibit of local history. You’ll find San Francisco’s 3 Fish Studios here too. They’re the ones who created the iconic image of the grizzly bear hugging the state of California.

Grab lunch and a beer over at newly-opened Break Even Beermakers, where the impressive brews are crafted by Aaron Wittman, previously from Oakland’s Cellarmaker.

“We are trying to change the conversation of how people are talking about and feeling about beer,” Wittman says. “We want to move away from stylistic descriptors to regional, ingredient-driven descriptors.”

The handful of low alcohol beers on tap includes the lovely Amador Gold, which pairs perfectly with the housemade focaccia selections (definitely order a side of the amazing white dipping sauce), as well as sandwiches, pickle plates and inventive salads made by chef Justin Lewis.

After a brief siesta in your relaxing room at the Imperial — perhaps gazing over the downtown bustle from a wicker rocking chair on the balcony — you can start thinking about dinner downstairs. (Ahem, make reservations.)

The Imperial’s restaurant is helmed by executive chef Max Benson in collaboration with consulting chef Michael Evans of San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn, Bar Tartine and Commonwealth. Chances are, you’ll be welcomed by Benson’s wife Brittany — turns out there are many Amador City industry couples, solidifying the community vision of hospitality — or general manager Shelly Scott, who has worked here since the 1990s.

There’s a prix-fixe menu, but a la cart is also a fine way to go, with seasonal dishes like grilled peach panzanella ($17), Mediterranean mussels ($21) with chervil garlic broth and whipped potatoes or caramelized sea scallops ($36) with tomato fennel salad, fingerling potatoes and romesco.

Details: Small Town Food & Wine is open Tuesday-Saturday at 14179 Main St.; www.smalltownfoodandwine.com. Find Meyer’s Antiques at 14183 Old Highway 49, www.meyersantiques.com; Victorian Closet at 14176 Main St., www.victoriancloset.com; and Dreamy Whites at 14171 Main St.; www.dreamywhitesatelier.com. Break Even Beermakers is open Thursday-Sunday at 14141 Old Highway 49; www.breakevenbeermakers.com.

Sunday: Brunch

Tempting as it is to head downstairs to the Imperial restaurant for the fried egg and scallion, cheddar and bacon pancakes ($14), there’s a temptation just across the street. The End of Nowhere offers burgers and hyper-local sips at an establishment kitty corner to the hotel.

New York City sommelier Chris Walsh launched the label in 2016 when he moved back to Amador City, wooed by his hometown’s slower pace. This wine bar and eatery was inspired by its eatery pop-ups, which launched during COVID and have wonderfully stuck. Order a glass of a Little Faith blend of orange muscat and pinot gris to accompany your burger and a bucket of spiced fries.

Then soak in the last bit of small town charm before heading back to the city.

Details: The End of Nowhere is open Friday-Sunday with reservations at 14204 Main St.; www.endofnowhere.wine.

Many visitors, including myself, opt for the high-rise district. It’s fun there. The beaches are busy and bustling; the hotel names are familiar and trusted. The main beach in that area, Palm Beach, is sandy, wide and beautiful. But this time around I decided to go low.

Aruba is a relatively small island; you can e-bike pretty easily from end to end. And the low-rise district, as locals call it, hit the spot. It’s quieter; the lesser known Druif Beach is wide enough to give you room all day, not to mention that gorgeous ocean. The hotels there don’t rise higher than three floors and seem to almost blend in with the flora.

It’s pristine, peaceful but never boring. Low-rise was the way to go.

We arrived at the Divi & Tamarijn resort (https://www.diviandtamarijnaruba.com/) and checked into our spacious room on the Divi side, where we could meander a few easy steps onto the beach at any time. The Tamarijn side – a quick walk along a waterside boardwalk or shaded sidewalk, does have a sandy beach area, but rocks stop you from swimming there. A shuttle zips anyone who doesn’t want to walk back and forth.

We found bars galore, all with bartenders who liked to try to outshine one another. You never have to walk too far for a cocktail, but we found our favorites: the kicked back Sandpiper and the cool Bunker Bar,  built over a real WWII bunker. You can peer down into it via the glass floor or go down and walk through to learn the history. It’s at the very tip of the resort and tends to draw in fewer folks. Watching the sun set over the Caribbean there is a forever memory, and not just because the Mudslide was so good.

As for food, I’m one to be wary of all-inclusives when it comes to food. But the Divi has found a way to make elevate all-inclusive fare.

At breakfast, you can serve yourself from a buffet or – and this is the way to go – order eggs and other breakfast food made to order. The eggs Benny is sublime; the woman who cooked mine made sure it was perfect. No rubbery buffet eggs here; she poached them before my eyes.

Our favorite lunch, and it was a worthy contest, was found at the Sandpiper where a local woman makes the most amazing and surprising carbonara from her hut with a bar. Her burger, made with gouda and all kind of toppings, and incredible hot dog were worth a visit as well.

For dinner we dined around both resorts, choosing Italian one night and Asian another. It never tastes “all inclusive,” if you know what I mean.

While we spent most of our time – by choice– lounging on the beach or floating in the waves, there’s plenty to do. We played 18 holes at their golf course and one day, rode e-bikes with a guide past the high rises to a perfect snorkeling spot.

“You want fish or turtles today?” our guide Danny asked us. We chose turtles and he led us to just the right spot at the right time. We played, almost alone, with a bale of turtles. I floated with two swimming just below me, mimicking their graceful dives. Once satisfied, we headed back to our bikes. I noticed a charter boat pulling in with countless folks heading to see those turtles. Too crowded! I thought. “That’s why I got you here when I did,” Danny said.

At night there was entertainment; DJ’s, live music, even water ballet exhibitions. But the best show of all came each evening when the sun put on its own show, setting majestically into the sea. We sat waterside and toasted our luck.

Sometimes, going low is the best choice.

Autumn is an ideal time to visit the eastern Sierra. Crowds are light, temperatures are cooler and, even better, the region’s aspen forests provide a dazzling, albeit brief, display of fall color. (Find the latest details on those hues and a map of where colors are nearing peak display at https://californiafallcolor.com/.)

One of the best ways to immerse oneself in Mammoth’s abundant natural splendor is to overnight in a rustic cabin and live like a pioneer — 21st century-style.

There are many cabin choices in Mammoth, from historic lakeside cabins in the dense woods to more modern tiny homes set in mountain meadows. I recently spent two nights at the Alpenhof Lodge, located near Mammoth’s Village complex, and another two nights at the Double Eagle Resort & Spa at the base of 10,908-foot Carson Peak on the June Lake loop.

After a week of cabin life, I can attest that there’s no better place to plunk yourself down and bathe in nature than a cozy wooden house in the woods. Here are some of the best rustic cabin options in the Mammoth region to try out this fall:

Cabins at Mammoth Lakes

After an unhurried, day-long drive from the Bay Area over the Sierra’s dramatically steep and scenic Sonora Pass, we arrived at Mammoth Lake’s Alpine-style Alpenhof Lodge, whose entrance is embellished by an oversized Willkommen in German-style lettering.

We stayed in one of the lodge’s two-bedroom cabins, equipped with a small kitchen and fireplace and set in a woodsy setting alongside the main lodge. While not in the deep woods, the Alpenhof is in an ideal location right across from the Mammoth Village, where resort-style restaurants, bars and shops beckon, and a free open-air trolley, equipped with a bike trailer, can transport you to the world-famous Mammoth Mountain bike park and to the spectacular Mammoth Lakes Basin for picnics, fishing, hikes, mountain bike and horseback rides, and refreshing lake swims.

Just across the street from the lodge is the paved Lakes Basin multi-use path that winds five miles up into the mountains. It’s perfect for walks, runs and road and mountain bike rides. (Class 1 e-mountain bikes are also allowed on the path and are a popular choice with cyclists.)

Enjoy the Alpenhof’s lively Clocktower cellar bar, whose multiple craft brew taps and whiskey selection are popular with the locals, and Petra’s, an excellent bistro and wine bar. Details: alpenhof-lodge.com

Mammoth Mountain Chalets, right next to the Mammoth Mountain Main Lodge, has numerous hiking and biking trails right from your doorstep — and a nearby shuttle takes explorers to Reds Meadow and Yosemite National Park. Each cabin has a private deck and a wood-burning stove. Details: mmchalets.com

Historic Tamarack Lodge and Resort is the grande dame of Mammoth Lakes Basin and oozes charm with its cabins and a rustic main lodge set on the shore of pristine Twin Lakes. Its popular, upscale Lakefront Restaurant has attracted visitors for decades. Details: mammothmountain.com

Several rustic, historic lodges also can be found in the Mammoth region. Secluded Crystal Crag Lodge, set at 9,000 feet on the shore of Lake Mary has drawn visitors here for almost a hundred years. That’s in large part thanks to the lodge’s incredible setting: a trout-filled lake, the pure mountain air and the countless tree-lined hiking and biking trails on the edge of the High Sierra backcountry. These rustic cabins are very popular and often booked a year in advance. Details: crystalcrag.com

The Wildyrie Lodge on Lake Mamie offers lakeside cottages with full kitchens, bathrooms and spacious sun decks with barbecues. Built in 1928, Wildyrie was one of the first hunting and fishing lodges in the Eastern Sierra. It also served as a local post office and general store. Details: wildyrielodge.com

Lake George’s Woods Lodge has rustic cabins with full kitchens and fireplaces, and many have dramatic views of the stunning scenery surrounding the property. Details: woodslodgemammoth.com

Sierra Meadows Ranch offers tiny home-style cabins with one bedroom and one bath and set in a scenic, wide-open meadow on the outskirts of town. Each cabin offers a full kitchen, living room and a private bedroom with queen bed, bunk beds and a sleeper sofa. Details: sierrameadowsranch.com/lodging

Just south of the town of Mammoth Lakes, Convict Lake’s cabins, each named after local fish species and landmarks are set in an aspen forest. This is one of the top spots in the region for lakeside fall color. Details: convictlake.com

Cabins at June Lake

The Double Eagle Resort & Spa is just 12 miles from the eastern entrance to Yosemite Park  and 22 miles northeast from Mammoth Lakes. The resort’s 16 cabins offer charming, rustic luxury in an aspen and pine forest.

Many are set by a trout-filled pond and a rushing creek at the base of Carson Peak, a steep-sided Sierra edifice of almost surreal beauty. Horsetail Falls, perched midway on the peak, was a torrent of snowmelt, flowing like a burst water main out of a granite wall, when I was there. Wagon wheels and old mining equipment decorate the grounds, which also houses a spa, indoor pool and the excellent Eagle’s Landing restaurant. Details: doubleeagle.com

Silver Lake Resort, just a few miles from the town of June Lake on the June Lake Loop, was established in 1916 and is one of the premier destinations for trout fishing in the Sierra. Some 17 cabins offer the perfect retreat for anglers, hikers and outdoor lovers. Details: silverlakeresort.net/cabins

The dining scene

Alpenhof Lodge, Tamarack Lodge, Double Eagle Resort and Sierra Meadows Ranch have restaurants on property. You might also want to treat yourself to some of the many excellent restaurants and brewpubs in Mammoth Lakes. Here are some suggestions:

Set at the busy intersection of Minaret and Lake Mary Road, the spacious Mammoth Brewing Company brewery and pub offers a wide menu including ale-battered fish and chips, barbecue chicken flatbread pizzas, crispy chicken and jalapeno griddle cakes, hearty pub salads and fried chicken sandwiches with sriracha cabbage slaw. Check out details and the menu at mammothbrewingco.com.

Dos Alas Cafe & Lounge favors “Cubarican” dishes such as sandwiches with roasted garlic pork and ham and cheese, as well as Spanish pollo en escabeche (pickled chicken). It’s located at Sierra Meadows Ranch. Find details and peek at the menu at dosalascafe.com.

And the Warming Hut offers classic comfort food in an airy setting in Mammoth Lakes. Try the Chicken n’ Waffle for breakfast, the Cubano sandwich for lunch or the flatiron steak for dinner. Take a look at the menu at thewarminghutmammoth.com.