Stories, all worth the detour .

The Torrevieja Street Food Market in the Parque de las Naciones in October 2026 was a sight to behold and certainly wasn't an event to turn your nose up at.

Luke Luby

TORREVIEJA, SPAIN

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

La Petite's Guide to New Orleans

Tippy toes on Canal Street: a wedding, a Halloween parade and a swamp, seen mostly from the back row.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

SCHENGEN, LUXEMBOURG

I’ve Been in Schengen for Years. This Weekend I Actually Went.

10

A Copenhagen to Luxembourg road trip with a Samoyed: cranes at golden hour, 100,000 pumpkins, and a half marathon along the Moselle to the village that gave Europe its open borders.

Even Brave Boys Get Scared

1

Senhor Magnus Waffles had a brilliant day at the movie theater to see Krypto on the big screen, but was almost undone by the evil escalator and requested the assistance of his butler.

Me and My Champagne Vacay in Istanbul

I bought a suitcase in Paris for one bottle of champagne. Then a check-in counter in Istanbul turned my three-hour layover into four days.

ISTANBUL, TÜRKIYE

REIMS, CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE

Patience, Grasshopper

Our champagne guide was the Grasshopper from Kung Fu. He compared my vineyard sprint to Carrie Ingalls, our shower was too hot, and Dom Pérignon never drank the stars.

REIMS, CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE

PHUKET TO SINGAPORE

Eat, Drank, Relax, Be Happy

Weekdays at the laptop, weekends in Phuket and Singapore: a Phi Phi boat tour broken up by a rainstorm, a fire show in the rain at the Marriott, orchids and a skyline, and a Platinum Jubilee in Commonwealth company. Plus why the Andaman Sea picks a fight every May.

PHUKET TO SINGAPORE

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO

Final Fiesta

All of the Mexican tacos, a cat who lives at a sushi restaurant, Russian accents, Nebraska, and a man eating cheesy chips the WRONG way. A bachelorette weekend in Cabo San Lucas, only partly explained.

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

FOMO Is Real, Y'all

Jay went to Kuala Lumpur without me, and I could not let it go. One shared carry-on, two days, 272 rainbow steps, monkey babies all over, and the reason a city is named for mud.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

VIENTIANE, LAOS

The Slowest Race in Vientiane

A remote-work week in Vientiane: a moped full of giggling girls yelling faster, a jog to the temples, a tuk-tuk ride home, and where the prayer birds in those little cages actually come from.

Keep Calm and Curry On

A hotel booked only for its pillows, a sunrise drive to Agra, a Taj Mahal with a complicated love story, and the stone-inlay trick that makes its flowers bloom forever. Plus: so much vegetarian food.

Noodle Week

Two friends, Laurie and Tori, flew to Southeast Asia for a ladies' trip for the books: a million đồng market challenge in Hanoi, a cave cruise in Ha Long, goats and bubbles in Ninh Bình, and One Night (Which Became Two) in Bangkok.

Monkeys in Sweaters

After months of lockdown, Jay and I spent our weekends making up for lost time: a boat reunion in Ha Long Bay, borrowed capris in Da Nang, a tropical Christmas on Phú Quốc, and a surprise birthday in Nha Trang.

The Most Indiana Jones Thing I Have Ever Done

A wedding invitation, a pre-dawn walk through the jungle and a rainstorm at the world's most famous sunrise. Plus why Angkor Wat faces west, and the lake next door that runs backwards every rainy season.

Egypt History 101 (by Us)

King Tut was the poor one, Ramesses put his name on everything, Hatshepsut got chiseled out, and our felucca sat still in the Nile for a very ancient reason.

Cerveja, Bandeira, Batuque e Torcida

Brazil was knocked out nine days before the final, and São Paulo still roared. How a country writes the World Cup into its office hours, why the shirt is yellow, and what came next: road trips, açaí and samba on the trails of Ilhabela.

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL

PUNTA DEL ESTE, URUGUAY

Uruguay Would Rather You Didn't Know

A Brazilian holiday for a revolutionary dentist, a childhood World Cup crush, and a wine lodge in Uruguay with exactly two guests.

PUNTA DEL ESTE, URUGUAY

LISBON, PORTUGAL

Sun, Sails, and a City Built to Stand Back Up

A chartered sailboat on the Tagus, KitKats and rosé under the 25 de Abril Bridge, one leap into the river, and why downtown Lisbon is a grid: the 1755 earthquake and the timber cage built to survive the next one.

LISBON, PORTUGAL

CROATIA AND BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Te Amo, Velho: A Birthday Week in Croatia

8

Jay turned forty, which by my count is four hundred, so eight of his friends came to Croatia to help him carry it: the waterfalls of Plitvice, a villa in Split with a chef, a coronation of our own, a baklava break in Bosnia, and a final lap of King's Landing.

CROATIA AND BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

O Brasil É Lindo Maravilhoso

Three friends, one husband in sparkly shorts, and the first full Carnaval Rio had thrown in years. Plus why the whole thing is scheduled by the moon.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

COSTA RICA

The Layover Was the Vacation

Two days in Costa Rica on a layover: a midnight drive to the beach, waterfalls, sawanobori, sloths and macaws, and a selfie count of practically zero.

Holy Mole

I called Teotihuacán "Aztec ruins" on Facebook. The Aztecs would have been the first to correct me.

Celebrating an Epic Trip in the Pac NW!

A wedding with the Oregon Duck, Baby Jack, Mt. Bailey still holding June snow, Umpqua Hot Springs and an oversized dog couch: a homecoming to Rip City and the forests next door.

PORTLAND, OREGON

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Stroopwafel Time

Covid kept canceling Amsterdam on me. More than five years and a pile of rebooked tickets later, I finally made it, with Freed and Yvonne along for the victory lap.

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, MAINE

From Portland to Mayfield Heights, Mostly Unphotographed

A father-daughter road trip from Portland, Maine, to Mayfield Heights, Ohio: the Precipice Trail in a wall of fog, apple cider donuts, chicken-egg tag, the Mayflower II, Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain, the Rock Hall and Lake Erie.

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, MAINE

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

Farewell, Colombia (Definitely Not Columbia)

Diana says I used her to see her country. She is not wrong, and the evidence includes seven courses, a Viche martini, and a great deal of páramo mud.

Si la amistad es un tesoro

A Chilean Kazakh fusion wedding in Santiago, a bachelorette that nearly turned the bride purple, mote con huesillo at the top of a 1925 funicular, and the loudest "whoo-hoo" in the room. Yes, it was me.

Bali, Indonesia: Extended Layover Edition

An extended Bali layover after 24+ hours of flying: a lake temple, the thousand-year-old water system behind Jatiluwih's rice terraces, a sweet owl, and an attack by a pheasant (which was not a pheasant).

The Year of the Dragon

We lived through the pandemic in Vietnam. This was the trip where we finally got to show it off: Tết, a Michelin star, two kinds of drowned mountains, a lantern night and an airport pool.

Patience, Iago, Patience!

We had changed planes in Doha more times than we could count and never once left the airport. Then Qatar handed us an eight-hour layover and a free way out.

A Boot Scootin' Eclipse

Florida by way of the Everglades at 4 a.m., a half marathon called Run for Donuts with no donuts, a Bruton family fajita feast, and the 2024 total solar eclipse under Texas clouds, fifty-eight years after my grandfather took a better picture of one.

TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

SANTA ANA, EL SALVADOR

Ice Cream Over a Lake of Acid

Three days in San Salvador, one volcano, and strawberry and turmeric sorbete eaten over a lake of acid. Plus a hotel run, as far as I could tell, by peacocks.

SANTA ANA, EL SALVADOR

ARUBA AND CURAÇAO

A Delightful "Dushi" Detour to Aruba and Curaçao

The plan was the Venezuelan jungle. Instead: a hike to Aruba's natural pool, a night dive on a WWII tanker that sailed away and left its wreck behind, Curaçao's Swinging Old Lady, and one flamingo with opinions.

Moroccan Adventure: Peaks, Sugared Up Mules, & UNO Vengeance

I arrived in Marrakech, accidentally unsettled a fellow hiker at the airport, and a few days later had stood on the three highest peaks in the Atlas, fueled by baghrir, tuna sandwiches and sugar cubes meant for the mules.

MOROCCO

IBIZA, VALENCIA AND BUÑOL, SPAIN

I Wore White to the World's Biggest Food Fight

Champagne in Ibiza, Calvin Harris at Ushuaïa, and a white dress at La Tomatina on my best friend's birthday. I found out I am a fighter. She found out she is a flier.

IBIZA, VALENCIA AND BUÑOL, SPAIN

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL

Friday Night Lights, São Paulo Edition

The first NFL game in South America, in a stadium that hates green, between two green teams. Plus one broken seat, one helmet cameo, and a Samoyed's first 5K.

Poor Monday

Four years of "next time," three days of driving from São Paulo, and one eight-minute walk across a bridge. Paraguay, finally, with a side of waterfall nobody else had shown up for.

How Many Goats Can Fit in a Small Car?

A remote-work trip through Cape Town, Kruger, Eswatini and Lesotho, with a marathon, a leopard's pantry, a guide who tried to sell me at a border, and one small car whose passenger count I am still processing.

Obrigada, F*: 260 km on the Portuguese Coastal Camino

You only have to walk a hundred kilometers to be called a pilgrim. We walked two hundred and sixty.

Someone Was Already Awake

Someone was awake before us every morning, making the coffee. That, more than the summit, is what I brought down the mountain.

Glimmers in the Wild: 120 Wooden Bridges, Jaguars, and No Guide

I went to the Pantanal looking for small flashes of joy and came back with jaguars, one of them doing zoomies, a hat that said something I did not intend, and the lingering smell of a very large stork.

My Unique Experience at Horseshoe Bend

1

A five-hour drive from Phoenix that almost didn't happen, and a crowd of strangers all saying wow at the same rim above the Colorado River.

I Drove Across Denmark to Watch a Million Birds Go to Bed

8

A last-minute trip to the German border for Sort Sol, the marshland murmuration that only does the famous part when something tries to eat it. Plus the falcon that never showed, and the correct way to cross the Fyn bridge.

From Sequins to Sloths: Northern Brazil for the Chronically Curious

When you are seeking that spark of life, you chase it. Carnaval in Salvador with 2.5 million people, a desert that fills with water every year, and six days on the Rio Negro with pink dolphins and one sloth with somewhere to be.

Spain: A Wedding and an Adventure

A friend's wedding outside Madrid, free tapas with every drink, a Keinemusik night at La Caja Mágica, then a villa in Ibiza and a ferry to Formentera.

La Paz, whale sharks, and a sea lion who chose chaos

Wider than your sense of scale, moving with an ease that is almost funny once the initial shock wears off. Then the sea lions, who chose chaos.

Patagonia, measured in Camp Italianos

Some people do vision boards. We did blisters. An accelerated W Trek over Christmas, a rainbow nobody deserved, and a New Year in the golden light at Estancia Bonanza.

The annual retreat, or what happens when you put a Mangalitsa fillet and a switchback road in a blender

Montenegro's roads are about to get a quiet word from Nepal, Austria and Croatia. Narrow, one-way as a suggestion, with semi-trucks reversing down mountains.

Ghana asked us to wear all white. We complied. Eventually.

Cultural Intelligence

Denmark had just thrown the coldest winter in 16 years at us, the map had a gap, and we had a few days. Then we landed in a country where everyone was wearing white except us.

Fourteen days, twelve countries, one EV, and a gal who cannot be historically trusted to charge her own phone

Travel Logistics

Copenhagen to Kosovo and back in an EV, with one Samoyed operating in an advisory capacity and a back seat that ended up looking like a small artisan jam factory in transit.

BALKANS

SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE, ZAMBIA AND BOTSWANA

Skip the Impalas

A cheetah centre, a half marathon among the Big 5, four lion cubs on one log, a waterfall that is walking upstream, and Angels Pool on the edge of Victoria Falls. Four countries, one very confused set of race-day kidneys.

SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE, ZAMBIA AND BOTSWANA

SAGARMATHA NATIONAL PARK, NEPAL

Dal Bhat Power, 24 Hour

10

Ten strangers, a diverted flight, a ten-hour jeep ride and three lost days on the way to Everest Base Camp, plus how thin air actually works.

SAGARMATHA NATIONAL PARK, NEPAL

KING GEORGE ISLAND, ANTARCTICA

Whiskey on 10,000-Year-Old Ice and Chasing the Impossible: The Antarctica Marathon

12

The honeymoon that became a four-year cancellation saga, and then the coldest, strangest, most beautiful race I have ever run. Four attempts, one pandemic, and an apartment marathon I recommend to nobody.

KING GEORGE ISLAND, ANTARCTICA

WESTPORT, NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Is Oceania, Too

8

Our Kiwi friends talked us out of Australia and into a marathon up a West Coast river gorge. Then New Zealand kept going.

WESTPORT, NEW ZEALAND

VIETNAM

Ninja Duckies

We moved to Vietnam in the strictest year of its lockdown: 28-day quarantines in Hanoi, soldiers at the checkpoints, and a little girl across the hall who turned my rubber ducks into a daily adventure.

7 Continents, 7 Marathons, Our Running Story

10

An ex said I'd never run a marathon. Seventeen years, seven continents, one rule for my husband (never cross the line before me) and a lot of sacrificed toenails later, we finished the last one hand in hand in Cape Town.

SEVEN CONTINENTS