Travel Trends: The Year of “The How”

In your year-end and new year’s travel reading, it’s likely you’ve encountered more than a few “best of” or “hot” lists enumerating countries and destinations you must visit in the next year. As tempted as I am to question the logic and criteria of the entries cataloged therein, I will instead offer my own alternative list — one to complement them all, one that focuses less on “the where” and more on “the how.”

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Puglia, Italy Road Trip: 25 Things to See and Do in Puglia

If you're thinking of visiting Puglia, Italy, but don't know where to start in planning a road trip or what to see and do in Puglia, then you're in the right place. Read on for our top recommendations on things to do, where to eat, where to stay, and places to interest in Puglia from our own road trip.

The goal: help you create your own road trip route and Puglia itinerary of 7-10 days. This little-known province in southern Italy really has so much to offer in terms of history, beautiful old towns, beaches, landscapes, colorful markets and just incredible food.

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Responding to Terrorist Attacks: A Traveler’s Perspective, Moving Forward from Fear

I attempt to process what’s happening around the world by reflecting on where I am. The morning after the terrorist attacks in Paris, I was glued to my devices, ingesting every update. At some point I needed to peel myself away from the news. So I went for a run in Tempelhof Airport Park, my usual spot in Berlin, to get some fresh air and to try and clear my head.

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How to Travel with the Beginner’s Mind

Suggesting a beginner's mind as a life and travel strategy might sound odd. Being a beginner can be uncomfortable. The learning curve is steep, the journey can feel overwhelming. There are fears, so many of them. Some of my own early travel experiences especially bear this out.

But there are advantages. The ultimate benefit of observing the world through the eyes of a beginner is captured by a quote from Zen master Shunryu Suzuki: “In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.

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Colombia Travel Guide: 25 Experiences to Get You Started

When readers ask, “I’m traveling to Colombia. What should I do? Where should I go?” We’re left wondering how we’ll keep it short.

Because Colombia is so huge and diverse and serves so many different styles of travel, the answer is: it really depends on what you’re after.

To help (us and you), we created this experiential guide to travel in Colombia. It follows the sequence of our three weeks in the country. For any particular entry, maybe you like the image, perhaps the activity grabs your attention, or maybe both.

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Peaks of the Balkans Trail: A Beginners Guide

Each year we like to go on a long multi-day hike, one that takes us to a new region somewhere in the mountains. This hiking is an exercise for the body and also for the mind. To disconnect with our day-to-day and also to reconnect with a region once unknown to us and learn about it through its nature and people.

Our trek of 200 km / 125 miles through the mountains of Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo along a the Peaks of the Balkans Trail was one we’ll never forget.

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Why the Freedom to Travel Matters

Earlier this year, we collaborated with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) on a three-part series entitled Travel as a Force for Good. In connection with this campaign we have been invited to explore what “Freedom to Travel” means to us. As we did, we reaffirmed that the right to travel is not only important to us as individuals, but also to the communities we visit, and to the world and our shared humanity. Here’s why.

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Peaks of the Balkans Trail: Day by Day on the Hike

The Accursed Mountains, sworn virgins, blood feuds and 15th century codes of honor called kanun. It sounds like an experiential blend to inform the writing of a Game of Thrones season. Instead, it’s the cultural and historical backdrop of a 200-kilometer hiking experience we recently took through the hills of Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo called the Peaks of the Balkans.

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Travel to Colombia: First Impressions

Call it my imagination. While I looked forward to our visit to Colombia, I harbored the occasional image of thuggy bush-mustached Colombian narco-gangsters and aggressive gold cap-toothed street thieves shaking me down in the back shadows of Bogota or Medellin. (Yes, I realize I’ve probably watched one too many bad airplane movies.)

Colombia, thankfully, was altogether different. We spent time on our own, under the auspices of friends, on tours, in cities, way up in the hills, on the coast, and in destinations in between.

No narco-gangsters. No untoward experiences, for us.

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