February 2015

  By Marian Betancourt I had long wanted to visit this fabled city by the sea built by Peter the Great in 1703 to open Russia to the West.  Inspired by the country’s great novelists and poets and Robert Massie’s splendid biographies of Peter and Catherine and the Romanovs, I

By Stevenson Swanson Stratton’s reputation for wide, open trails did not really hit me until my son and I stood at the top of the Sunriser Supertrail during a late-winter weekend visit to this classic southern Vermont ski resort. To my eye, the grand boulevard of Sunriser appeared to be

By Everett Potter Many airline passengers seek to avoid those hefty checked-bag charges that the airlines levy by resorting to traveling only with carry-on luggage, using bags that seem to run the gamut of shape and size. The result is that aircraft bin space has emerged as the most hotly

  By Larry Olmsted Welcome back to “Great Urban Weekend Escapes.” Since the famous Austin City Limits music festival just finished, it seems like a perfect time for this column to visit Texas’ capitol city. Austin has been one of the country’s hottest, trendiest and fastest rising destinations for several

  by Kim McHugh Photographs courtesy of the resorts Mountain Resort Spas Vanquish Stress (Part 1) For centuries spas and soothing mineral springs have been vanquishing the specters of ill health, fatigue and too many laps around the chariot track. These days slope weary skiers and snowboarders are checking into

By Steve Jermanok Traveling to the Lake Geneva region of Switzerland this past September with Lisa, every day was a dream that could easily make this list. Seeing Dubuffet’s collection of art from the insane at Lausanne, strolling through the sculpted vineyards of the Lavaux, and taking a cruise over

By Eleanor Berman Straddling spring fed lakes and surrounded by 120 acres of native forest, the multi-million dollar Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is one of America’s most exciting museums. Everything about it is unusual, including the location: Bentonville, Arkansas, population, 40,000.   Why Bentonville? Because this small town

By Marc Kristal The tourist’s week I spent recently in Rome was – as it always seems to be in that unusual city – a dream of perfection. The sun came out every day and turned my scarf and gloves unnecessary. The low winter sun made silhouettes of the stone