January 2023

From Ireland to Snowbasin
By Brian E. Clark When Davy Ratchford was a boy in Ireland, the idea of running a major ski resort in the United States was absolutely nowhere on his radar. “For starters, there’s no snow skiing in Ireland. And besides, we grew up incredibly poor in a neighborhood called Glasnevin

On the Importance of Making Happy Travel Memories
Can a stepfather and stepson grow closer on a family-friendly LA getaway? By Mark Sissons According to Meik Wiking, founder of the world’s first Happiness Research Institute and author of The Art of Making Memories, accumulating happy memories is essential to our mental health because they strengthen our sense of

The Longfellow Hotel Will Open In Portland, Maine
By Everett Potter Portland has been on the upswing for nearly two decades, thanks to a growing and much-acclaimed food scene and a rebirth that began in the cobblestone streets of the Old Port. That spirit of growth, renovation, and revival has now spread throughout this picturesque waterfront city, the

World’s Best: Saffire Freycinet, A Luxury Lodge In The Wilds Of Tasmania
By Everett Potter If location is everything in real estate, Saffire Freycinet won the grand prize. This intimate resort at the edge of Freycinet National Park overlooks Coles Bay and a jagged pink granite mountain range called The Hazards. It’s situated in eastern Tasmania, that wild Australian island with the same

The Best Way To Experience Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
By Everett Potter I’ve been fortunate to snorkel in the Red Sea, the Galapagos Islands, and various reefs in Hawaii and the Caribbean. None came remotely close to plunging into the South Pacific Ocean and snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef. That first view of an underwater landscape of corals

Barbados Lures Adventurous Travelers
By Brian E. Clark Around 1 million years ago, the Atlantic tectonic plate dove under its Caribbean counterpart about 1,500 miles southeast of Florida, scraping deep ocean sediments to the surface. Which is why, at an elevation of around 1,000 feet in a spot called Hackleton’s Cliff, my 22-year-old daughter

Paradise Found At Australia’s Silky Oaks Lodge
By Everett Potter I’ve just returned from Australia’s Silky Oak Lodge where my idea of an eco-lodge was turned on its head. Maybe it was because I could splash in the warm waters of the tropical Mossman River under the canopy of the Daintree Rainforest. Sit on my treehouse balcony undisturbed while

Vienna’s New Offbeat Hotel: Luxury, History, and Monkey Lamps at the Leo Grand
By Mark Orwoll The bedside monkey lamps at Vienna’s new Hotel Leo Grand will either amuse you or unnerve you enough to make you sleep in the bathtub. That is, assuming you can even find your guest quarters in the first place. Room 1, for instance, is on the top

Whitstable: A Town for all Seasons
Words & photos by Deborah Loeb Bohren I’m hooked on British detective series, so when “Whitstable Pearl” popped up on my Amazon Prime screen it looked like a fun way to help while away those long pandemic hours. Who knew that a year later I would find myself part of

Inside Lisbon’s New Small Grand Hotel: Hotel Das Amoreiras
By Ann Abel The best small hotels are nearly always passion projects and labors of love. Lisbon got its latest proof of this in October, with the arrival of Hotel das Amoreiras, a 19-room oasis beside one of the city’s most beautiful small parks. Pedro Oliveira, who founded the new hotel along with his