Three ornate Victorian turrets top a mansard roof at the Renaissance St. Augustine hotel. Multiple porches wrap around the sprawling three-story structure, which is painted in as many pastel colors as you’ll find in the local ice cream parlor. This popular seaside town on Florida’s northeast Atlantic Coast is the oldest continuously populated city in the U.S. and thus takes its history seriously. … You can read my full story about the Renaissance St. Augustine Hotel in Travel Weekly here.
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When we planned our trip to hike the Big Five national parks in Utah last May, we picked St. George as our last stop because it was a short drive to Zion National Park. This small city in the southwest corner of the state was also within just a couple hours drive of Las Vegas, where we would catch a flight back home. We were so surprised by how beautiful the area around St. George was that we put our hiking boots back on....
“Utah has the best rocks.” That’s what my friend Shellie told me when she learned about my plans to visit the Mighty 5 National Parks in Utah on a road trip last May. I laughed and nodded. But I didn’t really understand what she meant until we turned south on Utah 128, not long after crossing into the state on I-70 from Colorado. We’d just driven through the magnificent Rocky Mountains from Denver. We’d gaped at several 14-teeners, wound around numerous lofty cliffs, and...
I love mysteries, whether they unfold on the page or echo from a craggy rock formation in the high desert of southwestern Colorado. Crisp, fall air drew me to the twin peaks of Chimney Rock National Monument last fall, during a road trip through New Mexico and Colorado. After clambering up the steep trail to the top for a 360-degree view of the San Juan Mountains, I was captivated by the legends linking this isolated outpost to the ancient Chaco culture. Ancestral Puebloans, as they...
During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic last summer, a road trip to the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, Texas, provided welcomed relief — even in the middle of a Texas heat wave. You can read about my road trip in the December 2020 issue of Food, Wine, Travel Magazine, starting on page 70.
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When our tour guide in Cuba married his high-school sweetheart, the couple had two choices: move in with his parents and grandparents in an already crowded apartment or share the porch with another couple in the tiny dwelling of her extended family. They chose the porch. There were no other options for the newlyweds in Havana in the early 2000s. Anthony DePalma’s new book, “The Cubans” reminded me of the stories I heard about ordinary Cubanos when I visited the island-nation on a small...
Elephants in Texas? No way. That’s what I thought until I spent a September afternoon with five gregarious pachyderms at the Hill Country Elephant Preserve outside of Stonewall, Texas—about 65 miles west of Austin. I learned about the preserve while perusing a list of typical businesses on the website of the Stonewall Chamber of Commerce. Immediately curious because I’m fascinated by elephants, I emailed the preserve for more information. An invitation to join an “elephant experience” arrived a few days later. I followed Google maps...
The glowing orange sphere slowly peaked above the dark walls of the “Grand Canyon of Texas,” illuminating subterranean spires, buttes, and mesas bathed in soft terra cotta colors. Watching the stunning sunrise over Palo Duro Canyon was well worth skipping soggy scrambled eggs and dry bacon from the hotel breakfast buffet. But I was sorry I waited so long. Palo Duro Canyon State Park has been on my travel list almost since I moved to Texas two decades ago. But every time I was near...
Trout are plentiful but elusive in the fast-flowing Green River in western Wyoming. Anglers from big cities on the West and East Coasts arrive every summer by private jet to stay at rustic ranches in the shadow of the snow-capped Wind River Mountains. They rise early to cast fanciful, hand-tied flies into the clear emerald water in hopes of hooking an inquisitive cutthroat. Fishing was not what drew mountain men, Native American Indians and traders to the lush Green River Valley nearly 200 years ago....
As a journalist, I’ve written about crime for newspapers, business deals for magazines, cruise ship ports for online travel publications and industry trends for websites. My focus now is exclusively on travel.