Medellín’s past will break your heart. Its present will uplift you. In the last decade, Colombia’s second-largest city has evolved from one of the world’s most dangerous to a modern, vibrant, and safe metropolis. To witness the transition first-hand, start by wandering through Comuna 13 with a local. Tour guide Alex Caro Ruiz, sporting an…
Europe leads the world in overtouristed destinations. Old Town Dubrovnik consistently ranks among the worst, with a 27:1 tourist-to-local-resident ratio during peak times. Others high on the list include Amsterdam, Venice, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Mallorca, Malta and some of the Greek islands, all struggling with a deluge of sightseers and day-trippers. Reasons include lower-cost airlines and cruise vacations, a surge in affordable rental properties on Airbnb and Vrbo, and the rise of “revenge travel” after the pandemic. Successful marketing measures have quickly outpaced existing tourism infrastructure, leaving planners far behind in managing crowds.
Destinations are fighting back with measures such as cruise ship taxes, entry fees for day-trippers, limiting hotel growth, and caps on property rentals.
The silver Arch soars gracefully above the expansive grounds of Gateway Arch National Park on the banks of the Mississippi River. Visible from up to 30 miles away, the St. Louis icon was erected 60 years ago to commemorate the Missouri town’s role in westward expansion during the 1800s. It’s also an engineering miracle, a…
The pre-dawn blue hour is often chilly, as the Venice Carnival takes place in midwinter. Dress warmly to greet the stoic and mysterious women (and a few men) who don marvelous costumes and pose before the gondolas, in the lee of the Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, waiting for the sun.
Just outside Quartzite, Arizona, not far from the California border, a massive bonfire crackles and occasionally pops, sending sparks into the dimming sky. Basketball-sized boulders circle the flames, and about three feet wider, smaller rocks ring the boulders to keep anyone from getting too close to the fire. Double that distance again and a mix…
At first light each day, a couple of hundred monks depart Luang Prabang’s ancient Xieng Thong temple on a sunrise stroll. Carrying nothing but the saffron robes draped over their shoulders and alms bowls for receiving daily food and other offerings, this barefoot assemblage exits the wat grounds in single file. The monks proceed four…
On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, high atop the bluffs over Montana’s Little Bighorn River, General George Armstrong Custer, clad in frontier buckskins, lead 210 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry down a ravine in pursuit of rebellious Sioux Indians. Two days later, a relief force curious as to his whereabouts arrived and found a gruesome sight. Scattered over a wide area on several hills were all 210 of Custer’s men… each man lying in the sun, scalped, stripped naked, and often mutilated. One victim had 105 arrows stuck in him…
By Nancy Wigston Three nights in Tokyo Japanese winters are fairly mild with rare snowfalls, apart from the Hokkaido ski slopes. This makes winter a perfect time to see Tokyo and other Japanese cities without the tourist crowds of spring and summer. Tokyo has a population of 37 million. Despite its size, the world’s largest…
High above Salzburg’s Alstadt (Old Town), the stark, impregnable, 11th-century stronghold of Fortress Hohensalzburg looms over a city long ruled by mighty prince-archbishops—Catholic prelates who wielded both spiritual authority and secular power within the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted from 800 to 1806. Below, amid glittering domes and ornate courtyards, visitors stream through the Salzburg…
By Sharon McDonnell UNESCO has called the Mogao Caves the “largest, most richly endowed and longest-used treasure house of Buddhist art” in the world. The caves are located outside Dunhuang, an oasis city in northwest China at the edge of the Gobi Desert in Gansu province. Filled with vivid murals and statues depicting Buddha and…