When Is Oktoberfest in Germany in 2024? Dates, Best Cities, and Other Info to Know
Posted on 08/05/2024, 1:45 PM
This post, originally published June 28, 2024, has been updated with new information. In a typical year, around 6 million people descend on Munich for Oktoberfest, Germany's two-and-a-half-week-long annual celebration of beer and all things Bavarian (pretzels, lederhosen, oompah bands, the Chicken Dance) at the city's Theresienwiese fairgrounds. Because the event is so popular, there's no such...
New UNESCO World Heritage Sites for 2024 in Italy, Malaysia, South Africa, More
Posted on 08/02/2024, 7:00 AM
UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has added 24 cultural and natural wonders to its esteemed World Heritage List of sites the organization deems worthy of preservation due to "outstanding universal value." The globe-spanning crop of newly inscribed World Heritage Sites was announced this week following the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, hel...
New RV Sites Amid Canyons and Adoptable Pets at Utah’s Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
Posted on 07/31/2024, 5:30 PM
The self-described largest no-kill animal shelter in the United States occupies an enviable location amid the red rock canyons of southern Utah, where 1,600 dogs, cats, birds, bunnies, pigs, goats, and other creatures receive care while awaiting adoption. The nonprofit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary draws a lot of human visitors, too, receiving 35,000 annual stopovers, according to Best Friends of...
The Notorious 'Titanic' Door Is On Display in Real Life. Is There Room for Two?
Posted on 07/29/2024, 7:00 AM
A new permanent display of movie memorabilia from the 1997 blockbuster Titanic features a projection of a famous line uttered by Kate Winslet's Rose: "I'll never let go." But the exhibit's focal point evokes the line's unspoken addendum: Nor will I scoot over. The item in question is an 8-foot-long chunk of elaborately carved balsa wood that now resides at eastern Tennessee's Titanic Museum Attra...
A Cinque Terre Trail Famed for Romance Reopens After More Than a Decade
Posted on 07/25/2024, 7:00 AM
After a long dry spell, the Path of Love is reopening. We're not trying to be poetic here. The actual walkway known as the Path of Love—or Via dell'Amore in Italian—is finally becoming fully accessible again to visitors in the Cinque Terre, which is the string of colorful villages clinging dramatically to cliffs along a stretch of northwestern Italy's Ligurian coast. The seaside route connects...
All About USA’s Newest National Park: Texas' Blackwell School National Historic Site
Posted on 07/24/2024, 7:00 AM
A former school that was built in west Texas for Mexican and Mexican American students during the era of "separate but equal" education has become the newest addition to the U.S. National Park System. Located in the desert town–turned–unlikely arts hub of Marfa (about 50 miles east of the Mexico border), the Blackwell School National Historic Site was formally established last week by the Biden ad...
Virgin Voyages Offers Free Cruises for Young Adults Traveling with a Parent
Posted on 07/23/2024, 3:15 PM
Virgin Voyages made a splashy entrance into the cruise market a few years ago, but at the worst moment imaginable: The line's first cruise was originally scheduled for April 1, 2020. Certain world events that we have all apparently agreed to rarely speak of delayed that debut voyage to October 2021, when the Scarlet Lady set sail for a series of departures packed with young influencer types who w...
This Carnival Cruise Customer Service Scam Cost a Family Their $900 Vacation
Posted on 07/23/2024, 7:00 AM
We've warned you before about travel scams involving fraudulent phone numbers for airlines' customer service call centers. Passengers fall prey to that con when they look up an airline's contact info via an internet search engine and dial a number on the search results page that goes to a bogus call center. A fraudster on the other end of the line then pretends to represent the carrier in order t...
The Rules for Bringing a Dog Into the US Are Getting Stricter: Here's What's Changing
Posted on 07/22/2024, 2:00 PM
This post, originally published May 13, 2024, has been updated with new information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is rolling out new rules for bringing a dog into the United States. Effective August 1, all dogs entering the country must be at least 6 months old, must be microchipped, and must be accompanied by either proof of a rabies vaccine or proof that the dog hasn't been ...
Orly Airport Just Opened a Cheap Direct Train Link to Central Paris
Posted on 07/16/2024, 5:00 PM
Every few months, it seems, another outfit releases a new list of the best and worst airports in the world, and a certain airport seems to be a perennial pariah. Paris' miserable Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) is a bane of world travel, particularly for flight transfers. A dysfunctional layout, awkward connections, lousy signage, alienating Brutalist architecture, and crowds of grumpy internation...
