Important Passport Advice For Travel this Year
Don’t let this happen to you! I know a family who recently missed their holiday – and lost nearly everything they’d spent on their vacation – all because of a completely avoidable travel document snafu. It happens more often than you think – but it shouldn’t happen to you. Here’s the sad story: For their first trip as a family, the parents got the kids their first passports but planned to travel on their own existing passports, which were still valid...
‘Cultivate’ Your Green Thumb in the Gardens of Britain This Year
The coldest weeks of the year inspire dreams of lush blooms and garden idylls, which just happen to be the calling card of the essential English lifestyle. Plan a trip around one of Britain’s dazzling flower shows and visit iconic gardens at stately country homes. 2025’s Flourishing Flower Show CalendarGet your horticulture on at one of Britain’s flower shows, with their rich tapestry of blooms and garden artistry in 2025. From ‘cutting’ edge designs to rare plants to dramatic installations and...
Disneyland Resort Celebrates its 70th Anniversary in 2025 with Limited-Time Events
Beginning in May, 2025, Disneyland is inviting the world to ‘Celebrate Happy’ as it marks 7 decades of making joy. Anniversary celebrations continue through summer 2026, with new festivals, décor, food and beverages, collectibles and events just for the milestone celebrations in Anaheim, California. You’ll find family fun across two theme parks, Downtown Disney District and three hotels. Disneyland is bringing back the ‘Paint the Night’ parade, and debuting a new ‘World of Color Happiness!’ Disneyland’s anniversary celebrations see the triumphant return...
Travel Good News Stories to End – and Start – the Year Right
It feels like we could all use some good news right now – and luckily, this year, travel has provided us with lots of reasons to feel hopeful and uplifted and that doing something we love – travel – can also be doing something good. The world of travel is showing us that not only can travel be good for us, it can also be easier for us and easier on the world whose travel treasures we seek to experience. Travel...
Study on a Cunard Crossing Reveals Surprising Benefits of ‘Slow Travel’ at Sea – On Your Brain!
Want to improve your memory, problem-solving skills and ability to focus? A recent study aboard a Transatlantic Crossing on the Queen Mary 2 found that even a few days at sea gives cruise travelers measurable and surprising cognitive benefits – in addition to relaxation. For over 180 years, British luxury cruise line Cunard has been sailing the fabled, week-long Crossing between New York and Southampton, UK. That cruise experience defines what’s now being dubbed ‘slow travel.’ ‘Slow Travel’ Sea DaysThe iconic version...
“Adventure Capital of the World” Set to Become First Carbon Zero Destination
Queenstown, New Zealand, is once again pioneering an exciting new travel trend. It’s already on the map for global travelers as the birthplace and “Home of Bungee Jumping” and the “Adventure Capital of the World.” Now, Queenstown is at the leading edge of finding ways to continue to offer its signature, adrenaline – and power–fueled – outdoor activities to the world… without emitting any carbon at all. And it says it can do it in just half a decade, by 2030.According...
MSC Cruises’ Private Island Cultivating Conservation Success with Super Coral Program
MSC Cruises and the MSC Foundation are sharing some good news for the world’s seas coming from the Super Coral Program at the cruise line’s private island in The Bahamas, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve. The Super Coral Program, working with off-site university partners since 2020, is dedicated to reversing the shocking worldwide decline in coral populations. New research supported by the MSC Foundation has revealed that 44% of reef-building coral species worldwide are at risk of extinction. The research assessed the conservation...
UNESCO and Relais & Châteaux to Boost Biodiversity through Cuisine
The UN agency championing the world’s cultural and scientific treasures, and the prestigious association of hundreds of independent, unique hotels and restaurants throughout the world, have joined forces to support global conservation and biodiversity through global culinary traditions. The director-general of UNESCO points out, “Never in history has nature experienced such dramatic decline. One million species – of the eight million identified to date – are facing the threat of extinction. With one voice, UNESCO and the Relais & Châteaux Association are...
France’s Christmas Miracle: Spectacular Reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris After Fire
Restored to its former glory and beyond, Notre Dame de Paris has risen from the ashes of a 2019 fire that many feared meant the end of an era for one of the most joyous historic cathedrals in Europe. The December 7, 2024 reopening ceremony and resumption of Masses felt like a Christmas gift to the world, not just for the church-going community, but also for those of us who have fallen in love with travel to Paris and France. The...
New Battleship Memorial Exhibit at Pearl Harbor for 80th Anniversary of End of WWII in the Pacific
December 7, 1941, is remembered annually for the attack on Hawai’i’s Pearl Harbor that drew the USA into World War 2. But September 2, 1945, is just as important in American history. That date in 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, with the formal Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Two moving battleship memorials at Hawai'i’s Pearl Harbor symbolically bookend America’s War in the Pacific. The USS Arizona, sunk during the attack...