Looking up at the morning sky above the Routeburn Track—one of the great hiking trails in New Zealand, which is to say one of the great hiking trails anywhere—I saw a drab green parrot flapping hard against a light breeze. It was a kea, the only parrot in the world that reaches this sort of mountain country, a place of rock faces, snow fields, and tussock grass far above the dark beech forests...Read more >

According to our flight attendant, Helsinki’s Vantaa Airport is the oldest in Europe. This she shared as the plane began its final descent. I was neither impressed nor cheered. I felt, rather, as though my surgeon had just bragged about having the oldest tools in the hospital. It seemed especially anomalous for Helsinki, crowned the 2012 World Design Capital in honor of its progressive pursuits...Read more >

Share the spark of travel this holiday season. Give a passport today! Last December, I opted not to take my team here at AFAR out for a boozy lunch to celebrate the holidays. (Let the record show: I really like a boozy lunch.) Instead, I thanked them for their good work by paying for 10 passports for teenagers who don’t ordinarily get on airplanes and zip off to experience another part of the...Read more >

AFAR chooses a destination at random—by literally spinning a globe—and sends writer Cindy Chupack on a spontaneous journey to Shanghai. The irony is not lost on me that as soon as I finished writing my book about marriage—a book that celebrates the fact that I had finally found someone to share my life with, get a dog with, start a family with—I agreed to travel by myself to anywhere in the...Read more >

Growing up in New Mexico, I was weaned on green chile. We ate it not only in enchiladas and burritos, but also in eggs, on cheeseburgers, on pizza, and in pasta Alfredo. When I visited the state last summer, I tasted a dark chocolate–green chile truffle, dined with a local restaurateur whose roast beef sandwich bulged with more chile than meat, and met a pastry chef who was developing...Read more >

Last October, I was on a flight sitting next to my husband of two days. The giddy blur of our wedding behind us, Jeffery and I were honeymooning in Italy. On the plane, I started thinking about how travel marks transitions in our lives. We celebrate weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays with memorable trips. But sometimes the journey itself is the milestone: your first solo trip, the first you...Read more >

“Where is your luggage?” I get this question often—from hotel clerks, airline staff, taxi drivers, and friends. “It’s right here,” I say. “On my back.” No matter how long my trip, I try to travel with everything in a leather backpack that I call the JackPack (pictured). I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of the JackPack. The bag was developed by my brother-in-law Jack and the leather...Read more >

Mixologist Julie Reiner keeps true to her Hawaiian roots with her cocktail programs at New York’s Flatiron Lounge and Brooklyn’s Clover Club. “I always use the freshest juices and spices,” she says. Now, Reiner, who grew up on Oahu, brings her big-city techniques to Maui. As beverage director of Andaz Maui, Reiner sources the best spirits. “I want to raise the bar on how cocktails are done in...Read more >

Brian Solis is an analyst, an author, a keynote speaker, and a tech-savvy traveler. How tech-savvy? How many travelers have their own mobile app? Solis has an international background—the son of a Madrileña, he began traveling at a young age, and has since made it a habit. Here, Solis shares some of his travel background and expertise with us from years on the road and in the air. Right now...Read more >