Travel advice, ideas & expert tips

Mount Vernon and slavery: Confronting the uncomfortable legacy behind George Washington’s estate

Behind the grand mansion and formal gardens of Mount Vernon lies a quieter, more troubling story. Visiting the reconstructed slave quarters at Mount Vernon forces a reckoning with George Washington and slavery, and with choices that shaped the early United States. It looks like a…

The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany.

Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

A neoclassical temple rises on a plinth above Museum Island, housing Germany's finest collection of 19th-century art. The building looks more suited to ancient Athens than industrial-age Berlin — which is precisely what architect Friedrich August Stüler intended when he modelled it on a Greek…

Magritte Museum, Brussels: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

The world's largest collection of René Magritte's work occupies a five-storey neoclassical building on Place Royale in Brussels, Belgium. Over 200 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and films trace the Belgian surrealist's career from his early commercial work to the bowler-hatted men and impossible skies that made…

Douglas Coupland's Digital Orca in Vancouver, Canada.

A complete guide to visiting Digital Orca in Vancouver (2026)

A pixelated orca breaches from Jack Poole Plaza in three-dimensional blocky form, its black-and-white cubes catching light off Vancouver's harbour. The Digital Orca sculpture turns an icon of Canada's West Coast — the killer whale — into something that belongs equally to video games and…

The Hiram M Chittenden locks in Seattle, Washington.

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, Seattle: Salmon, ships and the city’s overlooked soul

A short trip north of downtown reveals a side of Seattle that guidebooks often skim past. At the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, engineering, ecology and local identity quietly intersect. In the hotel lobby stands my very unofficial tour guide. “Howdy,” she says. “I’m going to…

The Reynisfjara black sand beach on Iceland's south coast.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, Iceland: 2026 visitor guide

Iceland's most famous beach is also its most dangerous. The jet-black volcanic sand, towering basalt columns, and dramatic sea stacks at Reynisfjara make for extraordinary photographs — but the Atlantic's sneaker waves have killed at least six people here since 2007, including one in August…

The Skógafoss waterfall in southern Iceland.

Skógafoss Waterfall, Iceland: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

One of Iceland's most powerful waterfalls drops 60 metres in a single, thundering sheet of water that sends spray so far you'll feel it from 50 metres away. On sunny days, that same mist from the Skógafoss waterfall creates vivid rainbows — sometimes two at…

The Seljalandsfoss waterfall in southern Iceland.

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Iceland: Parking & visitor guide (2026)

It's tempting to drive past Seljalandsfoss in southern Iceland. From the Ring Road, it's just another cascade tumbling down from the cliffs. But walk across that car park, and the scale hits you. Then you notice the pathway disappearing behind the curtain of water, and…

Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint, Oregon: Visitor guide

When I first pulled into the parking area — officially named Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint but still called Chanticleer Point by locals — what immediately struck me was how every single person with a camera was pointing in the same direction. Nobody photographs…

Vista House overlooking Oregon's Columbia River Gorge.

Vista House, Oregon: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide

The first time I climbed the stone steps to Oregon's Vista House and stepped inside, what caught me off guard wasn't the 360-degree Columbia River Gorge panorama — though it's genuinely spectacular — but the Tokeen Alaskan marble floors and opalized glass windows in what…