Michelle Gross

Travel trends come and go, but when it comes to sustainability, these hotels are all in.
By choosing accommodation providers with strong sustainability practices, such as those supporting local conservation efforts or engaging in community initiatives, travelers can ensure their stays align with their personal values while positively impacting the environment and the communities they visit.

Tequila taps into a wide range of thoughts and opinions. Whether you love it or have sworn it off for all eternity, there’s no denying that tequila—and its smoky, increasingly popular cousin, mezcal—has stood the test of time. Agave-based spirits continue to be one of the most accessible and in demand categories in the cocktail space, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

Travel has the power to connect, inspire and even transform us. Peering over the edge of a crashing waterfall in Newfoundland and ascending sawtooth spires in the Italian Dolomites reveal how wondrous the world can be. But while travel should be a force for good, the past year has reminded us that it also has the potential to overwhelm and even harm the...

As immersive, purpose-driven trips take center stage in the year ahead, here are 25 extraordinary and eco-conscious ways to see and explore the world in style.

When the Waldorf Astoria opened its opulent, art-deco-inspired doors on New York City’s Park Avenue in 1931, it was, by and large, the grandest hotel the country had ever seen.
In the near century since the Waldorf first made its historic debut, New York’s grande dame has hosted a decadent buffet of elegant guests and A-listers from the Windsors to The Who, along with every sitting U.S. President since Herbert Hoover famously took up residence in suite 31A of t...

Set some 40km off Iceland's northern coast, this windswept sliver is home to one of Europe's most remote settlements and a thriving seabird population.
Even on a sunny day in late August, the wind on the island of Grímsey cut through our waterproof layers with so much force that one bad gust felt as if it could wipe us clean off the map for good.
My husband and I arrived on Grímsey's beautiful, blustery shores carrying a couple of wooden walking sticks – not so much to help us keep our balanc...

Like a great book that you just can’t put down, some small towns are filled with so much personality that their stories jump off the page. And there’s perhaps no town where local lore and larger-than-life characters are begging to be told than Beaufort, South Carolina.
Once upon a time, Beaufort was the home of a former slav...

New Orleans is entering it’s Taylor Swift era.
There’s certainly no shortage of ways to have a good time in the Crescent City whose motto ‘laissez les bons temps rouler’ (let the good times roll) is a way of life as much as it is a tagline you’ll find plastered across billboards and tourist pamphlets scattered throughout the French Quarter.
And the good are definitely rolling in the Big Easy right now. According to TripAdvisor, not only is New Orleans ranked the number one most popular U.S fo...

Providenciales, the capital of the coral island archipelago of Turks and Caicos, has grown into the Caribbean vacation destination of choice for A-listers. Provo to the initiated, its popularity was spurred by a best-in-the-Caribbean inventory of massive, ultra-private luxury villas—not to mention the no-filter needed, sugar-white sand beaches and Gatorade Cool Blue-water.

Buzzwords like “glamping,” “eco retreats,” and “biophilic design” dominate today’s travel market — but before green everything was “in,” there were treehouses. From “Swiss Family Robinson”-style passion projects to hippie homes, hand-built treehouses have always sparked a sense of childlike joy.
Now, there’s fresh growth in the number of stunning treehouse hotels thanks to big brands and hospitality nabobs who hope to make a night in the trees a luxury experience. They’re ditching rickety ladd...

Travelers have a lot to look forward to in 2025. According to Hilton’s 2025 Trends Report released earlier this week, the hotel chain revealed their top travel predictions and have officially decreed 2025 as ‘the year of the travel maximizer.’
The report — which surveyed 13,000 travelers across 13 countries, also included feedback from over 4,100 Hilton employees and travel experts — found that while 2024 saw a rise in sleep retreats and what they called ‘the year of the great recharge,’ the ...

A primer on how to drink sake mirrors that of Japanese whisky: you savor it. Considered the national drink of Japan, sake has served as a staple in Japanese cuisine and culture for centuries (as has awamori). Nowadays, you don’t have to travel far to sip on this iconic spirit. According to the Japanese Sake and Shochu Makers Association, sake exports from Japan to the U.S. have more than doubled over the last decade.
"The importation of premium sake began about 30 years ago, and refrigeration...

“I call it the magic mirror effect,” my driver Denzel says, as we make our way from the airport in Providenciales to Beach Enclave Long Bay on my inaugural visit to Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) this past spring. True to Denzel’s words, over the course of the week I spent there, I found it nearly impossible to tear my eyes away from the crystalline turquoise water; on a clear day, it can be hard to tell where the sea ends and the sky begins.
TCI is comprised of eight main islands and 40 smal...

In her 1937 memoir Out Of Africa, Karen Blixen remembers her home in the Ngong Hills of Kenya in lyrical prose: “The cicada sing an endless song in the long grass, smells run along the earth and falling stars run over the sky, like tears over a cheek. You are the privileged person to whom everything is taken.”

Sydney Pollack later adapted Blixen’s book into a critically acclaimed film of the same name starring Meryl Stre...

Considering its proximity to Los Angeles, San Diego’s food scene has for far too long played second fiddle. Sure, there’s always been authentic Baja-inspired Mex-Cali cuisine and a handful of fine dining institutions. However, a slow and steady shift has been well underway in recent years, and today, San Diego’s food scene shines better and brighter than ever thanks to a new crop of talented ch...