michelle gross

When it comes to camping, we are a family divided. On the one hand, Teddy, our 1.5-year-old rescue dog, and I love the great outdoors, bug bites, sleeping on a slightly deflated air-mattress and all. On the other hand, my partner and our 10-year-old dog, Bear, prefer the air-conditioning and high thread-count sheets that come with a luxury hotel stay.

Recently, due to COVID-19 and uncertainty around the safety of travel, I've talked my partner into enjoying more of the great outdoors and taking our dogs on nearby camping trips.

Just two hours outside of New York City, the Catskills is a year-round destination offering an outdoor escape teeming with a wide range of activities from hiking and skiing trails to breweries and sweat lodges.

A women-owned business, Kokoro Care Packages includes handcrafted Japanese snacks, recipes and ingredients from Kyoto and Kyushu all delivered right to your front door.
There’s nothing like being grounded for a few months that really makes you appreciate the minor inconveniences that used to come with traveling. The hurried rush to catch a flight followed by subsequent flight delays. The jet lag, followed by subsequent bloating after a long flight. Ah, the good old days.
I’ve been relishing t...

Travel has continued to surge in July and August, and travel shaming and COVID-call outs are becoming more common. While some travelers continue to share their photos and experiences on social media, many are choosing to curb their online presence or to not post at all.

Therapeutic voice meditation, called Arigato Zen, can be practiced from anywhere through chanting and repeating a simple mantra or word.

From champagne Jell-O shots and playful party food to a life-sized statue of the Tennessee legend herself, prepare to be tickled pink.
Go big or go home, as the adage goes. Set on top of Nashville’s recently reopened Graduate Hotel, White Limozeen— a gorgeous new rooftop restaurant-bar concept that pays homage to all things Dolly Parton— is every bit as big, beautiful and over the top as the Tennessee legend herself.

With the summer heat and humidity in full swing and many states continuing phased reopenings, some people are cautiously looking for a beachside vacation away from the crowds.

Traveling right now is a highly personal decision and I know full well that it is still a risky proposition at that. I've been reporting on how the travel industry and hotels in particular have been operating in light of COVID-19. According to a recent study by The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), while domestic travel has continued to tick up in recent weeks, hotel booking in smaller markets and towns are also on the rise.

As cities and states across the country start to reopen, many people are eager to make their summer travel plans. In light of the novel coronavirus, things have changed since your last hotel visit. Read on to see a few of the ways hotels are adapting and how your next hotel stay could look a little different.
Set in the quaint town of Charlottesville, Virginia, Quirk Hotel officially opened their doors on March 5th. Two weeks later, on March 23rd, as the novel coronavirus began to take its un...

After months of isolation, self-quarantine, and canceling travel plans, many people are starting to think about vacations again and future trips. The possibility of hitting the road with nothing but open fields and endless trails sounds especially good right about now.

Welcome to the new normal, which, it's important to note, will vary from city to city and hotel to hotel. Here is a look at the new policies being implemented at each major hotel brand to safeguard your stay. Just don't be surprised if you find a face mask on your pillow instead of mints on your next visit.

Shakyo, an ancient form of Buddhist meditation, is used to help cope with everything from grief to aiding depression and anxiety.
It’s hard to imagine that just weeks before we learned of the novel coronavirus reaching our shores here in the U.S., my friend Emily and I were getting ready to take a long anticipated trip to Japan. It was late January, and whispers of coronavirus were in the air, but seemed so distant and far removed from us then. ‘Are you nervous?’ I texted Emily the night befo...

Tuscany, even if you’ve never been there, is one of those places that conjures up images of sweeping valleys and sun drenched countrysides so beautiful they can’t help but take your breath away.
Home of all things prosciutto and parmigiano-reggiano and of course the fabled white truffle, Italy has always served as a beacon of culinary inspiration, which is exactly why it’s a fitting location to end this year’s Top Chef All Star season with a bang.
“Oh my god I was so excited,” Top Chef finali...

The third season of ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ premieres on Netflix this Friday.
Even in a global pandemic, Phil Rosenthal can’t help but put a smile on your face.
“I’ve been doing a lot of these lately and so I thought for every interview I do if I can walk then maybe I won’t be so fat,” Rosenthal said with a smile that belies his witty sense of humor via zoom last week.
As he traverses the streets of his neighborhood in sunny southern California in a white hoodie and a scruffy beard, the creator ...

Since long before the words “social distancing” and “self-isolating” entered our daily lexicon, there’s been something special about checking in to a remote hotel. Whether it’s the adventure of making the trek to a far-flung destination, the serenity attained by going off-the-grid, or the bragging rights that come with staying somewhere inherently exclusive, there are countless reasons why a hard-to-access getaway is worth the effort. These aren’t necessarily places where you would go to isol...