Michelle Gross is a Beaufort, South Carolina-based multimedia travel journalist, photographer, and editor by way of New York City. You can follow her travels on Instagram @pinktravelproject or read her travel newsletter, The Beau Yorker, on Substack.
A first look at the new Kayak Hotel Miami Beach
If you've done a flight search or price-matched a hotel or car rental anytime in the past two decades, you're probably familiar with Kayak.com. Founded by billionaire CEO Steve Hafner in 2004, there's no doubt that the travel aggregator and metasearch website with a database of over 400,000 hotels worldwide has revolutionized how we plan and price out travel in real time.
Exhilarating Zambia with Luxury Safari Company
If you're not accustomed to flying in small aircraft, it's hard to describe the range of emotions -- fear, anxiety, excitement, combined with pure adrenaline -- that take hold of you as you're cruising across Zambia in a six-seat Cessna 208B Caravan.
Exceeding Kyoto Expectations at Sowaka
A review of the newly opened Sowaka Hotel in Kyoto, Japan
Sailing into sun-soaked relaxation on the Viking Star
There are no two words that will get an East Coaster to book a trip to the Caribbean faster than "polar vortex."
Sure enough, as temperatures dipped from a frigid 20 into the single digits for the third week in a row this past January, I gladly packed my bags and made my way south to San Juan. I was invited to spend 11 days cruising the West Indies on the Viking Star, whose itinerary brought with it the promise of perpetual sunshine and back-to-back beach days in "azure blue" water. It couldn...
Discovering Mekong majesty onboard the Avalon Saigon
It was 4:40 a.m., and I was sitting in the Panorama Lounge of the newly minted Avalon Saigon, wide awake. I'd have loved to chalk it up to a combination of jet lag and adrenaline, but really, I was restless. It would be another hour before the sun began to peek over the rust-colored Mekong River, and I couldn't wait another minute.
I bided my time, taking full advantage of the strong WiFi connection while my fellow shipmates were in what I assumed was a blissful state of slumber. Email sent a...
Hotels illustrate ongoing evolution of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv is a city very much in transition. A mosaic of cultures, religions and influences, for a city of around 450,000 people according to a 2015 poll, this modern Middle Eastern metropolis is as varied and diverse today as the buildings and architecture that comprise it.
But I didn't really know all of that prior to my latest visit. I was invited to Israel last spring by the Israel Ministry of Tourism primarily to celebrate Purim, a raucous, carnival-like holiday in which thousands of part...
A sweet, educational outing to New Zealand honeybee hives
It was a hot, windy January day as our helicopter made its way from the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, along the coast and over the vineyard-laden hills and golden plains surrounding Lake Tutira.
Hawke's Bay is perhaps best known as the North Island's foremost wine-producing region as well as for its beautiful beaches and vivid landscapes. I was visiting as a guest of Kiwi-based wellness company Comvita to learn about honey — specifically manuka honey, which has become one of the country'...
Two takes on pampering in Phuket, Thailand
Traveling halfway around the world to "go to the beach" is a tough proposition. That's how a friend put it, anyway, when I mentioned I was going to Phuket last December.
It's not an unfair point. But it was my inaugural trip to Phuket, and I was trying to keep an open mind. The largest of the Thai islands and the second most visited city in the country after Bangkok, Phuket went through a revival of sorts after a massive tsunami ravaged the islands in 2004 and tourism was all but decimated in...
Reigniting city sparks with stay at Arlo NoMad
USA
They say nothing makes you fall more in love with your city than leaving it for a few days. After nearly 10 years of living in New York, it's a sentiment I'd tend to agree with.
While I love a lot of things that come with living in New York, I long for the days when everything was new. It's always a treat to experience the city through the lens of friends or family who come to visit. That look of surprise when a mound of piping-hot pastrami on rye comes off the line at Katz's. The buzz of...
Affordable aloha with Holiday Inn Express
There are few things as exhilarating as catching your first wave. Unless that wave happens to be the same wave that actor/comedian Rob Riggle catches. Which is exactly what happened to me on a recent trip to Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. And it was, to quote myself at the time, "totally epic."
Of course, it's not purely by coincidence that I happened to be at the same beach and the same surf camp as Riggle. I was invited to interview the former "Daily Show" correspondent about his role as the crea...
Arabian elegance, via Waldorf Astoria
It was just after midnight in Dubai, and my driver, a young Emirati named Omar, just made a sharp right turn off the highway. "Shortcut," he said.
We were driving north from Dubai Airport to the seaside of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, and all I could see out the passenger window, save for the occasional factory and camel farm, were the vast swaths of desert that surrounded us.
Thirty minutes of desolate, dark desert road later, our destination, the Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaima...
Niseko Village: Remote relaxation in Japan
It was just before midnight when we arrived at the remote mountain enclave of Niseko in northern Japan, and after 20 hours of travel time, the warm and dimly lighted lobby of the Hilton Niseko Village was a sight for sore eyes.
Located on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, Niseko comprises four interconnected villages — Annupuri, Niseko Village, Hirafu and Hanazona — offering more than 2,100 acres of skiable terrain, an international ski school and an average of 30 to 50 feet of snowfall ea...