A few months ago I found myself face to face with a school of piranhas, and lived to tell the tale. OK, the little buggers were in a tank at Parque Explora in Medellin, Colombia, whose unusual aquarium is devoted to Amazonian fauna. Common throughout the Amazon and its connected rivers – some of which are in Peru and Colombia but most of…

In case you’re wondering where is Montenegro, for starters it’s one of the world’s newest countries – a Slavic land once part of Yugoslavia, then Serbia, and now independent for just five years.  And though small (smaller than the U.S. state of Connecticut, in fact) it’s an up-and-comer indeed on the travel scene, with…

One of my very favorite things to do in Budapest when I spent some time there a few years ago was to spend a nice, soothing afternoon at a wonderful old fürdő (bath house). In the day and age of the elaborate luxury spa, old-fashioned bath houses seem practically extinct in North America except for a few…

Fewer foodstuffs in the world today seem to have more fans than xocolātl, the cacao-based infusion the Spanish conquistadors found quaffed by the elites of Aztec, Mayan, and other Mesoamerica societies they conquered. Back then, it was not…

When it comes to this quintessential Alpine country deep in the heart of Europe, most people understandably think of it in terms of its Germanic and Francophone flavors. But way down in Switzerland's south, bordering Italy, the language and culture are Italian. Benvenuti (welcome) to Ticino!



Known in ancient Roman…

You don’t necessarily have…

There’s a stereotype in Colombia that the country’s fourth-largest city, a bustling but somewhat nondescript bit of business on the Caribbean coast about an hour east of Cartagena, is…

In various parts of the world — and nowhere more than in northern Europe — summertime’s fondly considered a bright and cheery idyll, tailor-made for vacations and good vibrations in general. It’d been a long time since I’d been to Scandinavia in summer, and on my recent visit to Finland, I had the pleasure of rediscovering why the warmest season in this part of the world is so…

When you think of travel to Bulgaria, what comes to mind first? For me, one of the cool things about visiting this fetching little Balkan country is its touches of exoticism, part of an ancient cultural heritage that stretches back to 5,000 BC, and of of the features which I find most noticeable is its Eastern Orthodox…

One of my very most prized travel souvenirs is a vintage kilim, about 75 years old, which I bought more than a decade ago in the otherworldly medina of Fez, Morocco – with its black-and-yellow zigzag motif, it evokes exoticism and the quintessence of travel whenever I look at…

When you visit the local towns, museums, and awesome Mayan ruins on the Riviera Maya and the rest of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula (or for that matter in Honduras and Guatemala) you’ll see and hear all sorts of strange names and phrases – chaac mool, popol vuh, k’atun,…

On a lovely reent repeat visit to this gorgeous UNESCO World Heritage city, and the previous night, although on my various travels I’ve been hit up (and once literally stuck up) for cash, this one took the cake (the flan?). 



A local friend and I were enjoying a drink at one of Old Cartagena’s landmarks, the outdoor…

More than a few non-Brits have at least vaguely heard of a place called Cornwall – maybe even that its duke is Prince Charles and its duchess Camilla (née Parker-Bowles), and that it's in the southwest of England. If they're really up on this 1,376-square-mile region, they know it's Celtic in heritage; boasts a dramatically craggy coast; has traditionally been big…

The lands which were to become the United States and Canada were largely settled by the English, but not everyone is aware that the continental USA’s oldest continuously occupied city, St.…

What, surprised? Yep, it’s true that Mexico’s about more than tequila and beer. In fact, vino here dates back to the 16th century, when vines were brought over from Spain – so never mind Argentina and Chile, Mexico is where this hemisphere’s wine heritage was sown, and the Western Hemisphere’s oldest winery, Casa Madero, is still in operation…

When better than the USA’s Independence Day to visit the city (a couple of hours by road and rail from New York City) the locals fondly call Philly, where this country came into being in 1776? The evolution of the “City of Brotherly Love” founded by Quakers in the 17th…