Travel
Travel
Paradise Revisited
Catalina Island retains its unique character while giving visitors fresh reasons to return
July 22nd, 2010
Santa Catalina Island is, for the first time in a long time, updating itself. That’s big news in Avalon, which for more than 100 years has been a quintessential SoCal beach town. The most Mediterranean of North American islands in climate and ecology, Catalina has always been blissfully decades behind the California mainland, thanks in part to its physical isolation, but more a result of the complementary missions of the Santa Catalina Island Co. (its primary commercial developer) and the Catalina Island Conservancy, a nonprofit organization created in 1972 and promptly deeded 88 percent of the island by the Wrigley family. Read more »
First Resorts
Looking for a full-service retreat? Here are four of latest and greatest destination hotels out West
July 8th, 2010
A Classic Revisited: Park Hyatt Aviara (Carlsbad, Calif.) Urban Escape: W Hollywood Residences Desert Oasis: Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain (Marana, Ariz.) Family Fun: Trump Waikiki (Hawaii) Read more »
Travel
Chill Out in Vancouver
There’s an abundance of summertime beauty in B.C., and you can’t beat the eats
June 24th, 2010
Now that the madness of the Winter Olympics is a memory, this may be the best time ever to visit Vancouver. I love the British Columbian city as an escape from our summer heat, for the hiking, natural scenery and its convenient light rail system, which runs from the airport to downtown for only $8.50 (I also love the fact that the Canadian dollar is at par with ours at the moment). Read more »
Bargain Hunting?
Experts share the travel-deal possibilities for summer
June 17th, 2010
Thinking that there must be some good in the bad economy, we polled the experts for great deals on summer vacations. But because travel deals are subject to change (scroll the fine print here) and because our deadlines prevent up-to-the-minute updates, we have to communicate the possibilities in generalities about when, where and why to go. But this report should give you a pretty good idea of what’s being offered. Read more »
4-Day Trip: Portland
For a Real 180 …
Try an urban adventure in a place best known for its beautiful outdoors
June 17th, 2010
When describing a great vacation to someone, do you tell them about it in the format of a day-by-day narrative, share only the trip’s highlights or include every little detail of the experience? Ultimately the idiosyncrasies of the place visited and the specific memories it created determines the style in which a journey is remembered. Which is why Portland, Ore., is the perfect getaway, where four days gives one plenty to talk about upon return. Read more »
3-Day Trip: Park City
Sail Utah!
And other things we bet you didn’t know you could do in the Beehive State
June 17th, 2010
2-Day Trip: Culver City
L.A.’s New Act
This hip artists’ colony has risen from its Hollywood studio ashes
June 17th, 2010
In its heyday, Culver City was the home of MGM and Hal Roach studios. Its streets were once lined with nightclubs, such as the Cotton Club and (later, during Prohibition) speakeasies. But, in the mid-20th century, studio sets became abandoned lots, and the city lost its sparkle. Driven by the relocation of Sony Pictures Studios to the former MGM headquarters, Culver City has once again become hip. Its main roads are packed with galleries, architecture firms and wine bars. It’s also become L.A.’s hottest restaurant row. The only problem these days? Where to park. Read more »
Travel
Outside In
Mitchell Caverns is a great way to admire Mojave nature without getting scorched
June 10th, 2010
If there is one measure that separates those who know the region and those who do not, it is knowledge of cool, quick getaway trips. You know the occasional complaints heard from the newbies in Las Vegas, such as, “It’s like an island in the desert!” Well, not exactly—at least not to inquiring minds. One case in point: Mitchell Caverns. Read more »
Travel
Where the Myth Turns Real
Colossal yet intimate Monument Valley puts America the beautiful in just the right light
June 3rd, 2010
I once drove across the whole of South Dakota, east to west. The sun bore down like a lamp in a police interrogation room, and this land of corn, soybeans and wheat was so flat it seemed more a state of mind than a landscape. Here are the vast beige and green rectangles most Americans see only from the air. Read more »
Travel
A Ghost Town Comes Alive
Memorial Day weekend is when the steady restoration of Gold Point halts and the celebration begins
May 20th, 2010
On the way to Gold Point about three hours northwest of Las Vegas, the first indication that you’re entering the Old West is a Nevada historical marker riddled with bullet holes. The sign marks the spot where travelers take a sharp left onto State Route 774. After a few miles of nothing but Joshua trees, the buildings of the old mining settlement emerge. It’s a ghost town but for a few residents, and the one you’re likely to run into first is Herb Robbins. Read more »
