With its dense neon-lit streets, packed markets, and abundance of local restaurants, Kowloon has long been considered Hong Kong’s heart and soul. Often overshadowed by the more polished Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour, the “Dark Side,” as it’s affectionately nicknamed, is buzzing with new energy, thanks to a wellspring of recent arts and culture projects in the waterfront Tsim Sha Tsui and West Kowloon neighborhoods. In Tsim Sha Tsui, the renovated Hong Kong Museum of Art, sprawling new

Victoria Dockside art and design district, and reimagined Avenue of Stars are all a short walk apart. Meanwhile, a ten-minute drive west, the West Kowloon Cultural District – a massive arts development project that took over a decade to complete – is packed with prestigious venues, from the Xiqu Centre for Chinese theater to the M+ museum of visual culture and the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Typically, cruise lines are excited to trumpet their latest ships’ go-kart tracks, towering waterslides, submarines, and robot bartenders. The seas are brimming with diversions. So I was delighted to discover, while sailing on the Silver Nova in the northern Adriatic, what Silversea Cruises had subtly and with little fanfare put forward with the ship’s design. It wasn’t luxuries such as high-thread-count bedsheets or caviar and Champagne. Instead, Silversea’s newest ship is designed to showcase the seas, ports, and coastlines around which it sails.

Nature’s most spectacular celestial event is coming to North America on April 8, 2024. Eclipsophiles (this writer included) crisscross the globe to bask in the ethereal phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. Miss this event and you’ll have a long wait: There won’t be another total solar eclipse in the U.S. until 2044.

African safaris embody many currents of our post-peak pandemic moment. In a hotter, more crowded world, going to Africa is a statement about the importance of wildlife and open landscapes. In the continent’s subsistence economies, canceled reservations and plummeting revenues caused by pandemic-era travel restrictions led to a real risk that lost livelihoods could translate to increased poaching. “To travel here is a decision to help protect Africa’s cultures and wildlife,” says Sherwin Banda, president of African Travel, Inc. “A safari is about discovering a rhythm that connects you to the land and the human spirit. It’s always been more than just the animals.” We spoke to top operators and gathered insight from travel advisors about the best ways to safari, whether you’re dreaming up your first or your fifth.

Ribbons of fog and quick-moving snow blew sideways as my guide, Eliza, and I scaled Elliott Mountain’s jagged ridgeline in search of a golden window. It was the first day of October in southwest Colorado’s moody San Juan Mountains, and the untimely wintry mix had thrown a wrench in my long-held dream of witnessing peak fall foliage from the summit of one of the area’s famed fourteeners. Mother Nature’s wrinkle instead rerouted us to a lower perch – still some 12,000 feet skyward – where, winded and wide-eyed, we were greeted by a blur of clouds and mist. And then, just before our descent, the shrouded white wall cracked ever so slightly, unveiling an electric aspen vista aglow on the forest floor.

Almost all coffee beans come from the same three parts of the world – Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia – while “coffee culture” stems from elsewhere: Italian espressos popularized by mega-chains, for example, and a tsunami of third-wave shops embracing the crisp modern aesthetics of Scandinavian cafés. The world’s coffee-growing regions have largely been ignored by the industry, despite having their own flavors and traditions worth savoring.

We can help you plan your own ultimate driving experience. You can also rent a motorbike or a vintage Porsche for touring some of Germany's most romantic roads.

Between Phuket and Krabi, the secluded island of Yao Yai hosts the new 148-room Anantara Koh Yao Yai Resort & Villas amid the limestone sea stacks that pepper Phang Nga Bay. Guests can immerse themselves in Thai island culture with excursions such as sidecar motorcycle trips through a rubber plantation, batik-painting lessons, and trips to the local fishing village to pick up ingredients for a cooking class. A family pool, kids’ club with baby yoga, and ball pit with slides enhance cross-generational escapes. Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a 60-minute massage for two.

Growing up in rural Scotland on the grounds of a derelict castle near New Galloway, Sam Heughan’s imagination ran free. “Interestingly, it was traveling that made me realize I should be an actor,” says the star of the time-traveling, bodice-ripping series Outlander. At 18, on a cross-country road trip through the United States, he had a revelation: “I realized I was drawn to theater, and I wasn’t allowing myself to follow that passion.” Today, the actor, author, producer, and spirits entrepreneur travels extensively for work and pleasure. He recently explored the wilds of Yellowstone and Zion national parks by camper van and also ventured through the mountains of Oaxaca.

Taipei is on more and more travelers’ lists lately, drawing visitors in with its Michelin-starred dining, high design, and under-the-radar appeal. The Taiwanese capital city is a case study in urban juxtaposition: Night markets and refined dining rooms, packed tea shops and cool cocktail bars, centuries-old temples and soaring skyscrapers. And while it may be tempting to follow the neon lights straight to the 101-story Taipei 101 tower or Immense’s ultra-sleek atelier, in this town, it’s worth starting from the beginning.

Richard Branson has been vacationing on Mallorca for more than 60 years. Now, the Virgin Group founder has rescued the sprawling Son Bunyola Hotel in the island’s UNESCO-protected Serra de Tramuntana range. It took more than two decades of coordination with local authorities to restore the sixteenth-century finca, one of Mallorca’s most heavily protected sites, with its original olive press, neo-Gothic chapel, and medieval defense tower. Comprising a main residence and a stone-walled annex, the resort has 26 guest rooms, plus three stand-alone villas. Pops of peach and seafoam punctuate beachy-cool interiors, along with dramatic vistas of the rugged north coast and artwork by local talent, including Valldemossa-based painter Jaime Colorao.

Just getting to Norway’s newest fine-dining restaurant, Iris, requires an expedition. Upon landing in Oslo, you fly an hour to Bergen, take a two-hour ferry to the port of Rosendal, hop on an electric boat and cruise through Hardangerfjord, make a stop on the island of Snilstveitøy, and finally, pull up to a jetty at a floating art exhibit, where inside, you’ll find a dining room.

Great art inspires us. It uplifts and transports us, and, after a couple of hours in its presence, it makes us hungry. Yes, hungry for more art, but also for our next meal. Luckily, top-notch art institutions are often also exceptional places to eat, applying the same level of taste and aesthetic standards to their restaurants as they do to their collections. Here’s where to soak up culture and maybe a Michelin-starred meal too.

It’s not difficult to find a bar in Las Vegas. From swanky rooftop lounges to street-level daiquiri stands, there’s a plethora of boozy spots across Sin City. (There’s even a bar inside a Taco Bell.) But for a more intimate, post-it-everywhere experience, it’s worth seeking out these secret speakeasies and bars, where skillful mixology and a creative atmosphere offer more than meets the eye. Trust us – the sips are worth the search.

Family is at the heart of everything for chef Mario Nichols. “I started with the love and passion of watching my mother and grandmother in the kitchen at a young age,” says the executive chef of Nellie’s Southern Kitchen at MGM Grand. He spent countless hours in his home kitchen watching them prepare meals, and quickly learned that there were rewards for shadowing his mother. “I realized I could always get a sample,” Nichols says.

Las Vegas lives large during a four-month stretch that begins with a Formula 1 race this November and ends with Super Bowl LVIII at three-year-old Allegiant Stadium in February 2024. While the city prepares for these events, Downtown continues to evolve as a cultural hub with spots such as the new Beverly Theater, the city’s first indie film house, which hosts movies, live music, and literary events nearly every night of the week. Also worth a visit: The new Punk Rock Museum on the outskirts of the Arts District chronicles the genre’s rise and gives music lovers the chance to jam on guitars once played by Joan Jett and other legends. Add in the debut of the MSG Sphere, a globe-shaped concert hall enrobed with 580,000 square feet of LEDs, and Vegas is poised to shine brighter than ever.

On the steep hillside below villas at Six Senses Zil Pasyon, the sole resort on the Seychelles island of Félicité, lush forest embraces granite monoliths, while a flying fox – its small, doglike face dwarfed by its enormous wingspan – glides gracefully through the breeze, alighting upside down on a branch to socialize with other megabats. The headlining act, however, takes place in the distance: As the persimmon-colored sun sets behind neighboring islands and thunderheads drift on- and offstage, bands of showers sweep across the horizon in wispy sheets.

In step with an influx of visitors, this summer has brought a spate of high-end hotel openings to Rome – among them, the new Bulgari Hotel Roma. A decade of planning and a complete restoration of a 1930s building flanking the nearly 2,000-year-old mausoleum of Emperor Augustus preceded the opening of the Campo Marzio district hotel. The result, says Bulgari Group executive vice president Silvio Ursini, is “magnificent, grandiose, maybe opulent – but restrained.”

Travelers have long been day-tripping from Santa Barbara to the Santa Ynez Valley for winetasting, but the vineyard-packed central California valley has lacked an upscale property in the heart of it all. That changed earlier this year with the debut of the latest from Auberge Resorts Collection, The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, a 67-room gem in bucolic Los Olivos.

Sydney knows it looks good on a postcard – that sparkling harbor, the endless beaches, the soaring Sydney Harbour Bridge. But travelers who look beneath its surface beauty will find it bristling with creativity, now more than ever, thanks to a rush of new arts projects injecting fresh life into the city center. In December 2022, the Art Gallery of New South Wales revealed its Sydney Modern Project, home to a collection of more than 900 works from around the world and the city’s most significant new public arts space since the Sydney Opera House. The tech-and-culture crowd will turn up in October 2023 for SXSW Sydney, the festival’s first installment outside the U.S., and at the stylish new Capella Sydney, “culturists” connect guests with Indigenous-led arts tours and experiences.