Destinations
Archive
It's year ten of the REVOLUTION. Venezuela's oil riches are vanishing, and el presidente's "Yankee devil" rhetoric has created the world's most hostile environment for Homo turisticus. PATRICK SYMMES goes looking for adventure, and comes back with a tale that will haunt him forever.
Yukon Quest champion Sebastian Schnuelle talks about eating vacuum-packed McNuggets, cooking for canines, and taking on Lance Mackey.
How do you swing a great job in the islands? Ask these five guys, all of whom have figured out how to balance a career with the relaxed lifestyle of the Bahamas.
Your survival plan for South by Southwest, the annual film-and-music bonanza taking place this month: (1) MAKE A PLAN. With hundreds of bands playing over five nights, picking your spots can be tough. Big names reliably play Stubb’s Bar-B-Que (stubbsaustin.com), and be sure to check out…
Conveniently, 2009 marks both the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. This has fur-and-feather nerds everywhere aflutter. But the occasion should also be cause for celebration among adventure travelers. After all, before the British naturalist's obsession with Galápagos…
First I heard seals. Then coyotes. Then I opened my eyes to a full-frontal view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Such is life at Cavallo Point, a 46-building resort on a renovated army base in the Golden Gate National Parks that opened last July. The first hotel to start up…
Travel to Sin City is facing its biggest slump since 9/11: In the past year, Vegas merchants have seen a 6 percent drop in sales. What this means to you: Airfare is cheap, and there will be fewer mountain bikers than normal in Bootleg Canyon, one of the country’s least-appreciated…
Getting far, far, far away from it all is easier—and cheaper—than you think. Presenting seven adventure-packed Caribbean island escapes. The Over-Under SABA, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES Netherlands Antilles (Philip Oblentz/Digital Vision/Getty) The most challenging part of a trip to Saba, a five-square-mile volcanic island 28 miles southwest of St. Maarten, is…
As Kenya’s hoteliers have discovered, few things can derail tourism like news of violencein this case, the clashes thatfollowed the country’s disputed December 2007 presidential election. Kenya’s tourism industry is still recovering, but outfitters have been running trips since March. And according to Craig Sholley, senior director of the African…
For years, adventure-travel outfitters have used so-called exploratory trips to work out kinks in new offerings. Veteran guides suss out routes, lodging options, and, say, the local yak-butter tea, then refine the itinerary before it shows up in next fall’s catalog. But as it turns out, some high-end travelers actually…
Ah, Mexico. Land of hot sand, cheap beer, and a foolproof cure for seasonal affective disorder: endless adventure.
Greg Mortenson's school-building program in Central Asia dates back to 1993, when the banged-up K2 survivor made a pledge to the Himalayan villagers who took him in. Fifteen years and Three Cups of Tea later, it's both a powerful example of a great idea and a chaotic, ongoing adventure. KEVIN FEDARKO hits the rough road with Mortenson in Afghanis
Out on the far edge of the Alaska frontier, a man can hide his sins. Robert Allen Hale—a.k.a. Papa Pilgrim—bought a homestead outside the remote town of McCarthy where he imprisoned his family and conned the world with tales of a simpler life. But for the 15 children living the nightmare, the only choice was escape.
Expat conservationist John Cain Carter, a former elite Army soldier who did a tour in Iraq, is anything but typical. Same goes for his plan, which calls on ranchers to preserve Brazil's wild west. Can he have it both ways and still save—and survive—the Amazon?
The goal: To rank the continent's top ski destinations. The deciding factors: Snow quality and terrain. The judge: Marc Peruzzi, intrepid Colorado-based ski reporter, former ϳԹ staffer, and editor of Skiing magazine, 2003-2008.
November's Down Under epic, Australia, is the classic story of an aristocratic woman (Nicole Kidman) who falls for a rough-edged cowboy (Hugh Jackman), but making the film wasn't so predictable. Australian director Baz Luhrmann, 46, whose previous film (2001's Moulin Rouge!) also starred Kidman, had his entire crew of 300 trucked hundreds of mil
Gone Missing: Vanished in Papua NAT: A view of Agats, population roughly 2,000, the main trading hub of the Asmat region. The village is one of the region’s largest and most technically advanced, though it’s hard to tell that from the photo. TIM: Agats became our respite, an…
For my first TV project, I traveled to New Guinea for the Travel Channel to investigate a deadly mystery and swim with sharks, crocodiles, and snakes. Which was a lot less scary than getting in front of the camera.
Text The Brazilian Amazon The River of the Dead runs near the Carters’ fishing camp of Rancho Jacobá.The Brazilian Amazon John Carter with a dead jararacucu do brejo snake in the front yard of Fazenda Santo Antonio.The Brazilian Amazon The Kamayurá village consists of a series of traditional thatch-roof huts.The…
They may not have solved the mystery of his disappearance. They may not have been there when the wreckage was finally found. But goshdarnit, these Canadian adventure racers might just have invented a new sport in the process: extreme jogging for good.
Everest is shrinking—in status, at least. In the past few years, companies like Nepal Helicopter have been ferrying passengers to Base Camp, allowing well-heeled "climbers" to skip the slog up to 17,600 feet. Cheating? Perhaps. But there are times when a shortcut is worth a little shame. Consider these La-Z-Boy adventures.
In early August, after 11 climbers died on the world’s second-highest peak, people wanted to know: Has the Everest circus migrated to K2? MICHAEL KODAS pieced together the events from eight of the survivors and has a straight answer: Sort of.
A nation of 1,190 island specks spread over 116 square miles of the Indian Ocean, the Maldives looks like something out of a myth. And parts of the country could well become just that if sea levels rise: The highest elevation is a mere eight feet above. Only about 200…
Meet José, emblem of New York City's wildlife renaissance—and the Big Apple's newest Casanova
Was a famous American scholar and self–styled curator up to no good in Nepal, or is he just a scapegoat for all wealthy expats?
A peek under the living roof of San Francisco's newly rebuilt, half–billion–dollar monument to nature
Almost fifteen years after the genocide, tiny Rwanda is suddenly a hot adventure destination, the new darling of multinational investors, and, says mountain-bike legend Tom Ritchey, one extra-long bicycle short of a comeback
Sailing the Caribbean, delivering homegrown chocolate bars? Good work if you can get it, which is exactly what our man did.
It's about time: Look sharp—and get the job done—with a watch for any occasion
Summer in northern Vermont: long days, long trails, and not a single leaf peeper. Here's how to do it right.
Want to get beyond your misconceptions of long-vilified, suddenly mourned, ever-important China? Then go.
Before the rains, before the winds, before the tens of thousands of missing and dead, Patrick Symmes sneaked into Myanmar's secret capital, where the military rules from a sun-baked plain, guided by the forecasts of astrologers. A report from the last flight out of a shuttered nation, where, even hours before Cyclone Nargis hit, nobody had a clue.
Your town got you down? We’ve got your escape plan. These 20 stars of America’s 21st-century Renaissance are riding a wave of civic reinvention and fresh ideas.
Presenting our foolproof recipes for the perfect long, hot weekend: six classic road-trip itineraries, the country's best pit stops, and a lot of Willie Nelson. Just pick your route and roll.
The polls are closed and we’re off to the All Good festival this weekend to test our gear (and maybe have a little fun while we’re at it). The winners of the gear poll are:TENT: Big Agnes Pine Island 4SLEEPING BAG: REI Travel Sack…
The craziest way to spread the gospel about North Dakota's enormous, untapped wind power? Kite-ski the bastard.
Life in Chile’s Atacama Desert is hot, dry, and tough. That is, unless you’re lying poolside at Tierra Atacama, the latest luxury hotel to open in the unlikely tourist boomtown of San Pedro. Just blocks down the street from Explora’s iconic Hotel de Larache, 32-room Tierra Atacama is run by…
“Agonizingly vivid” is a fair description of Storm Over Everest, yet another rehashing of the 1996 disaster, by climber/documentarian David Breashears. Premiering May 13 on PBS’s Frontline, the two-hour film combines interviews with survivors, including guide Neal Beidleman and climber Beck Weathers (but noticeably no Jon Krakauer) with footage gathered…
Leave San Francisco behind on a three-day, 30-mile trek that starts just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge
Pasquale Scaturro never wanted to be a glorified “tour-bus” driver. For him, leading expeditions, like rafting Ethiopia’s Omo River, is a glorious hobby. He picks a spot on the globe, invites his friends, dons his 19th-century-explorer hat, and relishes being the man in change.
Their fathers were titans. Their family defined conservation in the West. Now, with two Senate seats up for grabs, cousins Mark and Tom Udall have the chance to bring green leadership to Washington when it's needed most. Can the boys man up the way their dads did a generation ago?
The Super Bowl is without fail the most anticlimactic sporting event of the year. If you have tickets to the 2008 game, this February 3 in Glendale, Arizona, raise the stakes by arriving a week or two early. Park yourself 15 miles from the University of Phoenix Stadium at Sanctuary…
Here's our problem with safaris: They're billed as authentic, up-close-and-personal wildlife experiences, but by Land Rover–bound definition, some are as canned as any Club Med junket. Closer to the real thing is Kiba Point, a brand-new luxury safari lodge in the heart of Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve. Selous is the…
From an eco-friendly lodge near the Great Barrier Reef to a luxe guesthouse on a working sheep ranch, Australia's new outback hideaways are energizing travel in the land Down Under
On January 17, Hollywood hotshots and thousands of movie fans will invade the Wasatch Front for 11 days of movies and partying at the Sundance Film Festival. Get your cinematic thrills, then ditch the glitz and experience the real star: Park City’s adventure playground.
Welcome to the new Bolivia, where former coca grower Evo Morales has made the leaf a symbol of his two-year-old government. Now everybody's growing it, everybody's chewing it, and the war on drugs has taken a very strange turn.
Nine Caribbean playgrounds heavy on the sports—and dead serious about kicking back
Need something (or somebody) flown around Africa without a lot of questions? Can you pay with bricks of cash? Then you want old-school bush pilot Tim Roman, a man with Kurtzian ambitions, a deft touch on jungle runways, and a place on every smart dictator’s speed dial.
On a cosmic night of baseball Randy Wayne White joins the armada in San Francisco's McCovey Cove to fish for Barry Bond's record-breaking home-run ball
New York City-based writer Patrick Symmes and Irish photographer Seamus Murphy scoured the Far East in search of the legendary city of Shambhala for the October 2007 feature story “The Kingdom of the Lotus.” Here, listen to a podcast interview with Symmes and see Murphy’s photo outtakes from the assignment.
Escape from New York (and nine other big cities) with these 40 fast adventures
In his September Out of Bounds column, "The Italian Job" columnist Eric Hansen tries to convince us that he did not waste our money on a trip to Italy, where, as near as we can tell, he just downed Chianti and gelato. Hansen reads his story, talks in a podcast interview, and shares his photos here.
Resort towns no more—move here before the masses do.
As you may have heard, they ski in Iran. As you may not have heard, the terrain is pretty sweet, there are dudes bouncing on the chairlifts, and The hills are alive with happy women in flowing robes. Can we make peace with this place Immediately?