A Reading List on Travel Influencers and the Politics of a Place By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Reading List A reading list on travel influencers and the implications of Instagram on tourism and politics.
Japan’s Lonely Cherry Blossoms By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Millions of people turn out to see Japan’s famous sakura blossoms. This year, Covid-19 kept the usual crowds at home, though the blossom makes a fitting metaphor for evanescence.
Your Wilderness Is Not Permanent By Longreads Feature At an uncertain time in her life, Sejal Shah does Burning Man her own way.
At Mrs. Balbir’s By Jillian Dunham Feature Jillian Dunham traveled thousands of miles from home to get away from her grief. It found her anyway, in a stranger’s Bangkok apartment.
Where are the Gay Ladies of Cambodia? By Lindsey Danis Feature Honeymooning in Cambodia, Lindsey Danis and her wife seek refuge in queer spaces, but struggle to find the acceptance granted to male travelers.
We’re All Tourists Now, So Let’s Stop with the Endless, Tedious Quests for Authenticity By Ben Huberman Highlight In Iceland, overtourism has transformed the island in a few short years — and locals and visitors alike try to grapple with the change.
The Shames of Men By Don Kulick Feature An anthropologist on a return visit to a remote village in Papua New Guinea learns that all the village’s young men are terribly wounded.
How I Became ‘Rich’ By Stacy Torres Feature During a rare opportunity to vacation in Hawai’i, Stacy Torres is forced to confront her status as better off than where she came from.
The Ways of a Wandering Spirit By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight For many of us, road trips are also trips through the self.
This Month In Books: ‘What Creates That Need To Leap?’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter has one foot out the door.
I Entered the World’s Longest, Loneliest Horse Race on a Whim, and I Won By Longreads Feature Somehow, implausibly, against all the odds, I became the youngest person and first woman ever to win the Mongol Derby. What made me so sure I was ready, when I was totally unprepared?
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium By Michelle Weber Highlight Let’s grab a waffle and challenge the global hegemony of U.S. culture.
The Problem of Too Many Hotels, Too Many Parties, and Too Many Tourists In Tulum By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight From over-development to contaminated cenotes, the problems continue to pile up in the Mayan paradise formerly known as Tulum.
There’s a Fine Line Between “Discovering” and “Interloping” By Michelle Weber Highlight It’s only “discovery” if you assume the place — or the people — has no meaningful existence apart from your visit. Surprise: you’re not that important.
A Second Passport By Pam Mandel Feature Normally, kibbutz volunteers visit Israel and return home. Pam Mandel went on to Egypt, and kept going . . .
The Gift Economy By Joanne Solomon Feature In the desert at Burning Man, Joanne Solomon dissects the implicit transaction that defines her cross-cultural love affair.
Anthony Bourdain: 1956-2018 By Krista Stevens and Michelle Weber Highlight Anthony Boudain passed away in Strasbourg, France, on Friday, June 8th, at age 61.
Exodus in the Ozarks By Pam Mandel Feature At a theater in Branson, Missouri, Pam Mandel finds an unexpected plot twist in a very familiar story.
You Are What Your Fingerprint Says You Are By Michelle Weber Highlight As passports give way to fingerprinting and retinal scans, our bodies themselves become tools to limit our free movement.
Uncomfortable Silences: A Walk in Myanmar By David Fettling Feature Now what I remember most about my guide is what he said about the Rohingya. But I walked 50 kilometers with him before he said it.
Determined to Hitch a Ride on the Greatest Rig in America By Laurie Gwen Shapiro Feature Billy Gawronski was hell-bent on stowing away to Antarctica on Richard Evelyn Byrd’s 1928 expedition.
Lost in Backcountry Corsica By Longreads Feature When two Irish travelers take hiking advice from a supposed guide, they soon find themselves relying on their wits in the dark.
Don’t Let the Camels Bite You, and Other Lessons from a Long Walk in the Outback By Pam Mandel Highlight “…the camels were always looking around as they walked, with a prospective optimism that eluded us.”
Innocence Abroad By Pam Mandel Commentary “I’d had no idea that we had ever had to define our identities at all, because to me, white Americans were born fully formed, completely detached from any sort of complicated past.”
Lobster Shells in the Fountain and Other Hotel Mysteries By Pam Mandel Highlight Some travelers can mystify even the most experienced butlers.
In Foreign Territory, Wondering: Who is the Alpha Monkey? By leighshulman Feature Leigh Shulman learns the meaning of home and belonging when she volunteers at a monkey refuge with her nine-year-old daughter.
In Guatemala on the Wrong Bus By Pam Mandel Highlight Sarah Miller travels in exactly the way she’d hoped to avoid.
Can You Return To a Place That Was Never Your Home? By Pam Mandel Highlight Grace Linden considers repatriation to Austria — a place she has never lived.
America’s Great Lake, or the Greatest Lake? By Pam Mandel Commentary At Outside, Stephanie Pearson explores Lake Superior’s extreme history, expanse, diversity, and dangers.
The Tyranny of Free Time, or How to Be Bored In Fiji By Michelle Weber Highlight Mary Mann lays bare what most travelers are loathe to admit: it’s just as easy to be bored in Paris or on Bora Bora as it is at home.
