I came to Croatia expecting beautiful scenery. What I did not expect was how completely the country would rearrange my mental map of European travel. Most visitors arrive focused on Dubrovnik, which is extraordinary, and leave having discovered that the rest of the country is just as remarkable, considerably less crowded, and in many cases […]

Japan is the destination that surprises every single person who visits it. You arrive expecting temples and sushi and bullet trains. What you do not expect is the scale of it, the precision of it, the extraordinary depth of detail in every corner of every city. I have visited Japan four times across different seasons,

I have driven the Pacific Coast Highway from Oregon to San Diego in a rented convertible. I have eaten beignets at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans at 2 AM while a jazz band played on the street outside. I have stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon at sunrise and watched the light