Fall 2010

Greatest Snow On Earth.” Many license plates in Utah scream this slogan. Thousands of people flock to the picturesque Rockies in the Wasatch front during the winter. In order to help you plan your weekend (or weeklong) getaway to ski or snowboard in Utah, we’ve compiled a comparison of resorts.

Scottish writer Andrew Lang once said, “You can cover a great deal of country in books.” It’s true—and cheaper than the actual thing. But why toss the literature as soon as you have the dollars to travel? It could deprive you of a heightened experience.

Lyndsay Steinmetz has studied at Oxford, been in Rome during Holy Week, and taken a 33-hour bus ride from Warsaw, Poland, to London, England. No, the bus ride was not on her bucket list. It wasn’t the cheapest way to travel either. That bus ride could only be described as Lyndsay’s desperate attempt to find a paddle upstream—while fleeing from a volcano.

When you first meet Tim Olsen, he seems like your average neighbor. He dresses in button-up shirts and jeans, leaves early in the morning for school, comes back home around dinnertime, and mows the lawn on Saturdays.

Ruth Baptista considers herself a citizen of the world. She was born in Angola, moved to Portugal when she was two, spent time in England, and now lives in the United States. While growing up, she attended a boarding school that took her to various parts of the world; living in Europe also allowed her to travel to many different countries. But living in and visiting various countries are not the only reasons she feels like a world citizen.

A couple of summers ago, I took a ten-day trip to Europe with my best friend, Jess Ward. We went to Paris, Berlin, and London. We looked at paintings by Monet, walked along the Berlin Wall, and traversed our way through London’s subway system. But it turned out that some of the best days we had in Europe were on our two-day stopover in a remote village in Switzerland, one that we had learned about through my family friend who had talked about the place for years. And so off we went.

Brazil

I’ve rarely uttered the name “New Zealand” without those two little words eliciting from my listener a yearning groan followed by “Oh, I wanna go there!” From the southern mountain range aptly named “The Remarkables,” to the northern Bay of Islands and Bay of Plenty, New Zealand is quite possibly one of the world’s most desirable travel destinations.

Our insiders share their tips and tricks to make your body language blend in with the locals’ and to avoid making a major faux-pas.

Whether you want to dive in crystal blue waters, explore ancient ruins, feast on local flavors, or simply lounge on the beach and tan, Mexico’s Riviera Maya has much to offer. And when airfare to Cancun’s international airport is typically half the cost of a ticket to Hawaii, it’s easy to make this tropical vacation fit a tighter budget—if you know where to skimp and where to splurge.Located on the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, this lush strip of land along the Caribbean is the home of world-renowned scuba spots, ancient Mayan ruins, numerous hotels and resorts, and miles of white sand beaches and bright blue surf.

I’m not exactly an expert on anything—I’m not a world-renowned traveler, a famous writer, or a gourmet chef. But I do know what it means to be a broke student with wanderlust. I’ve always had big dreams of traveling and photographing the world, but lately I’ve learned to satisfy my thirst for new cultures by getting a taste of other cultures—literally—through the fruits they eat. As it turns out, you really can fit the world in a grocery cart. Here is some of what I’ve learned.

Sometimes the hardest part about traveling is planning it. Maybe the trip never gets beyond that “we should go there” stage, or you end up lounging in a hotel room at your destination trying to come up with things to do, watching your precious time go down the drain. Here are eight tips for being a travel agent for yourself or your group to get the most out of that trip of a lifetime.

Rice is just one of those foods. You can find it in the cuisine of almost every country, from Asia to Africa to North America. But just about everyone has a different—and delicious—way of preparing it. Get to know some of your fellow rice connoisseurs by trying these international recipes.

Do you remember your first day of college or your first day on the job? Going from class to class or task to task? Do you remember those lucky sneakers that barely had any sole left or those great heels that looked fabulous with your new outfit? Chances are you also remember the painful blisters and aching feet that gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “killer shoes.”

For your next winter vacation, forget Hawaii—and don’t leave the lower 48. Instead, take a “summer” getaway to San Francisco. San Francisco’s winter weather is unique: It’s warmer than it is in the summer. We’re talking coastal city here, so it’s breezy and chilly all year round. But if you’re looking for a warmer option for a winter getaway, San Francisco is the place. Once you’ve left the snow or frigid temperatures of home for San Francisco, get ready to enjoy your stay. Here are four sites any visitor to San Francisco must see:

The Hill of Crosses is located in Lithuania, a small Eastern European country in the Baltics (beneath Estonia awp-nd Latvia). It is about twelve kilometers north of Šiauliai, a city in the central north of Lithuania.

Your first impression of Frank Eld would probably underestimate him. He’s middle-aged and has graying hair, and his beard reaches his chest. He usually wears suspenders with a flannel shirt and is almost always wearing a hat. He looks like any other country farmer. But if you catch a glimpse of his blue eyes behind those spectacles, twinkling just a bit, you may think twice about who this man really is.

Just 45 square inches. Doesn’t sound like much, and truthfully it isn’t. But if “packing light” meant living out of a 45-square-inch suitcase for six weeks, then I guess it would have to be enough.