Where holiday lights build family traditions

Where holiday lights build family traditions

For many families, sharing holiday displays, whether at a theme park, a hotel or a nearby neighborhood is an annual tradition that gets everyone away from pre-holiday chores and stress. It’s just these days, you’ll find Santa, elves and millions of lights at the ready long before the Thanksgiving leftovers are gone.

To Montana, which offers outdoor fun all year

To Montana, which offers outdoor fun all year

I love Yellowstone in winter — no crowds, lots of animals and the chance to see Old Faithful and other thermal features without any crowds. (Did you know Yellowstone has more thermal features than anywhere in the world — 10,000 bubbling mud pots, hot springs and geysers?) Honestly, we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Time to celebrate Halloween everywhere all month

Time to celebrate Halloween everywhere all month

No, I’m not a little early, though Halloween is nearly a month away. That’s because everyone from hotels to theme park to attractions to campgrounds to museums now have special Halloween doings that typically go on all month long.

Getting out of the car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Getting out of the car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Are you a windshield tourist? That’s what they call the many visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park who simply traverse the park’s famous 30-plus mile Newfound Gap Road through the park and don’t get out of the car much, if at all.

Touring Kyoto with locals and on bikes: seeing more than temples

Touring Kyoto with locals and on bikes: seeing more than temples

Kyoto is famous for its Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. This morning, we’re cycling a 14-mile loop with Kyoto Cycling Tour Project with stops at the Golden Pavilion and Ryoanji Temple with its world-famous rock garden – two of the city’s and Japan’s top tourist attractions.

In Hokkaido: navigating on our own is not that difficult

In Hokkaido: navigating on our own is not that difficult

The ship staff had warned that navigating on your own in Japan is different than elsewhere. Very few locals speak English and signs are only in Japanese. I understand now why in the U.S. Japanese tourists always move in a group with a guide.