Japan’s public transportation is known for its punctuality, efficiency and high-quality service, which means train travel is a great way to see the countryside and to experience Japanese culture — even if you’re squeezed into Tokyo’s crowded Yamanote line at rush hour or experiencing the popular high-speed Shinkansen bullet train. But many savvy visitors crisscross…
Where are the best places to go in Switzerland? The New York Times recently posed that question to six executives and creators in the Swiss watch industry — and got a raft of insider tips that included Brutalist architecture, wrestling festivals, vineyards, Wes Anderson-esque trains and, of course, where to get the best fondue. The…
When construction at the Hotel Maria is completed in June, 159 chandeliers will hang from the ceilings of its 79 rooms, 38 suites and public areas. Its bar will serve 31 types of Champagne. And the renovations on its four buildings — two of which opened in December — will have included the restoration of…
High in the mountains of Oman and along its pounding shoreline, I stumbled onto an unexpected slice of heaven thanks to a friend’s recommendation. I even sprang for a few extra amenities for a mash-up of pauper meets paradise. I first visited Oman in 2018 after regularly making one- or -two-day stopovers in Abu Dhabi,…
For our last night in La Paz, Mexico, we kept it simple: A couple of cans of cold Pacifico, a bench on the malecón, the city’s waterfront promenade, and the sunset glowing orange over the shimmering silver-blue Sea of Cortez. My husband, Alex, and I had spent nearly a week taking scenic desert drives and…
In 2016, Michael McGregor was in his early 30s, living in Mexico City and hanging out with a group of local architects and musicians, when he began to paint. Inspired by the city’s vibrancy, the budding artist — an expat from Brooklyn, where he’d spent a decade making a living as a writer and D.J….
On the east side of San Jose, Calif., there is an abuela who seems to have more grandchildren than she can count. “A lot of people see me and they hug me,” Mardonia Galeana, 89, said in Spanish. “I don’t even know them, but sometimes they ask me for a blessing on the street and…
I’m from a lush land. Green abounds in the South. Our climate is so dewy, so thick, that we learn how to breathe through our skin down here. The nearly neon green kudzu, not just a romantic notion, climbs. The vines creep over our lives, over corners, around hills, down slopes, into gutters. We pulse…
Anxious ahead of a big job interview? Worried about giving a speech? First date nerves? The solution, some digital start-ups suggest, is a beta blocker, a type of medication that can slow heart rate and lower blood pressure — masking some of the physical symptoms of anxiety. Typically a trip to the doctor’s office would…
Megayachts wrestling for space in the French fishing port of St.-Tropez would find size to be of little concern in Mahón, on the Spanish island of Minorca. Six kilometers (3.7 miles) long and as much as 30 meters (98 feet) deep, Mahón’s port is one of the world’s largest and deepest natural harbors. Captured by…
