On a recent trip to Costa Rica, where only four percent of the country is titled beachfront property, I was astonished to discover that you can buy a 2300 sq. foot beachfront villa -- with appointments of the quality you'd find in a luxury Malibu home -- for $129,000.

Of...

The first land art piece Andrew Rogers created was a monumental Chai in Israel's Arava Desert in 1999. The Hebrew symbol represents a toast -- To Life! -- and in the twelve years since, Rogers has certainly been living the life, as he travels the seven continents drawing...

Istanbul has a vibrant modern art scene that includes trendy new galleries, the Contemporary Istanbul art fair, several cutting-edge art book publishers, a modern art museum and its own biennial, which opened Sept. 16 and is as ambitious as it gets, especially in a country that...

Writer Alexis Quinlan, in her own words, on her recent stay at Venice's renowned Hotel Cipriani:

I arrived in Venice with the best of intentions: See the Prada Pavilion at the Biennale, say hello to friend-of-a-friend Arrigo Cipriani at Harry's Bar, eat at Da Fiore and visit a...

Los Angeles offers a wealth of easily accessible travel destinations for weekend escapes. From Palm Springs with its stark desert landscape and breathtaking purple sunsets to the vineyards of Paso Robles, from the beaches of Santa Barbara to those in Cabo, from the casinos of Las Vegas to the slopes...

Two Bunch Palms, one of the most relaxing getaways in Southern California due to the healing lithium-filled hot springs that run through the property, is now pet friendly.

"We were looking for ways to market that wouldn't take away from the integrity of the place," explained Tony Calsolaro, general manager...

Rancho La Puerta had been on my radar for years. One of the first destination fitness resorts and spas in North America, Rancho La Puerta has been around since being founded in 1940 by Romanian-born Edmond Szekely, and his wife, Deborah, who found themselves stranded in San Diego...

After my trip to New York, I headed over to Paris to meet my bff, Lin Stranberg, a writer who lives in Toronto. While I was in New York, Lin was in Normandy spending time with friends, who had graciously lent us their pied-a-terre in Paris, a duplex...

In the fall, I try to spend time on the East Coast and, if my schedule permits, get over to Paris, where I used to live. In both places, I hang out with old friends, eat amazing food and see the big art shows that traditionally open during this season....

*SEE PHOTOS BELOW*

Back by popular demand, the Strangecation blog team, Ashley Sackerman and Chris Bell, report from the wilds of Sequoia where they hiked nearly a dozen miles to check out Bearpaw High Sierra Camp. Their exclusive report for Along for the Ride starts now:

"I got...

The California coastal region north of Santa Barbara is magnificent. A little inland, the area is lush and fertile and produces top-notch foods and wines. I'll use any pretext I can to spend time in the Santa Ynez Valley or the Santa Rita Hills.

This time I headed up there...

I've always liked road trips. Add a camera and an interesting companion and a highway ramble often turns into a film that's part diary, part travel documentary. When I lived in Woodstock in my 20s, a boyfriend and I made a film of every bridge over the Hudson River. Or...

By popular demand, the Strangecation team is back with another blog! Ashley Sackerman and Chris Bell recently took a trip to the east coast and have given Along for the Ride the scoop on Buffalo wings and Niagara Falls. Check out their other adventures at www.strangecation.wordpress.com/

I don't...

A LITTLE BIT OF JAPAN IN THE SOUTH BAY

As a travel writer and a sybarite, I have visited numerous spas around the world. Many of them just blend together in my memory -- did I have that hot stone massage in...

My assistant Ashley Sackerman and her boyfriend, Chris Bell, a couple in their 20s, who sometimes write the blog Strangecation http://www.strangecation.wordpress.com recently took a trip to Memphis and Nashville.

Here's Ashley's take on two of the South's favorite...

I've been going to Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa for years -- decades, really. It was just plain old Two Bunch Palms back then, Two Bunch for short, and it was small and hard to get a room and felt like a best-kept secret, a private club. Now it's...

If you want to read about the adventures of a group of Orange County writers and activists who decide to tool around Cuba for a week (under the guise of a company retreat!)....do read on.

But be advised that this is not your typical...

The mid-century Pontiacs and Plymouths, painted in pulsating colors, patched together with wire and wishes.

This is Havana.

Mediterranean mansions facing tree-lined avenues, their facades now crumbling beneath the weight of unfulfilled dreams, their stained-glass windows smashed like the hopes of their occupants. This is Havana.

I recently broke one of my travel rules -- don't go to NYC in the summer -- and, surprisingly, ended up having an amazing time and hardly thinking about the weather. The city was empty, which translated into sailing into Alain Ducasse's Benoit at dinner time and getting immediately...

In today's uncertain economic climate, people are taking shorter vacations and escaping to locales a lot closer to home. Now more ever, we need to get away, but who wants to shell out the bucks for business class tickets to Thailand for the whole family when one's stock portfolio is...