Honduras is more than twice the size of Costa Rica, has double the protected area and is easier to get to from the United States.

The only real difference, says James Adams, the head naturalist at The Lodge at Pico Bonito, is "Costa Rica is more savvy at...

One of my life's missions is to celebrate the extraordinary. As a travel writer, I sniff out the rare and unique, the truly special things that give a town, a country or a region its one-of-a-kind fingerprint.

Bill Gates, who started that little company of his in a garage in...

In my continuing quest to find the unique, the one-off, the rare, I visited Denver, Colorado which, I'm happy to report, is a veritable repository of such specimens. Not only is Denver the first city in the history of modern civilization to turn down an Olympic bid, but the former...

Hundred percent, hand's down agreement. If you're a musician, top of your bucket list is playing at Red Rocks Ampitheatre.

Ever since 1983 when a flag-waving, strikingly mulletted Bono belted out "Sunday Bloody Sunday" against its red-tinged sandstone, it has been the holy grail of performance arenas....

Spotting a McDonald's a few blocks from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg was the last straw. The whole world, it seems, is turning into one homogenous, capitalist playground. Oh, for the days when people traveled in search of experiences not available at home, when they secured passports to see unfamiliar...

Miners in South Africa made international headlines last year for their protests demanding higher pay. I'm considering heading back to South Africa to join a new protest that's brewing over tolls the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) wants to charge on highways from Cape Town to the Cape Winelands....

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it" -- Roald Dahl

"I pray for the change in perception that will let me see bigger and sweeter realities." -- Ann Lamott

My favorite thing in the whole world is miracles. I've been a student of A Course in Miracles...

Really, CBS? I used to feel sympathy for the cast of Survivor, having to battle the elements, construct shelter and scrounge for food. But after visiting the motu ( a South Pacific word for little island) where the 13th season, Survivor: Cook Islands, was filmed, I'm thinking about applying.

Surviving?...

Last August, when Hillary Clinton visited the Cook Islands on official state business, its population of 11,000 islanders got a good chuckle at the bullet-proof car flown in to drive her around Rarotonga, the biggest of the Cooks' 15 tropical isles.

Truth be told, Madame Secretary, there...

"Have fun, be crazy, be weird." -- Tony Robbins

"Most people are as happy as they make up their mind to be." -- Abraham Lincoln

Last week, I was talking with Mastin Kipp. He's the 31-year-old whiz kid behind the popular website TheDailyLove (TDL). You might have seen him...

Once, in a three-bedroom pension in Austria, I got locked in a tiny bathroom. I hollered out to my hosts, "Help! I can't open the lock." They spoke no English, so obviously they didn't rush to my aid. Instead, they probably scratched their head, wondering what the crazy American girl...

In Belize, I fell down a cliff into Tiger Creek, 20 yards from an 800-foot waterfall, ruined my new camera, nearly lost my lucky hat and endured pounding rain and roads as bumpy as political budget talks. Yet, I can't wait to go back.

I've had a long and enduring...

"Violence is interesting, which makes it a great obstacle to world peace and more thoughtful television programming." -- P.J. O'Rourke

Crisis, conflict and violence are the prevailing themes of our 24/7 media. If some stranger talked to us the way newscasters do, we'd tell them to go...

I recently heard Christoph Waltz interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. He plays a German dentist turned bounty hunter in Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's new film. During pre-production, he was bucked off a horse and sent to the hospital with a broken pelvis. As he explained to...

My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.

Step #1: Admit that... "something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today." First thing every...

I'm on rutted, dirt roads in the Jornada del Muerto desert of southern New Mexico headed to Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport. It's adjacent to White Sands Missile Range where, for 70 some years, assorted rockets, nuclear bombs and other WMDs have been tested.

When it comes to vodka, the Russians don't mess around. They write dissertations about it (Dmitri Mendeleev, the chemistry professor who invented the Periodic Table of Elements, established its precise 80-proof formula in 1894), they create monopolies over it (Tsar Ivan III protected it as early as the 1470s only...

Unless you're a perfect driver (and although I know many people who think they are, I know no one who actually is), you've probably encountered a speed bump,* undoubtedly going faster than the posted speed.

When you inadvertently hit one, it's a clear sign to slow down. Likewise, rumble strips,...

In the flurry up to the November 6th election, most of us missed our country's first National Bison Day. It was commemorated on November 1, five days before Republicans and Democrats slugged it out at the polls.

While it's not clear how one celebrates National Bison Day, I do know...

What do you get when you combine wild child designer Antonio Ballatore with Mount Rushmore, an old Radisson Hotel and a couple long-time hoteliers who want to reduce the footprint of the hospitality industry?

One of the most exciting hotel concepts since Travelocity simultaneously...