Tourism is like quantum physics. Every observer affects the events observed. And with the number of observers, the intrusion intensifies. So, where do you go to avoid mass tourism and see original, unpolished events? Here's my example: Iceland.

Last week I attended the sheep roundup in northern Iceland, near Varmahlith,...

More than 115,000 people in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million, have supported a civil initiative to start a parliamentary discussion on the right to a dignified end to life. We're not talking euthanasia here, because the voluntary ending of life in the final stages of terminal illness has...

It was in a Route 66 motel room in Arizona recently that I opened the bedstand drawer and was surprised to find something unusual: candy and a couple of condoms. Alone in the room, I ate a piece of candy, felt intimidated by the equine proportions of extra large condoms...

Rather than polluting the sky to catch a breath of fresh air in some rain forest, maybe we should discover the joy of dirt. You could call it the opposite of eco-tourism; pollu-tourism. Take Butte, Montana.

Butte (pop. 33,000) is conveniently located between Glacier and Yellowstone, two of the ecologically...

Many years ago, on my first backpack visit to the United States, a stewardess on the plane surprised me with a green form I needed to fill out. There were odd questions on that form. Apparently someone in Washington needed to know if I had an STD, if I used...