Condé Nast Travel magazine last week issued its Readers’ Choice Awards. Included was a detailed look at top spots in the Caribbean, as well as Hawai’i and Asia. Here’s a look at a few of the highlights, and some of my fave places and hotels. The Best Islands in the Caribbean at a Glance Best Caribbean island for beaches: Anguilla Best Caribbean island for diving: Dominica Best Caribbean island for honeymoons: St Lucia Best Caribbean island for island hopping: British Virgin Islands Best Caribbean island for families: Barbados The Top 10 Caribbean Islands Barbados (a personal fave) St. Barts (only Read more
Honolulu
A new report maps out the world’s most Instagammable destinations for 2026. Dubai, New York City and Paris did extremely well, as did Banff, Alberta and Niagara Falls, Ontario. California cities also scored highly. Here’s the Players Time list of most Instagram-worthy cities for this year. Dubai London Paris Barcelona New York City Istanbul Los Angeles Mexico City Tokyo Singapore Amsterdam Bangkok San Diego San Francisco Rome Santiago (Dominican Republic) Seoul Kochi, India Budapest Prague World’s Most Instagrammed Landmarks Burj Khalifa, Dubai Eiffel Tower, Paris, France Grand Canyo, Arizona Times Square, New York City Shibuya Scramble Crossing, Tokyo Taj Mahal, Read more
MSN has posted a pretty good list of the world’s top cultural destinations for 2026. There’s always room to quibble with most “best of” lists, as they’re generally based on someone’s personal experience or preferences. I’m sure people look at some of mine and think, ‘Dude, WHAT are you thinking?” Anyhow, this latest MSN cultural list seems pretty good to me. Here are their top 10 choices for this year, with a short excerpt from their comments, And, for places I’ve visited, some of my own thoughts. SINGAPORE “Modern yet deeply rooted in tradition, Singapore offers a mix of cultures Read more
Kudos to Iceland, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada. Great marks for Singapore, Honolulu and San Francisco. Travel insurance provider Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) has released its 11th annual State of Travel Insurance Safest Destinations report, “the longest running and most trusted research project evaluating the attitudes of U.S. travelers toward travel safety and travel insurance.” The Netherlands, Australia, and Austria have been named the safest countries to visit in 2026, while Reykjavik, Copenhagen, and Zurich top the list of safest cities. Canada was named fifth safest country, which is down slightly from its third place finish last year. Montreal Read more
New York City is the most-visited large city in the U.S. and has welcomed roughly 64.3 million travellers this year, hitting 97% of its record-setting 2019 visitation level of nearly 67 million. Time Out reports NYC saw strong domestic travel (particularly from Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston and Los Angeles) who mostly stayed overnight here. The U.K. remains the largest source of international travelers at 1.1 million visitors in 2024. Following that is Canada with about 1 million visitors, then in decreasing order, France, Brazil, Italy, China, Germany, Mexico, Australia and Spain. City tourism officials say they expect to surpass pre-pandemic Read more
