We’ve all been there once: pulling up to that cute little European city you’d been enamored with for months after saving it to your Instagram faves, only to realize the crowd-free, idyllic version exists only on social media. Or at some ungodly hour that travel influencer you follow didn’t bother mentioning they were up at. …

For most people, traveling between countries means airport chaos, security scrutiny, border queues, and stressful flights. What if I told you the most beautiful border crossing in the world bypasses all of that, in fact, and doesn’t even require you to toggle on flight mode? Recently, I traveled on the Bernina Express, a red-colored beauty …

Enough with the Côte d’Azurs, Amalfi Coasts, and Costa del Sols of the world: 3 of Europe’s best-known coastlines may be stunning and have a lot to offer, but I don’t know about you; I’m not exactly keen on spending $200–$550 a night on hotels, nor battling the cruise crowds for a spot in the …

Year in, year out, you can rest assured there’s one sun-drenched Mediterranean country I’ll be hitting: the home of feta, cradle of Western civilization, and a country whose coastline looks as if somebody dropped a dinner plate and watched it shatter into thousands of little fragments they call islands. I’m a Parisian at heart, and …

If your Roman Empire is the actual, ahem, Roman Empire, chances are Europe’s main draws for you are the historic temples perched atop dramatic cliffs, the crazy-old amphitheaters where gladiators once fought for their lives, and the emperors and generals who built an entire civilization. In that case, we’ll go out on a limb and …

Even if you haven’t made it to Italy yet, you’re probably familiar with Rome‘s ancient sights and the millennia-old Colosseum, Venice‘s winding canals and soaring campanile, and Florence‘s distinctive red-tiled dome and Renaissance palaces. Undoubtedly gorgeous as those may be, what if we told you this year’s crown in one of Italy’s best-known beauty contests …

As of September 7, the European Union’s grace period for its new, controversial Entry/Exit System is officially over. Under the rules, border authorities no longer have the same freedom to suspend biometric collection simply because queues are getting out of hand, though enforcement may still vary somewhat while certain airports iron out their remaining technical …

Chasing changing leaves can feel like a gamble. Trust me, every single year I try to plan the perfect trip to the Red River Gorge just 2 hours from my house to catch the leaves, and the window is tight! Normally, you get a tiny, unpredictable two-week window in late October before a random storm …

If Barcelona or Mallorca are the only destinations that come to mind when you think of an off-season fall getaway in Spain, think again. Instead of flocking to the same done-and-dusted hotspots that are, in fact, chasing tourists away, why not give the fast-rising, equally exciting, but still relatively unknown Valencia a chance? Offering miles …

Whether it’s the shambles at security with staffing headaches and snaking queues, or the chaotic rollout of the new Entry/Exit System, which now requires Americans to have their fingerprints and facial image collected, I can’t think of a worse place to be right now than a European airport. The Old Continent seems to have got …

There’s the jam-packed, overpriced, everyone’s-been-there-done-that Europe… and then there’s the unsung, still-authentic, criminally overlooked side of the Old World you’re yet to discover. Tucked away on the eastern end of the continent, in a tiny country called Estonia, Tallinn is arguably the prettiest capital city along the Baltic coast, or at least that’s the one …

At least 20 visits to Portugal in, it’s not often I come across places that still catch me completely off guard, but my most recent road trip across the northern half of the country led me to a tiny, quaint beach town that looks like a postcard scene come to life. And to my surprise, …