There is a specific, sinking feeling you get when you have to constantly check your pockets in a crowded tourist trap or nervously navigate dimly lit streets trying to find your hotel. When my wife Liz and I are plotting our escapes from the unpredictable weather in Louisville, we want to trade our daily stress …

Cobblestones, centuries-old tavernas, and a historic castle towering above it all: that’s the fairytale version of Europe most of us grew up dreaming about. These days, though, many of the continent’s biggest-name destinations come with overflowing bins, broken glass underfoot, and the uneasy feeling you should keep one hand on your wallet after dark. Europe …

There is a specific, sinking feeling you get when you have to constantly check your pockets in a crowded tourist trap. It completely ruins the vacation. As someone who lives and breathes travel, I spend an absurd amount of time looking at crime stats and security warnings. When I’m analyzing global trends, or when my …

Picking a beach vacation usually comes down to three major factors: the quality of the sand, the warmth of the water, and the final price tag. But these days, American travelers are adding one crucial question to the absolute top of the list before they ever book a flight or reserve a hotel room. Is …

Everyone wants to go to Italy during the summer, but nobody actually enjoys the reality of what that means in July. You spend thousands of dollars to get elbowed by tour groups in Positano and roast in the suffocating heat of Rome. I love Italian culture, but the massive congestion on the mainland strips all …

There is a long-standing myth that flying to Asia means you have to subject yourself to absolute travel chaos. For decades, the standard itinerary involved enduring a brutal, 15-hour-long-haul flight just to get dumped into a massive, overwhelming mega-hub like Tokyo Narita, Beijing, or Seoul. From there, you had to immediately figure out complex bullet …

As someone who spends half the year living out of a suitcase and the other half obsessing over our next trip, I get this question constantly: “Where can I splurge on a Caribbean vacation without feeling trapped on the resort property?” There is nothing worse than dropping five figures on a luxury getaway, only to …

Booking a summer trip to Europe usually feels like choosing between two terrible options. You either fly direct into a massive, overcrowded tourist trap like Paris or Rome, or you spend 18 hours navigating a brutal maze of layovers and terrifying commuter flights just to find a quiet beach. Starting my travel days flying out …

Whenever I’m back home mapping my next trip, my inbox is constantly flooded with the exact same question from travelers: “Where can I go in the Caribbean that is actually safe, totally uncrowded, and doesn’t feel like a giant tourist trap?” It is getting increasingly difficult to answer. Mega-resorts are expanding rapidly, and finding an …

For the last decade, I’ve watched some of my absolute favorite beach towns in Central America slowly transform into massive, overpriced tourist traps. It usually happens the exact same way: a quiet surf village gets “discovered,” the massive mega-resorts move in, the prices triple, and suddenly you are fighting 500 people for a plastic lounge …

The goal when I map out a trip to Mexico changes every time I go. Sometimes I want to rot on a lounger by the pool, and sometimes I want to find a destination that is wildly authentic, skip the massive tourist traps, and guarantee I won’t have to constantly look over my shoulder. For …

When I map out a trip to South America, safety and authenticity are always at the absolute top of my list. Argentina routinely ranks as one of the safest countries on the entire continent (scoring an incredible 89/100 on our own Safety Index!), which makes it an absolute dream for travelers. But here is the …