As a recent graduate, I landed in Houston in July with the promise of a job, knowing little about the city beyond its unforgiving climate. But, as the months passed and the weather grew more pleasant, it revealed itself to be beguilingly alive.
It’s hard to talk about Valencia without comparing it to Barcelona. While the Catalan capital gets well-deserved love, the overwhelming crowds I experienced there last year were not something to love. A far more satisfying stay was two weeks in Valencia, an eastern Mediterranean port city that also features a stunning mix of Gothic and modern architecture, wide beaches, and an exciting food scene. Yet, Valencia has a vibe all its own: laid-back and less traveled, you quickly feel like a part of this vibrant city, not just a tourist.
This year marks the United States’ 250th birthday and it doesn’t get more Yankee Doodle Dandy than small town Bristol, in America’s smallest state, and home to the oldest, continuous Independence Day celebration in the country, dating back to 1785. But its patriotic vibe isn’t reserved only for one day in July — the center line on Hope Street, the town’s main thoroughfare, is permanently painted red, white, and blue, a federal exemption to standard traffic laws.
Go wild in 2026 and venture off well-trodden paths in the picturesque harbor of Cutler, located along the jagged, unspoiled coast of Maine.
I jump-started my summer travel by saying yes to an invitation by the World Sauna Forum to discover Finland through its bathing culture, at the heart of which is the sauna. Meant to be shared, in good company, the country’s sauna ethos is all about steaming, sweating, and dissolving into a wonderful kind of togetherness, among family, friends, and even strangers.
“Provence is a country to which I am always returning,” the English food writer and original influencer Elizabeth David famously said about this slow-paced paradise of jagged limestone cliffs, sharp sunlight, and an earthy, expressive cuisine.
The main point of traveling, I have always felt, is not to follow someone else’s footsteps but to find your own way. It makes discoveries that much keener. The exception to this is flea markets and bookstores. Recommendations required. A potent example is Quagga Rare Books and Art, in Kalk Bay, South Africa, a palm-sized town snugged into the surf coast of the Indian Ocean, just a few miles from the delicious Constantia wine country.
