Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Travel

The Jurassic Coast encompasses 185 million years of history.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Jurassic Coast, England

The best opportunity to play paleontologist is on the southern coast of England, a site rich with marine reptile fossils

Heavily forested slopes near Spirit Lake were devastated by the eruption as shown in this photo in 1982.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Mount St. Helens, Washington

Over thirty years after the volcanic eruption, plant and animal life has returned to the disaster site, a veritable living laboratory

Far from the mainland and one another, the Galapágos Islands host animals with distinctive traits, such as the notched shell of Pinzón Island’s saddleback giant tortoise.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

The exotic locale, home to tortoises, cacti, iguanas and finches, was a source of inspiration for Darwin’s theory of evolution

South Africa’s limestone caves, such as Sterkfontein often hold the fossilized skeletons of hominids who fell into holes or were dragged underground by predators.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: The Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

The world’s greatest source of hominid fossils is among dozens of caves just hours from Johannesburg

Whales evolved from mammals that adapted to hunt in oceans. Skeletons of Basilosaurus, a whale ancestor, reveal the leviathan still retained tiny hind legs.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Wadi Hitan, Egypt

In Egypt’s Western Desert, evidence abounds that before they were the kings of the ocean, whales roamed the earth on four legs

Wolves hunting moose on Isle Royale are a dramatic example of what scientists call co-evolution: two species, such as a predator and its prey, adapting to each other’s adaptations.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Isle Royale, Michigan

Moose and wolves face off in the world’s longest-running study of predators and prey

Foraminifera provide scientists with an invaluable fossil record. Their exquisite outer shells, normally too small for the naked eye, inspired sculptures in Zhongshan, China.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Foraminifera Sculpture Park, China

Some of the world’s oldest organisms left behind fossilized shells that, when translated to a large sculpture, bring an artistic edge to evolution

Koalas, kangaroos and wallabies are abundant on the island and not particularly fearful, so it’s possible to have close encounters with these distant mammalian kin.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Kangaroo Island, Australia

Mammals come in three types and the best place to see them all in one place is this small island off the southern coast of Australia

The rusted three-story hubcap- and bicycle-based Cathedral of Junk was created by Vince Hannemann, a South Austin guy who decided his backyard was as good a place as any to build a cathedral.

Keeping it Weird in Austin, Texas

Aren’t the residents of the proudly hip city of Austin, Texas, just traditionalists at heart?

The mountain lion is one of the most common large cats but also one of the hardest to see.

Best Bets to See a Big Predator

Get your grizzlies, polar bears, big cats, wolves and crocs here

Packing light for the new year

Traveling Light in the New Year

Don’t overpack is a rule to live by. So why not declutter on New Year’s Eve

Climbers are now using Twitter from the slopes and summit of Mount Everest. Does that seem wrong?

Climbing Mount Everest in the Internet Age

Are people playing games while climbing the world’s tallest mountain? That’s hard to say, but they’re definitely texting

Pitcairn Island provided the mutineers of the Bounty a haven from the world in the 18th century. Today, it offers much the same—along with a general store, a cafe and 50 permanent residents.

Seven Islands to Visit in 2012

Pitcairn Island is populated by 50 people, has a handful of hostels, a general store and a café and, frankly, could really use a few visitors

None

Christmas Shopping Around the World

Lamps at the Chiang Mai market

Christmas Shopping Around the World

There are valuable discoveries, but at a German Christmas market all I could find was Third World junk that only looks good if you drink a lot of gluhwein

Don’t be caught drinking until this Georgian man is done toasting.

Faux Pas: Mortifying Missteps of the Innocent Abroad

It was only weeks later that I learned what a klutz I’d been. It’s a miracle I wasn’t thrown to the bears

A game of chess on a fold-up travel board can break the ice between strangers in strange lands.

Holiday Gift Ideas for the Adventure Traveler

A chess set, soccer ball, bear spray and other items, even dog food, make the list of gifts to give your favorite hardened traveler

Sites like Brussels' Place du Jeu de Balle are featured in the new Tintin movie.

Tintin is Everywhere in Brussels

The famed comic book character, now a Steven Spielberg-Peter Jackson film, is a nifty way to know the Belgian capital

In Nepal, the Lambrecht family of Sebastopol, California is loving life and local transport.

Have Kids, Will Travel

“We were travelers. It was in our blood, and the idea that we would ever stop traveling just because we had kids never sat well with us”

Amundsen at the South Pole, one hundred years ago today

The Path of Exploration

Page 145 of 200