Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Travel

As a child, Agatha Christie spent countless summer weekends at Beacon Cove, at the northern edge of Torquay, a resort town in the county of Devon, in southwest England.

The Picturesque Torquay, England

The seaside town beckons vacationers and Agatha Christie pilgrims alike

Christie purchased Greenway in 1938. Years later, she recalled the spell that the estate had cast on her: "a white Georgian house of about 1780 or '90, with woods sweeping down to the Dart...the ideal house, a dream house."

Where Agatha Christie Dreamed Up Murder

The birthplace of Poirot and Marple welcomes visitors looking for clues to the best-selling novelist of all time

Springtime visitors to Yosemite National Park are treated to sweeping views of lush landscapes.

Springtime Splendor in Yosemite

As the winter snows thaw, visitors flock to the popular national park to see frazil ice, moonbows and other seasonal sights

The Ahwahnee Hotel was built in 1927 to draw affluent and influential tourists into the park and give them a Ritz-Carlton experience amid Yosemite's wilderness.

Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel, Finally Restored

Interior designers spared no detail in bringing this historic lodge back to its luxurious origins

Cape Coast Castle is one of several Ghanaian colonial-era compounds in which captured Africans were held in dungeons during the slave trade era.

Ghana’s Monument to Sorrow and Survival

At Cape Coast Castle, visitors walk in the footsteps of African slaves

Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet displays 350 or so automatic musical instruments—prototype jukeboxes, hand-cranked carnival machines and monstrous pianolas—all in working order.

The Offbeat Museums of Europe

Lost souls, music boxes and shoes fill some of the continent’s most peculiar collections

Recalling vistas created in the 9th to 12th centuries for Japan's aristocracy, islands are connected by a graceful bridge. Landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu's intention was to express "ancient wisdom."

Florida’s Lush Japanese Gardens

A thousand years of Japanese landscape designs unfold at the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach

The missions—built between 1769 and 1823 and extending in a chain of 600 miles from Sonoma to San Diego—stand as symbols of California's Spanish colonial past. Pictured is San Miguel's bell tower.

A Tour of California’s Spanish Missions

A poignant reminder of the region’s fraught history, missions such as San Miguel are treasured for their stark beauty

Northern Michigan's rocky coast, shown here is a Presque Isle cove, has long beckoned as a summer playground. The picturesque region, wrote American naturalist Edwin Way Teale, is "a land of wonderful wilderness."

The Wonderful Wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Immortalized by Longfellow, the Midwest’s preferred vacation spot offers unspoiled forests, waterfalls and coastal villages

A view of Lake Superior and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

A Michigan Museum of Shipwrecks

On the shore of Lake Superior, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum details the history of boats lost in the deep waters

Baklava, a pastry called tulumba, Bosnian pita stuffed with potatoes, and Turkish coffee at Berix.

Visiting Bosnia via St. Louis

A burgeoning community in the Gateway City is the place to find lepini, cevapi and other Bosnian treats

"Capi has always existed as un mondo a parte, a world apart," says one resident. That sentiment is demonstrated in the Faraglioni pinnacles off southeastern Capri.

The Lure of Capri

What is it about this tiny, sun-drenched island off the coast of Naples that has made it so irresistible for so long?

"I couldn't resist a call to return" to Cleveland, says Charles Michener. The revitalized East 4th Street is home to high-end bars and restaurants.

Cleveland’s Signs of Renewal

Returning to his native Ohio, author Charles Michener marvels at the city’s ability to reinvent itself

Chef Phillip Tang of East by Northeast rolls dumplings stuffed with Vermont pork and Massachusetts cabbage.

Boston’s Farm-to-Table Renaissance

These New England restaurants stand out as chefs fill their menus with harvests from local farms and drinks from area distilleries

The Piazzetta, or small plaza, is possibly Italy's most beloved public stage.

What to Do in Capri

Capri has been a destination for centuries, but here are the best places for today’s visitors to hike, eat and enjoy the vistas

None

Wiarton, Ontario, Canada

A small town on Colpoy Bay

The king cake—with the ensconced plastic baby—is the classic Mardi Gras dessert.

A King Cake Special Delivery

One can’t truly celebrate a New Orleans Mardi Gras without the doughy delicacy

The dam, to be built at the confluence of the Inambari and Araza rivers, is one of dozens expected to power South America's economic ascent.

A Mega-Dam Dilemma in the Amazon

A huge dam on Peru’s Inambari River will bring much-needed development to the region. But at what cost?

One of the country's most popular rappers, J-Me avoids political statements in his music. But his lyrics, he says, reflect the concerns of Myanmar's young.

Myanmar’s Young Artists and Activists

In the country formerly known as Burma, these free thinkers are a force in the struggle for democracy

Rangoon features timeless pleasures such as the Shwedagon Pagoda, a thirty-story gilded temple built more than a thousand years ago.

Touring Myanmar

A practical guide of what to see in the southeast Asian country, from ancient temples to variety shows

Page 153 of 202