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Travel

"We can no longer work in Iraq," says Haidar Hilou, an award-winning screenwriter.

Welcome to Rawda

Iraqi artists find freedom of expression at this Syrian café

The site covers some 80,000 acres. UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Saving Machu Picchu

Will the opening of a bridge give new life to the surrounding community or further encroach upon the World Heritage Site?

A sailboat floats at the dock. From the Annapolis harbor, it's only a couple of miles to the wide open Chesapeake Bay.

Life Aquatic

The sailing world docks in Annapolis

The first Chicago Blues Festival was held in 1984. Today it draws hundreds of thousands of listeners and is the largest free blues festival in the world.

Blues Alley

How Chicago became the blues capital of the world

"During Derby Week, Louisville is the capital of the world," wrote John Steinbeck in 1956.

Derby Days

Thoroughbreds, mint juleps, big hats—the Kentucky Derby’s place in American history

"The basic question was, What can Mozambique do to build its economy?" says Carr, in Gorongosa Park. His answer: eco-tourism.

Greg Carr’s Big Gamble

In a watershed experiment, the Boston entrepreneur is putting $40 million of his own money into a splendid but ravaged park in Mozambique

Grant moved to Galena in 1860. The town, known as the "outdoor museum of the Victorian Midwest," boasts landmarks including Grant's post-Civil War mansion and Main Street.

Galena, Illinois

Ulysses S. Grant’s postwar retreat is not the only reason to visit this restored Victorian showcase

In 1851, Herman Melville completed his opus, Moby-Dick, in the shadow of Mount Greylock (the view from his study); some see the form of a white whale in the winter contours of the peak--"like a snow hill in the air," as Melville put it.

The Berkshires

The hills are alive with the sounds of Tanglewood plus modern dance, the art of Norman Rockwell and a tradition that goes back to Nathaniel Hawthorne

At Café Des Amis in Breaux Bridge, breakfast comes with zydeco music and dancing on the side, a tradition begun in 1998. Melding "pragmatism and adaptability," says historian Carl Brasseaux, is typically Cajun.

Cajun Country

Zydeco and étouffée still reign in western Louisiana, where the zesty gumbo known as Acadian culture has simmered since 1764

"It caught the public's imagination," says Heaney. "We will be dead and gone for years, and people will still be saying, coming off the boat: 'That's Alcatraz.'"

Breaking into Alcatraz

A former guard’s inside look at America’s most famous prison

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Galena’s 2007 Summer Highlights

The British colonists who settled a bit of land they soon named Jamestown (depicted in a 19th-century engraving) gave England its first enduring encampment in the New World--and, not incidentally, began our national narrative.

Beyond Jamestown

After the colony was founded, 400 years ago this month, Capt. John Smith set out to explore the riches of Chesapeake Bay

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Cajun Country Highlights & Hotspots

The question doesn't rank up there with, say, What is gravity? But where was the hamburger invented? To promote its claim, Akron, Ohio, hosts the National Hamburger Festival on July 21 and 22. Over 20,000 people served, including competitive eater Dave "Coondog" O'Karma.

Highlights & Hotspots

A selection of the season’s noteworthy events

The first thing Terry Smith did after moving to Washington in 1977 was buy a boat and sail it on the Bay.

A Great Adventure

Terry Smith, author of “Beyond Jamestown,” sailed in the 400-year-old wake of colonial explorer Capt. John Smith

Outer slope of the Rano Raraku volcano, the quarry of the Moais with many uncompleted statues.

The Mystery of Easter Island

New findings rekindle old debates about when the first people arrived and why their civilization collapsed

Conspiracists try to decode Masonic symbols, like those in the temple's stained-glass window.

The Lost Symbol’s Masonic Temple

Conspiracy buffs, including author Dan Brown, tour the lavish Washington, D.C. temple of the Freemasons

Several dozen companies, such as Manhattan Rickshaw, operate in the United States.

Rickshaws Reinvented

The ancient transportation takes a modern turn

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Highlights & Hotspots

Some of this year’s noteworthy European events

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Next Stop, Squalor

Is poverty tourism “poorism,” they call it exploration or exploitation?

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