Mic: Parisians might take credit for the macaron, but it actually has Middle Eastern roots
Like strolling the Champs-Élysées and snapping a photo of the Eiffel Tower, tasting a Ladurée macaron has become an essential Parisian experience.
Jen Rose Smith writes about travel and adventure, and she's currently nomadic, with a 2018 itinerary that includes the Bolivian highlands, Peru's Cordillera Blanca, and Catalonia. Her freelance writing has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, CNN Travel, Rolling Stone,USA Today, and Outside Online, and she covers Vermont travel for Boston.com.
In addition to her work as a freelancer, Jen is the author of five travel guidebooks to Vermont and New England, including Moon New England Road Trips, which was selected for the 2018 New England Society Book Awards. Jen's work was chosen for the 2012 edition of Best Women's Travel Writing, and translated into Swedish for Gränslös, an anthology of women's adventure tales.
Dirt Rag Magazine: Huaraz Aerothlon
What's better than riding in a wet chamois? Throwing yourself off a cliff.
Boston.com: Explore Vermont cheese with an award-winning cheesemonger
When Vermont cheesemonger Rory Stamp won the Cheesemonger Invitational in January 2017, he beat a talented field of experts from around the country.
“It’s like the ‘The Hunger Games’ of cheesemongering,” Stamp said, “covering everything from technical challenges to blind identifying, cutting and wrapping, and food service.”
CNN Travel: Bolivia's Cordillera Real
For travelers, the diminishing snowpack and melting glaciers lend some urgency to travel planning -- or they may arrive to find that snow and ice have given way to an entirely new landscape.
Boston.com: How to take a beer-based trip through Vermont
With more breweries per capita than any other state, Vermont’s beer scene punches far above its weight. It’s claimed “best brewery in the world” for four years running, and some Vermont beer aficionados argue that the state’s distinctively dry-hopped, hazy pours are the origin of the beloved New England IPA.
USA Today: New England Fairs and Festivals
Once the new blooms of spring appear, New England
comes to life with a variety of outdoor fairs and
festivals. Whether you want to spot shooting stars
from an island peak or groove to jazz at the edge of the
sea, there’s a destination for you. Mark your calendar
for these regional gatherings that celebrate music,
culture, food, drink and more.
Rolling Stone: Legal Pot in Vermont
It's somewhat surprising that Vermont – a state whose main cultural exports include homemade Phish tapes, Bernie Sanders memes and Cherry Garcia ice cream – waited until early 2018 to pass legislation on recreational marijuana. The law might have been slow to arrive, but it's groundbreaking, nonetheless.
CNN Travel: Everglades National Park adapts to changing climate
When Hurricane Irma heaved across the Caribbean in September of 2017, the Everglades swallowed rain and storm surge, sheltering inland communities.
Seven months later, Everglades National Park is still in recovery, and far from being the ageless landscape it first appears, the Everglades is in flux. Many scientists say tropical storms are worsening, bringing an uncertain future for Florida's coastal ecosystems and cities as sea levels continue to rise.
But with an economy that depends on tourism for survival, locals from park rangers to fishing guides are eager to get out the message that much of this destination is vibrant as ever.
CNN Travel: Hiking the Sinai Trail with Egypt's Bedouin
"We want to teach our sons to work with camels, and to learn about the desert," said Tarabin guide Musallem Abu Faraj, who helped found the Sinai Trail in 2015. These are our traditions, passed down through generations."
With no camels, and no work, however, some of Sinai's Bedouin are faced with difficult choices: Move to a town for wage labor, or try to survive in the desert in hope of better times to come.
National Geographic Adventure: 6 Spiritual Adventures to Challenge the Mind and Body
A quiet walk in the woods can be a spiritual experience, and countless hikers head to redwood groves and high places to find a sense of awe. But if following a dirt track is a kind of prayerâthe hypnotizing rhythm of feet and breath an ancient songâsome trails are true religious pilgrimages, routes laid down by the faithful.
CNN Travel: Photos reveal life in travel's golden age
On a September morning in 1830, a throng of people gathered in the English cities of Liverpool and Manchester to see a daring feat of modernity.
Nobles, tipsy workers and politicians watched the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first railroad on Earth whose cars would be unaided by teams of horses.
Almost 100 years later, a 25-year-old Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight between North America and the European mainland, where he descended from his monoplane into crowds of Parisians chanting "Vive l'Americain!"
British Airways: Boston neighbourhoods | Things to do in Boston
Whether you’re a history buff, a dedicated shopper, a baseball fan or simply in search of the perfect clam chowder, Boston has you covered. There’s a reason locals have the confidence to nickname their city the ‘hub of the universe’.
CNN Travel: Is this the world's best whiskey?
In recent years, Vermont has seen a quiet craft distilling revival, and the state's bars are lined with locally made bottles. But they're not always what they seem.
Boston.com: How to visit Vermont maple syrup producers
When early spring warmth begins to thaw Vermont’s frozen forests, sugar makers head for the woods. Traveling by snowmobile, snowshoes, or horse-drawn sleigh, they drill a small hole in the trunk of each mature sugar maple, then gather a slow trickle of sap in buckets or plastic tubes. Once the sap has been collected, it’s cooked for hours in a shallow pan called an evaporator, heated from below by a gas jet or wood fire.
Outside Online: Sleeping Alone in the Woods While Female
When camping alone, I have a ritual that spans two or three nights. On the first evening, I stay up late with a novel, then half-sleep until sunrise, turning my ear toward every snapping twig. If one sleepless night doesn’t exhaust me, a second is sure to do the trick. By my third solo night in the forest, I could sleep through a horror film marathon.
Roads and Kingdoms: Switching From Beer to Rum Ups the Stakes When Gunpowder Is Involved
The mountain air was filled with flying lead and clinking bottles, and sudden cracks of gunpowder made everyone jump. It was just another round of tejo, Colombia’s favorite drinking game.
Atlas Obscura: The 18th-Century Phenomenon of Putting a Filter on a Sunset for Likes
The Claude glass became a staple of 18th-century packing lists. Portable and compact, it was named for the French artist Claude Lorrain, whose paintings have a beatific glow reminiscent of a heavy-handed Instagram filter.
Fodor's Travel: Vermont's Volunteer Salamander Crossing Guards Help Amphibians Find Love
When spring days begin to thaw Vermont’s frozen ground, countless tiny amphibians stir after a long winter sleep. And on the first warm, wet nights of the year, spotted salamanders poke their rounded snouts out of their burrows, then start an annual trip to the ponds where they mate.
CNN Travel: 8 endangered UNESCO sites to see now
Stretching from the Florida backwoods to an ancient Peruvian city and ghostly Chilean mines, these eight sites are some of the Americas' most extraordinary places. But they're also sites that UNESCO has found are threatened by "serious and specific" perils, whether human or environmental.
National Geographic Adventure: Top 10 Adventure Lodges Around the World
Think you’re ready for check-in? If you’re headed to one of these lodges—built for adventurous travelers ready to hike farther, dive deeper, and climb higher—you might need to add scuba gear or hiking boots to your packing list before heading to the front desk.
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