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Off the Beaten Path

Mali: my almost nomad wife

A modest proposal in West Africa's Sahara.

In my capacity as a travel writer, I journeyed through much of Mali's Sahara Desert with the fabled Blue Men in the years before it was desecrated by Al-Qaida. For two thousand years, Tuareg nomads ...

Skeletons in the armoire: Paris catacombs

Under the city's streets is a vast, ancient network of tunnels.

The air was cool and exuded a musty, almost earthy odor. The passageway with squat ceilings no more than six feet high was lit by small dim lights, each bright enough to see only a ...

Secrets of Ghent

Most of us in the U.S. remember the name “Ghent” from the Treaty of Ghent that finally ended the War of 1812 with the British. At the time, communication was slow, and Gen. Andrew Jackson ...

Isla Mujeres

Sail away from Cancun crowds.

Isla Mujeres, once home to occasional pirates and Mexican fishing families, has become a popular off-the-beaten-path destination for tourists and divers as well as an expat art colony. Many tourists visit the island as a ...

Chill out in Rarotonga

Under-the-radar South Pacific.

Sitting halfway between Tahiti and Fiji, the Cook Islands are yet to be discovered by most Americans. The vast majority of visitors who do come here are Australians and New Zealanders (for whom it’s a ...

El Paso from six feet under

No shortage of history in this Texan desert treasure.

I’ve never considered visiting graveyards a “must-see” travel experience, but I’ll have to admit that lately I am finding a wealth of history and a deep sense of place that develops necessarily when jaunting graveyard ...

Magic lives in Kanas

It doesn't get much more foreign than here.

Magic lives in a remote corner of China. In the northwestern corner of the country, where a bony finger of land divides the land from Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia, the traveler will find myth, legend ...

Outside Central London

Consider these 3 stops for your next UK itinerary.

Central London has so much to offer, most travelers never make it beyond the innermost neighborhoods. Seeing the main sights – like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London – can easily fill ...

At the World's End: Vulture City, AZ

A mining-town relic decays in the Arizona desert.

There is no denying it; I am an apocalyte. A lover of all things bleak and transient, the beauty of decay is in my blood. Find me a ghost town, a derelict asylum, an abandoned ...

The World's Edge: Cape Horn

This is a place of extremes. The name alone brings to mind images of explorers and traders in tall sailing ships working their way against horrendous seas and hurricane-strength winds. Set on its own small ...