In this video I travel to Montréal, the second-largest French speaking city in the world, where I grab some food at the Jean-Talon market, hike to the peak of Mont Royal, and join in on a drum circle at the Tam-tams.

How much about Cuba can you discover by traveling through the Viñales Valley on a bike? Turns out, quite a lot.

By Luke Maguire Armstrong

Moments before my plane touched down in Havana, an Australian had turned to me to ask me why I was going to Cuba. I guess I was not exactly sure myself. As an American, I am not supposed to travel to Cuba, but there is something about a forbidden fruit that makes it tastier than the stuff you can buy at the grocery store. Remember how drinking alcohol lost something once we became of age? Exactly.

After a short stay in Havana, gravitation and my Lonely Planet guide lead me to the relaxed town of Viñales. My guidebook tells me that in 1999 the valley was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site. I make a mental note to Google what such a declaration actually entails.

Walking through the slow streets as I make my way to the Cubanacán travel office to rent a bike, a young man rides up flashing me his yellow bike. “You want to rent my bike?” he asks. “Best bike in all of Cuba. Try it out if you don’t believe me”

I give his bike a spin around the block. The gears change and the brakes squeak to an eventual halt. It seems as good a bike as I will find anywhere else and the fake shocks give the impression that the rider means serious bike riding business. I give him five pesos to use it for the day and he tells me to look for him around town when I come back to return the bike. “If you can’t find me just ask anyone where José is.” (more…)

With spectacular ancient ruins, underwater caves and some of the world’s best snorkeling, you better believe there’s more to do in the Mayan Riviera than sunbathing and sipping tropical drinks.

By Alexis Korman

This time of year, some big city folk like myself are not only pasty, but content with staking out a small stretch of sun-drenched sand and doing little else while on holiday in Mexico. But, no matter how relaxing, laying on the beach in a rum-induced coma is difficult to justify when traveling in the eco-oasis known as the Mayan Riviera.

I knew I’d be considerably more active than usual on my trip even before my plane landed in Cancun this January. Flying over the region, you can’t help but marvel at the miles of practically uninhabited dense, green jungle that borders the turquoise Caribbean Sea (and Cancun’s notoriously party-friendly Hotel Zone).

Of course, this region of Mexico offers much more than drunken frat dudes, oversized all-inclusive resorts and perfect, powdery white-sand beaches. The expanse of jungle glimpsed from the plane plays host to a variety of exotic flora and fauna indigenous to the Yucatan Peninsula, including saraguato monkeys, crocodiles and endangered jaguars. The area is also home to the Mesoamerican Coral Reef, second only in size to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, not to mention some awe-inspiring pre-Hispanic ruins.

With a dedication to preservation, the Mayan Riviera offers plenty of opportunities to see these and other treasures of the land and sea firsthand, with limited environmental impact. Here are 10 unforgettable eco-friendly adventures that can be experienced in a day’s time. (more…)

This Is L.A.? Just a short trip from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, Catalina Island seems like it’s worlds away.

By Laurel Busby

Except for a hectic trip to New York City, I hadn’t left California for a vacation in over four years. Needless to say, I desperately needed to get away. Unfortunately, I only had one day to try to fit in two weeks worth of relaxation. Spending Easter Sunday on Catalina Island almost achieved the impossible.

I’d been pestering my husband about visiting Catalina Island ever since we had moved to L.A. two years before, but he was not particularly excited to go. Finally, on the day before our first open Sunday in three months, I convinced him to make the trip. Knowing almost nothing about the island, I spent the night before we left scouting Catalina.com for tips on how to get there and what to do once we arrived. I love ferry rides, snorkeling and animal life, so my imagination was in heaven as I navigated the Web site and saw that Catalina had all three.

The next day my stomach was not acting as thrilled as I was. In New York City I used to relish the cold, open air on the Staten Island ferry as it would plod across the calm Atlantic waters towards Manhattan, but the speedy Catalina Express was giving me the beginnings of seasickness. The high-speed ferry takes 1 1/4 hours to make the 22-mile trek from the California coast, but those prone to queasiness are encouraged to book a trip with the slightly more sedate ferries that make the trip in 2 1/4 hours for a cheaper price. (more…)

Still recovering from that bender known as Katrina, a road trip to the Big Easy reveals how New Orleans isn’t letting a little hangover prevent it from enjoying life, just like it always has.

By Ted Hesson

We decided to take a road trip for several reasons: moving, freelance work, sightseeing, hell-raising, escapism, rock and roll — the usual motives. Since it was freezing cold in New York, the three of us thought it would be smarter to move southerly before hanging a right towards the West Coast. While my two friends ventured on to California, though, my final stop on the trip would actually be New Orleans, a city that I had always wanted to visit. I expected to find, among other things: heaps of spicy seafood, Bayou-tinged blues, unparalleled architecture, non-stop debauchery and the remnants of one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States. For better or for worse, it was all there.

From Atlanta, we took the slow road to the Big Easy, making a few stops along the way. We spent an hour in Montgomery, where we discovered a Disney-esque downtown devoid of inhabitants, save some chatty pharmacy workers, with whom we talked about New York, Alabama’s quiet capital and, eventually, New Orleans. “Y’all goin’ to New Orleans?” one worker said. “Na, I wouldn’t go if I were you. Y’all gonna get boogled.” Our Yankee ears must have translated it poorly, because I’m sure what she meant to say was that we would get “voodooed,” but either way, I got the point. She thought New Orleans seemed pretty freaky, and as a childhood fan of Anne Rice, I didn’t disagree. But, to put things in perspective, it was rush hour in Montgomery, and I hadn’t heard a honking horn or shouting pedestrian yet. Seemed to be just as good of a chance of getting boogled here as anywhere else. We hopped back in the van and decided to take our chances with whatever witchcraft might lay in wait. (more…)

How the little island of Dominica has embraced its reputation as the “real” Caribbean.

By Manda Spring

Imagine a unique and unspoiled land, free of pollution and overdevelopment and full of natural beauty. Many of the islands in the vast Eastern Caribbean archipelago display a sense of modernized atmosphere and they are driven by the new ways and are somewhat spoiled by the need of convenience. However, one island stands alone and is spectacular in its natural and unhampered form. The lush and fertile island of Dominica is exactly this: a true paradise for all to enjoy. But what makes this island so different than all the others in the Caribbean?

It’s almost unreal how many natural wonders can be found on Dominica Island. Arienne Perryman, an expert on Dominica, described what makes the island so unique from its Caribbean sisters. “Dominica has many natural wonders, including the Boiling Lake — the second largest of three such lakes in the world; as well as scores of sulfur hot springs comprised of hot mineralized water that many say has medicinal healing properties.” (more…)

A trek into the Great Plains to hunt nature’s most elusive predator

By Jenna Blum

OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL EVENING it is in the Oklahoma Panhandle, five miles west of Guymon. The sunset blazes orange, cattle graze on yucca flowers, prairie grasses wave serenely toward the horizon.

At least, on one side of Highway 412.

On the other, a massive Supercell thunderstorm rotates low over the land.

Black and purple, with a bright green heart of softball-sized hail, the circular storm bears uncanny resemblance to an Independence Day spaceship. Vans, Doppler-radar trucks, and emergency vehicles zoom along its periphery like ants rimming a giant carousel.

On the storm’s underbelly, ragged clouds start twisting into a drill bit. Over the CB, on “chaser channel” 146.520 MhZ, meteorologist “Dr. Bob” Conzemius tells four vans of hopeful listeners, “It’s reorganizing.”

Sure enough, the drill bit elongates into a crooked finger pointing toward the ground. All along 412 breath is collectively held. If that snaky green funnel touches down, it’ll become the Great Plains’ most feared and destructive weather phenomenon: a tornado. (more…)