Danger: the all-you-can-eat policy of all-inclusives

In the end (and the sad realization always comes in the end), my five-day stay at an all-inclusive resort on the Caribbean was more than mind-clearing serenity; it was a frightening look into the human psyche.

Quick trips

Puerto Rico’s new cuisine is going green

It seems like an unlikely place to go for a salad: a warehouse in the middle of car repair shops on a San Juan side street, where few tourists venture.
5 free things: Mexico City

Sightseeing for travelers on a budget

For many foreigners, Mexico City invokes images of urban chaos, choking air pollution and pervasive street crime. And it can be an intimidating place for tourists, with maddeningly heavy traffic, a confusing public transportation system and neighborhoods cut off from each other by multi-lane highways plowed through the center of the city.
Food

A primer on the varied cuisine of the Caribbean

When you sit down for a meal in the Caribbean, you might be in for some surprises. Island cuisines are as varied as the islands themselves, and chances are you and other visitors might never have sampled many a Caribbean dish.
Argentine cash controls bring bargains, headaches

The Brazilian visitors gawk in wonder as they stroll past shop windows along touristy Florida street in the Argentine capital. The jackets, the shoes – they’re all so cheap when your purse is stuffed with black-market money.
Going by sea

Exploring Grand Bahama Island

From the deck of Banana Bay restaurant on the south shore of Grand Bahama Island, where I waited for a plate of conch fritters, I admired the pretty but empty beach that stretched to the east: a narrow, curving strip of white sand; a shallow lagoon of clear blue water; a hammock strung between two wind-bent palms.
Bahamas

Cay-hopping: Abaco vs. Exuma

As our small Saab turboprop swooped airport-ward, the scene came into focus through the wavy airplane window and jet fuel ripples: Islands scribbled in the sea like the impressions of a 2-year-old who has hoarded all the greens and blues from the giant box of crayons.
Southern desert

Sand surfing in Peru — where only the dunes are steep

It’s a scene right out of Lawrence of Arabia: enormous mountains of sand — some as tall as 300 feet — their surfaces sculpted into soft, geometric designs by the wind, and extending as far as the eye can see. My wife and I stand captivated, feeling the heat of the day rising up out of the soft sand and watching the interplay of golden light and pale shadow as the sun dips behind a distant ridge of solid beige.
Quick trips: Panama

Houseboating in the wilds of the Canal Zone

I stood on the deck of the houseboat with a boa constrictor draped around my neck. Her tongue rapaciously darting in and out, the snake slithered down my arm. Then, unexpectedly, she turned to look at me, and her head began maneuvering back towards my face.
Travelwise

The workout artists

How adventurous travelers can find health-and-fitness trips