10 Unforgettable Travel Moments

Prowling Costa Rica’s cloud forest canopy
Watch PBS until you’re 100, and you’ll never come close to the first 30 seconds you spend on a walkway in the forest treetops. All of the teeming, monkey-level action is wonderfully in-your-face. You breathe it. Hear it. Feel it tremble. It’s a surreal shift in perspective and—frankly—it’s a lot of fun. Of course, so is peering down into an active volcano, walking in a cloud of butterflies, navigating a free-flowing tropical river, and gulping as roseate spoonbills wade among crocodiles. Come to think of it, Costa Rica doesn’t have one of our most memorable moments. It has about 600 of them.

Surrendering to the Tuscan sunset
In an ideal world, a Tuscan day would never end. The olive groves and medieval hilltowns and farmhouse lunches would run on a continuous loop. You’d circle back to taste the honey at the Bocelli family vineyard or to the instant you saw the first of the Cinque Terre villages perched over the Ligurian Sea. And yet. Sundown on any day of our Tuscan itineraries is about as perfect as life gets. The air goes golden. The chianti’s breathing. A preview of dinner wafts out to the terrace. It’s that moment we give ourselves a mental pinch to make sure this is really happening. Contentment that deep lasts a long, long time.

Lobstering with Bill off Nova Scotia
We want to be Bill when we grow up. At least that’s how we always feel after a day with him. He owns a lobster boat. He lives on his own private island. His wife Hillary is a Cordon Bleu chef. Best of all, he loves to have us visit. He’ll juggle his lobster pots to make room on deck, then chug us out to his home for a walk and a lobster bake. Nova Scotia has plenty to love: piney forests seen from native Mi’kmaq canoes, 400-year-old towns, pods of humpback and Minke whales. But that day with Bill—just going along for the ride, getting a feel for the fisherman’s life—is one of the happiest days we’ve ever had.

Getting totally lost in Croatia
That’s “lost” in the best possible way—as in a rural time warp on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast or Istrian Peninsula. Step off the path to let a shepherd and his flock pass. And in the baa-filled lull, you notice how the meadow bumps into the apricot orchard that wraps around the farmhouse that looks like it slipped down the steep vineyard from a perfect hilltop village. Moments like this—unscripted, untouristed, untouched by time—are so incredibly rare in regions this accessible. If you love the thrill of the authentic, give yourself this experience while it’s still possible.

Barging gently through Burgundy
Practice saying: “Last summer, when we went canal barging in France….” Any way you finish that sentence, it sounds pretty good. But seriously, ensconced on the deck of your barge, sipping a flinty blanc, nibbling some gooey Epoisses—that is the life you were born to live. Barges glide along at a stately, make-no-waves pace. So you can easily hop off for a vineyard visit, a bike ride, or shopping in the markets of Beaune. Or not. To up the decadence quotient, this itinerary also includes a 3-night stay at a château in the Loire Valley with a visit to Chenonceau, a farmhouse lunch and much more.

Descending into Machu Picchu
“Wait,” you think. “This is upside down. I’m up here. And Machu Picchu is below me?” Don’t you love it when travel throws a fascinating curve at you? Approach this legendary site via our Inca Trail walk and you do indeed enter from above for one of the most gaspworthy views you’ll ever get. Then, unlike in-and-out tourists, you spend all or part of three days at the site. It’s not the only surprise we’ll give you in Peru. Our native Quechua guide takes us to a remote village school, we hang out with a llama herder, and go exploring in Inca ruins that aren’t on everyone’s map.

Channeling the 17th century in Cesky Krumlov
You become an instant history buff in the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. In the castle up on the bluff, you’re a full-blooded Habsburg, lording it over the village at your feet. Down there—in your cottage that tilts out over the ox-bowed Vltava River—you grasp the chaos and cramp of medieval life. As a 21st century visitor, you feel some guilty gratitude for the Communist era that stopped progress and saved this perfect microcosm of European culture. It’s as close as you’ll come to living, breathing history. And on an itinerary that also includes Prague, Austria’s Danube valley and Budapest, that’s really saying something!

Going nomad in Morocco’s Sahara
So. You’re out in the Sahara at the foot of the world’s highest dunes. Some native tribesmen approach you with camels. You climb up and ride out into the sands just in time to catch the sunset. Then you de-camel at a Berber encampment, gather around the campfire for native food and music, and nod off in your luxury tent under the starry desert sky. Those, of course, are only the bare facts. Back home, you will spend hours re-telling this once-in-a-lifetime experience. (You’ll also have a story or 20 about your oasis walks, the Medina of Fès, banquets in private mansions, the snake charmers in Marrakesh….)

Living on the edge in Amalfi
Throw open the window of your second-story room on the Amalfi Coast and be ready for a cinemascopic fifteenth-story view. Towns like Positano are taller than they are wide, like pastel villages turned on their sides. It always puts us in an amazing mood. You look out over a complete little world in front of you, but you can always see something beyond it too. One day it’s Capri. Another it’s a gorgeous walk through the “valley of the mills”…a limoncello tasting…or the jaw-dropping view from Ravello. For a week or so, you’re on a literal high that leaves you feeling “up” long after you come home.

Soaking up our private Stonehenge
Stonehenge is deserted. Except for us. A friend of a friend gives us access, early in the morning while the site is closed. We pack some breakfast. Maybe we eat, but maybe we’ll just absorb the feeling of being in one of the most famous places on earth. All. By. Ourselves. Before this morning and after, you’ll walk the classic Cotswolds countryside, explore honey-stoned villages, chat up cheesemakers, and tour Blenheim Palace. But this is the moment. Anyone you know who’s ever been to Stonehenge will be shocked that you had such solitary run of the place. You won’t be able to picture it any other way.