There’s a new viral video on YouTube that gives you a very quick tour of the U.S. This guy walks across America (NYC to San Francisco) in under two minutes, rarely pausing except to admire the Lincoln Monument and Mt. Rushmore. OK, so maybe it’s a stealth ad for Levi, but it’s still pretty cool. [...]

Is Sea Life Oberhausen on your itinerary for your trip to Germany? What, you're not even planning to make a pilgrimage to this industrial, northwestern German city? But it's home to Paul the Psychic Octopus!

When I made Switzerland a stop in my post-college backpacking spree 10 years ago, I was immediately impressed by how clean, beautiful and orderly it is. I went to Leysin, Interlaken and Lucerne. I didn't make it to Zurich, which is apparently so lovely that on Sunday a circus elephant escaped just to take a [...]

If I wanted to understand why the Eyjafjallajokull volcano is still interrupting air travel, I probably wouldn’t ask Judy Grimes, the hilarious travel expert played by Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live. But if I wanted to learn how to speak very quickly without ever taking a breath with plenty of “just kidding” sprinkled in, [...]

I like Super Bowl Sunday but I must confess that watching the game is my least favorite part. I'm more about hanging out with friends and watching the commercials. This year I thought that the clear commercial winner was HomeAway.com, a vacation rental service. (I'm a big fan of their subsidiary, VRBO.com, which I even [...]

When I was in Northern California in April, I simply couldn't get enough of seals/sea lions. Any time I was by the coastline, I was hoping to hear barking and see some blubbery seals sunning themselves. I'm not quite sure how my obsession got started (most likely from frequent trips to the Central Park Zoo [...]

(photos by Ivan) I've long wanted to visit Iceland. And when I learned yesterday that it was getting rid of all three of its McDonald's locations, I wanted to visit it even more. Even though I know the closure of McDonald's is more of a reflection of the continued economic decline than of culinary tastes, [...]

I'm a big fan of the 36 Hours column in the New York Times Sunday Travel section. Usually I like to read it to learn what there is to do, hour-by-hour, in cities that I'm interested in visiting. But I also enjoy reading the column when it covers a city that I know well because [...]

If I needed travel advice, I wouldn’t want to ask Judy Grimes, the hilarious travel expert played by Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live. But if I wanted to learn how to speak very quickly and softly without ever taking a breath with plenty of “just kidding” sprinkled in, then she’d be my go-to gal.

If you're looking for a laugh then you have to watch the "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video." This short video includes some of Cleveland's lesser known attractions including a pay phone that people actually use. Diehard Cleveland fans may not find this video as funny, but it's pretty hard not to see a little humor [...]