National Geographic Traveler June/July 2018

Two summers ago I crossed the Nervión River in Bilbao, walking from the titanium waves of the Guggenheim to the cobbled streets of the medieval Casco Viejo neighborhood. I was on my honeymoon, and northern Spain’s Basque Country beckoned with its adventurous spirit and herbaceous vermouth. I felt unexpectedly at ease there, and I wondered why I felt so familiar in a region so far removed from my home. Up the hall from my office in Washington, D.C., there’s another enchanting space: the studio of Fernando G. Baptista, who is a creative genius behind National Geographic’s illustrations of fire-eyed Vikings and models of woolly mammoths. A Basque native, Fernando frequently returns to Bilbao, and so I asked if he would write about his city. He did, but because artists see the…

The northern lights glowing over a mountain range in Norway. A family of elephants crossing a dirt road in Kenya. Pilgrims circumambulating the Kaaba as part of the hajj in Mecca. These are among the nearly 20,000 images entered in our challenge to shoot this issue’s cover. The photographers are members of the National Geographic Your Shot photo community—more than 900,000 people around the world who share their spectacular visions with us on a daily and hourly basis. A few months ago, we asked them to send us pictures of a trip that changed their lives. We looked for images of beauty and power, featuring places that altered their outlook on the world. “Combine a riot of pink cherry blossoms with the austere structure of the pagoda framing Mt. Fuji, and…

If you’re in Ocean City, Maryland—a 9-mile-long, licorice-thin barrier island fronting the Atlantic—at some point you’ll likely find yourself at 30th Street’s Jolly Roger amusement park. From ground level, it’s all water slides and inner tube rides. From the air, it looks like a Candy Land game board. Debuted as an Arnold Palmer mini golf course and driving range in 1964, the family-owned fun zone has since grown to 35.5 acres that include a water park, a sprawling go-cart track, and a vintage train. “We get generation after generation coming,” says Jolly Roger’s Dean Langrall. “No Ocean City stay is complete without a visit here.” There are similar amusement parks in resort towns around the world, from the U.K. to Kenya, and they’re hard to resist because they embody summer—in…

Archaeologist and Nat Geo Explorer Yukinori Kawae has made a career of examining the nooks and crannies of the Giza Plateau’s Great Pyramid, just outside Cairo, Egypt. Researchers recently discovered a room above the pyramid’s Grand Gallery in what Kawae says could be “the archaeological find of the century.” He suggests visiting in May or June and especially on the summer solstice (June 21), because the sun sets between pyramids, creating the hieroglyphic sign “Akhet,” which means horizon. 1 Great Pyramid Completed around 2500 B.C. for Pharaoh Khufu, this pyramid contains “the first granite burial chamber in the history of ancient Egypt,” says Kawae, noting that experts believe building this sarcophagus would have taken 27 years (also about the length of Khufu’s reign). While you’re outside the pyramid, notice all the people…

Beer-loving, fast-driving, palace-dotted Bavaria, home of Oktoberfest, BMW, and Neuschwanstein (the castle that inspired Disney), is toasting its centennial as a free state this year. Now’s the perfect time to travel beyond its obvious attractions to the glittering Crystal Route, where splendor lies in the glass. Blessed with dense forests and veins of minerals, this patch of Bavaria east of Munich (an ideal starting point) and bordering the Czech Republic has spun beauty from potash and quartz since the 1400s. Early glass makers worked from Wanderhütten, or wandering huts. Today’s masters are easier to find, as they churn out everything from pink-glass pigs at family-run Glashütte factories to fine crystal goblets at world-class manufacturers Zwiesel (inventor of plate glass) and Spiegelau, crafter of many a royal mirror. The glory of…

Legend has it that Beirut was rebuilt from the ashes seven times, making it an urban phoenix. Lebanon’s capital city has had a troubled past, but the present invites exploration. When Anthony Bourdain visited Beirut in 2006, it was love at first landing, as he discovered a city that defied expectation and logic, a city that he later said made “no damn sense at all—in the best possible way.” In the years since, Beirut has experienced a renaissance, increasingly catching the gaze of travelers fascinated by the multicultural identities that weave a narrative of the city’s conflicts and character. Follow streets—often known only by their landmarks—to seaside strolls or into the kinetic nightlife scene. Along the way, refuel with savory shawarma or with man’oushe (flatbread) topped with za’atar herbs. And…