Conde Nast Traveler March 2021

This issue contains tales about looking up, and out, and beyond what’s in front of our faces. Of course it makes perfect sense right now to ponder the universe and our tiny temporal position within it. Because when you consider infinite time and space, then this moment is nothing—a dot, an aberration—so hold tight and the good days will come again. And yet, now that I think of all my most significant worldly wonderings, those experiences when I could have felt most connected with the grander scheme of things, they have all been entirely the opposite—rooted in the absolute pedestrian, the foibles and minutiae of being a small and messy human. For example, the cover story takes place under the dark skies of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. When I took…

Let’s Celebrate Again Soon We’ve all had to stay home for special occasions we wanted to travel for. But that doesn’t mean we can’t plan now to mark those milestones later—when the time is right When my father turned 60, I sent him a letter with this proposition: You choose the destination, I’ll fund the trip. What would he pick, I wondered. Croatia? Japan? Madagascar? Instead, it was Egypt, a country he has loved since he was nine and my grandmother took him and my aunt there to live for five months while she reported on agricultural conditions in the region. When we were visiting the Temple of Philae, on an island near Aswan, my dad recalled a memorable encounter on the Nile; a local farmer rowed up and proposed to my…

Packed into a mere 20 square miles, Tel Aviv often feels too small for surprises. But locals, especially those navigating the tourist crush around Dizengoff Street, know a good one: You can evade the mayhem just by cutting a block over to King George Street. The broad, leafy boulevard snakes all the way to the busy stalls of Carmel Market—but stick between Meir Park, with its towering palm trees and LGBTQ+ center, and the cartoonesque sculptures of Masaryk Square, for this strip’s best offerings: vendors selling expertly fried falafel, of course, but also clubs showcasing the city’s lively music scene, fine jewelry shops using age-old techniques, and more. The Music Venue Every Israeli musician worth their salt got started on the stage of Ozen Bar. This intimate indie dive, perhaps the city’s…

Bullet Obra, head of Kainalu Pros, leads water-sport activities at Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection, on the island of Hawaii Think of the Big Island—the largest and most sparsely populated in the Hawaiian archipelago—as the ultimate adventure playground. With its endless surf breaks, jagged peaks, and valley floors carpeted in jungle, the outsize Eden inspires locals and visitors to spend as many hours as they can in the great outdoors. “I see our geographic diversity every day when I drive to work, and I can’t help but feel happy,” says Bullet Obra, a Big Island native who oversees Mauna Lani’s roster of aquatic activities, including snorkeling and diving trips. Here are the secret surf spots and great coffee bars he frequents—that is, when he’s not teaching guests how to stand-up paddleboard…

The Provençal city of Arles isn’t new on the arts scene. Van Gogh created some of his most famed works here, while the envelope-pushing Rencontres d’Arles, the annual photography festival, has drawn visitors to the town’s cobbled streets since 1970. Now, with this summer’s opening of the Parc des Ateliers at Luma Arles, a sprawling complex on the grounds of an old rail yard, Arles could join Bilbao and Dundee among the ranks of formerly obscure cities turned pilgrimage sites for art lovers. Commissioned in 2008 by philanthropist Maja Hoffmann’s Luma Foundation, the center includes a showstopping aluminum-panel-clad tower by architect Frank Gehry that will house works by the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Pipilotti Rist. And it’s not Arles’s only draw; here’s what else to see.…

Despite Auckland’s twin harbors fronting the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea, and rolling plains studded with volcanic peaks, many international travelers treat the city as a transit stop en route to New Zealand’s renowned lodges or the ski resorts of Queenstown. But the so-called City of Sails is having a moment, and not just because the America’s Cup will be contested there next month. Major urban renewal projects have revived neglected sectors of the Auckland waterfront, with 19th-century industrial areas being recast into a striking mix of heritage and contemporary architecture, green spaces, and alleyways crowded with new addresses for travelers’ to-do lists. The biggest news is Britomart, nine blocks of warehouses reborn as a 21st-century hub anchored by central Takutai Square, home to the brick-clad Hotel Britomart, which opened last…