USA

Savannah and New Orleans occupy the same corner of the American imagination: moss-draped, ghost-obsessed, humid, gorgeous, and slightly unhinged in the best possible way. Both are walkable historic cities where carrying a drink down the street is legal, dinner is the main event of the day, and every other building has a story involving pirates, […]

Key West and Miami sit at opposite ends of one of the most scenic drives in America, about four hours apart on the Overseas Highway, and I get asked about this matchup more than almost any other Florida question. On paper it looks like a simple choice between a big city and a small island

Zion and Bryce Canyon sit less than two hours apart in southern Utah, and nearly everyone planning a trip out there hits the same wall: if I only have time for one, which should it be? On a map they look interchangeable, two red-rock national parks in the same corner of the same state. In

Sedona and Scottsdale sit barely two hours apart, share the same state and the same relentless sunshine, and still manage to be nearly opposite vacations. Sedona is a small red rock town built for people who want to be outside from sunrise until the stars come out: hiking, jeep trails, canyon swimming holes, and a

Nashville and Memphis sit about 210 miles apart on the same interstate, in the same state, and somehow feel like two different countries. Nashville is the boomtown: cranes on the skyline, bachelorette parties rolling down Broadway, and more live music per block than anywhere else in America. Memphis is the older soul: slower, grittier, and

Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge sit barely six miles apart on the same Tennessee parkway, and yet the argument over which one to base yourself in has derailed more family group chats than any other trip-planning question in the South. One is a compact mountain village pressed right up against the entrance to Great Smoky Mountains

Austin and Nashville get compared constantly, and on paper the matchup writes itself: two booming, music-obsessed cities, both drowning in bachelorette parties, both full of transplants who swear it was better five years ago. Having spent proper time in both, I think the branding hides how different they actually feel on the ground. Nashville is

On a map, Orlando and Miami look like the same trip: both in Florida, about three and a half hours apart, both sold with palm trees and sunshine. In reality, they are two completely different vacations that happen to share a state. Orlando is the theme-park capital of the world, a sprawling inland city built

Charleston and Savannah sit barely two hours apart on the same stretch of Lowcountry coast, and almost everyone planning a Southern trip ends up agonizing between them. On paper they look interchangeable: cobblestones, antebellum mansions, Spanish moss, shrimp and grits, ghost tours on every corner. In practice they feel surprisingly different, and picking the wrong

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about living in (or repeatedly visiting) Las Vegas: it might be the single best national-park base camp in America. Zion is under three hours away, Death Valley two, the Grand Canyon a long-but-doable four-plus, and Valley of Fire — which would be a headline park in most states —