Destin and Gulf Shores sit on the same ribbon of Gulf Coast shoreline, about a hundred miles apart, and they share the thing that makes this stretch of coast famous: sand so white and so fine that it squeaks under your feet. Both are condo-tower beach towns built around the summer family vacation, both run […]

St Lucia vs Barbados is one of those decisions that looks trivial from the outside — two sunny Caribbean islands a short regional flight apart, with similar flight times from the US East Coast and the UK — and then you start researching and realize they’re almost opposites. St Lucia is the dramatic one: volcanic

Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic sit less than an hour’s flight apart, share the same turquoise Caribbean water and a deep Spanish colonial past, and still deliver two completely different trips. Puerto Rico is a US territory: no passport needed for American citizens, US dollars, familiar pharmacies and phone plans, all on a compact

The Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach sit a little over four hours apart by car, share the same stretch of Atlantic, and could hardly be more different if they were on separate continents. One is a hundred-mile ribbon of low-slung barrier islands where wild horses wander the sand and the tallest things on the horizon

We have hauled kids to beaches on three continents, and here is the honest lesson: the best family beach vacation is rarely the prettiest beach. It is the one with calm water, a bathroom within sprinting distance, food nobody fights about, and a price that does not ruin the photos. A drop-dead gorgeous beach with