Frommer's

In our digital age, basic travel planning can swiftly descend into a carnival of member logins, confirmation emails, two-factor authentication calls, CAPTCHA requests, 24-hour advance check-ins, and other security busywork. So if vacationers receive a text with a confirmation link from a hotel they've recently booked, it's just one more thing to take care of, right? Not so fast.

Every autumn, Italy’s great summer escapes shed their high-season gloss and settle into something richly authentic. Beach clubs close, boats disappear from crowded harbors, and medieval towns begin to breathe again. In their place come olive harvests, golden forests, and long lunches built around ingredients at their seasonal peak. With cooler days and smaller crowds, October and November reveal a quieter, more intimate side of Italy.

The State Department's media event on Sept. 29 was remarkable for a bunch of reasons. Many observers commented on the apparent attempt to emulate the style and cadence of a corporate product launch from Apple.

The news today is good indeed: On October 6, the gifted experts who research and write the information you trust at Frommer's earned three more annual Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards from the respected Society of American Travel Writers (SATW).

Travelers looking to experience more of Japan beyond its most popular destinations, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mount Fuji, have an enticing new option. Those three tourism behemoths are located on Honshu, the largest and most populous of Japan's four main islands.

Alaska's Denali National Park & Preserve, home to North America's tallest peak, has only one road, and about half of it has been closed for years. An active landslide prompted officials to close the 92-mile-long Denali Park Road at mile 45 in August 2021, cutting off vehicle access to a huge chunk of the park's western end.

Just a month ago, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced that it had allowed access to some airport terminals to people who don't have airline tickets, which is something Americans haven't been able to do for a generation. When we first reported the new program, which the TSA calls Gateside, only 13 airports were participating.

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At a Sept. 29 media event touting America.gov, a new catchall government portal for federal services, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that for the first time, Americans would soon be allowed to apply for passports online. As avid travelers already know, Americans have already been able to renew passports fully online since 2022, but Rubio's announcement promised an expansion of that capability to include online handling of first-time applications for passports, too.

For guests with mobility needs, Walt Disney World has a reputation for being extremely accommodating. Attractions at the resort have been constructed with accessibility in mind, and the Disney brand has been sensitive to the needs of disabled and special-needs guests long before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. The resort also outdoes almost all other destinations by posting a wealth of rich planning resources for guests with special accessibility needs.