Frommer's

This is an amalgamation of conversations I had on a recent episode of The Frommer’s Travel Podcast. To hear the complete episode, please click here or watch the video version here. In 1885, the Northern Michigan Asylum opened in Traverse City as a psychiatric hospital.

New high-tech equipment being used by the Transportation Security Administration is supposed to make life easier for airport security screeners as well as passengers, but some flyers will likely experience the opposite effect. As part of a nationwide rollout, the TSA is installing computed tomography (CT) scanners at airports. In place of the old X-ray machines, the more modern technology can "generate a 3-D image of the contents of carry-on bags," as the TSA explains.

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” says a newspaper editor in the 1962 Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Then, as if to prove the point, the quote itself became a widely misremembered legend, often mangled into something like, When you have to choose between history and legend, print the legend. Another good example of well-told myth being preferred to historical accuracy: me on the Sound of Music tour I took in Salzburg, Austria, several years ago.

If you have been to Walt Disney World in the past 5 years, you've seen them everywhere. In front of the castles. Stopped dead in the center of Main Street. Filling every switchback of every line. They're everywhere. I'm talking about people who are bent over their smartphones, trying to navigate the Walt Disney Company's daily scheduling demands.

In our recently released New Mexico guidebook, Frommer's Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque, author Erin Vivid Riley writes, “Whoever originally dubbed New Mexico the 'Land of Enchantment' must have coined the state’s motto while taking in a blazing purple-orange-and-red sunset over Santa Fe.” Santa Fe is an unusually beautiful city, a feast for the eyes that’s amplified by its rich museum and gallery scene.

It's a scientific fact that dogs are wonderful. Even so, they can cause damage to fragile ecosystems by trampling plants and bugs, can hurt themselves on sharp rocks and steep cliffs, and can fall afoul of less easygoing creatures such as venomous snakes and other dangerous wildlife. For these reasons, many U.S. national parks have strict rules for pets, banning them from hiking trails, campgrounds, and the backcountry.

There's no question that a fuel pricing disaster is bearing down on travelers. The situation, which was triggered by the U.S. attack on Iran in February, is terrible and getting worse. Airfares in the United States have increased by 23.4% since August 2025, reports TravelPulse. Executives at American Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines have all said in recent days that skyrocketing fuel prices were pushing them to cancel routes that don't make enough money.

In a sad way, the proliferation of corporate hotels across London helped kill most of the family-run bed-and-breakfasts that England was famous for during most of the 20th century. But London's corporate giants are here to stay, so you might as well stay at one of their hotels, too. If you choose one of the city's multi-location budget hotel brands, you'll find local hospitality has been replaced by clock-punching staff who probably grew up elsewhere.

Traffic congestion has been a big problem at Utah's Arches National Park for a while now. The park, known for its hundreds of striking sandstone formations, has only one main paved road—the 36-mile (round-trip) Scenic Drive—and parking is limited. Arches gets the bulk of its 1.5 million annual visitors in the period from March through October, according to the National Park Service, and on many days during that span trailhead parking lots fill up before 8am.

The Panhandle may be known as the Redneck Riviera to some, but to those in the know, the area has some of Florida's best beaches, with undeveloped stretches of powder-white sand that's a hot commodity in the world these days. Days 1 & 2: Gulf Islands National Seashore and Pensacola Beach This is, hands down, Florida's best beach. Not only are there 150 miles of protected beach, but there's also a 1,378-acre natural Live Oaks Area full of oaks, pines, and nature trails.