Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches
One of my dream days of travel in 2018 was spent on the Big Island of Hawaii, in May. Although we needed to re-route in the week before our trip to avoid the small area in the southeast affected by the Kilauea volcano, we had a fantastic time!
On this particular dream day, my daughter Sophie and I began in Holualoa, an artist and coffee community in the hills above Kailua-Kona. Mamalohoa Highway winds through the heart of the town, past the wonderful
Holuakoa Gardens and Café where we had brunch. Then we headed to Hawi, on the northwestern coast. Located on the slopes of the Kohala mountain, Hawi has become a popular tourist destination in recent years due to its artists’ shops, delicious restaurants, and beautiful scenery. After checking into our accommodation on a small lush farm just outside of town, we drove the Kohala Mountain Road from Hawi to Waimea, for horseback riding on the
Dahana Ranch and hiking in the Pololu Valley.
As you drive north to Hawi from Kailua-Kona, you see mostly black lava fields along the road, then you enter an incredibly green area, full of ranches which date back to 1840s, older than the oldest ranches in the continental United States by more than 30 years! Kohala Mountain Road is stunning. At Dahana Ranch, we grew to understand the paniolo (cowboy) world better: there they breed, raise, and train a variety of horses and ponies, and also manage a 140 head cow/calf operation for beef and rodeo bucking stock.
After riding, we wanted to stretch our own legs. From Waimea to Honokaa, our destination was the
Pololu Valley, on the way back to Hawi. Down a steep trail for about ½ hour, we soaked in the dramatic northeastern Big Island coastline. At the bottom, we were rewarded by a fairly isolated black sand beach, a lone woman practicing yoga, and a few brave souls camping overnight. Spectacular!
Home to vivid street art and a bounty of sculptures and paintings by Botero, Colombia’s only public transit system (including cable cars), and a burgeoning dining scene, Medellin has transformed from Pablo Escobar’s former hangout to one of the safest and most vibrant destinations in South America. It doesn’t hurt that this city of 4 million people sits in a valley surrounded by mountains at an altitude close to a mile high, offering sublime temperatures in the 70s and 80s degree Fahrenheit year-round. This lends itself well to outdoor cafes and bars, the ideal place to start your night out on the town. To see the rest of my story on Medellin in the latest issue of Global Traveler, please click here. 
After feasting on my favorite pastrami and rye in Manhattan, at 
When former Dartmouth ski coach, Bunny Bertram, installed one of the first tow ropes on a Vermont slope in 1937, he played an integral role in establishing one of the state’s top winter locales. In 1961, that ski area, Suicide Six, was sold to Laurence Rockefeller, owner of the 
Spending the past two weeks in Tanzania, it gave me a great opportunity to talk to locals and see which national parks and coastal destinations they love. First time travelers would be wise to do the renowned northern circuit route, which includes the slopes of Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti. But Tanzania is vast and there are many wildlife corridors to choose from. Many guides I talked to mentioned Selous National Park in southern Tanzania and the boat rides along the Rufiji River to see the hippos close-up. The Rufiji flows into the Indian Ocean opposite Mafia Island, an excellent beach destination which I discussed in yesterday’s post. Nick, lodge manager at