Author: Alison J. Stein
“Where are you from?” It has to be the most common question asked and answered by travelers, certainly it’s an easy one — but it always gives me trouble. …
It’s eight years ago, and I’m living just outside of Derry, New Hampshire. I drive into nearby Manchester, turn down a street I haven’t seen before, and it’s lined …
As Liz was kind enough to mention a few days ago, I have a story in Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010. It’s about my quest for the spiciest food …
I was on a snorkeling expedition in Bora Bora, preparing to jump into its impossibly blue ocean waters — the very waters which I knew to be filled with …
This past Saturday was Montreal’s Nuit Blanche, an all-night long festival which included, among its many attractions, light installations, musical performances, nude figure drawing classes, fireworks, movies, ice slides, …
Generally speaking, I don’t care much for enforced gaiety. Public ceremony, the type of thing that forces or demands or at the least expects a certain type of emotional …
I visited The National Civil Rights Museum a few years ago, and one artifact that I saw on display has been lodged in my mind ever since: a guidebook …
It seems that we’re not having a cultural conversation about shoes at the moment. Shoes get the most attention during good times, boom times, the bull market of the …
1. Lists are a common device in travel writing. I just browsed the travel magazines at Barnes and Noble, and among the many enumerated promises, I found 30 romantic …
At some point in the not-to-be-finely-pinpointed past, I was in Paris with a small group of writers, and we took a tour of the Printemps department store. It’s a …
Here’s the set up: It’s August 2003, and Peter Rudiak-Gould, 21, has volunteered at WorldTeach, a nonprofit organization that places teachers in schools throughout the world. He’s selected one …
A few years ago, I visited Geysir Park in West Iceland, a major attraction in one of the most volcanically active places on Earth. By convention and history Iceland …