I Heart My Lake Escape
Posted by Intelligent Travel on May 23, 2012 
Summer’s almost here, so we thought we’d take a break from our I Heart My City series and focus on the concept of getting away from it all. Taking a dive off the dock, toasting marshmallows around a camp fire at dusk, spooling out fishing line and pitching back to cast off, watching fire flies light up the night’s sky. What’s your favorite lake escape? Tell us in the comments section below for a chance to appear in the next issue of Traveler magazine.
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Her name is Karla, and her dad was Otis. Otis Redding. I’m praying she won’t recognize me — my hair was longer then; a few more grays in my beard. The whole “me camping outside their house thing” happened years ago. Surely they’d forgotten, right? I couldn’t have been the only slightly deranged fan to show up on their doorstep.
Stroll down Savannah’s picturesque Jones Street any morning around 10:30 and you’ll see a line beginning to form outside a gorgeous old home called Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room.
Behind the Lens in Jerusalem
Posted by Krista Rossow on May 21, 2012 
Photojournalist Alexandra Avakian’s coverage of Egypt appeared in the September 2011 issue of Traveler, and you can see the fruits of her labor in a story about Jerusalem in the May issue. Photo editor Krista Rossow asked Alexandra what it was like going on assignment in a city with such a long and complicated history. This is what she had to say.
“Hi, this is Aric – I’m either unavailable, or I’m avoiding someone. Leave me a message, and if I don’t call back… it was you.”
“Hi, Aric – this is Paul, returning your call. Hope you’re not avoiding too many people. You might miss a few who are worth it. Call me back when you can.”
If I’m being honest — totally honest — I’ll admit to liking Savannah just a bit more than I liked Charleston. Less people, less fuss, less care, less… well, children. “People don’t discriminate by race here,” a new friend of mine said. “But they do by the square you live near.”
#FriFotos: Houses of the Holy
Posted by Intelligent Travel on May 18, 2012 
This week’s #FriFotos theme is HOLY PLACES, so we decided to run this stunner that Ken Thorne submitted to National Geographic Traveler’s 24th annual Photo Contest. This photo of a grove of ancient baobab trees, sacred to the Malagasy people, was taken near Morandava, Madagascar. The contest runs through July 11th, so you still have plenty of time to enter.
All the Queen’s Castles: Celebrating a 60-Year Reign
Posted by Annie Fitzsimmons on May 18, 2012 
Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year, with key events taking place the first week in June. Queen Victoria is the only other English monarch to earn the distinction — and, given Elizabeth’s spirit and good health, she’s poised to out-reign her predecessor. If you’re headed to England, you’ll soak up spirit simply by walking the…
The Radar: Beginner’s Guide to Myanmar, Take a Nearcation, 50 Years After the Fair
Posted by Elaura Rifkin on May 18, 2012 
The Radar: The top travel news, stories, trends, and ideas from across the Web. Got Radar? Follow us on Twitter @NatGeoTraveler and tag your favorite travel stories from the Web #ngtradar. Check back on the blog for our roundups. Photograph by Joseph Wong, My Shot
Everyone’s heard of Brer Rabbit. Everyone knows the song “Kumbaya.” And everyone has cooked a “one-pot meal” at some point in their life. So why do so few of us know about the Gullah – the people who gave us things like these? That’s the question many people with Gullah heritage — descendants of slaves brought from West Africa to the “Rice Coast” in the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry — are asking. Bill Green, the owner of Gullah Grub in Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, is one of them.
I Heart My City: Katja’s Siena
Posted by I Heart My City on May 16, 2012 
Swiss expat Katja Meier arrived in Siena in 1999, fell in love with an olive grove, and never left. She lives with her Tuscan native husband and their two kids in Southern Tuscany, working as a health and life coach and organizing retreats for people from all over the world who are battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. She started…
After spending a day at Fields to Families — a Charleston charity that collects fresh produce from farmers and distributes it to the needy — volunteer coordinator Tina Arnold pulled me aside and said, “If you really want to meet someone doing good things, you should go to the soup kitchen here and ask to meet “The Librarian.” That’s all she said, but I could tell by the look on her face that everything would be explained to me once I got there.
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