ROME – Only a few living souls are inside the Colosseum these days: a team of security guards, some maintenance workers and a family of hedgehogs who live in the bowels and have grown bolder without so many people around. In normal times, the Colosseum would be teeming with visitors – 3,000 at any minute, 7.5 million in a year.

Tourists usually pack into Washington’s museums in the days leading up to inauguration, cooing over the first ladies’ gowns at the National Museum of American History or lining up to see the new president’s portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. While most museums remain closed for the foreseeable future, there are virtual exhibitions.

It sounds like the setup of a riddle: What do the grass-mowing custom in Bosnia and Finland’s sauna culture have in common with Nar Bayrami, a pomegranate festival in Azerbaijan, and Budima Dance, a warrior dance practiced in Zambia? The answer isn’t as cryptic as you might think. 

2021 has come and although most international travel is still limited, learning a new language can still make for a worthwhile New Year’s resolution. It might be a great way to put some optimistic intention toward the possibility of future travels, not to mention the great mental and cultural benefits that come along with language learning. As Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini once put it, “A different language is a different vision of life.”

Most people mend a broken heart by bingeing on ice cream or rom-coms. Not Conor Knighton. After his fiancee called off their wedding, the 35-year-old West Virginian embarked on a national parks bender, visiting all 59 sites in 2016, the centennial year of the National Park Service.

Late December is an inherently social season. Religious gatherings, caroling and family reunions are part of the holiday experience. However, the novel coronavirus has eliminated the familiar. Indoor interaction for those beyond members of the same domicile is verboten.

On a visit to the Miracle of America Museum, it is guaranteed that you will find historic items that you have no idea what they were used for in the past. The museum in Polson, Montana – sometimes called the Smithsonian of the West – has an impressive collection featuring more than 340,000 items.

In the months before the coronavirus came to the United States, a flurry of viral negative reviews for guided tours of Southern homes and plantations sparked a debate on partisanship in the retelling of history. Expecting tours on architecture, some guests bemoaned what they called "lectures on the evils of slavery." 

It sounds like a dream vacation for heavy metal enthusiasts. Tickets go on sale today for the Monsters of Rock Cruise, slated for May 26-31, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Legendary rocker Alice Cooper will headline a bill that also features Lit, Winger, L.A. Guns, Kix, Great White, Pat Travers and XYZ, among other headbangers.

What’s the best kind of mask to wear with a tricorn hat? That’s a question for the CDC. And also the other CDC: the Costume Design Center at Colonial Williamsburg, which is tasked with outfitting the museum’s staff of interpreters in garb suitable for residents of an 18th century Virginia town.

The conventional wisdom is that 2020 has nearly destroyed travel. And though it’s true that COVID-19 ruined vacations and took a wrecking ball to a large part of the industry, the conventional wisdom is wrong. “Actually, the pandemic is making travel better in many ways,” says Clayton Reid, CEO of MMGY Global, a marketing company.

As soon as London, England’s first coronavirus lockdown ended last summer, Abbie Sheppard, 24, took a quick vacation to Bermuda. Four months later, the vacation is long over, but she’s still there – one of the thousands of people lured to islands in the Caribbean and the North Atlantic by programs aimed at snagging remote workers.

Some Spokane residents still plan a trip to see relatives for the holidays, while others have decided this year to stay home amid travel hassles, coronavirus fears or as a precaution for an at-risk family member. Overall, most U.S. holiday travel is more likely to be by car and at a much lower rate. Travelers and AAA offer ideas on how to stay safe.

Many tourists miss the museum in Lincoln City, Oregon, on a rush to the ocean beaches and waves, but for those who do stop for an hour, they will be immersed in the area's history and heritage. A visit makes Lincoln City more than a row of motels and beautiful beaches.

Before the pandemic, Joey Parrott, an inveterate traveler, had plans to visit Norway, India and Italy. But when these borders closed to Americans, his trips were all canceled. After staying at home for five months, the retired banker from Dalton, Georgia, was eager to travel again. He and his sister signed up for a Collette tour to South Dakota.

We glided silently across the placid lake surface, the only ripples in the water being the V-shaped line cut by our canoe’s bow and the concentric circles from our paddles. Along the bank, the poplars’ gold, yellow and auburn leaves shimmered in the noonday sun.

The scent of crushed apples and cinnamon-spiced doughnuts spilled out the open doorway of Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury Center, Vt., on a sunny afternoon in early October, swirling through a masked crowd of visitors and a display of orange pumpkins. 

Chances are you’ve had to cancel vacation plans this year. You probably felt bummed about it – and guilty for mourning lost trips while the COVID-19 pandemic has caused others to lose much more. It turns out that disappointment about canceled trips goes beyond feeling sad.

The “Flight to Nowhere” is becoming a phenomenon. The idea of getting on a plane with no destination, flying for several hours and then returning to the same airport is gaining traction worldwide. In fact, Australia’s Qantas Airlines recently offered such a flight, and it sold out in 10 minutes.