Fall is a season for rejoicing, because while the weather cools off in the Northern Hemisphere and birds begin their long slog south, travel to Europe is at its best. Gone are the hordes of tourists in sweat-soaked tank tops. You’re looking at sweater weather. Better yet, you’re looking at European scarf weather.

Weeks before I headed to Mammoth Cave National Park for a weekend trip, and a day after I’d booked several guided cave tours, I encircled my chest with a tape measure.

“Don’t lose sight of me.” Physicist Abhigyan Dasgupta – “Riju” to his family and friends – looks over his shoulder to caution our 12-member group as we prepare to descend 300 feet beneath the French countryside into the largest machine on Earth: the $4.7 billion Large Hadron Collider.

Our Thursday started with a car, then a plane, then a couple moving sidewalks during a layover, and then another plane. That got us to Fort Myers, Florida, two months too late for spring training but a couple days ahead of the wedding we were to attend.

I’d forgotten how it feels on your first day in the bush. Exhilarated and wide-eyed. Over the moon. And then, sobering up, eager but cautious. A safari lodge is a thousand times better than any zoo, but you – not the animals – are the ones in the cage.

It was a bucket list trip, but not in the way you might think. The Via Rail train journey across Canada was not about my do-before-dying list, but about the Earth’s, about seeing the natural wonders before they’re swallowed up, burned up or chewed up by climate change or humans.

Boise, just an hour flight away from Spokane via Alaska Airlines, is quite possibly the best place in America to enjoy Basque food and culture. It’s also a great place to drink beer and go to – and escape from – prison.

Just a few miles from downtown, historic Highland Park is becoming one of the hippest – and most walkable – sections of L.A. It’s lined with trees, taquerias, vintage shops, bistros and bars. And it’s often overlooked by tourists trapped by the Venice Beach Boardwalk, Santa Monica’s famed pier or Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Gone are the days when it was enough for a hotel to have rain shower heads and high thread-count sheets. In a world where there are more hotels to choose from than ever, luxury and business accommodations are focusing on the extras to set their hotels apart from the rest.