North America

Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest and greenest province. Cradled on the waves of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Island is known for the vivid colours of its gently rolling landscape. Prince Edward Island is surrounded by miles of sandy beaches and red sandstone cliffs and is sized just right for touring. Visitors to the Island return home not only relaxed and refreshed - they often claim to have been transformed, which leads us to wonder "What if the World Had Been to Prince Edward Island?"

Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine, is widely known as the home of Acadia National Park and the town of Bar Harbor. If we viewed the island from the air (a look at the Acadia map will do), we would notice north and south aligned gouges scooped out of the land as if by a very large hand. Indeed, in this case, the hand was that of a huge, slow moving, continental glacier over a mile high,... 2 miles thick in some places. When this giant glacier finally melted and retreated, it left rounded mountain tops, long lakes, many boulders, and the 7 mile long Somes Sound - the only fjord on the ...

Ten thousand years ago, glaciers pushed their way down the East Coast and left behind the rocks and soil that was to form this little paradise that we call home. The result was a cozy community (only around 800 folks in the winter), a land of stunning vistas and a very fragile ecosystem that we have had the good fortune to preserve for all to share. Because of the particular forces of nature that went to work on Block Island, no other place on earth shares its geography, nor its balance of species. A rarity, indeed. Block Island is a rarity in another sense; it's a place that moves at ...

If the wilds of coastal Alaska seem a little tame for you, head west to Unalaska. Set in the heart of the 1,000-mile-long Aleutian chain, this rugged outpost was a Russian fur trade outpost in the 18th century and a U.S. military stronghold in WWII. Today it’s home to Alaska’s largest commercial fishing fleet. Nearly all of the island’s residents are tied to the fishing industry in the town’s working port of Dutch Harbor, but visitors can hike amid fields of wildflowers, pick wild berries, go mountain biking, climb several volcanic peaks, kayak along wilderness coastlines (sea otters and w...

Most people who come to Sanibel and Captiva, twin barrier islands off Florida's Gulf Coast, share a single passion: seashells. This is, after all, the home of the “Sanibel Stoop,” a posture folks assume while scouring the sandy shoreline for the more than 200 varieties of shells that wash ashore after storms. Streets here are named for shells, and the leading cultural attraction is a museum devoted to them. In fact, the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum is the only one of its kind in the United States, with a remarkable collection not only from Southwest Florida but also from around the world. ...

Look across the landscape – red dirt, green fields, blue ocean – and you could swear you're in Hawaii, not in eastern Canada. OK, so the field crop is potato, not sugar cane, and the water can freeze to the shoreline in winter, but Prince Edward Island has – hold onto your aloha shirt – fine beaches and nearly two dozen golf courses. P.E.I., as the island is often called, is a perfect playground for bicycling and hiking, and working up an appetite has its rewards – perhaps Canada’s finest cuisine, based not just on potatoes but lobster, the island’s renowned blue mussels, and Malpeque o...

If you adjust the dollars for inflation, John D. Rockefeller was twice as wealthy as Bill Gates (at the height of the tech boom). So, in the late 1800s, when Rockefeller and a few of his wealthy playmates (Astor, Gould, Morgan among them) settled on Jekyll Island as a winter getaway, they formed what has been called the richest, most exclusive club in the world. How rich? It’s been estimated that the membership of Jekyll Island Club once represented one-sixth of the world’s wealth. The clubhouse and many of the mansion-sized “cottages” they built still stand today, but the once-private bar...

On the Gulf of Mexico, about halfway in the lineup of barrier islands between Galveston and South Padre Island, Matagorda has been hammered by storms over the last two centuries – and that, in some ways, has been a blessing. There are no major developments stretching along the shoreline here; instead the island today is a park and wildlife reserve, geared to beachcombers, nature lovers, and those simply seeking a quiet corner of the world. The only access to Matagorda Island State Park is by boat and ferry (from nearby Port O’Connor), and facilities are mostly limited to primitive campsite...

In the 1930s and 1940s Catalina, just 22 miles from Los Angeles, was a romantic getaway for couples who ferried to Avalon for an evening of dancing to big bands in the harborside Art-Deco Grand Casino Ballroom. And by Southern California standards, remarkably little has changed since then. Today's ferries are faster, but the small village of Avalon, surrounded by an amphitheater-like backdrop of steep hills, has never outgrown its charm. There are still the tight clusters of quaint old cottages on the handful of streets; the beachfront shops and restaurants; and the landmark Chimes Tower, ...

The hills are alive with the sound of music. And so are the concert halls, parks, and pubs, because traditional Celtic music is the very heartbeat of this scenic slice of Nova Scotia. Scottish and French immigrants settled this island of forested mountains and valleys, and their musical heritage can be heard in festivals throughout the summer. The fiddle rules here (a savvy traveler would listen to CDs from Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIssac to get in the proper spirit before arriving), and dances can last well into the night. But save some energy for the daylight hours, because this is...