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Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Hiking through Forest Canyon Pass, nearly 11,500 feet above sea level, is a little like jumping into an ice-cold pond: It's sobering, invigorating and takes a little [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended Istanbul, famously, is a city that straddles two continents. And it's clearly the European side of the Bosporus that attracts the bulk of the city's [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON There's a lost city called Kilstiffen beneath the Cliffs of Moher -- or so the story goes -- which sprawl grandly over the Atlantic Ocean on the [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended My instructor, a woman named Áine, urged me on: 'Do it for your country!' A group of us that had booked a traditional Irish games [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON At the Cheese Board on Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, Calif., which opened as a small storefront in 1967, you can still get a sense of how things [...]

Byline: JADA YUAN and LUCAS PETERSON The 52 Places Traveler Place 20 of 52: On an Icelandic Road Trip, Mossy Moonscapes and More By Jada Yuan and Lucas Peterson Our [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The word 'discover' is always a misnomer when used by travelers: when a place is new to you, that doesn't mean it's new to everyone else. This [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON In November 1989, Potsdamer Platz was known as the 'death strip' -- a wasteland between the two parts of the Berlin Wall. But after the wall fell, [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The rain lightly pelted my window just as dawn was breaking on the Ionian Sea. I was lying snugly in my hotel bed in Syracuse, the venerable, [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON We stood on the deck of the hulking cargo ship, through the bluster and drizzle in the Strait of Messina, both of us feeling something like sailors [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The change, and how quickly it came, took me by surprise. One minute we were in the heart of Tucson, Ariz., among the restaurants, coffee shops and [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Superlatives are everywhere in Shanghai. I forked over my 50 yuan (about $7.90) and boarded the maglev train departing from Pudong International Airport. My understanding was that [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON 'Now, that bear is definitely not white,' said the Dutch tourist next to me. The giant panda turned in our direction at that moment and let out [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON China is one of the world's most exciting and rewarding places to visit, but can be intimidating even to experienced travelers, who might struggle with communication and [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON 'Folsom Prison Blues,' the 1955 Johnny Cash classic, isn't exactly a deep cut -- anyone with even a passing familiarity with country music has heard it. So [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON My guide, Karen Wortham, led me on a path from Johnson Square, one of the many quadrangular parks that give Savannah, Ga., its distinct character, down to [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Omar pulled up in his red Toyota on the edge of the traffic circle in Tahrir Square, where just six years earlier, he and tens of thousands [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Lucas Peterson, who writes the Frugal Traveler column, discussed the tech [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The sun-flecked ocean glittered to the west as I wound my way down Victoria Road in Cape Town toward The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa. The origin [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON I awoke sometime before dawn to the soft, rhythmic clacking of the train, pacing steadily through the heart of South Africa. Poking my face out of the [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON No travel assignment is ever straightforward, but reporting on the place you grew up presents specific challenges. Walking along the bungalow- and tree-lined streets in the Beverly [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON When you think of sustainable travel, what comes to mind? Gorilla trekking in Uganda, perhaps, or a sojourn in a remote yet well-appointed eco-lodge in the forests [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The fishing rod on the starboard aft side (or back corner -- I was proud of myself for learning some navigation terms) of our little vessel sprang [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The trick was figuring out where to get high. Even in Portland, Ore., where marijuana was legalized for nonmedical cultivation and use in 2015, it's still illegal [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON When I was growing up and taking weekly piano lessons, I loved playing Chopin. His melodic lines soared above a sea of dreamy romanticism. While culturally adopted [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Come and listen to my story 'bout a traveler named Fru Wants to see the world but wants to save some money, too What's the latest place [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Much pleasure in life can be derived from the simple act of discovery: finding a good band, an exciting restaurant or a secluded park. Frequent travelers live [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON I try to be judicious about which cities I describe as 'magical,' but Barcelona deserves the word. While Madrid searches for its place among Europe's capital cities, [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The unavoidable proceeding of going through airport security is about as pleasurable as a trip to the dentist's office, and sometimes takes just as long. There are [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON I was at the official end of the world, standing among yellow wildflowers on the edge of a craggy cliff, looking out over the chromatic waters of [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended Early morning is the best time to be awake in Costa Rica. In the soft, bluish light and amid calm, cool breezes, the previous day's [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON 'Was it worth it?' That's the most common question I've fielded since I visited Machu Picchu, the ruins of a 15th-century Incan estate that sit almost 8,000 [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON I was looking for a truly excellent view of the city, and was not going to be deterred. I followed yet another uneven, winding stone staircase in [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON My surfing instructor, Johnny Linares, was sizing up my form as one might look at an underwhelming used car on the dealer lot. 'O.K.,' he said. 'It's [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON In the beginning, you called an airline or travel agent when you wanted to book a trip. But if you've done any traveling at all within the [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended I had just learned my first lesson of Kansas City barbecue the hard way: Don't just waltz right in at closing time expecting to be [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Corrections Appended I'm a fairly big guy -- 6-foot-3 with plenty of mass to soak up alcohol -- but I was being particularly careful as I hopped [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The desert, I learned, became very cold after dark. I already knew this (in theory, at least), but I wasn't prepared for it to happen so quickly. [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON The new year has already brought about significant changes to our world, including the way some of us travel. It also commemorates, less significantly, the one-year anniversary [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended 'I mean, naturally I'm really posi, but Perth was a great place to grow up,' said my friend Ariel Katz, who is indeed a sunny [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON I repeated it to myself as if it were a mantra: Stay on the left. Stay on the left. But the thoughts continued: That's not the turn [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON 'Street art is different from graffiti,' one of my followers chided me on the Frugal Traveler Twitter account. Couldn't something be both? Graffiti has traditionally meant a [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended Saving on flights, hotels and other aspects of travel is a question of how much you value your time versus hours and energy spent. You [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended We were chugging along up State Highway 1: Robyn Goulevitch was in the driver's seat, I was in the passenger seat (which is on the [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Correction Appended My grandmother and I walked along Kweilin Street in Kowloon, near the Sham Shui Po rail station, where the open-air market was a scene of [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Ride-sharing has become a multibillion-dollar business over the last several years. The traditional taxi industry has been upended and is now forced to compete with drivers using [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON I was motoring along Route 101 in northwest Washington State in my little rental car, getting a kick out of the fact that I frequently drive the [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON Green-Wood cemetery seemed a natural place to spend a few hours in the midst of a hectic urban tour. I passed under its imposing Gothic Revival gates [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON When I disembarked and took a look at Amber Cove, my initial thought was: 'Oh, no.' We had just docked in the Dominican Republic after a full [...]

Byline: LUCAS PETERSON They had turned out the regular overhead lights at the Pearl Champagne Lounge, and now there was just black light, which lent an eerie fluorescence to the [...]