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CUFFS rolled to my knees, I splashed my way through the lapping water at the edge of Onetangi Beach on Waiheke Island. A stroll back and forth on the fine-grained, […]

FOR years, I heard the name of the Outer Hebrides, a chain of islands 40 miles off the northwest coast of Scotland, as a siren's call. Once, as a young […]

OUR chauffeur, natty in suit and tie, jumped out of the gleaming gray-green 1969 Jaguar 420G saloon and opened its back door with a flourish. James and I looked at […]

ON cold, gray days, I sometimes daydream about the Super Pool. As I stare out my window, I see myself sliding peacefully through clear water, tinted blue from its painted […]

SCI-FI wasps' nests? Giant bubble wrap? Half-buried space ships? When I stood at the edge of the huge crater, once an abandoned china-clay pit near St. Austell, Cornwall, I kept […]

ON our first morning in Capri, I stepped onto our sunny terrace, looked beyond our yellow-splashed lemon tree to a blue-green sea, and immediately felt as if I had stepped […]

ON a damp, gray day in a chilly December, the Christmas spirit in London can sometimes seem elusive. When my husband, James, and I wake during our usual pre-Christmas visit […]

I FIRST discovered a serious flaw in the Loop Theory late one afternoon in Dartmoor. Since my husband, James, and I had arrived at our country-house hotel two hours before […]

IT looked like a huge tomb rising from the beach. A gray-brown monolith with a shadowy entrance, it had concrete slopes and a flat roof that had been weathered into […]

WHEN I have finally opened the mail, unpacked my bags, started the washing machine, restocked the refrigerator and riffled through a few newspapers, I am ready to stay home forever. […]

I WANTED to walk the Malvern Hills. For years I'd looked longingly at pictures of the broad paths along this high, undulating ridge, a dramatic nine-mile upheaval in the otherwise […]

WHEN I'm walking on Fort Bragg's Glass Beach, I'm easily distracted. If I look out to sea, restless swells break over seaweed-drenched boulders. At my feet, the sand glitters with […]

AS I tried to take in the sheer size of Papohaku Beach, its sunlit golden sand made me blink. Famous as the largest beach on Molokai, and, some claim, anywhere […]

IN late fall, many British seaside resort towns have a haunting charm. In the damp chill of early dusk, a festive air lingers in the scattered lights of a few […]

WE had not chosen to rush along the autostrada out of Rome in the dark. But when our flight from Minneapolis was canceled, our plans lurched into another gear. Arriving […]

On the November morning my husband, James, and I set out to explore the trails at Canoe Bay, a small, elegantly rustic hideaway on 280 acres of Wisconsin woods, a […]

WHEN the 'Hallelujah' Chorus floats towards the dark stone spires of London's churches, the white lights of the giant Norwegian fir in Trafalgar Square begin to blaze, and a Frost […]

THIS was not how I remembered Oregon. More than 30 years ago, leaving Berkeley for a new life in Minnesota, I had gotten out of the car somewhere on the […]

ONLY two feet away, a dozing Lowland gorilla was curled up cozily, eyes tight shut, feet and hands clasped together as if he might have rocked himself to sleep. He […]

NOEL COWARD'S red silk dressing gown, with monogram, hangs not far from the ballroom gown Julie Andrews wore in 'My Fair Lady' in 1958. Around a corner and down the […]

POKING about in other people's houses is part of the fun of traveling in Britain. Anyone with the price of a ticket can call at hundreds of historic country houses […]

ANYONE brought up on fairy tales has a weakness for castles. When traveling around Britain, my husband, James, and I often make unlikely detours to visit one. Many are vacant […]

I AM prone to feeling guilty. Perhaps one reason I love to travel is that once I lock my door, pick up my suitcase and hurry to the waiting taxi, […]

ONLY in England would I pounce with delight upon a second-hand copy of 'Down Among the Donkeys.' Browsing through the hodgepodge bookstalls outside the National Theater in London, I certainly […]

WATCHING London's bus drivers torpedo their red double-deckers along the Marylebone Road, snake through Oxford Street shoppers or career around the Marble Arch, I often wondered what it would be […]

AS THOUGH amused by all the fuss about his posthumously uncovered skulduggery, Robert Maxwell, half laughing, glances casually at me. Next to him, Lord Mountbatten, an overwhelming and stern presence, […]

A TIDY seaside resort with amusement arcades and a deluxe golf course, a white sweep of curving beach, and a small, snug yacht harbor, all not far from a New […]

WHEN visitors to London tour the City, the traditional square mile that was the ancient center of Britain's capital and is now its bustling financial district, they expect to see […]

THEIR color is almost impossible to describe -- a clear, deep azure that mysteriously seems to lighten in sun to shades of violet. On a showery April day, English bluebells […]

WHEN I was 17, I discovered the magic of travel time. As a freshman at Smith College in Massachusetts, very far from my home in Ames, Iowa, I read about […]

EVERYONE who comes to Venice knows immediately that this city is indeed wedded to the sea: its foundations sunk deep into a lagoon, its myriad canals serving as streets and […]

SEARCHING for affordable souvenirs in England is not always easy. Even with the pound devalued, cashmere sweaters are still stunningly expensive, and a skirt-length of Harris tweed or Scotch tartan […]

ALTHOUGH Venice rings, chatters, hums and even sings with life -- its church bells, murmuring pedestrians, churning motorboats and caroling gondoliers are only part of an underlying melody -- it […]

NOT many visitors seek out English gardens in early spring. Although the flaming colors of rhododendron and azaleas will light up hillsides everywhere by mid-May, in March they are only […]