Columns
November 2026 Editors' Note
Welcome to issue 556 of ITN, the second with the new team. We continue to be amazed by how far our readers roam. Your reports and articles arrive from all corners of the globe, and each one approaches travel from its own angle.
Sailing the West African Coast
Several years ago, when I had visited 135 countries, I realized I’d knocked off my bucket list many times over.
In Cuba, Art Is the Ultimate Act of Resilience
Two stories get told about this island — that it’s frozen in time or that it’s collapsing. Both are ways of not looking.
Touching Caravaggio: A Blind Man’s Tour of the Vatican Museums
The law says I’m blind. I no longer have a driver’s license, but people who’ve been in the car with me say with love that this is not a great loss. I like to think of myself as visually impaired as I still have some decent central vision.
An Insider’s Guide to Better Travel Planning with AI
By now, you’ve heard rollicking stories about how AI does face plants when it creates travel itineraries. This has happened to me. I once played rat in my own travel tech lab and allowed an artificially intelligent companion to send me to a place that it felt met my leisure travel criteria near Basel, Switzerland.
Senior Adventure Travel: Expanding Personal Boundaries
It is indeed an exciting time with International Travel News coming back to life after a four-year hiatus, under new ownership and editorial management. It is an honor, as a former longtime ITN columnist, to be a part of this important relaunch adventure.
Rick Steves' Europe: Welsh Magic
For more than 20 years, I'd built my North Wales coverage around a charming medieval banquet at Ruthin Castle. Driving into Ruthin — and knowing its banquet was no longer being held — I intended to cut the town entirely from my book.
Cleared for Takeoff: When a Travel Writer Gets Grounded
Detours by Jim Byers It was one thing when travel shut down due to COVID. This was something else.
A Barge through Burgundy: An Ode to Slow Travel
I’m not big on traveling slowly. I need to move—walk, run, bike, poke around, get lost, climb something, meet locals. So, when an opportunity came along to cruise through Burgundy by barge, I was skeptical. A barge? For six days?
Countries the unvaccinated can visit. Mobile Passport Control app. Collecting a canceled-flight-reservation refund
Dear Globetrotter:
In search of Edelweiss
It’s a glorious Swiss Alps morning. I’m spending my day walking with my schoolteacher friend, Olle, exploring the alpine landscape high above his home in Gimmelwald.