The Great Wall gets all the attention. These are the experiences that actually define a China trip.

Golden Week can make or break a China trip before you've even landed. Here's how to actually time it.

China is roughly the size of the continental US. Most first trips fail simply by trying to cover too much of it.

I got on the wrong train in Chengdu, on purpose, just to see where it went.

Macau is Portugal and China layered onto the same few square miles, with casinos bolted on top. Here's how to actually see all three.

Forty-eight hours is enough to cover Macau's two very different faces, if you sequence it right.

Skip the slot machines. These are the experiences that make Macau worth the ferry ride.

Same city, six hours apart — a 400-year-old church ruin at noon, a casino light show at 9pm. Neither one prepared us for the other.

Mexico isn't a beach country that happens to have a capital. Mexico City alone could fill a full trip on its own.

Five things nobody mentioned before our first trip to Oaxaca — starting with how much we'd cry over mole.

Skip the resort checklist. These are the experiences that make people fall for Mexico beyond the beach.

Cancún and Tulum sit an hour apart and deliver almost opposite trips. Here's how to actually pick

The US isn't one trip, it's five or six completely different ones depending on which coast, or which desert, you pick.

Everyone asks which coast to visit first. The honest answer depends on what kind of American trip you actually want.

The national parks are the best reason to rent a car in America. Here's how to actually string a route together.

I expected my kids to remember the geysers. They remember the gas station.

We came to San Sebastián for the pintxos and stayed for the total lack of urgency about anything.

Everyone asks which city to visit first. The honest answer depends on what kind of trip you actually want.

Spain's interior and coast run on almost opposite calendars. Here's how to actually time a trip around that.

Everyone asks which city to visit first. The honest answer depends on what kind of trip you actually want.