Travel

The Chicago skyline backdrops the Chicago Jazz Festival at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion on Sept. 4, 2026. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)

Conde Nast Traveler readers name Chicago ‘Best Big City’ for 10th year in a row

By Robert Channick

October 6, 2026 at 3:25 p.m.

Conde Nast Traveler received nearly 800,000 votes for this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards, which cover...

Olivia Estrada, the on board manager, carries plates of food to the dome car for guests aboard a Patrick Henry Creative Promotions private rail car as it travels from Chicago, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri, on May 19, 2026. Private train cars may seem like a relic of the past, but for some rail fans, nothing beats having — or renting — your own sleeper car. (Jamie Kelter Davis/The New York Times)

The quiet allure of private rail

By The New York Times News Service Syndicate

October 2, 2026 at 6:15 p.m.

Private rail cars traveled 429,000 miles on Amtrak in fiscal year 2025, according to the...

Cary Sabados shops for chocolate at Hotel Chocolat in Lakeview on Feb. 12, 2026. This Lakeview location, opened last April, was the first Chicago store. (Eileen T. Meslar/baiduhai)

Chicago-based Hotel Chocolat going nationwide with airport concessions, grocery stores and new retail markets

By Robert Channick

September 23, 2026 at 12:37 p.m.

This fall, Hotel Chocolat will pop up at 49 airports, hit the shelves at Wegmans,...

Rydell Fernandez, a page at The Peninsula, stands outside the hotel at 108 E. Superior St. earlier this year, before the coronavirus sent the hotel industry into a tailspin.

‘We haven’t seen anything like this’: Coronavirus makes closures, staff cuts and empty rooms the new reality for Chicago hotels

By Lori Rackl

March 22, 2020 at 8:52 p.m.

Hotel occupancy rates have plummeted. Housekeeping staff, bellhops, valets and other workers are being let...

Las Olas Boulevard is nearly deserted in front of the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Coronavirus is crushing Florida’s tourism industry, and hotels are trying to hang on

By David Lyons

March 24, 2020 at 2:53 p.m.

Amid the carnage of the coronavirus in South Florida, hoteliers might consider themselves fortunate to...

All four Walt Disney World parks have been dark since March 16 because of the coronavirus.

Disney World’s doors are shut, so we travel to Magic Kingdom — via YouTube

By Dewayne Bevil

March 24, 2020 at 2:51 p.m.

Never has there been a full week without theme parks, at least since Magic Kingdom...

Designed by Rubush & Hunter, the architectural firm responsible for some of Indianapolis? most prominent structures, the flatiron building now known as the Madam Walker Legacy Center will reopen in June following a two-year, $15 million renovation.

Netflix has a new series on self-made millionaire Madam C.J. Walker, whose memory lives on in Indianapolis

By Lori Rackl

March 20, 2020 at 11:34 a.m.

A century after her death, Madam C.J. Walker is having a moment. Her rags-to-riches story...

Tourists wait to get their picture taken in front of the Puerto Rican flag in Old San Juan. (Jim Wyss/Miami Herald/TNS)

Empty streets, bored tourists, anxious merchants: Puerto Rico amid coronavirus curfew

By Jim Wyss

March 19, 2020 at 3:25 p.m.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Sequoia Mack and her friend flew from Baltimore to Puerto...

Empty streets, bored tourists, anxious merchants: Puerto Rico amid coronavirus curfew

By Jim Wyss

March 19, 2020 at 3:24 p.m.

Puerto Rico, a sun-kissed U.S. territory of 3.2 million people, has taken some of the...

You canceled travel due to coronavirus and you’re bored. Here’s how to cope

By Catharine Hamm

March 19, 2020 at 10:53 a.m.

Feeling bored, disoriented and cranky now that you've put your travel plans on hold and...

Antonia Garcia cleans slot machines March 18, 2020, inside the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino in Las Vegas, after all casinos in Nevada were ordered to shut down due to the coronavirus.

Not much happening in Vegas: Nevada closes casinos for a month

By Associated Press

March 19, 2020 at 9:18 a.m.

Casinos throughout Nevada were closed Wednesday along with other nonessential businesses following an unprecedented order...

Camping at Indiana Dunes National Park. National parks — and camping in general — are likely to remain attractive options for travelers gravitating to the great outdoors as a result of the coronavirus.

‘Fall is the new summer’: How coronavirus is changing the way we travel — and when

By Lori Rackl

March 24, 2020 at 2:49 p.m.

After a long Chicago winter, Safia and Izz Matariyeh were looking forward to their Miami...

Nightmare at sea: Cruise line forces elderly tourists to get off halfway across the globe.

By Ron Hurtibise

March 18, 2020 at 11:04 a.m.

Elderly passengers thought they were in for the cruise of their lives when they boarded...