The Island Beyond the Beach Zanzibar is officially part of Tanzania, but it’s always been different. A small island off the coast of East Africa, it has a history straight out of 1001 Arabian Nights, more Sinbad than Swahili. While most of Africa was carved up by Imperial European powers in the nineteenth century, Zanzibar was absorbed by a quite different culture – Omani sultans ruled an empire that stretched from here to the Arabian peninsular, their great trading dhows ferrying spices, gold and slaves between the continents. Zanzibar was the jewel in the crown, and for a while the Sultans of Zanzibar ruled the whole empire. Today the sultans are long gone and Zanzibar is African again, but it retains much of its Arabic culture, notably its’ Islamic faith, exotic, spicy food and exuberant architecture. The dhows are still around, but tourism brings in the gold these days. For most tourists, Zanzibar means lounging on admittedly fabulous beaches, but there are a handful of alluring attractions that merit a few days away from the sand. You’ll find plenty of tour companies in Stone Town (and at most hotels), but it’s easy, cheaper and more convenient (and safe) to negotiate…

It’s A Family Affair Too often, traveling with others is a compromise - from the itinerary to the activities and more, leaving dissatisfaction in its wake. Why journey long distances at great expense but not fulfill the basic desires of everyone in your group?  So it is with traveling with the most intimate of groups, the family. Just because you are connected by marriage or birth does not mean that each individual has the same concept of what the experience should be. Rather, each likely has his or her own idea. This I discovered on our recent visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina’s trendy capital. Our little family of three collectively fancied the following: fine hotels and restaurants, contemporary history, tango, horseback riding and shopping. What else could we do but try to address them all?  We all agreed, but first we had to settle in.

A Sweet, Swiss Surprise Tell your friends that you're going to Switzerland, and they immediately think snow-covered Alps, cheese fondue, and yummy Swiss chocolates. Tell them you're going to St. Gallen, and most likely they'll look at you strangely and ask, "Where?" Everyone has heard of Geneva, Zürich, and Zermatt, but few Americans could find St. Gallen on the map. It's still a well-kept secret, even though it's the main metropolis of eastern Switzerland. Nestled in the pleasant Steinach valley between the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and the rolling hills of the Appenzell region, at an elevation of more than 2,000 feet, St. Gallen is one of the highest cities in Switzerland.

PROVIDENCE - less is more! A Round-Up of the City’s Best Your mom always said that first impressions count.   When I hailed a taxi at Amtrak’s Providence, R.I. station the striking neoclassical dome of the State House beckoned in the night sky.  Would the smallest state’s “creative capital” (as it’s billed) meet my expectations?

A Royal and Bucolic London Getaway ‘‘Richmond’s great for walking,’’ says a patron named Bruce, raising a glass of ale to his mouth. ‘‘It’s best for seeing real history, without running into crowds,’’ counters Alan, who shares a wooden bench with him near the crackling fireplace in the cozy Victoria Inn. It’s easy to join conversation here and they field my questions about the town with pride.

Beyond Hong Kong, What a Difference a Day Makes Soaring skyscrapers plastered in neon, 24-hour nightlife, fabulous shopping that ranges from the suspiciously cheap to the seriously glamorous, and some of the best Chinese food in the world. For most visitors this is Hong Kong, and to be fair, it’s a lot of fun. But it’s not the whole story.

A Beginner's Guide Imagine an idyllic coastline of tropical beaches and world-class surf breaks, backed by a gorgeous hinterland of smouldering volcanoes – and virtually no tourists. Throw in a handful of ravishing colonial Spanish towns and a dynamic capital and you’ve got El Salvador, one of the most enticing yet least visited nations in Central America. True: poverty and crime remain big problems here, but remember that the civil war ended way back in 1992. Tourists are rarely affected, and outside the capital your biggest worry will be sunburn. Driving around the country is easy and fast (it’s small enough to get anywhere in a couple of hours) and the official currency is US dollars. Salvadoreños are some of the friendliest people in Latin America and English is widely spoken – almost everyone you meet has a relation working in the US (or has been ‘up north’ themselves).

I love Tokyo and in my next life I imagine you’ll find me in my suite on the 47th floor of the Park Hyatt showering and dressing for drinks and dinner with Scarlett Johansson between takes of, “Lost in Translation,” which was filmed at the hotel.  Tokyo invokes manic fantasies like that.  It’s a city of controlled chaos where anything happens, contradictions gather quickly.

When most people think about New York, they think of Manhattan, or maybe even Brooklyn. But there is another borough that is worth checking out: Staten Island. Staten Island may share the "718" area code with Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, but it distinguishes itself with its own unique history, culture, attractions and food. Its tree-lined streets are home to approximately 450,000 residents, and at sixty square miles, this little piece of suburbia in the city is the least densely populated of the five boroughs. Staten Island residents voted to secede from the city and become independent in 1993, but did not succeed in seceding!

After years of traveling to the dual nationality island of St Maarten/St Martin for a yearly respite from our hectic lives and after years of paying quite a bit of money on hotels, we finally bought a villa in the French Lowlands. For years we would fantasize about what life must be like “on the other side of the wall.” Now we know. It’s divine.  For the past seven years, we’ve been “locals” building friendships with the native St. Maartners/St. Martiners and expats from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. It is a most interesting life.