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Besides being known for the 10-gallon hats and oil, Dallas holds a landmark that played an important role in American history, the event that spawned the question for an entire generation; “Where were you when you learned JFK was assassinated?” To commemorate this historic incident, the infamous 6th Floor of the Texas School Book Depository building at Dealy Plaza was converted into a museum to honor John F. Kennedy’s life and display memorabilia related to the assassination. While half of the intrigue of the historic event is the “whodunit” factor and where the actual fatal shot was triggered from, the museum doesn’t focus on that and is located on the 6th floor simply because a sniper’s nest and rifle were found after the assassination. Some interesting items on display are records from the Parkland Hospital, where JFK was taken after the shooting, a film narrated by Walter Cronkite that delves into the repercussions of the assassination, and a recreation of the corner staircase where the rifle was located.

Since it’s a privately owned museum and not a recipient of any kind of government funding, the museum charges $13.50 admission for adults and $12.50 for children and senior citizens, which includes an audio guide. The museum is open daily from 10am-6 pm. To get more information on the 6th Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza, visit www.jfk.org.

Even from the outside, or the lobby, and especially once you really get inside, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is the kind of gallery that simply impresses everybody. Since it moved to the huge stone building on the eastern edge of Central Park in the late nineteenth century, the Met has welcomed millions of visitors wanting to see its great collection of American art, the beautifully-housed ancient Egyptian art and European paintings from greats like Monet, Van Gogh and Rembrandt.

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Singapore Zoo has long been known as the home of some great animal attractions, and in the last decade the possibilities for visitors have doubled with the addition of the Night Safari next door.

For a great day out in Singapore, arrive at the Singapore Zoo after an early lunch. There’s plenty to see here, with highlights including the free-ranging orang utan program, the Australian Outback enclosure and the Asian elephants, who you can see in the Thai Elephant Logging Camp, demonstrating their ability to work together with humans. The polar bear exhibit is also a highlight, although these polar bears have had to adapt to a slightly warmer climate than they’re used to.

After spending a few hours in the Singapore Zoo, take a short break for a light meal and then head next door to the Night Safari, which opens daily from 6.00pm. This is a very special zoo, the first of its kind in the world, designed purely for us to see animals who prefer to be active at night. You can either use the tram to see the highlights with guided commentary or you can walk on three different paths taking you past leopards, lions, giraffes and elephants, amongst many others. The enclosures are specially lit so that the animals still feel it’s night time but you can also get a good view of them.

If you go: Special shuttle buses run from central Singapore to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. If you plan to visit both attractions, be sure to buy the combined ticket to save some money.

San Francisco is a historic city that has been known to see its share of tragedy. And rumor has it that some of those historic figures that engaged in exciting lives in San Francisco are still lingering in the city today. There are a number of different hotels in San Francisco which are said to be haunted, some of them by the spirits of famous people.

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Get ready for the 12th annual Bermuda Music Festival, to be held on the island nation, October 3 through 6, 2007. An impressive array of vocalists and musicians are scheduled to perform, including the O’Jays; Lionel Richie; Earth, Wind & Fire; Smokey Robinson; and Natasha Bedingfield. Opening acts include comedians Steve Harvey and Tommy Davidson.

The Wednesday night event will be held at the Fairmont Southampton Resort and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night events will be held at the National Sports Centre in Devonshire Parish.

All Festival passes range from $230 to $310 per person. Individual event tickets range from $50 to $100 per person. Tickets may be purchased online via TicketWeb.

Visiting Bermuda
Bermuda is easily reached from the east coast of the United States via non-stop flights from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Accommodations vary from large resort hotels to small, collections of beachfront cottages. No rental cars are permitted on the islands, but the bus service is reliable and taxis are plentiful, if slightly expensive.

Want a smoking vacation? How about Chimney Rock Park in North Carolina.

Hiking in the mountains is a soul stirring experience with uplifting vistas at every turn, but it can also be a bit exhausting. Chimney Rock Park gives you a chance to take a that deep breath and really enjoy the magnificence that is the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

The park offers 1000 scenic acres and views that stretch a breathtaking 75-miles. The hiking trails offer a little bit of something for everyone, so the most energetic hiker will be satisfied and the youngest child and oldest grandparent will also be able to explore and experience the mountain peaks.

One of the most alluring aspects of Chimney Rock Park is the 404-foot waterfall. A fall so impressive that it’s featured in the movie The Last of the Mohicans. The Hickory Nut Falls trail is rated easy and this short 1.5 mile roundtrip trail is beautiful and gently deposits you at the base of the falls.

And the most fascinating feature of the park is its namesake, Chimney Rock itself. A trip to the top of this 500 million year old monolith is possible but takes a bit of work. The expedition begins with a three mile drive up the mountain, then a 198 foot tunnel takes you to an elevator, which whisks you up 26 stories in only 30 seconds. After this trek a quick introduction by the tour guide takes you through the ubiquitous gift shop and snack bar back outside where a flight of stairs takes you to the finish line; the top of Chimney Rock.

If you haven’t taken your family to a cornfield maze in the last few years, this fall is the time to do it. The variety and number of corn mazes across the United States has never been bigger and they make a great family day out. Most mazes offer a small, easy one for young children and a more complicated one for adults and older children, often designed to make an intricate picture when viewed from above, but to provide only boggling confusion when you’re walking around inside it!

To find a good cornfield maze near you, try the MAiZE website. They advertise as being the largest cornfield maze company in the world, and over the last decade they’ve been joining together farmers across the US (and in Canada and Europe too) to create fall maze outings for families and at last count over 1,200 mazes have been grown and used by the MAiZE group. This year alone they’re responsible for over 190 maze locations in the US, spread across the country, so you should be able to find one in a location that suits you.

MAiZE was founded by a farmer, Bob Herbst, and it was probably always meant to be that he’d be involved with such a popular fall activity: his surname, Herbst, is also the German word for fall. He started out by creating a record with the largest corn maze in the western United States in 1996 and soon became a professional maze designer! He’s married with four children who surely must be experts at solving cornfield mazes by now.

If you want to become a maze expert yourself, or just have a fun fall day out, check the site list to find a maze in your area, or plan your fall holiday to include one (or more!). Individual maze opening seasons and times, activities and costs vary across the country, but the website gives you access to all of this information along with a calendar of special events for each maze. Some members of MAiZE are large farms that also provide hay rides, apple picking, pumpkins and even special Halloween events.

As the MAiZE motto goes: a maze is where getting lost means finding fun. You can really enjoy a fine fall day by getting out and rushing past the high maize plants trying to find your way to the maze goal, or trying to beat your kids on the way out. So go and get lost!

As children, we often entertain fantasies that adults long ago learned to write off as impossible: unicorns don’t exist, we are not related to Superman, and we most certainly cannot be mermaids. Though these facts still hold true, technology is allowing us to come closer and closer to experiencing childhood dreams and the Poseidon Undersea Resort is one of them.

Located off the shores of Fiji, Indonesia, Poseidon promises to be a spectacular, exciting, and unique vacation experience. The resort is five star, costing $1500/night for a prime suite on the seabottom. Yes, you read correctly: Poseidon’s luxury rooms place you at the bottom of the ocean floor, in prime viewing location of all the beautiful and wondrous fish and sea life that you might never have seen otherwise. And if you’re wondering how you’ll get there, the answer is simple: in a luxury submarine.

The 550 square-foot suites at Poseidon will be equipped with spotlights and fish feeders to aid guests in their underwater experience. Each room will feature strong, transparent acrylic walls allowing for incredible 270° views out into the 5,000-acre coral gardens. Rooms include comfortable furnishings and relaxing jacuzzis, along with many of the luxury services guests expect at five star resorts. The hotel will also feature an underwater restaurant, bar, library, wedding chapel, spa, and a special 1,200 square-foot luxury suite.

We may not be mermaids, swimming freely beneath the surface of the sea, but places like Poseidon Undersea Resort will certainly allow us to feel like a childhood dream has finally come true.

The state of Alaska is known as the Last Frontier and it’s definitely not the most easily attainable states of the Union. However, there are many gems hidden within, including Denali National Park, which features the tallest mountain in North America, Mt. McKinley. So you don’t accidentally wind up in Alaska, rather it’s a destination that requires some good planning. Like any of the other National Parks within the US, entrance to the park is $10 per person or $20 per carload, and admission is good for 7 days. Getting to the park is quite easy, and it’s less than a day’s trip from Fairbanks or Anchorage. If you prefer to let someone else do the driving, the Alaska Railroad provides a scenic route from Fairbanks and runs 2 primary passenger services during the summer months. (more…)

Austria is well-known as the home of many important musicians including Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss and Schubert, so it’s not surprising that a visit to Vienna’s musical museum Haus Der Musik is worthwhile - and on top of that, a whole lot of fun.

Haus Der Musik (literally, the House of Music) is also known as the Sound Museum. It’s a multi-story museum and interactive exhibition space in the center of Vienna, and it’s an entertaining place for music enthusiasts, families and tourists of all ages. One floor is filled with interesting exhibits about key Austrian composers and musicians, but even this floor doesn’t feel too historical or museum-like - the displays are colorful and clever and full of multimedia elements. A really popular exhibit of the Haus Der Musik is found here - the Virtual Conductor. A screen shows a video of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and visitors can pick up a virtual baton and try to conduct them. If you don’t wave the baton in good time and with good rhythm, the musicians will get grumpy and eventually put down their instruments and storm out!

Another great floor of the Haus Der Musik illustrates the scientific side of sound with an array of curious, hands-on experiments. If you’re ever wanted to know what a cow would sound like in a cathedral, you can press a few buttons and hear for yourself; change the acoustics by putting the cow in a cave or a house and you’ll understand the difference. There is a Brain Opera where you can create your own “music”, too.

Haus Der Musik is found at Seilerstätte 30 (shown on all tourist maps); usually open from 10am to 10pm daily.

Movies like Witness, a film made in 1985 starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis and the recent tragic school shooting have shed light on the mysterious Amish community. In a society that thrives on the Internet, cell phones, and gadgets galore, it’s hard for Americans to imagine a community that can exist in this day and age on horse driven buggies and no electricity. However, these communities exist and are thriving in the small community of Volant, PA, which is located half way between Pittsburgh and Erie in Western PA. (more…)

One of the top tourist attractions in Germany is the Schloss Neuschwanstein, a fairy tale castle in southern Bavaria near the town of Füssen. Built by crazy King Ludwig II in the late 1800s, it is said to have inspired the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland, and you can certainly see some resemblance.

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Samsonite Luggage has come a long way since it was first introduced in 1958. The colors are sharper, the pieces now have wheels, and the shapes accommodate all of the latest electronic gadgetry. However, Samsonite is still known for its reliability and its sturdy construction.

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Are you the kind of traveler who just loves to experience all the joys of the local food when you reach a new destination? A recent Forbes report looked at some of the best cities around the world for foodies, and I have to agree with most of their recommendations.

Top of the list was Paris, which obviously beats the world hands down when it comes to French food, but also has enough of an international flair to keep the taste buds keen when you’ve exhausted the local cuisine. France also has the advantage of being home to delicious wine and cheese products, for example, which surely gives the local flavors a big boost.

Another hot spot for food lovers was New York City, largely because of the incredible variety of cuisines available there. The good side of New York is there are also numerous restaurants that don’t cost a fortune, whichever style of food you have a craving for. London also featured near the top of the list, for similar reasons - but usually not for the local British food, unless you’re after a good English breakfast.

Finally, Singapore is also considered a top foodie destination, and while I’ve often enjoyed cheap, Asian-influenced meals there, I’d never have thought to try a French meal there or expect perfect pastries at a breakfast, but apparently it’s all available. I guess I need to plan a new trip to test that theory out.