Plus, Want to See a Jaguar? Look Beyond This Famous Mayan Pyramid

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Hello all,

As the pandemic has wound down, or perhaps merely gone dormant for a spell, It’s been fun to watch how travelers reacted. Not surprisingly, a lot of us bolted for the front door at the first opportunity. I surprised even myself after two years of near hermitlike isolation, by busting out with a near month-long trip to Ireland last spring.

But when it comes to novel approaches, I take a back seat and tip my hat to to the travelers featured in our lead Travel story this week: You keep thinking there’s a punchline coming, because the whole situation sounds like the set-up for a joke: Did you hear the one about the tourists who went to Russia during Putin’s “special military operation”? But no, as Allison Quinn makes perfectly clear in the delightfully droll The Tourists Who Thought Now Is a GREAT Time to Visit Russia, there are a sizeable number of people in the United States and elsewhere in the West who for a variety of reasons decided that now is as good a time as any to go to Russia. Hey, you can’t use a Western credit card right now, but think of the time you’ll save in lines at the airport.

In Want to See a Jaguar? Look Beyond One of the World’s Most Famous Pyramids, Isabella Rolz and Jorge Rodriquez propose a slightly more sensible trip: visit the Jaguar Temple at Tikal in Guatamala’s Petén region, but don’t just visit this extraordinary pyramid. Instead, try one of several tours that take you hiking through the surrounding jungle. Some resorts cater to eco-tourism with package tours that take you deep into untrammeled territory, or you can rough it like an archeologist. Between ancient Mayan culture and the bounty of the natural world, there’s plenty to see beyond the Jaguar Temple.

For a simply fascinating slice of history, dive into Elizabeth Warkentin’s The Tragedy That Made This Glitzy Swiss Village Famous, which is really a story about the Matterhorn, which we all know about, but, as Warkentin asks, why do we know this mountain out of all the other Alps?

And for an exhaustive but not exhausting catalog of all there is to do with spooks and voodoo in America’s scariest city, New Orleans, consult Thuc Nguyen’s thorough, and thoroughly amusing, How to Do Halloween Right in America’s Most Haunted City.

–Malcolm Jones, Books Editor

—Brittany Fallow, film and television producer, New Orleans resident.

OMG I Want to Rent This House!

Maison Grace, New Orleans, LA (Vrbo): One of the most distinctive things about New Orleans is the history that runs through every street, every sound, every tasty morsel that comes out of the city. It’s a characteristic that should be embraced in every way possible when you visit the Big Easy, especially during Mardi Gras season. Sure, you can do this by enjoying some jazz on Frenchmen Street and visiting the French Quarter, and eating all the beignets at Cafe du Monde. But you can also embrace this spirit by choosing to stay in a place that embodies the rich history of the city—say, a former mid-century warehouse converted into a spacious home in a neighborhood that was originally settled in the early 19th century.

Maison Grace is a blessedly walkable home. There’s no need to rent a car when you’re near all the shops you might need during your stay as well as only a short walk away from some of the city’s most popular sights.

Book Your Stay: Maison Grace, New Orleans, LA $1,350/night via Vrbo

Don’t miss previous OMG, I Want to Rent This House posts, which spotlight the most spectacular and unique homes that you can actually stay in. Check out the full archives.

There is something utterly captivating about seeing central Paris’ geometric grid from above—the triangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms of city blocks. But the book also takes us from the ornate dome of Invalides (which we’d never seen up close) to the public parks and gardens that even though they were laid out centuries ago seem as if they were designed for viewers in the sky.

So don't miss our latest highlight for Just Booked (our series on gorgeous new travel coffee table books): the fascinating Paris: From the Air by photographer Jeffrey Milstein and published by Rizzoli.

Don’t miss our other selections for our series on gorgeous travel-related coffee table books, Just Booked.

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