The Distracted Wanderer

From luxury tented pavilions and modernized American motor lodges to Georgian splendor, America is home to no shortage of beautiful high-end hotels . In addition to gorgeous architecture that reflects the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape, America’s luxury hotels also offer the benefit of a myriad of amenities for you to take advantage of. This holiday season, luxury travel is on the cards for at least 47% of Americans, who are spending around $510 more on average  than they did last year. Luxury travel needn’t involve great distances, either – 60% of Americans plan to take a trip within their home state.   Camp Sarika, Canyon Point, Utah  Camp Sarika is a luxury desert retreat comprising ten large canvas-topped pavilions right in the heart of Utah’s awe-inspiring, slotted-canyon desert. Designed to provide guests with optimal privacy, along with uninterrupted panoramic desert views, the pavilions are made from stretched canvas covers made from recycl...

Earlier this year, when I took a much-needed two-week vacation to America's beautiful Southwest, one of the sights I really wanted to see during my wanderings was Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. A frequent filming location for television commercials and movies (particularly back in the time when the western genre was in its heyday), the area's towering sandstone buttes are as iconic a symbol of the American West as one can get.   Not a valley in the conventional sense of the word, Monument Valley is a wide, flat, and sometimes desolate landscape interspersed with crumbling sandstone formations that rise hundreds of feet into the air, the last remnants of the sandstone layers that once covered the entire region. One of the grandest landmarks in the United States, Monument Valley (Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii meaning 'Valley of Rocks') is located within the Navajo Nation - a land base of 27,000 square miles which extends into Arizona, New Mexico, & Utah. Home to the ...

 I recently wandered up to one of my favorite haunts in New England - Salem, Massachusetts - even though October is generally not a time I would go to Salem as normally it's THE big month for the Witch City and you can't find a hotel for less than an arm and a leg no matter what time of the month it is. This year, though, things are a lot different due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as the city's annual Haunted Happenings has been canceled and everything else is scaled back. With all that, I figured it was actually the perfect time for me to head up and learn more about a subject that has interested me since 7th grade - the 1692 Salem Witch Trials - without the usual big crowds.  Turns out it was a most excellent time to go as I was able to score an amazing deal on Booking.Com for a two-night midweek stay at the brand-new, recently-opened Hampton Inn located on Dodge Street in downtown Salem.  The hotel is within easy walking distance of pretty much anything you're ...