Movie Review: The Neon Demon Disappoints

I saw The Neon Demon last night and I feel like I've finally decided exactly how much I hated it. That amount is: a lot. If you are unfamiliar, The Neon Demon is allegedly a horror film directed by Nicholas Winding Refn. It follows the journey of Jesse, a sixteen year old model who has arrived in Hollywood to start a modeling career. She is met with predator after predator, her beauty and innocence arousing something of a demon in everyone she encounters. Spoiler-y post to follow, so look away if you care. I am not a fan of Refn's…

Richmond: The Four-Day Weekend

Credit: John Henley / Getty Images Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, may still look the part thanks to its historic buildings, statues, and monuments, but this 274-year-old city hardly feels colonial. Thanks to a booming dining scene, an urban waterway with Class III and IV rapids, and one of the best outdoor festivals in the country, Richmond deserves recognition as the modern cultural capital of the South — and the perfect place to spend a long weekend. RELATED: More Four-Day Weekends PLAYWhile plenty of major American cities sit along a waterway, few can boast having a river with raging…

Shelter of the Week: The Underwater Room

Credit: Photographs Courtesy Jesper Anhede / Genberg Art UW Ltd The Place: The Underwater Room is a tri-level structure floating in the Indian Ocean, about 270 yards off the coast of Pemba Island, part of the Zanzibar archipelago. The underwater level of this sea abode provides 360-degree views of passing tropical fish, octopi, and squid with its wall-to-wall glass panes. The deck at sea level houses the bathroom and the roof level, prime territory for sunbathing during the day, and is accessed by ladder. This room is the second underwater lodging from the Swedish company that built it; the first…

The Bermuda Triangle, Finally Explained by Science?

Credit: Buyenlarge / Getty Images It's been gobbling up ships, downing planes, and stoking legends of lost adventurers for centuries, but a group of European scientists say they may finally know the secret behind the so-called "Bermuda Triangle": methane explosions. The Bermuda Triangle traditionally extends from Bermuda to Miami and Puerto Rico, but the answers to its purported mysteries could lie further afield in the Barents Sea off the coast of natural gas-rich Norway. That's where scientists with the Arctic University of Norway recently discovered giant craters on the seabed that could mark spots where massive bubbles of methane exploded.…

7 Reasons Skiing the Swiss Alps Is Better Than the Rockies

Ski longer runs, stay in posh hotels, and recover with a serious apres culture. Credit: Jeff Diener / Getty Images Americans have great skiing in the Rockies, so the transatlantic flight to ski in the Alps can seem like an extravagance. And maybe it is, but once you arrive, you realize it was an extravagance worth every penny. If your only knowledge of life in the Alps is from The Sound of Music, be ready to be surprised. There's little kitsch — don't expect to see men dressed in lederhosen and even fewer alpenhorns — and lots of luxury. RELATED:…

Flagstaff: The Four-Day Weekend

Grand Canyon National Park is just 80 miles north of Flagstaff. Credit: Jeremy Wade Shockley / Getty Images Fit people, beautiful views. That's the name of the game at Flagstaff, a ski and college town set along historic Route 66, hovering 7,000 feet above sea level. Flagstaff is often called the City of Seven Wonders for its proximity to destinations including the San Francisco Peaks and the Grand Canyon, about 80 miles north. And it's the kind of place where high-altitude runners, skiers, cyclists, and hikers settle down — many after graduating from Northern Arizona University. In other words, it's…

Travel and Zika: What You Need to Know

Take your vacation, or go see the Olympics, just follow these four tips to stay safe. Credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images The Zika virus outbreak has prompted CDC travel alerts and speculation that Olympic athletes might not even travel to Rio for the Summer Games. But the problem isn't just in Brazil, Zika has spread to countries in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Cape Verde in Africa — most of which are popular destinations for winter travel. RELATED: Sex and Zika, What You Need to Know Zika's not a new virus, but its making headlines for the…

5 Hikes Near Cusco That Don’t Lead to Machu Picchu

Choquequirao, Machu Picchu’s “sister city." Credit: Photographs by Mark Johanson Machu Picchu may be the bait that lures most visitors to the Cusco Region of Peru, but it's by no means the only Inca ruin to astound them once they arrive. The high Andean plateau surrounding the historic city of Cusco is littered with archeological marvels. Many are just a short hike away from the modern towns that they unwittingly gave birth to. Others lie far from the nearest road and require multiday journeys across steep river valleys and cloud-covered mountain passes. Here's a look at five of the best…

Airplanes Spread Disease, Here's How to Fix That

Travel Email Print More When you sneeze on a plane, the airflow spreads your germs to the neighbors next to, behind, and in front of you. Credit: Fredrik Skold / Getty Images Canadian student Raymond Wang won the world's largest high school science competition in May 2015 for inventing an air filtration system that would prevent pathogens from spreading in airplanes. Three billion people travel on airplanes annually, and illnesses such as influenza, SARS, Ebola, and meningococcal disease are passed from passenger to passenger due to airflow patterns in main cabins. The airflow is designed to move cyclically from top…

DIY African Safari, for $75 a Day

You don't have to break the bank to see a bull walking across the grasslands in Addo Elephant National Park. Credit: Peter Chadwick / Getty Images An affordable African safari? What's the point? Yes, cost-cutting for a trip of a lifetime — and one that includes giant animals that can kill you — is something that rarely crosses the mind of any trip-planners. But that shouldn't be the case. If you're willing to give up over-the-top luxury tents and four-course meals, you can still safely and easily navigate yourself around the hippos, rhinos, and, yes, lions in the wild. The…
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