The Traveler's Journal

The Easy Rider image and lure of the open road are attractive, but motorcycle touring is much more than a youthful rite of passage

The villages along the Moselle River are among Germany's most ancient.  Viticulture has been a primary activity for 2000 years.

Switzerland's Bernese Oberland is a staggering destination year round, yet the main towns can get very crowded. Here's one place to find a slice of Swiss simplicity.

For fat-tire bikers, Moab Utah ids Mecca.  With training, even novice riders can pedal perpendicularly across smooth and precipitous stony slopes.

The southern coast of Guernsey is lined by steep bluffs that rise from the open Atlantic.  Renoir walked this way and painted.

Though just 12 miles long by 7 wide, Jersey is the largest and most developed of the charming Channel Islands.

Though these five tiny islands that poke up from the English Channel lie closer to France, they've been linked to England since 1066.

Indiana Highway 135 meanders among the colorful hills of Brown County and passes through a panorama of rural Midwest images.

Over the last 12,000 years, the Illinois River and its tributaries have carved 18 surprisingly gorgeous gorges.

Don't Be a No-show. Whenever you make a reservation for a restaurant and your plans change, call and let them know. It's no more than common courtesy, and might spare you a midnight call from an angry restranteur.

Value-added taxes remain a foreign idea to many Americans.  They are taxes added in during the production process rather than at the point of sale.  But in many cases, what has been added in can, for travelers, be taken away.

Heading overseas this summer?  Here are some time tested tactics widen your wallet.

"Give Me a Home Where the White Rhino Roams, and the Eland Plays in the Hay."  The Wilds is a unique animal preserve a few miles south of I-70, halfway between Wheeling and Columbus. (For an article on the Wilds and 4-minute video tour, visit: www.travelersjournal.com/articles2.php?ID=520)

Before you climb up on that bungee platform or stop on those scuba tanks, ask yourself whether you're covered by insurance should something go wrong.  Unfortunately, the answer is probably "no."

Seekers of the sun have gravitated to this village on the French Riviera. A century ago, an American couple invested the "summer" season.

The citizens of San Marino look down on their neighbors. Situated on Mount Titano single peak surrounded entirely by Italy, the country is so steep, it is literally possible to fall off.

For centuries, the vast woodlands of Maine have attracted visitors craving the experience of being in an expansive wilderness, among them Henry David Thoreau.

Entrance to the world's great museums can be costly on a per person basis. Fortunately, many cities have programs to help ease the expense for tourists.

St 19,335 feet, Uhruhu Peak is Africa's acme, the summit of a great volcanic massif that the world knows as Kilimanjaro.

There's a saying in Japan: " Who climbs Mt. Fuji once is wise; who climbs it twice is a fool.