With so much to see and do, we set off early in an effort to reach Boston by 9 a.m. Our primary intention was to walk along Boston’s scenic harborwalk, which has been constructed to provide easy access to the Harbor and connect the waterfront neighborhoods. Some parts of it are still undergoing extension.

My grandmother used to belong to the Chappaquiddick Beach Club, and one of the swell things about this club is the big dock that allowed members to come over to the club by small boat.

I sat on that dock for hours, watching with envy the Boston Whalers and other small motorcraft that zipped in and out, piloted by grinning young men or bikini-clad teen girls. Oh how I wanted to be in that driver’s seat.

Fast forward 35 years, and I’m waking up after spending the night on the bridge of a 42’ Krogen trawler yacht owned by the friends of a friend. When my pal Jack asked me if I’d like to rendezvous with Denny and Laraine and spend a few days on their boat off the coast of Chappaquiddick, it didn’t take me a second to say yes.

My Aunt invited me to stay with her at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal for a few days while she attended a convention. I figured this was a true opportunity to dig down as deep as I could to answer the question that has been haunting me: What is it with Canada?

I awoke bright and early to meet Claire-Marie Lavoie, a tour guide from the Infotouriste Centre who would be showing me around the best parts of the city via van.

Port Douglas was named after the Queensland Premier, John Douglas, in 1877. Originally it was used to transport gold in exchange for supplies. Gold mining was Port Douglas’ sole source of wealth for many years. In later years silver, sugar can and red cedar also made it’s contribution to the Ports wealth. However in 1911 there was a decline in gold and silver mining, and the Port began to fade, until it was hit by a cyclone, which turned Port Douglas in a wonderful fishing village.

There are many ways for you to take a further look into the history of Port Douglas. The Mossman Sugar mill will give you a first hand experience of the sugar milling process, and the Cooktowns Discovery Festival, every June, shows a re-enactment of the settling of Lt. James Cook in 1770. The Cooktown festival is an elaborate celebration with authentic costumes, gala ball, fire works and bull riding.

There are a variety of Port Douglas accommodation, to suit the needs of all travelers. There are five start accommodations for those that are looking for luxurious hotels or private homes. For a modest price accommodation, Port Douglas offers condominiums, villas, motels and apartments. If you are someone looking for adventure you can stay at the rainforest lodges, or caravan parks.

Port Douglas is also an area where there is something for everyone. You can spend the day at Four Mile Beach and enjoying fishing snorkeling and swimming. Head down to Macrossan Street for an afternoon of shopping, dining and an evening of fun in the dark. There are also 12 nearby beaches that you can visit, in local towns.

If you are shopping for a decent palm cove accommodation at a great price, visit tropicalnorthqueensland.com.au. You will find the best palm cove hotels available for your stay.

Every year on Labor Day weekend, the seaside town of Crisfield, Maryland holds its Annual Hard Crab Derby and Fair. This quaint village of 2,800 on the Chesapeake Bay has a long tradition of catching – and racing – its seafood. The festival is a celebration of the town’s fishing heritage, particularly of the abundant (and delicious!) blue crabs that teem in the bay’s waters.

Here, you can watch a parade on Main Street, a boat docking contest, a crab picking contest, and the crowning of the beautiful Miss Crustacean. But the main attraction of the festival is its namesake “crab derby,” in which hundreds of crabs scramble down a chute to the finish line in a knock-down, drag-out race (okay, so the crabs aren’t even aware of the race). The bets – and the crowd’s enthusiasm – get intense. Afterward, nothing beats finishing off a fresh, all-you-can-eat crab platter while taking in views of the bay at the Side Street Seafood Market and Restaurant. If you’re hardy enough, you can top it off with a generous slice of Smith Island cake.

The best way to enjoy the festival is by renting a campsite in nearby Jane’s Island State Park, which boasts 3,100 acres of Eastern Maryland’s prettiest shoreline. When you need a break from the festivities, quiet beach hikes and kayak trails await you in the park. So grab some friends, a tent, and a healthy appetite for crab and you’ve got one shell of a Labor Day weekend.  

Photo: kathyhaduch via Flickr

This photo, “She Dreams of Riding Horses,” was submitted by Elizabeth Griffin. The caption reads that the little girl is “riding her grandmother’s pony at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico.” That’s one massive pony, and we can’t help but think it calls for a caption contest. Ready? Go!

The city that stole our heart today is Budapest, Hungary, shared with us by Carolyn Bánfalvi, a travel writer and award-winning culinary guidebook author (Food Wine Budapest and The Food and Wine Lover’s Guide to Hungary are her titles), who writes about the city at Chew.hu, a Hungarian food blog. And remarkably, when she’s not doing all that, she’s giving culinary tours of the city with her husband.

Want to see your city on IT? Copy and paste our list of fill-in-the-blank questions
into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to
IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you’re still waiting for us to
feature yours, fear not! We’re going to keep posting as long as we keep getting them (please include photos and links!). You can find the entire collection of city-lovers here.

Budapest is My City

When I crave Chinese food I always go Wang Mester Konyhája.

To escape the summer heat I head to Margit Island to swim or picnic in the shade.

If I want to find hidden treasure I go to the Ecseri flea market and browse the antiques/junk/kitsch.

For complete quiet, I can hide away at the beautiful Ervin Szabó Public Library in the eighth district.

If you have to order one thing off the menu from Horgásztanya it has to be Halászlé (a fisherman’s soup).

Bortársaság is my one-stop shop for great wine.
Locals know to skip the touristy Váci utca shopping street and check
the monthly WAMP market (which features local designers) instead.

When I’m feeling cash-strapped I go for lunch at an étkezde (Hungarian diner).

For a huge splurge I go Bock Bisztró.

Photo ops in my city include the Danube panorama and the best vantage points are from up high, like Castle Hill or the Citadel.

If my city were a celebrity it’d be Elizabeth Taylor .

The most random thing about my city is that the mummified hand of Saint
István (an important relic of Hungarian Christianity) is paraded around
the basilica every year on August 20th to celebrate his feast day, a
national holiday.

In my city, an active day outdoors involves hiking, swimming, or kayaking.

My city’s best museum is The Museum of Fine Arts at Heroes Square.

My favorite jogging/walking route is around Margit Island.

For a night of folk dancing, go to Fonó. Or, for live music, check out A38 or Gödör.

To find out what’s going on at night and on the weekends, read Time Out, Funzine, or www.caboodle.hu.

You can tell a lot about my city from hanging out at the food markets.

You can tell if someone is from my city if they scowl at you on the street, but then open up when you attempt to talk to them in Hungarian.

In the spring you should stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables at the market.

In the summer you should ride the BKV boat along the Danube and get off at Romaifürdo to have dinner before heading back to town.

In the fall you should take the chairlift (libego) up and explore the Buda hills.

In the winter you should soak in the hot outdoor pool at the Szécheny thermal bath house, preferably when the snow is falling.

A hidden gem in my city is the Kerepesi cemetery.

For a great breakfast joint try the strudel, still warm from the over, at the Central Market (along with a strong presszó coffee) .

Don’t miss the wine festival in the Castle in September.

Just outside my city, you can visit vineyards in Etyek.  

The best way to see my city is on foot.

If my city were a pet it would be a Hungarian Vizsla: an excellent companion who is lively and fearless, yet affectionate and gentle mannered.

If I didn’t live in a city, I’d live in a restored old peasant house in the Tokaj wine region.

The best book about my city is The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnár.

When I think about my city, the song that comes to mind is anything by Zoltan Kodály and Béla Bartók.

If you have kids, you won’t want to miss the puppet theater or the Palace of Miracles at Millenáris.

Airplanes flying under the Danube bridges at the Red Bull Air Race could only happen in my city.

My city should be featured on your cover or website because there is no other riverfront view like it in the world. Combine the green hills in Buda with the gritty downtown neighborhoods, throw in some elegant Parisian-style architecture and some big city buzz, and you’ve got Budapest.

Photos: Catherine Karnow for National Geographic Traveler. To see more images from this Budapest gallery, click here.

The Swedes are ahead of the game when it comes to exploring the outdoors and taking advantage of their natural surroundings. In the northern city of Sundsvall where I’ve been staying the past few weeks, I have yet to meet a locals who don’t know how to pick their own berries and mushrooms from the surrounding forests to prepare into jams, wines, or butters in their own homes. And when I say everyone, I mean even the city-dwellers (although the younger generation may not admit it).

But it makes sense: In Sweden, all are encouraged to maximize usage of the outdoors under a common law privilege called the “right of public access,” or as the Swedes call it, “Allemansrätten.” You won’t find a “No Trespassing” sign anywhere around here: Even as a tourist I can wander from the main trail onto someone else’s property to pick blueberries, or if I’m driving the country roads I can pull over wherever I see fit to pitch a tent for the night, so long as I follow the few simple guidelines.  For example, I can only use branches lying on the ground for a fire and cannot break a live limb, and I should maintain a distance of 70 meters from any house in view – it’s really just common sense stuff.

This privilege is definitely convenient for the northern Swedes:
According to Biotech Sweden, the forests here produce an average of 500,000 tons of wild berries annually, of which only 2-4% are picked!  The most common are blueberries, but a casual walk through a city park can also provide a handful of wild strawberries, raspberries, and black and red currants to munch on along the way. The lingonberries are also as plentiful as they are popular among the Swedes and are made into jam served with traditional dishes such as Swedish meatballs and Swedish pancakes.

There are also a few rare species that can only be found with a serious gatherer’s assistance. The cloudberry, a yellowish, tart fruit similar to the size and shape of a raspberry, is a delicacy in high demand internationally and grows deep in the
northern forests of Sweden in marshes and bogs: Hence the name, as when you enter cloudberry zone it feels like you’re walking on top of the clouds.

The Swedes traditionally use the cloudberry to create jam as a warm topping for ice cream, or to prepare a special after-dinner aperitif. But as the chance for you to bounce on the clouds and pick them yourself is quite slim, you can find them on the
dessert menus in restaurants or buy your own jar at a local market.
They may be pricey but your palate will be grateful.

Photos by JT Blatty

But imagine instead hiking for miles shin-deep in mud, fending off bloodsucking leeches and existing on a diet of tarantulas and cockroaches, while risking infection, heatstroke and malaria. Not exactly your typical camping trip. For most people, such an excursion would sound treacherous and even insane, but for young herpetologist Perry Wood Jr.  it’s simply a passionate pursuit of knowledge in the name of science.

When Perry (aka JR) Wood began studying Southeast Asian amphibians and reptiles more than eight years ago, he never imagined the rough trails and beautiful landscapes his fieldwork would lead him to. As a graduate biology student specializing in taxonomy and molecular systematics, Wood regularly makes trips to Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia in an effort to identify new species in what he explains is an understudied region for herpetological diversity.

Most recently, Wood traveled to Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains to research a group of agamid lizards in the genus Acanthosaura (common name: mountain horned lizards).  “Before I started working on the group, there were only five species known,” he explains. “It’s quite rare to find new species of large agamid lizards in Southeast Asia, but with subsequent fieldwork and genetic studies, I have doubled the number of species in this group.”

Though Wood’s dedication to his work is unwavering, the risks of working in the jungles of Southeast Asia can be daunting. On his last expedition, where he and his team collected three new species, Wood explains, “The
hike was full of thorny bushes, leeches, and every other stinging bug that you can think of. At one point we found ourselves climbing on our hands and knees up a steep hill weaving our way through bamboo and rattan palms.”

Wood is no stranger to harsh conditions.  During a field expedition to Cambodia in 2004, he and his colleagues made the trek to the top of Phnom Aural, the highest mountain in Cambodia.  Although the trip was successful, Wood began to feel the symptoms of malaria during a three-hour boat ride to the Seribuat Archipelago.  After he was bedridden for three days, the effects of the disease began to wear off, but as bad luck would have it, the boat carrying Wood and his colleagues broke down leaving them stranded in the water for several hours while their infections baked in the glaring sun.  But this kind of physical challenge has yet to deter Wood from pursuing future expeditions; he returned the following year to climb the neighboring mountain.

With the exhaustion that comes from such fieldwork, it’s a wonder Wood ever finds time to be a tourist. But according to him, that’s the best part of a scientist’s travels. Every expedition allows him to explore two different Asias:
the Asia that houses unlimited possibilities for scientific discovery
and the Asia that is rich in culture, heritage and history.

“Thailand and Cambodia are filled with scenic temples, palaces, and attractions,” Wood said. “The contrasting boldness of colors (reds, blues, yellows, and greens) make it a very beautiful place.  On this last trip, I went to Siem Reap for a day and a half to see the temples of Angkor and the floating village. There is so much to see in these ancient ruins that it makes you really appreciate the history and the culture of Cambodia.”

And how do you appreciate Southeast Asia even more? Getting friendly with the locals. Wood tries to stay away from
the tourist-focused locations, opting instead to eat traditional foods alongside the locals and participate in their daily customs. “The people are very kind and are always inviting me to eat with them.  They enjoy talking to you and will try to teach you some local vocabulary.   I’ve even gotten up some mornings to find them inviting me to do shots of whiskey with them.”

In the field, he is usually restricted to a bland diet of rice three meals a day,  but when he has downtime at the
local villages, he is treated to a world of culinary delights. A typical meal for Wood might include fresh mangoes and pineapples from the street vendors, Tom Yam soup and a plate of Pad Thai washed down with a cold glass of Thai iced tea. At night, he swears by a mango sticky rice dessert drizzled with sweetened coconut sauce.

Of course, not every dish is always so pleasing, and when you’re eating with the locals, you’re bound to come across some interesting selections.  Wood, for instance, has found himself dining on regional delicacies such as fried tarantulas, frogs and cockroaches. Though they may not always suit his taste buds, he explains, “I never refuse a
dish offered to me out of respect to the locals.”

After so many expeditions, Wood still claims each trip is just as enthralling as the last. “The only thing that gets redundant is the long plane flights,” he says. “There are always new things to do in most of the major cities
that I have visited in Southeast Asia.  Between the zoos, museums, universities and the local wild life you never run out of things to do or places to go.”

And his philosophy on travel? “You can only learn so much from travel books, but once you are submersed in the
culture, there’s no limit to the amount you can learn about that country.”

Photos courtesy of Perry Wood, Jr.

Ahead of us a continent of geography and an epic of mankind awaited exploration. U.S. 40, a concrete cummerbund girding America’s sleek midriff, would be our guide.

Driving from sea to shining sea, we would rub elbows and perhaps bumpers with people in four of the most populous states–California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio–and in the second smallest, Delaware.

We would relive history in Maryland, see steel mills in West Virginia, and visit fat farms in Indiana. Missouri’s cities would rise above her rivers, and horizontal Kansas would end in vertical Colorado. From the vast emptiness of Utah and Nevada we would plunge into the anthill activity of Pacific coast cities.

U.S. Route 40 was an extension of the first federally funded national road, which led from Cumberland over the Alleghenies to Ohio; at the time, it was the only road leading over the mountains. Congress appropriated money for the project in 1806, and the highway was completed in 1852, ending in Vandalia, Illinois. It traversed 609 miles and cost $7 million. According to Gray, “when the Bureau of Public Roads set up the Federal system of numbered highways in the mid-1920’s, the National Road became a part of U.S. 40. By coincidence, this coast-to-coast route now crosses and recrosses the 40th parallel.” Today, Route 40 ends near Park City, Utah, at Interstate 80.

Have you been on a cross-country road trip? What route did you take?