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A Chase card with an annual fee of $550 is touted as handy for going abroad. But on a recent trip outside the U.S., it was declined at every stop. [...]

Byline: Seth [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel An app user was barred after just two uneventful trips, and the company wouldn't explain or reinstate him. Our columnist gets him riding again, but transparency remains [...]

Friday 3 p.m. | Explore Brazil's roots Fifty-six percent of Brazilians identified as Black or mixed race in 2021, and race relations here are as complex as they are in [...]

A pregnant traveler arrived late at night at lodging she'd reserved through Booking.com, only to find it was no longer operating, and the online travel agency left her stranded on [...]

When the company said it couldn't reveal what a driver had done wrong, he got suspicious. Was it a scam? In the end, privacy laws and bureaucracy took the blame. [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel A first-time Airbnb user believed he'd be getting personal service from the owner of a London flat, but 'she' was actually a managing company using a fake [...]

A first-time Airbnb user believed he'd be getting personal service from the owner of a London flat, but ''she'' was actually a managing company using a fake photo -- and [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel A cruise company keeps pushing back its planned journeys, offering credits instead of a refund, and a passenger feels like the ship has sailed on her ability [...]

A cruise company keeps pushing back its planned journeys, offering credits instead of a refund, and a passenger feels like the ship has sailed on her ability to enjoy a [...]

Our columnist has received many reader emails complaining of tour operators and travel agencies dragging their feet on refunds for trips or other services. He investigates a $334 fare with [...]

Airlines are within their contractual rights to cancel booked flights and place passengers on less-convenient routes with hours-long layovers. Our columnist investigates whether travelers have any recourse. Dear Tripped Up, [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel Are travelers missing out by not playing the credit-card game in search of first-class tickets? Our new Tripped Up columnist considers the fees and the benefits of [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel Climate activists say it is time to rethink loyalty programs that reward consumers for taking flights. In October, a two-line recommendation buried on Page 35 of a [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel Those customer-facing, touch-screen payment systems in restaurants are confounding customers in the U.S. and beyond. It was 2015 when I first began to grapple with tipping when [...]

Those customer-facing, touch-screen payment systems in restaurants are confounding customers in the U.S. and beyond. It was 2015 when I first began to grapple with tipping when ordering at a [...]

I've often wondered how it would feel to work in an industry blamed for its outsize impact on global warming -- say, oil drilling or cattle ranching. But it recently [...]

The article reports on the alleged proliferation of travel guidebooks generated by artificial intelligence (AI) as a new form of scam in the Internet as of August 2023. According to international traveler Amy Kolsky, the "France Travel Guide" by Mike Steves that she ordered from Amazon's on-demand service contained repetitive text and lacked itineraries. Also cited is the sustained high demand for printed guidebooks and their e-book versions in the market.

The $3.50 kebab was supposed to be a stopgap measure, a placeholder for a lunch that would have to wait until after an appointment in Manhattan. Neither the foil-wrapped sandwich [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel The $3.50 kebab was supposed to be a stopgap measure, a placeholder for a lunch that would have to wait until after an appointment in Manhattan. Neither [...]

Byline: Seth Kugel In 1991, the last time I set foot in Prague, it was the Czechoslovakian capital, and things were so cheap to a Western college student bearing hard [...]

We've all read about the vast biodiversity and rich natural resources of the Amazon. But to fully appreciate its riches, nothing beats a hands-on demonstration. Or in this case, hand-on: [...]

In 1991, the last time I set foot in Prague, it was the Czechoslovakian capital, and things were so cheap to a Western college student bearing hard currency that if [...]

More than anywhere else in this multiethnic country, Salvador is steeped in Afro-Brazilian culture -- from the worship of Yoruba deities (orixás), to the acrobatic practice of capoeira, to a [...]

VALENÌA, Brazil -- The white-bearded, dreadlocked master and his bushy-haired student face off in an open-sided compound set amid cacao trees and coffee bushes.The two are in constant motion, swinging [...]

Byline: SETH KUGEL Nothing against relaxing on beachfront daybeds or doing the cathedral-monument-museum circuit, but for travelers like me (and, I'm guessing, like some of you) the ideal vacation is [...]

Byline: SETH KUGEL August is peak travel season, which means that right now millions of Americans are traipsing around the world creating the stories they'll be telling captivated dinner guests [...]

Byline: SETH KUGEL At Stall 06 in the dilapidated temporary quarters of the Pueblo Nuevo market, Rosana Angulo was getting frustrated with my persistent queries about that day's lunch options. [...]

At Stall 06 in the dilapidated temporary quarters of the Pueblo Nuevo market, Rosana Angulo was getting frustrated with my persistent queries about that day's lunch options. ''Come here, come [...]

On a raw, rainy afternoon in Verona, Italy, this past November, a polyglot gaggle of photo-snapping tourists unfazed by the weather jammed the courtyard of Verona's 14th-century Casa di Giuletta, [...]

Chaotically refined, verdantly concrete, intimately gargantuan: The most populous metropolis in South America was but a middling coffee city until the mid-20th century, when an influx of northeastern migrants set [...]

Byline: SETH KUGEL Correction Appended Chaotically refined, verdantly concrete, intimately gargantuan: The most populous metropolis in South America was but a middling coffee city until the mid-20th century, when an [...]

Asking what's new in Manhattan is like asking what's old in Rome: too much for 10 visits, so don't bother trying in one. The eight or so square miles of [...]

Famished after a two-leg cross-country flight rife with delays and scarce on nutrition, I tapped open Google Maps on my phone and scanned the area around my LAX airport hotel [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDIf you're visiting Florence, Italy, you've got to see the world-famous Uffizi Gallery. But why? Because that's what one does in Florence? Because you feel compelled to post a [...]

Last February, when my sister-in-law, Katrina, was struggling to put together a six-person, three-generation family trip for spring break, she turned to a nontraditional travel agent: Leo Kugel of Silver [...]

''What's new in town?'' is an innocent enough question, unless you ask it in a city hosting the Olympics, where a complete answer might stretch out longer than the 50-kilometer [...]

Although the New York daily El Diario/La Prensa is one of the country's oldest and most respected Spanish-language newspapers, until last week it did not have a Web site. On [...]

WHO: Mark Mandt, homemaker. WHAT: 4-bedroom house with a detached 2-room sauna. WHERE: Anchorage, Alaska. I started saunaing myself a significant amount in the 1980's in Fairbanks when I first [...]

WHO -- Karen Pingitore, president, Ferndale Chamber of Commerce. WHAT -- 6-bedroom gingerbread Victorian house. WHERE -- Ferndale, Calif. My husband and I were always really interested in Victorian architecture, [...]

NAME: Obomeng Mma Kuo of New York and New Jersey. FOUNDED: 1995, in the Bronx. MISSION: To mobilize Ghanaians who have immigrated to the New York metropolitan area from the [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDThe run-up to the Rio Olympics has been a nightmare for Brazil, with the Zika virus, a crime wave, lagging infrastructure projects and ''super bacteria'' lurking in Guanabara Bay. [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDWhich sounds like the most dangerous way to spend your next vacation? 1. Going to Brazil, epicenter of the Zika virus, for the Olympics. 2. Visiting Istanbul, where eight [...]

I was not surprised when applause broke out as the pilot touched down at the Quito airport, high in the Ecuadorean Andes. In five and a half years as the [...]

Each of the last three Januaries, I've compiled tips on how to save money on travel in the year ahead. Much of that advice is still valid today, which is [...]

Byline: SETH KUGEL Each of the last three Januaries, I've compiled tips on how to save money on travel in the year ahead. Much of that advice is still valid [...]

Over 56 million people visited New York City in 2014. How many more stayed away because hotels in Manhattan are so expensive? The average cost of a three-star hotel in [...]