Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Capitals of Culture in 2026
By Linda Tancs
In keeping with tradition, we begin the New Year with an announcement on the European Capitals of Culture for 2026: Trenčín in Slovakia and Oulu in Finland. Oulu is a vibrant coastal city sometimes called “the capital of Northern Finland.” One of the featured programs for the year is Climate Clock, a permanent public art trail that will pair artists with scientists to create site-specific outdoor installations that blend into natural and urban settings across the municipality. In Slovakia, Trenčín’s year-long program is themed “Awakening Curiosity.” The goal is to transform the city into a dynamic space for art, creative initiatives and community collaboration, building on a rich heritage of festivals, artistic events and community initiatives.
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Aglow in Telluride
By Linda Tancs
During winter, Mountain Village is the base area for Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado. Both locales are aglow on New Year’s Eve at 6:30 p.m., which is when the Torchlight Parade takes place. It’s an annual tradition when Telluride instructors glide down the mountain with torches to light up the mountainside. Fireworks begin shortly after the parade and are visible from the Mountain Village side. Enjoy the New Year countdown in Telluride on Colorado Avenue.
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Lights Under Louisville
By Linda Tancs
Operating from November to early January, Lights Under Louisville is the world’s only underground drive-through holiday lights display. You’ll find it at Mega Cavern in Louisville, Kentucky. Boasting 7 million points of light illuminating the cavern’s vast spaces, the attraction features themed displays, characters, holiday music, lasers and more. You can drive your own vehicle through the cavern, choose a guided tour on an open-top vehicle, or charter a motorcoach or van.
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Singapore’s Floating Baby
By Linda Tancs
Marc Quinn’s monumental 2008 sculpture Planet has been donated for permanent display at the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Popularly called “the floating baby,” the work of painted bronze and steel measures nearly 32 feet long and almost 13 feet high but appears to hover over the ground as if impossibly suspended. Gardens by the Bay is home to more than 200 sculptures from around the world, featuring unique pieces, intriguing crafts and stone works.
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Five Centuries of British Art
By Linda Tancs
The Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom, comprising paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, rare books and manuscripts. Imagine experiencing five centuries of British artistic achievement without crossing the Atlantic! More than just a hub for academic research and learning, the center offers programs for children and families as well. Admission is free.
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Surfing Santas
By Linda Tancs
Christmas Eve in Cocoa Beach, Florida, marks Surfing Santa Day, a time to assemble both surfing and Christmas enthusiasts from around the world. Hundreds of surfers donned in Santa’s best will ride the waves in the morning before 10,000 or so onlookers. Join them on the beach at the end of Minutemen Causeway.
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The Tell Museum
By Linda Tancs
William Tell is a Swiss folk hero symbolizing the struggle for political and individual freedom. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, a legendary 14th-century Habsburg bailiff at Altdorf, whose brutal rule led to the William Tell rebellion and the eventual independence of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Tell Museum in Bürglen collects historical, artistic and folkloric documents, writings, works, objects and depictions connected to Tell and to the founding history of the Swiss Confederacy. It’s housed in the Wattigwiler Tower on Bürglen’s Postplatz – the village in which William Tell is said to have lived.
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Little Hollywood
By Linda Tancs
Vistas of sagebrush and towering sandstone cliffs have lured filmmakers to Kanab, Utah, for 80 years. That’s why it’s become known as “Little Hollywood.” Movie posters and autographed photos abound in buildings; abandoned film sets are tourist attractions. You can experience more of frontier movie making at The Little Hollywood Movie Museum on Center Street, which reveals how Southern Utah became the backlot for some of the most spectacular movies ever made.
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Mardi Gras World
By Linda Tancs
Located along the Mississippi River, Mardi Gras World is a tourist attraction located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Guests tour the 300,000 square foot working warehouse where hundreds of floats are made for Mardi Gras parades. This all-access opportunity winds you through the massive studio, where artists and architects work year-round building Mardi Gras floats from the ground up. The facility offers a complimentary shuttle for people taking their tour, with stops adjacent to the French Quarter.
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Christmas Boat Parade
By Linda Tancs
The Christmas Boat Parade in Newport Beach, California, is an annual event where fully decorated boats cruise around the harbor in the evening for holiday light viewing. One of the largest boat parades of its kind, hundreds of decorated ships of all sizes compete for top awards in over a half dozen categories. The parade route begins and ends at the tip of Lido Isle. Bayfront estates also get in on the action and take part in their own competition called the “Ring Of Lights.” This year’s parade is from December 17 to December 21, with fireworks and other festivities opening and closing the event.
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