Erika Mailman

Here in the City by the Bay, there’s always something cooking, whether it’s a jaunt across the elevated playspace of the 14-acre Presidio Tunnel Tops, taking an urban hike across the Golden Gate Bridge, celebrating gay culture in the Castro neighborhood, dancing yourself into a frenzy or chilling to incredible music. There’s always a festival of some sort unfolding, and one of the best things is that many of these events are free. We’ve put together our picks for the best things to do in San Francisco this weekend (you can check the website for each event for further details). Now: Grab that weekend by the horns! RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best things to do in San Francisco

The mystical, wild, beautiful Northern Lights are firmly placed on many people’s bucket lists. While cities, train rides and road trips are amazing, it’s really standing stock still and watching the sky do its extraordinary trick that many of us consider the No. 1 thing to do in 2025. Also called Aurora Borealis, this phenomenon involves bright colors of neon green, rose and yellow moving in the sky, sometimes so dramatically quickly it can make you gasp. While some southern places in the U.S. suddenly had Northern Lights viewings in recent years, your best bet is to get to the places on this list. They’re notable for being far enough north to have a good chance of seeing them and they have dark skies without much or any light interference. Check weather conditions and timing before booking a trip to give yourself the best chance of making a remarkable connection with nature. RECOMMENDED: The best places for stargazing in the U.S.

Lunar New Year is a spectacular community festival with colorful elements like dragon and lion dances, firecrackers going off to scare away evil and people wearing red clothes for the same reason: it’s a vibrant, exciting way to say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new one. Sometimes called Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year is a more inclusive term that draws in other East Asian countries that celebrate the lunar calendar, including Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Many U.S. cities put on parades and celebrations in the streets so everyone can be festive, eat traditional food, wear masks, exchange red money envelopes and cheer on—this year—the onset of the Year of the Snake. This year’s festival cycle begins January 29 (the official Lunar New Year this year, based on the moon’s phases) and ends February 16, and the lucky color is green. RECOMMENDED: The best Chinatowns in the USAThe best Chinese restaurants in the USA

For us, free is the best price. And while there are many wonderful things to spend your money on in San Francisco—from great shopping to Michelin starred restaurants—you’ll also find a ton of experiences that don’t cost a cent. Some places like museums offer monthly free days, while others are free every day. And don’t forget the gorgeous hikes that cover the city, yours for the taking. Here’s our list of the eight best things to do in San Francisco that, like J Lo’s love, don’t cost a thing. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best things to do in San Francisco

Picture yourself with a martini in hand, gazing out over a beautiful bay with boats making their way over to the Golden Gate, pelicans cruising above the water—not only are you having a beautiful San Francisco day, you’re also honoring the cocktail that some say was invented here. Legend says that the martini was created for a Gold Rusher on his way to Martinez (hence the name) across the bay who asked for something special in exchange for the gold nugget he placed on the bar. San Francisco gets credit for birthing some other cocktails, too. Whatever the truth is, this city is a great place to toss one back—or to delicately sip your artisanal showpiece—or to choose a mocktail instead. Choose from rooftop bars, cellar dives and waterfront vista points, and enjoy the heady buzz of this great city. RECOMMENDED: These are the best bars to meet someone

San Francisco is a food haven, with so much to offer people curious to try a cuisine that’s new to them or for those who love their tried-and-true restaurants that have been around since the early days. Surrounded by water, we have incredible fresh seafood fished right off our shores, and we’re proud to offer California-grown fruits and vegetables from our sun-dappled agricultural fields nearby. It’s no wonder that San Francisco has roughly one Michelin-starred restaurant per every 1.7 miles… 28 of them to be precise, with three new ones added this year and one adding a second star. But beyond the Michelin-starred experiences, we also love the hole-in-the-wall dumpling spots and the street tacos and the pub grub in beautifully authentic spots. It’s all so very San Francisco—and delicious to boot! Maybe we all eat early and head home sooner, but that’s because our stomachs and palates are happy beyond belief. RECOMMENDED:📍 The best things to do in San Francisco🥑 The best brunch in San Francisco🍸 The best rooftop bars in San Francisco🛍️ The best thrift stores in San Francisco🎨 The best galleries in San Francisco

The start of a new year is a huge landmark in our lives. Whether we’re closing down a hard year or looking back with elation, our earnest hope is that the next year will be even better: filled with plenty of get-togethers with friends and family, good meals, clubbing or sitting down for an intimate drink, and maybe adding in reconnecting with nature by taking a hike each week (it's New Year’s resolution material!). We have to celebrate that chance to start a new year fresh, and these parties provide great palate cleansers. With fireworks reflected in the bay, San Francisco is one of the prettiest cities to ring in the new year.  

We enjoy a Michelin-starred restaurant as much as the next foodie. But for a dish to be fantastic, it doesn’t have to be pricy. In fact, we love the treasure hunt of finding something really special, crafted with care and a love of fresh ingredients, for a surprisingly low cost. Every item on this list of the best cheap eats in the U.S. falls under $15: hard to find, but not impossible—and none comes from a fast-food spot. They come from all over the country, so hopefully, you aren’t far from one of these restaurants serving something tasty and affordable. And if you are, mark down these cheap food favorites as part of your travel plans. Enjoy!

Although we’ll always say yes to a multi-course meal with artistically plated elements, sometimes we just want to march up to a counter and get something immediately: fresh, hot and delicious despite its speed. And San Francisco delivers on that promise. Maybe post-pandemic we can’t get something for under $10 like we used to be able to, but budget-conscious choices that are still succulent and authentic can be found (we either rounded up or rounded down the prices in these listing to the nearest full dollar, not going above $15). Whether you find your happy cheap dish at a hole-in-the-wall spot, a food truck or a humble sit-down restaurant, these bites are worth more than their price—made with love and skill. Check hours before setting forth; some of these spots are only open for certain meals—and check to see if you can order ahead and circumvent the line. RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in San Francisco

When dining out, steak seems to be the ultimate decadent choice, and a steakhouse visit figures into many people’s vacation plans. Something about the aroma drifting out to the sidewalk, the knowledge that next to your plate will be a sturdy knife, the anticipation of that succulent pink with a carmelized sear on the surface… it’s worth daydreaming about. And San Francisco’s steakhouses fulfill those daydreams with inventive takes on the standard at newer spots, as well as time-honored renditions at landmark restaurants that have been blowing residents’ minds since the 1940s. With grass-fed American beef and Japanese Wagyu taking pride of place on the platter, here are the top 12 best steakhouses in San Francisco. RECOMMENDED:🌮 The best restaurants in San Francisco🍳 The best breakfast in San Francisco🍸 The best rooftop bars in San Francisco📍 The best things to do in San Francisco

Palo Alto’s downtown is a fun place to walk around and dip into one of the many restaurants serving delicious fare. You might ramble one direction and come across a French patisserie; turn another corner and someone is serving wine flights in what looks like a home’s front yard. There’s an eatery that specializes in hummus, a rooftop terrace for a sunset cocktail and an Indian restaurant serving a dish that only 23 grandmothers know the recipe for. You’ll find a vast range of options in this bustling pedestrian friendly area. RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in San Francisco

A real-life meetup is always the goal, even if online dating sites make the initial sorting phase easier. A bar’s often the ideal place to do it: noisy, upbeat, a lot of people around—and best of all, if it’s not going well, you can have one quick drink and leave (or just… move down the bar a few seats). Luckily, San Francisco has a plethora of bars for every kind of situation, whether you’re looking for a hookup, a good flirtation or maybe even a forever match. You can peruse the options at a dim dive bar or have a sunnier encounter at a brewpub’s outdoor patio; you might dance your booty off or delicately imbibe the most artisanal of cocktails. Whatever your preferences, it’s here for you to celebrate that most honored of searches: the one for love. Here are our 12 best suggestions of singles bars in San Francisco. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best bars in San Francisco  

Dolores Park is the kind of place that can give you all those San Francisco feels, with green grass covering a slope that gives you incredible city views. It’s also much warmer than Golden Gate Park and appeals to locals and visitors. Named for nearby Mission Dolores, the property became a park in 1905 and served as a refugee camp for those uprooted by the 1906 earthquake. You’ll find palm trees, sports fields and courts, off-leash dog play areas and a playground. But the real draw is the expanse of luscious lawn, where scores of people in various states of undress sunbathe, read, do yoga, drink, smoke, play lawn games and socialize on warm weekend days. Bring a blanket and a burrito from nearby La Taqueria. Why visit? Dolores Park is worth visiting because it gives great views of the city skyline and the bay—and even the East Bay glimpsed across the water. You can take Muni’s J Church line to get here, or the closest BART station (16th Street Mission) is a half-mile away. It’s almost 16 acres, giving you plenty of room to roam, which is important since on a sunny day you can find a few thousand people here sharing the park. There’s a festive atmosphere when the weather is warm and vendors walk around selling tamales and even crème brûlée. Fun fact: The park has a pissoir (an open-air urinal, for those of you not accustomed to peeing alfresco) in its southwest end on Church Street. This grated hole in the cement has a curving fence around it for privacy—and a white tarp for c

Visit the redwood park tucked in beside the Transamerica Pyramid daily from sunrise to sunset to view 20 major sculptures of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, inspired by flora and fauna. Les Lalanne is the collective name used by these artists. These sculptures constitute the first public installation of Pyramid Arts, which will rotate twice a year. Free.

Attend the CinemaLit film series for a 6pm showing of a different vintage film each Friday. The café opens at 5:30pm with wine, beer, sparkling water, juice and fresh-popped popcorn for sale, and the movie begins at 6. The Mechanics’ Institute was built in 1906 to house the 1854 organization providing classes, a library and a chess room for residents (some say, “out of work gold miners”). Today it’s a cultural center as well as a library. The film series is curated by author Matthew Kennedy who has written several books on film. 

We realize an hour isn’t very long, but if you embrace the calm and tranquility, an hour at the Japanese Tea Garden can reward you for the rest of the day. Each Friday from 9 to 10am, you can enter the garden with its arched bridge, pagodas, stone ornaments, koi ponds and, of course, gardens. San Franciscans can enter for free anytime (with ID), but visitors can have a free hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 to 10am. The teahouse, with tea and light snacks, is open for purchases at that time as well. Admission outside the magic hour is currently $19 for adults.

History buffs, come out for a video installation, Fort Point: A Bastion of Memory, created by artist Ben Wood in collaboration with the Fort Point National Historic Site. The 45-minute work consisting of historical photographs will be projected onto the interior walls of San Francisco’s Civil War fort to interpret area history, such as the lighthouse that once operated here, the building of the Golden Gate Bridge and more. Free (as is admission to the fort).

Every day at 4pm, gather at the campfire circle to hear a free talk by a National Park Service ranger, covering the stories of the Presidio: indigenous history, military stories including the Buffalo Soldiers’ connection to the Presidio, and the story of the Presidio’s role in the WWII Japanese American internment camps. Having a view of the Golden Gate Bridge during the talk isn’t too shabby. Free.

The Function, San Francisco's brand new Black-owned comedy club, spotlights the Bay Area’s top Indian, Pakistani and South Asian comics every Sunday (and on Saturdays check out the "Crazy Funny Asians" shows). Many other themed nights happen, and there’s always a full bar, dance floor and comedy. Tiered tickets range from free to $18. 

Every Sunday there’s a free event at the Great Highway Park, from chair or mat yoga to tai chi and live music performances through the Second Sunday Serenades. You can’t really say you’ve reached nirvana until you’ve done yoga in the middle of a former highway. Free.

Meet Loren Rhoads, the author of 222 Cemeteries to Visit Before You Die, along with writers Emerian Rich and Francesca Maria, who’ll be discussing cemeteries and horror stories. This SFinSF event takes place at 7pm at the San Francisco Columbarium. Rich and Maria were contributors to the anthology Death's Garden Revisited. $10 at the door. 

San Francisco City Guides offers walking tours of the Ferry Building, once the second busiest transit hub in the world at its peak in the 1930s (construction of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge created a devastating blow to ferry service). Tours are on Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 10am. Free, but a $20 donation is encouraged; guides can’t accept tips.

This recurring event series comes to a neighborhood shopping district near you, with backyard party vibes, live music, DJs and family-friendly activities. On October 26, it starts at noon at Faxon and Ocean Avenues; check the website for the next happening. Free.

With a history as a simple coffee shop and now expanded to multiple locations as a resort hotel, the Peppermill is an upscale, kitschy, Italian-inspired resort. If you love marble columns, gambling under golden ceilings, and walking past the benevolent view of old-world statuary, you’re in for a fun stay. The Reno resort sprawls with two towers and two wings, with its entry lobby a nod to the Duomo in Florence with its Gothic dome. The AAA Four Diamond resort treats guests well, with an 82,000-square-foot casino and a playful outdoor pool (swimmable in winter) with a cascading waterfall descending from the top of a round, columned structure and the chance to swim in a circle around a statue of a fabulous mermaid. Heavy on fantasy and architecture that places the modern next to the ancient-seeming, the Peppermill is a quick eight-minute drive from downtown Reno and its Riverwalk, world-class art museum, casinos and hiking trails. Photograph: Erika MailmanThe Caldarium at the Spa Toscana The best part, however, has to be the Spa Toscana, rated the third best hotel spa in the U.S. by USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. We highly recommend getting a day pass to experience the three-story spa, where you travel by elevator to the exquisite Caldarium. Originally, a Caldarium was a Roman space with a hot plunge bath and steam room heated by a fire-fueled furnace. The Peppermill’s version is a beautiful space with a vaulted ceiling, an indoor pool with beautiful mosaic tiles

In San Francisco, we’re lucky that our Lunar New Year festivities are so awesome (spanning seven events across eight dates)—and in particular that our parade is the largest outside of Asia and one of the few remaining illuminated nighttime parades in North America. It’s a beautiful spectacle as the dragons and lions weave their way through city streets, tongues out and eyes flaring, chasing away evil so we can have a wonderful 2025. This year’s parade, officially termed the Alaska Airlines Chinese New Year Parade, happens on Saturday, February 15 (we’ll dive into more details below). Throughout the festivities, you’ll see Choy Suns (deities that are the god of wealth) passing out thousands of lai sees (red envelopes) to kids, each with a chocolate gold coin inside. Some will also have money inside or a gift certificate that can be redeemed for a toy. If you encounter a Choy Sun, you know you’ll be blessed with prosperity and wealth. Here are some of the events happening this month and in February and March to usher in good luck. The Flower Market FairJanuary 25 and 26 This celebration provides a chance to buy flowers, Harmony Tray candies and fruits like oranges and tangerines, which are symbols of happiness and abundance (the Cantonese word for tangerine, gut, sounds like good luck, while the word for oranges, gum, sounds like gold, according to the festival’s website). The fair takes place on Grant between Clay and Broadway, with traditional Chinese performances (magicians,

Things are becoming a lot easier on BART for passengers. The Passenger Information System—the digital screens inside each car—is being updated to show major transit connections at stations so that riders can better navigate switching to a different BART train or other mode of transit: Muni, cable cars, ferries, street cars and even Amtrak. Each will be color-coded to the color of the BART line as it appears on the adjacent system maps. When you board a train, there are six screens inside that you can check when you approach a station to see what major transit lines you can board nearby. Riders approaching Embarcadero station will see an icon for ferry connections, and across the bay, Amtrak connection options will appear at Richmond and Coliseum stations. These updated screens will show up on trains in the coming weeks; previously, they only showed the name of the upcoming station but not any connection info. Commenters responded to the news yesterday on the SF Bay Area Rapid Transit’s Instagram account with varying degrees of enthusiasm. “As an international traveler and a bay native, I’m so happy to see this upgrade. Trust me, tourists always remember the ease of local transportation,” said one person, while another wrote, “Welcome to the year 2000!” with an eye roll emoji. Many people begged for the screens to show the current time, while one asked for lights to flash on the side that the doors will open, one wanted the conductors to speak audibly into the microphone when

This coming Monday, the Museum of the African Diaspora opens its doors to everyone for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Free Community Day. You can tour all the galleries and exhibitions for free (usually $15 for adults, $7 for seniors and students, free for ages 5-12) and take part in a wide range of community activities through the day, all in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on this national holiday. The day’s slate of art, performance and music provides a chance to reflect on creativity, courage and the importance of protest, and the power of diverse communities. MoAD is usually closed on Mondays, so this is an extra bonus! The day-long observance takes place from 11am to 5pm. It kicks off with an interactive performance from the Prescott Circus, a fantastic youth circus with performers from West Oakland’s Prescott Elementary School. They’ll be stilt walking and entertaining people on the sidewalk outside from 11am to 2pm. Sidewalk chalk art will be happening 1 to 4pm outside the museum as well, giving visitors a chance to draw or write a meaningful message. At noon and 12:45pm, the Marcus Shelby Quintet will perform a musical celebration of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, including rearrangements of spirituals, freedom songs and original music composed by Shelby. San Franciscan Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader and educator whose work focuses on African American history, social movements and music. At 2:30 and 3:15pm, the CO-LLAB Choir will sing songs of prote

Well, we’ve heard of weirder things, but this is definitely heading to the top of the quirky list: a roller coaster that is gravy-themed: the Good Gravy! Family Coaster. You’ll ride in a vintage “gravy boat” that hurtles through a giant can of cranberry sauce and past a dangerous-looking whisk, a rolling pin, a kitchen timer shaped like a chicken, and other familiar elements of a Thanksgiving dinner. Adorably, the picnic tables are shaped like turkey silhouettes. It’s wacky and we love it. The Good Gravy! ride departs out of Stuffing Springs at Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari theme park in Santa Claus, Indiana. Opening in May 2024, it was just named the No. 1 new theme park attraction of 2024 by USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. The ride’s narrative is that you’ve arrived at Grandma Gracy’s on Thanksgiving Day, only to find out there’s no gravy. You’re then loaded onto the empty gravy boat and pulled backward and ejected forward on a quest to locate gravy past all the elements that Grandma was smart enough to purchase ahead of time. The showstopper element is pausing atop a seven-story spike and then doing it all backward, but it’s fairly tame: children as small as 38 inches tall can ride, which includes most 3-year-olds, and it only goes 37 miles an hour. It’s also wonderful nostalgia for older riders. “Our team had so much fun theming Grandma's house to be frozen in time in 1965–from the Sears Catalog on the coffee table to the kitchen phone with a stretched-out

Turbulence. That terrifying feeling of the plane bumping along and sometimes taking stomach-dropping plunges, making the overhead compartments rattle and nervous flyers grip their armrest. Along with people fully reclining in front of you and folks trying to sneak in before their boarding number is called, this is one of the most hated aspects of flying, according to a study I just did by consulting myself. If only there was a way to know which flight routes are the most turbulent so you could avoid them… wait, there is! Turbulence forecast site Turbli.com has looked at data from about 10,000 worldwide routes, connecting out of 550 airports, to rank them in terms of most turbulent. The figures below represent the average eddy dissipation rate. Anything from 0 to 20 is considered light, anything from 20 to 40 is moderate, from 40 to 60 is strong, from 60 to 80 is severe, and above that is extreme. The great news is that no route goes above the light category in the U.S. You’ll see many of the same cities listed. Salt Lake City (appearing five times), Denver (four times), and Jackson, Bozeman, and Las Vegas (each appearing two times) seem to be part of some of the more turbulent routes. Don’t avoid them; just make sure you have some anti-nausea or anti-anxiety meds on board first. The top 10 most turbulent routes in the U.S.: 1. Albuquerque (ABQ) - Denver (DEN): 17.751 2. Denver (DEN) - Jackson (JAC): 17.454 3. Jackson (JAC) - Salt Lake City (SLC): 17.419 4. Denver (DEN) - Salt

When a new year begins, it’s natural to think about whether this is finally the year you’ll get to that place you’ve been dreaming of all your life. Whether you’ve been saving up money for it—or courage—maybe 2025 is the year you’ll knock this one off your bucket list. So, does your bucket list match everyone else’s? A new study by safari holiday curator Go2Africa looked at Google search trends with the term “bucket list” to find out the top experiences wished for in almost every country in the world. Although the data is worldwide, we’ll focus here on the top 15 bucket list experiences for Americans. In first place? The northern lights. Luckily, there are a lot of places to make this dream come true, like Alaska, Canada—including Churchill, Manitoba, where you can see the Aurora Borealis up to 300 nights a year—and most famously, Norway. In recent years, some U.S. states where you don’t usually expect to see them have been lucky enough to experience these dazzling, ever-moving lights in the sky. The second item on the list? That gorgeous cleft in the earth, the Grand Canyon. This national park offers stunning views of mysterious geological strata (put on your science glasses: did you know that no one knows why 1.2 billion-year-old rock layers are next to ones that are only 250 million years old? It’s called the Great Unconformity). Plus, there are sunsets, mules, hiking and a glass bridge. The third bucket list experience Americans are dying to check off is visiting Bora Bor

I’m sitting under a palapa made of palm fronds and surrounded by Polynesian-inspired tiki totems and woven grass walls. The dim room carries a bit of intrigue, a good amount of history and a heaping dose of vintage kitsch. The dining tables surround an aqua lagoon, the décor incorporates a ship’s rigging and rolled up sails and the dance floor is made from salvaged wood from a lumber schooner called the S.S. Forester. It’s the Tonga Room inside the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, and it’s been wowing patrons since 1945—and the hype is earned! Every element seems designed to charm, even the wooden lazy susan serving vessel for the pupu platter. Maybe the rosy outlook has to do with the mai tais so potent that you’re tipsy halfway through just one (alas, the mai tais are no longer served in a fake coconut like they used to be). All of these contribute to a memorable evening, but the showstopper is the fact that it rains and thunders inside every half hour or so. The Tonga Room has Disneyland-level atmospherics and it’s a blast.  Photograph: Erika Mailman for Time OutThe entrance to the Tonga Room   Photograph: Erika Mailman for Time OutThe band plays on the boat Floating in the lagoon is a vibrantly decorated boat which the band plays on. The boat sails forward a few feet and then reverses back, but we’re easily entertained in such a spectacular environment. The band, the Island Groove, is great and plays standards like “Girl from Ipanema” and Fleetwood Mac c

Going through the airport, we usually have our phone out, ready to show our downloaded plane ticket at the checkpoint, and separately, we’re keeping track of our driver’s license. Such a flimsy laminated card that always seems to be on the verge of being dropped or forgotten in whichever pocket we stashed it in. Or if we keep it in our literal wallet, deep in the bowels of our purse or bag, it’s always panic-inducing to try to dig it out while people roll their eyes behind us in line. But now we can store our driver’s license (or other identification card) in our Apple Wallet, just like our tickets, and have one less thing to worry about. The states where you can do this include Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawai’i, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio and the territory of Puerto Rico. You’ll need to have an iPhone 8 or later with iOS 16.5 or later, or Apple Watch Series 4 or later with watchOS 9.5 or later. Things are a little more specific in California or Puerto Rico; see the website for the fine print. To add the card to your Wallet, you’ll have to turn on Face ID or Touch ID (fingerprint) and ensure that your Apple account has enabled two-factor verification. Also, your device must be set to the United States. If you feel nervous that you’re scanning a private document, know that the card you’ll upload to Wallet will use the privacy and security features already built in to both the phone and the encrypted card to help protect against tampering and theft. Neither

Last month we shared that Macy’s was going to be closing around 150 stores (out of its 512 various-sized locations) over a three year period, but didn’t know which ones were on the list. That news came yesterday from the department store behemoth with a long history. We now know 66 of the closing stores, with another 80 or so to be announced later, according to USA Today and the store’s press release. The stores in 21 different states will be closed due to underproductivity and will in turn let Macy’s invest more into its other locations. Two of the 66 have already closed, a Boca Raton, Florida, furniture location and the Streets at Southglenn furniture location in Centennial, Colorado. Looking down through this list, it seems that many of the stores to be closed are locations that specialize in furniture. It is hard to see beloved landmark stores go—we love riding the wooden elevators at the flagship store on 34th Street at Herald Square in New York City, a location which will of course going to stay open—and we hope that these closures, although distressing, will ultimately strengthen the brand. Here are all the locations that we know will be closing: Arizona: Superstition Springs Center, Mesa California: Broadway Plaza, Los Angeles 750 West 7th Street, Los Angeles Hillsdale Furniture, San Mateo Sunrise Mall, Citrus Heights Westminster Mall, Westminster NewPark Mall, Newark Mission Valley Home, San Diego Otay Ranch Town Center, Chula Vista Village at Corte Madera, Corte Mad

Each year, Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards honor the hotels, restaurants, activities and destinations that visitors loved over the past year, crunching ratings and reviews to come up with a list of the best ones. We’ve just got word of the first 2025 category to be released: the best of the best destinations. We’re looking at the top places in the U.S. to see why reviewers loved them. In first place, “the greatest city in the world” as Hamilton tells us, is New York. People came to Tripadvisor to rave about the amazing things to see: the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Empire State Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art… and of course the incredible shows on Broadway. The Cloisters, libraries, West Village shopping and upper west side dining all got mentioned—and even the marketplace inside Grand Central Station pleased reviewers. The second best destination is Oahu. Surfers love it, with huge waves for pros and amateurs alike. If that’s not your jam, Waikiki Beach and others offer gorgeous blue water, soft sand and incredible snorkeling. Hikers will love the trails that lead to waterfall, while the Hale'iwa Arts Festival each year brings artists, dancers, craft makers and musicians to the island. In third place is the always-entertaining Las Vegas. Top chefs craft incredible meals, or you can choose to graze at lavish buffets serving every food under the (hot) sun. Tripadvisor reviewers mentioned watching shows, trying their luck in a casino, taking a wildlife

This is such a cool idea we’re thinking of taking up downhill skiing just to experience it: a ski-in, ski-out art exhibition on the ski slopes. It takes place on Aspen Mountain's Ruthie’s Run and features the exhibition "Heaven" by Alex Israel. You’ll have to be able to ski intermediate terrain to get to the exhibit. Ruthie’s Run is a blue trail on Ajax with a combination of groomed terrain and moguls. Newbies like us might have to carefully do 'pizza slices' down the mountain to get to see this cool exhibit. Israel’s work consists of vibrant, large-scale, airbrushed paintings, often featuring Los Angeles or himself in self-portraits. He’s also collaborated with Hollywood celebrities, authors, German luggage maker Rimowa, and even Louis Vuitton to create beautiful animated sequences to market three of the designer’s fragrances. The work is energetic, with a shimmering pastel rainbow palette and a tangible sense of humor. Much of it was created in the lot of Warner Bros. studios in L.A. Image: Courtesy Aspen OneThe lift ticket for this season designed by Alex Israel "Heaven" is part of the innovative Art in Unexpected Places program, which has been around since 2005. Artists like Jim Hodges, Claudia Comte and Haruki Murakami have designed lift tickets over the years. Besides the exhibition inside Ruthie’s (an on-mountain restaurant shuttered since 2001), Israel’s artwork also adorns this season’s Aspen Snowmass lift tickets and passes, on-mountain signage and merchandise. Th

Sometimes, your hotel is simply the place where you crash after a long day exploring—but sometimes, it’s as good as the destination itself. That’s if it's a beautiful hotel with charming furnishings, a stunning lobby and an exterior worthy of photographing. We all love that moment when we step inside and approach the front desk, knowing we’re lucky to get to stay at this beautiful spot. A new study by Level Frames has let us know which states have the most beautiful hotels based on analyzing Tripadvisor reviews. RECOMMENDED: The best beach resorts in the U.S. According to the study, you’ll find the most beautiful hotels in Virginia. There, almost one in six positive Tripadvisor reviews include words like stylish, elegant, refined or sophisticated. The top three hotels in the state are The Georges in Lexington, The Inn at Willow Grove in Orange and The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. These three hotels have 2,666 four and five-star reviews, of which 366 relate to décor. The next state with gorgeous hotels is Minnesota, where 8 percent of the four—and five-star luxury hotel reviews mention the decor. The most-mentioned hotels are the Saint Paul Hotel in St. Paul, the JW Marriott Hotel, and the Hotel Ivy, which are inside the Mall of America and within walking distance of it, respectively. In third place is Wisconsin, where one in every 25 positive Tripadvisor hotel reviews referred to the hotel’s interior design. The standouts in the state are the Charmant Hotel in La Cross and Th