On an off-beat road trip through the southwest, Bella Pollen finds communities in the midst of reinvention

The rules are strict and the licences rare, but free-diving with sperm whales in Dominica is an experience like no other

Luxury weekend breaks let novices experiment in a safe — and legal — environment

On a lonely stretch of desert road near Area 51, alien conspiracies have spawned a cutesy form of tourism

Robert Penn and his 15-year-old daughter take a week-long voyage down the Middle Fork of the Salmon river

Surrounded by arid wilderness, Lake Powell makes a beautiful and bizarre destination for a summer boating holiday

The beachfront borough’s mid-century ‘Doo-Wop’ motels are a treat for design fans — but the developers are circling

A new gastronomic tour reveals a country that is about far more than rum and jerk chicken

The San Diego hotel’s guests have included Marilyn Monroe in ‘Some Like It Hot’ — yet it remains delightfully chilled out

The small town of Seaside, where ‘The Truman Show’ was shot, feels almost too perfect to be real

Faced with an economic crisis, the city has invested heavily in museums and culture

Can the city’s alternative spirit survive in the face of gentrification?

In Scottsdale’s bars and out on the state’s grassy uplands, an industry wiped out by Prohibition is being revived

A lavish new cruiser gives Ruaridh Nicoll access to a fly-fisherman’s paradise — the remote west coast island

An old Wild West film set in the desert is attracting creative downshifters from LA and New York

Stewart, British Columbia, offers few luxuries but has history, atmosphere and sublime skiing

Can the US’s national rail service still deliver the romance of railway travel?

As Arizona celebrates the 150th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s birth, Edwin Heathcote reflects on his legacy

Rod Stewart swapped Edinburgh for an observatory on the Caribbean island

While Canada celebrates 150 years, the Haida archipelago has been busy turning back the clock

Whale-watching, stargazing, lighthouses and lobster rolls — Nova Scotia is ideal for a seaside family holiday with a difference

On a mission to save the bison, the media mogul has opened his vast New Mexico ranches to tourists

As the country celebrates its 150th anniversary, Nigel Tisdall strikes out for a landmark that played a pivotal role in its past but gets fewer than 100 visitors per year