What’s the ultimate American road trip? We’ve got three for your consideration, plus:

• Sauna, ice bath, repeat: Our firsthand look at the cult of contrast bathing.
• Monterey Car Week recap: All the best debuts, including a “retro hypercar”

Few concepts are so intrinsically tied to the American summer like the road trip. This rite of passage takes many forms, from the ones you were forced into as a youth to those carefree ones in college, or maybe your adolescent ones with family and friends. Great? Yes (some, in retrospect). But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a little room for improvement — by borrowing a travel hack that’s popular in Europe.

Open-jaw flying is an itinerary-building technique that allows you to cram more sightseeing into a trip; it involves flying into one city and then continuing to another, and maybe a third, before returning home from a different airport. Layer that idea over a road trip, where the distance between cities can be capped to a manageable car ride of up to three hours, and you start to see how adding two one-way tickets can broaden the trip.

We’ve outlined a few epic open-jaw travel routes that you could crush with little planning: Tennessee, New England and the Pacific Northwest. Now it's up to you to choose.

Last week, we asked how partial you are to rum. Here's what you said: 

• Only 4.2% of you said you'll only drink it in a Piña Colada.
• 15% of you said you're not fans.
• A surprising number (20.3%) said it's your favorite spirit.
• A large majority (60.5%) said you enjoy a rum drink now and then.

The Gospel of Contrast Bathing

In early 2020, as the pandemic was rearing its ugliest head, a Toronto couple decided to build an ice bath in their backyard. Robbie and Emily Bent set up an adjacent fire, too, and invited a few close friends into the project. Before long, the five of them started hosting dedicated sessions: dunk yourself in the frigid water, warm your bones by the flames, repeat. Word got around.

Eventually, that community of five became 300, which became 1,000, which led Bent and Co. to create Othership, a 3,000-square-foot immersive spa in Toronto’s Fashion District with a 50-person sauna and a bunker of ice baths, marketed as the coldest commercial plunges in all of North America.

Now, Othership has landed in NYC. Tanner Garrity recently visited to experience the sauna — the biggest one he’s seen in the city — and the 42-degree ice plunges, but more importantly to explore the growing cult of “contrast bathing,” a wellness concept that promotes this circuit of hot, cold, repeat.

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Lincoln Eyes SUV Supremacy and a Retro Hypercar Emerges at Monterey Car Week

This one’s for the fans.

While the story of Monterey Car Week in the aftermath of the pandemic was all about record-breaking auction prices, the automotive extravaganza, which is held every year in California, was all about enthusiasts for the 2024 edition. Yes, the overall auction market softened, but large automakers and small builders alike showed up in force with their latest, greatest and most outrageous new vehicles.

Here are the six debuts that we’re most excited about, including info on how you can get your hands on them.