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Hello all—

I hope you’re doing well and keeping your head down until spring break. As one of the most popular spring break destinations, Hawaii has struggled with the ills of overtourism and its denizens have been vocal about their frustrations with tourists. So what a perfect moment for our latest It’s Still a Big World feature which offers up a less crowded alternative.

French Polynesia (often mistakenly referred to in its entirety as Tahiti) receives the same number of tourists in a year as Hawaii does on an average day in June. As Cassandra Brooklyn writes, this means you often have only to share these incredibly lush, tropical islands with a few fellow touristsl.

Speaking of overtourism, the poster child pre-pandemic for that plague was Barcelona. I haven’t heard as much of late about fights over tourists, but I did notice last fall when the list for the world’s best bars came out and the coastal Catalan city dominated. Paul Richardson took one for the team and undertook the arduous task of trying as many of the city’s best bars–old and new–and shares what the scene is actually like.

As I said last week, March is a tease. As of right now, here in D.C., it’s cold,windy, and threatening snow. One consolation, though, is we’re not facing an epic blizzard worthy of a novel, as in 1952, when one of the Gilded Age’s greatest playgrounds got swamped.

Enjoy!

— William O’Connor, Travel Editor

These Islands Are Like Hawaii But Without the Crowds

Skip Hawaii’s crowds and head to French Polynesia for a more intimate tropical island experience.

Barcelona’s Swanky New Bars Swept the World’s Best List—Do They Live up to the Hype?

My three-day mission: to boldly go into the heart of the local cocktail scene, to ask whether it was deserving, and to learn something about modern mixology in the process.

The Epic Blizzard That Swallowed the Playground of the Rich and Famous

Dodge, McLean, Fabbri, and Rockefeller—Bar Harbor was where the 0.1% called home in the summer. But one winter, this famed summer resort got submerged.

At a New Austin Hotel, It's All About the Views

It has one of the city's best new rooftops and unobstructed views across this bustling, fast-growing hub deep in the heart of Texas.

“Patients Beyond Borders, a medical travel advocacy group based in North Carolina, estimates that roughly 800,000 to 1 million Americans travel abroad each year in order to receive some form of treatment. While medical tourists will travel to far-flung countries like Singapore, India, Thailand, and Malaysia to receive care, they’re more than likely to stick to places closer to home like Mexico, Costa Rica, or even Cuba.”

– Tony Ho Tran reports on the rise of Americans engaging in medical tourism.

Attention Germaphobes: Easily Cover That Questionable Tray Table

Whether you’re on board (pun intended!) with a full-sized seat cover available here or are only a D-list germaphobe, these disposable airplane tray covers are a great way to ensure your hands, food, drinks, and books are protected from germs. We certainly don’t trust that the flight crew cleans each tray after each flight—pandemic measures or not—but you won’t have to worry about that with these liners.

— Scouted by Mia Maguire

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Tour Contemporary Homes Around the World With This Book

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again–we love house porn here at Beast Travel. That’s why our latest selection for Just Booked– Homes for Our Time: Contemporary Houses around the World. Vol. 2–takes you inside some of the greatest houses built in recent years.

Published by Taschen and put together by the busiest man in the world of coffee table books, Philip Jodidio, the book is a follow up on a previous survey we also featured. This volume places a special emphasis on houses that cleverly adapt or reuse existing structures and materials, like Eduardo Cadaval’s theater in Barcelona, Guillermo Acuna’s playful shingle-style seaside cottage in Chile, and the eco-forward Loom House in Washington.

There are, of course, the showstoppers. One can’t help but gawk at the futuristic hobbit hillside home designed by Mino Caggiula in Switzerland or the villain’s lair that is Casa S in Punta Pite in Chile. Plus, there are the envy-inducing views at a beach house in Tofino and on Serfio in Greece. Best of all, in ranging from the modest to the extravagant, this book shows the essential truth of contemporary architecture–it’s more personal than it’s ever been.

Don’t miss our other selections for our series on gorgeous travel-related coffee table books, Just Booked.

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