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The nation of Australia still needs your help. Since late 2019, some 27 million acres of land have burned around the country, with more being destroyed every day. Now is not the time to look away or stop caring, but rather to lean in and assist in every way you can. And that includes volunteering to feed fire-ravaged animals. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is seeking volunteers to distribute food and water to the endangered animals living on Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third-larget island....

New Year’s Eve in the U.S. is usually celebrated with general overindulgence, but in Bali, the holiday — which fell on Thursday in accordance to the Balinese calendar — is marked with silence, fasting, and meditation. Nyepi, as the holiday is known locally, is a Hindu celebration of silence and self-reflection. Non-Hindus and tourists are asked to stay indoors and turn off the lights as the tourism-driven island halts. Tourist attractions and shops are closed, mobile internet providers suspend non-essential service, and non-emergency road use is forbidden....

A Banksy creation encouraging people to wear face masks that on London’s Underground was removed just a few hours after it was painted. Disguised as a cleaning worker, the famously elusive street artist snuck onto a train car in city’s metro and covered it with his signature stencils. His iconic rats were seen parachuting from surgical masks, sneezing, and holding a bottle of hand sanitizer. Banksy completed the work by spray painting the phrase “I get lockdown but I get up again,” — a quarantine reference of the Chumbawamba song “Tubthumping"....

After a major outcry over changes in how California state park campsites are reserved, the California State Parks Department is changing course. Last August, the state launched a new website called reservecalifornia.com, where campers would go to book campsites. Previously, the California State Parks Department had used a website called reserveamerica.com — the same website used by most other states in the country — to handle its reservations. Under the old system, campsites would open up for reservations at 8 a....

Call me a grinch, a misanthrope, a DINK (dual-income-no-kids), or the anti-cute-police, but I hate (hate a thousand times over) ill-behaved children/infants/screaming banshees in upscale restaurants. Upon doing some research, it turns out I’m not alone. Not only are there message boards, websites, even petitions to promote child-free dining, it turns out there’s an international social club devoted to the baby-free lifestyle. I’m not a card carrying NoKidding member yet, but for now I plan on asking restaurants what their child policy is before attending....

Among airports and airlines’ creative responses to provide additional safety during the COVID-19 pandemic,Denver Airport has gone high tech to ensure social distancing with the help of a new app. The app, called VeriFLY, offers services like a dedicated TSA screening line with reserved times and access to a special and socially distanced train car to the airport concourse. Released earlier this month, it was developed to help alleviate congestion at the airport and to better ensure social distancing for travelers passing through....

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling on the Department of Justice to appeal the ruling of a Florida judge to overturn the federal mask mandate for indoor transportation. The mask mandate was abruptly overturned on Monday, which prompted transportation companies from Uber and Lyft to Amtrak and major U.S. airlines to quickly adapt their mask-wearing policies. The mask mandate was originally set to expire on May 3....

The South is often painted with a broad brush — regarded as a monolithic region of angel oaks, indulgent food, and honeyed accents. But in truth, the Southeast is richly varied: the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia shares little with the white-sand beaches of Alabama’s Gulf Coast, accents shift regionally from twang to lilt to television-host neutral, and even within a single state, the barbecue debates run as hot and fierce as any political disagreement (Team Vinegar!...

As coronavirus has swept across the United States, one town in Washington that’s also connected to Canada has managed to stave off the pandemic. picture alliance/Getty Point Roberts — population 1,300 — can only be accessed by driving through Canada, going on a private boat, or flying in on a small plane, according to the their Business and Tourism Council. The limited point of entry helped prevent coronavirus even more as “non-essential” travel between the U....

If you’ve been feeling disheveled or unorganized juggling multiple roles while working from home, you’re not alone. Managing your workload, caring for kids (and teaching them while they’re distance-learning), and cooking more meals than ever before — it can certainly feel like a lot. Enter: the bullet journal. Travel and Leisure chatted with Ryder Carroll, inventor of the bullet journal method, to understand why this journaling practice might be just what we need right now....

Though Americans are getting more and more comfortable with air travel, the increased interest in domestic road trips is still at an all-time high. But instead of recommending the usual routes and pit stops to clients, travel company CrushGlobal is taking a new approach, highlighting COVID-safe road trips that also support POC-owned businesses around the country. In fall 2020, award-winning journalist and CrushGlobal founder Kristin Braswell launched a series of road trip guides that offer itineraries throughout California, the Northeast, and the South — all with a focus on supporting POC-run businesses and experiences....

The world has many different customs, cultures, foods, languages, and, of course, currencies. While navigating food and language can be an adventure, showing up unprepared to pay for your yurt rental in Mongolia or for a Fair Isle sweater in Galway can be incredibly stressful. Before you hit the road or the airport (or the airport to the road), make sure you have the right combination of cash and credit cards to ensure your journey is a smooth one....

A year ago, tourism revenue accounted for 42% of Iceland’s economy, and while the country has been taking advantage of the downtime caused by the coronavirus pandemic by putting $12 million into improving roads and sites for future tourists, it is also anxious to jumpstart its tourism industry again after it has seen a 79% decline. So, Iceland has expanded its long-term visa program beyond the European Schengen area. Now, it is also allowing other citizens, including Americans, to stay for up to six months, according to the Work in Iceland program, which acts in coordination with the government....

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is officially being converted back into a mosque, to a mixed reception. According to CNN, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of Hagia Sophia from its status as a museum back into a mosque. Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum in 1935, but a court recently overturned the decision. The site will now be managed by the country’s Presidency of Religious Affairs, rather than the Ministry of Culture, CNN reported....

Shenanigans. Horsing around. Tomfoolery. Call it what you like, but pretty much everyone can remember a time when their parents scolded them for getting too rambunctious. While it’s natural to assume kids are inevitably going to get a little too exuberant during playtime, this can also reap some pretty dire consequences. According to Vice, the Shanghai Museum of Glass in China posted a notice on the Chinese social media site Weibo saying that one of their prized exhibits was, unfortunately, broken by “two little visitors” back in May....

A breakdown in communication is never good, but what’s it got to do with the planet Mercury? From February 16 through March 9, 2020, the tiny inner planet will appear to go backwards — from east to west — in the evening sky. Astrologers will have you believe all sorts of things about Mercury’s likelihood to cause indecision, moodiness, and nervous tension in humans, blaming Mercury’s retrograde for communication issues and even travel delays....

New Zealand has been praised for its quick and stringent actions in controlling the spread of COVID-19 early on, with a total of 2,295 cases and 25 deaths in the nation of five million since the onset of the pandemic last year, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Despite successfully flattening the curve, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said in a press conference Tuesday that she won’t reopen the nation’s borders, which have been closed since mid-March 2020, until its citizens are “vaccinated and protected,” The Guardian reported....

Those who’ve never thought of the Midwest as a resort destination will be pleasantly surprised by places like Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri. “The first thing that goes through your mind when you arrive is ‘This is Missouri?’ Wow!” a reader noted. Travel + Leisure’s audience knows there are elevated comforts and natural splendors to be discovered in the middle of the country, and they voted five resorts as the best in the region....

The RV market has seen record sales in the time of coronavirus. According to a new report from the RV Industry Association, wholesale shipments of RVs reached their highest monthly total in June since October 2018. In June, more than 40,462 RVs were shipped out, the industry association reported — a 10 percent increase from the same time last year. For context, in April the RV Industry Association reported an 82 percent drop in sales from a year ago and in May, that number was nearly 30 percent....

Anticipating an influx of British tourists next week, Spain and Greece are tightening local COVID-19 restrictions as the Delta variant spreads around the world. Evening curfews have been reinstated in more than 30 Mediterranean towns, including charming Valencia, set where the Turia River meets the Mediterranean Sea. In the Catalan region, a measure to close bars at 12:30 a.m. and prohibit eating and drinking in public areas is being considered, Reuters reported....