Perhaps the world’s most colorful festival, and certainly its noisiest, Las Fallas in the Spanish port of Valencia is a celebration that has to be experienced to understand its appeal.

Architect Stanford White designed the big bungalow-style house on the hillside overlooking the village of Jackson, NH, one of the prettiest in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

I had awakened early to that unmistakable deep silence that we northerners instinctively recognize before our eyes are even open. The sound of snow, or rather the stillness of snow.

Luxury comes in different forms for different people. To this life-long mediocre skier, it was two hours on a Utah mountain that would forever change the way I ski.

My travels always have a purpose. I go to New Brunswick to kayak in the Bay of Fundy. I go to the White Mountains to ski. I never go someplace just to BE there. It's harder than you think. But at the Captain Lord Mansion, it becomes an art form.

OK, I admit it, the sleek stylish look of my new laptop stand is what caught my eye. But the way it takes the strain off my wrists and neck is what captured my heart.

“Swedish Christmas Traditions” by Ernst Kirchsteiger, is a celebrity cookbook in Sweden, but to be honest, I had never heard of its author. But I liked him from the first words of his introduction: “Christmas isn’t a competition.”

Boston may get more attention, but for many of us, the real heart of “The Hub” is just across the river in Cambridge’s Harvard Square. And The Hotel Veritas is our new home-away-from-home there.

Love Christmas, but don’t like the snow and ice? I’ve found the perfect place to revel in the season’s lights, color, music and good will – and December is summer there. It’s Medellin’s Festival of Christmas Lights.

Cruising to southern Europe’s Mediterranean and Adriatic ports can combine once-in-a-lifetime experiences with luxury travel as your cruise ship hops between islands and ports like Venice, Sardinia, Capri, Cyprus, Nice and Barcelona.