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.

Sometimes reading a good book about someone else’s travels is as much fun as going yourself. In Judith Fein’s new book, "Life is a Trip", there’s the added appeal of a take-away in each adventure.

What a treat it is when a place gets everything right. Dinner on the terrace of Geneva on the Lake lived up to everything we expected from this fabled luxury villa in New York’s Finger Lakes.

The words “warmth” and “resort” don’t, in my experience, tend to come in the same breath. By their nature, resorts offer a multitude of facilities and activities to a multitude of people, and the warmth of a B&B is just not possible. I learned differently last weekend at the Atkinson Resort

It’s hard to get too much of a good thing when it’s an overload choice of all the arts and in a glorious mountain setting with perfect summer weather.