Sara has fallen off a camel in the Sahara, survived a near shipwreck in Indonesia, and narrowly avoided plunging off an Andean mountainside in an old bus. But none of that has stopped her from exploring the world. These days Sara makes her home in Oakland, California. Her love of outdoor adventure led her to work seasonally for the U.S. National Park Service in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, a place she still escapes to whenever she can. Sara has authored more than 65 travel and non-fiction books, including an award-winning guidebook to road tripping across the USA. She has also written hundreds of print and online travel articles for titles including Lonely Planet, National Geographic and CNN. An expert in sustainable travel, road trips, and outdoor sports, she has been a guest commentator on TV and radio including National Public Radio (NPR). Sara happily specializes in helping travelers plan trips to California, Hawaii, and the U.S. West, including national parks and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Yosemite offers a diversity of things to see and do and it’s often difficult for first time visitors to plan their trip. In 1984, UNESCO named Yosemite a World Heritage Site for its glaciated landscapes and spectacular flora and fauna. Today, more than four million people come to the park each year to relax in mountain meadows, swim in peaceful rivers and lakes,...
California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains are a surprisingly big place, measuring about 400 miles from north to south and 50 miles or more across, so a week is an ideal amount of time for exploring them. It takes time to get around here, especially if you’re crossing from the west side of the mountains to the Eastern Sierra or up to Lake Tahoe. But relax, you...
Get the most out of your first time visit to Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks. Although you could easily take a whole week to explore both of these grand national parks, a few days will let you see many of the best-known natural wonders, with time for day hikes, riverside rambles, and scenic drives in the deep forests, canyons, and valleys. The best...
Ever so slowly over the last decade, Oakland, California’s revitalization has transformed once edgy neighborhoods into beacons for maker boutiques, artisanal coffee roasters and craft brewers, innovative restaurants rated on a sliding scale from foodie haven to food truck, and eclectic cocktail bars where bartenders are mixologists and all the patrons are young, arty, and hip. Cool hunters should take a least a day to...
Plenty of families call Oakland, California, home, while others live in Alameda, an island with a retro 20th-century atmosphere that’s just across the water (take the tunnel or one of three bridges) from Oakland. So it should be no surprise at all that you can have a great day or weekend exploring the East Bay with your kids. Here’s our best advice for...
Most people visit Oakland, California, on a day trip from San Francisco, the big city across the Bay, so here’s how to spend your perfect day. You might find yourself here if you’re arriving in the Bay Area on an Amtrak train or driving in from somewhere else in California. No matter what the reason, why not stay for a while and explore? One day might just...
When the urban cacophony of Oakland, California, gets to be too much, Lake Merritt is where locals come to unwind, picnic, cycle, go for a walk or a run, or just watch the sunset over the downtown skyline. Surprisingly, the lakeshore has nooks and crannies that even locals don’t know everything about. You can discover them almost entirely for free...
We think that spending only 24 hours in Vegas is cruel and unusual punishment. It’s not enough! You’ll need at least 48 hours to really get your groove on. But if your time is regrettably limited, you can still have some serious fun. Here’s a bare-bones plan for making the most of your first (but hopefully not your last) day...
Some people think Las Vegas is nothing more than a strip of casinos made for wild gambling and nightlife, over-the-top shows, star chef’s restaurants, and gluttonous buffets. but there are places to get off the beaten path. True, that is exactly what most of the Strip is about. But there are many other faces to this modern city. If you’re the...
Las Vegas equals neon lights, buzzing casinos, gawk-worthy architecture for the masses, and endless indulgences, from sybaritic spas to chef’s tasting menus to movie-worthy nightclubs. Most first-time visitors stay at a casino hotel on the Strip, but die-hard budget travelers might score better deals downtown. Don’t think that you have to get all formulaic about planning your Vegas itinerary down...
Sin City, or Las Vegas, might not seem like the best vacation destination for families, but it really can be. All you have to do is stay smart and plan ahead when bringing your kids to Las Vegas. Resort hotels and thrill rides First, choose a resort hotel with a family-oriented pool complex. On the Strip, Mandalay Bay has a sandy artificial beach...
Planning a dirty weekend getaway in Las Vegas for your favorite bachelor or bachelorette? Here are all of our best ideas for having the weekend of a lifetime in Sin City with all your friends. Tip: It’s never too early to start making reservations, whether that’s for a sweet hotel suite, a table at a hot restaurant, VIP bottle service...
You don’t have to be as adventurous as one of the original ’49er immigrants who came seeking gold in California just to have fun outside in Gold Country, but it helps to have a pioneering spirit. Gold County ranks among the most uncrowded places to visit in the Golden State, which is good news for outdoorsy types who like having hiking and mountain...
California’s Southern Gold Country makes a perfect weekend escape from Sacramento or the San Francisco Bay Area. Highway 49 winds through the entire region, which makes navigating a snap. Best of all, you won’t have to plan much of anything in advance, apart from booking overnight lodgings. Whenever you’re feeling like striking it rich, just hop in the car and go. This itinerary...
Even though it’s one of California’s least traveled regions, California’s Northern Gold Country is an easy weekend escape from Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, or even Reno, Nevada. Highway 49 connects the rich 19th-century mining sites, historical towns, and frontier outposts of this wild and remote-seeming region. You’ll also get a whopping big dose of nature out here: visualize cool rivers, craggy mountains, and thick forests. This...
Berkeley, California, is not the cheapest place to visit in San Francisco‘s East Bay (which includes Oakland), but there are still loads of ways to have fun for free (or next to nothing). Amble around the university campus, then shop for secondhand clothes and used books and music and grab some cheap eats on Telegraph Ave. Feel like being more active? Detour to...
Many places claim to be the city that never sleeps, but nowhere is that more true than in Las Vegas, aka “Sin City.” Time loses all meaning and everyday life takes on a dreamy (or quite possibly a drunken) haze when it’s after midnight and you’re strutting down the world-famous Strip under the beckoning glow of ritzy casinos’ neon lights. You...
More than 2000 miles from the closest continent, Hawaii is the most isolated place on the planet. Part of the Polynesian triangle, this archipelago is a tempting tropical escape, where palm trees wave over white, golden, black, green, and even red sand beaches. But it’s also a place where snow-dusted volcanoes touch the sky and verdant cloud forests hide some...
Yosemite is a North American icon and one of the USA’s best-loved national parks. Over four million people come each year to find rejuvenation in its wild craggy Sierra Nevada heights, its lush wildflowers meadows, and its glacier-sculpted river canyons and sylvan valleys. A classic trip to Yosemite, California, should be on your travel life list – and once you’ve visited,...
The Sierra Nevada is California’s rugged staircase into an evergreen world of pine forests, wildflower meadows, rushing waterfalls, serene lakes, and countless valleys and peaks carved by ancient glaciers. Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the U.S. outside of Alaska, stands sentinel by the range’s southern end, while placid Lake Tahoe, aka “The Big Blue,” sits near the northern edge...
Trains force you to slow down and contemplate the journey. Socializing with strangers in the dining car is what I look forward to most.
While traveling alone as a woman has put me at more risk in some countries, it also has given me opportunities to meet locals and enjoy their hospitality that I would not have gotten traveling as a couple or in a group.
William Least Heat Moon or an attention-getting dog like John Steinbeck’s Charley.
What many people don’t realize about a travel writer’s job is that we spend much of our days going to places we don’t end up recommending. We go check things out so that you don’t have to!