There are plenty of foodie havens around the world where you can taste stunning, local delights without battling crowds.

Dia de los Muertos has come into the collective conscience for its zombie bride costumes and kitschy skeletal face paint, but the holiday is a spectacle unto itself.

Apparently you can even get a very ticklish fish foot massage and pedicure in Kuala Lumpur at Kenko on the fifth floor.

Jane Warwick recalls an overnight airport adventure.

Alaska, the largest state in the American Union, is extraordinary and extraordinarily hard to visit.

From Berlin to Bordeaux, Ireland to Oregon, readers share their tips for the world's best bike rides.

Diplomats tell us what Kiwis need to know about their homelands.

Wartime rationing and a famous poem built an Aussie pub legend, writes Pamela Wade.

Courtney Whitaker stays at a luxurious hotel within Marrakesh's 13th-century kasbah walls.

Fiji has 333 islands. Some are large, some small - sticking up like green molars in a Listerine sea, each with its own smile of beach.

Natural wonders abound on and around Fraser Island, writes Jim Morton.

Amelia Langford takes on Japan's 'Shimanami Kaido' cycleway, and finds it's not all downhill.

It has never been cheaper to fly to London but chances are fares will drop even further.

Max Bania flies FR7492 from England to Scotland.

Kris Shannon drinks in as much San Fran as he can during a brief visit.

The service has gradually resumed since the volcanic alert level for Mount Hakone was raised in May 2015.

The 140,000-square-metre adventure park is one of two major theme parks opening this year in Dubai.

This family of four got by on $350 a day - and so can you.

Graham Reid spends 24 hours in Dubai International's famously huge and busy terminals.

Kevin McIntyre checks in to a new hotel just off the main west coast road in Phuket.

The natural design of Hervey Bay makes it a safe and fun playground for us humans to go and holiday throughout most of the year.

Be prepared, not scared, of US airport security, writes online guru Eli Orzessek.

First discovered by Australian geologist Griffith Taylor in 1911, scientists initially thought Blood Falls' colour was due to red algae.

The New South Wales town of Nimbin is a throwback to the seventies, complete with brightly-painted buildings, scores of people wearing tie-dye, and shops full of hemp products, writes Kirrily Schwarz.

Tim Lambourne spent last winter/American summer in New York City.

Xenia Taliotis stays at a Jacobean beauty in the southwest of England.

Chinese fans shelled out nearly $NZ10 billion to go to the movies, and almost two-thirds of that was spent on tickets to the hundreds of local films produced each year.

Home to the tallest sand dunes in North America and the largest archeological preserve in the USA, Colorado's national parks are grand in every way.

Hoi An is well known for two things - its unique heritage-listed town centre, Hoi An Ancient Town, and its cheap tailoring services.

Rock formations shaped by geological forces and erosion feature heavily in this state's red-hued national parks.