
Cargo ‘igloos’ have new life as livestock houses, garden storage
Recycling is fine, but reuse or “upcycling” is better. That’s the thinking behind an innovative approach to find new homes for Alaska Airlines’ aging cargo containers, known as “igloos.” Alaska Air Cargo uses the cargo containers known as igloos because of their dome-like shape, to transport food and other necessities of life, to far flung…

Ye will sink! Bothy camping in the Scottish Highlands
Don’t call it hiking. That was the first thing I learned about hiking in the Scottish Highlands. It’s hill walking. Don’t forget it. “Hill walking! It makes more sense, love. It’s just walking in hills. Why do you Americans need another word for it?” a coffee barista in Edinburgh corrected me when I told her…

A full-time Loch Ness monster hunter in the Scottish Highlights
The Loch Ness monster hunter is making me a cup of coffee and I just can’t stop thinking about how normal he seems. It was a little over twenty-five years ago that Steve Feltham gave up his house, his girlfriend and his job to move into a camper van at the end of a parking…

From glen to table: Scotland’s hunter-gatherer chef
“Come here girls!!!” I leap out of the pick-up truck parked haphazardly on the side of a too narrow country road and scamper up a muddy bank. “Oh, I wasn’t talking to you,” Tom Lewis tells me. “I was yelling for the pigs. Come on girls. Get your dinner!!” Before I can return to the…

Scotland’s celebrity kilt-maker: The guy who makes man skirts for the cool guys
“How do you become a celebrity kilt maker? The guy who makes man skirts for the cool guys?” Howie Nicholsby, Edinburgh’s kilt maker to the stars, pours me a generous tumbler of whiskey before he answers my question.

Discovering Hemingway’s Havana
Inside one of Havana’s most famous bars, El Floridita, several dozen people are singing along to choruses led by a dynamic salsa singer. A circle of New York couples and an Argentine with two cigars stuffed in his shirt pocket all dance before the singer’s five-piece band. Most of the patrons have ordered icy daiquiris…

Matanzas: Cuba’s off-beach home run
“You have to hurry. They’re starting now!” I’ve come to Matanzas, a historic Cuban city between Havana and the beach resort of Varadero, for a little beach break in a historic, idyllic town with plenty of bayside colonial charm. But first, I want to see some baseball.

Eclectic live music in Havana, Cuba
A documentary filmmaker and photographer working in Havana, Cuba, Amberly Alene captures the colorful vibrancy and culture of the Caribbean through a photographic eye. She recently took over the Alaska Airlines Instagram account as a “Local Wanderer” as a part of Alaska’s Weekend Wanderer series. To see more local flavors of the world, make sure…

Worldwide Wanderer with Singapore Air
Residing in her hometown of San Luis Obispo, Karen Grubb, brings her dreamy California living straight to our Instagram feed. With photos full of nature’s wonders, it’s easy to see why we chose her for our first ever Worldwide Wanderer trip. Thanks to our partners over at Singapore Air, she just returned from an Instagram…

Here’s why the Great Ocean Road should be on your Australia bucket list – and catch a ride with Qantas, Alaska’s Global Partner
What’s on your “Australia bucket list”? Many people might include snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, seeing a koala or a kangaroo, and learning to surf in Sydney. While all of these experiences are indeed awesome, no Australia bucket list should be complete without driving the Great Ocean Road – one of the world’s most scenic…

Is this the cutest animal in Australia? In search of the perfect ‘quokka selfie’ on Rottnest Island
My alarm clock started loudly chiming at 7 a.m. and I sprang out of bed with excitement. While I normally loathe the idea of waking up that early, the day I had been impatiently waiting for had finally arrived. Today … I’m finally exploring the idyllic Rottnest Island! Now if you’ve never heard of this…

In search of Australia’s most ‘smashable’ wine: Tasting our way through the Yarra Valley
Archie the Jack Russell terrier greets wine tasters who visit winemaker Paul Bridgeman, right, and Levantine Hill Vineyard in Australia’s Yarra Valley. “Would you like some more wine, Mr. Anderson?” That’s a question I heard several times on my business class flight from Los Angeles to Sydney on Qantas, an Alaska Airlines Global Partner. (My first time flying…