Meet Lady Beefcake, A Trip for One's Chief Trip Companion. She's a bulldog, she's high maintenance, and she has more meds and skincare than I do. Well, maybe not more. But it's close. Lady isn't an afterthought when we travel. She's booked on the trip. That means her bag gets packed with the same care as mine.

eople ask me two travel questions more than any others. Where should I go? And what should I pack? The first one is my whole job. The second one is this post. I've carried on for two weeks in Europe with five pairs of shoes. I've slept through hotels that were louder and brighter than advertised. I've survived a bachelorette trip with 15 women in a three-bedroom flat (I was not the one who booked it). Everything below earned its spot in my bag through real trips, real mist

Six Virtuoso offers worth booking this month, from pink-sand beaches to the Costa Smeralda. October is when the best trips of the coming year quietly get booked. The light goes golden, the calendar finally opens up, and summer is far enough behind you to start daydreaming again. So I'm starting a new monthly series: The Golden Edit. Each month it'll gather the Virtuoso specials I'd book for myself, or for you. A Trip for One is a Virtuoso member and an affiliate agency of PTN

Growing up in Florida, we didn't have a lot of seasonal change. But as an adult living in the Northeast, fall has become my favorite season. I love the cooler weather and the fall foliage, particularly when you get out of the cities and into the mountains or, even better, up north to Maine. Fall is also the best season for hiking and getting outdoors with your dog. As a bulldog, Lady Beefcake is not a summertime gal, because it's easy for her to overheat. So when the weather

As a gift to myself for my 40th birthday, I booked a flight to Lisbon. I had traveled for years for work, all over the world, and with friends across Europe and Asia, but this trip was just for me. I wanted to book the activities and tours that appealed to me, and only me. If I wanted to sleep in, I could. If I wanted dinner at my villa with a glass of port, a good book, and a view that did all the talking, I could do that too. And on every small group experience I booked, wh