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Spanish or English in Puerto Rico? What You Actually Need to Know

Spanish or English in Puerto Rico? What You Actually Need to Know

Puerto Rico's official languages are Spanish and English but the island's primary language is Spanish . While English is widely understood in tourist areas and by professionals who deal with Americans regularly, if you travel around outside of those ...

Meet Hector El Protector on the Island of Culebra

Meet Hector El Protector on the Island of Culebra

If you are a fan of Thomas Dambo and his Trolls, then you cannot miss "Hector El Protector" on your next visit to Puerto Rico! On the island of Culebra off the coast of the main island of Puerto Rico, is Hector El Protector, technically the se...

Everyone Loves Americans — They Just Can't Stand Our Government: How the World Really Sees Us

Everyone Loves Americans — They Just Can't Stand Our Government: How the World Really Sees Us

If you have spent any time traveling outside the United States, you have probably noticed something interesting. People will tell you — sometimes to your face, always politely, occasionally with a beer in hand — that they love Americans but canno...

Where Is the Biggest Library in the World? (And Can You Visit It?)

Where Is the Biggest Library in the World? (And Can You Visit It?)

The largest library on Earth is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., United States. It holds more than 170 million items — books, recordings, photographs, maps, sheet music, and manuscripts — spread across 838 miles of bookshelves. That's rou...

Little Sweden in America: The 5 Most Fascinating Swedish Enclaves You've Never Visited

Little Sweden in America: The 5 Most Fascinating Swedish Enclaves You've Never Visited

Between 1850 and 1920, over 1.3 million Swedes emigrated to the United States — at one point representing the third-largest immigrant group after Germans and Irish. They settled predominantly in the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa...

Jamaica Beyond the Beach: Reggae History, Rum Bars, and the Real Island Culture

Jamaica Beyond the Beach: Reggae History, Rum Bars, and the Real Island Culture

Jamaica is the most musically significant small island in the world. From a landmass smaller than Connecticut, it produced reggae, ska, rocksteady, dancehall, and dub — genres that reshaped global popular music across five decades. Most visitors spen...

What Is El Salvador Best Known For? A Traveler's Introduction

What Is El Salvador Best Known For? A Traveler's Introduction

El Salvador — the smallest country in Central America and the only one without a Caribbean coastline — has a reputation that often precedes it: violence, gangs, emigration. That reputation, while rooted in a painful history, is increasingly outdated....

Utah's Temple Square: The World's Most Famous Mormon Landmark Explained

Utah's Temple Square: The World's Most Famous Mormon Landmark Explained

In the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, stands one of the most recognizable religious landmarks in the Western Hemisphere: Temple Square, a 35-acre complex that serves as the global headquarters and most sacred site of the Church of Jesus Christ of La...

Trinidad and Tobago: Two Islands, One Nation, Infinite Character

Trinidad and Tobago: Two Islands, One Nation, Infinite Character

Trinidad and Tobago sits at the southernmost end of the Caribbean island chain, just 11 kilometres from the Venezuelan coast. It is a constitutional republic, has been independent since 1962, and is one of the wealthiest nations in the Caribbean — no...

Denver's Cherry Blossom Festival: Everything You Need to Know

Denver's Cherry Blossom Festival: Everything You Need to Know

Denver's Cherry Blossom Festival — formally the Sakura Matsuri — is one of the largest Japanese cultural celebrations in the American interior. Hosted annually by the Japan-America Society of Colorado, the event brings together Japanese-American heri...

Littleton, Colorado and Australia: The Surprising Sister-City Bond

Littleton, Colorado and Australia: The Surprising Sister-City Bond

Tucked into the southern suburbs of Denver, Littleton, Colorado doesn't scream "international city." It's quiet, tree-lined, and mostly known to outsiders for its historic Main Street and proximity to the Rocky Mountains. But visit the right corner o...

The Town That Refused to Die: Centralia, Pennsylvania's Endless Underground Fire

The Town That Refused to Die: Centralia, Pennsylvania's Endless Underground Fire

Somewhere beneath the scrubby, cracked asphalt of what used to be Route 61 in Centralia, Pennsylvania, an underground coal seam has been on fire since 1962. Smoke still seeps through fissures in the ground. The earth radiates warmth underfoot. In win...