At the beginning of the year, Alaska Airlines unveiled its new global livery: a bold design inspired by the Aurora Borealis. Painted in a palette of deep blues and shimmering emerald greens, the sleek look is a nod to Alaska Airlines’ continued addition of international destinations, which will expand to London, Rome, and Reykjavik by…

Greenland has always loomed large in the imagination—an oversized white shape has always at the top of the globe, the mythical Thule of ancient legends. But lately, the world has rediscovered just how real—and how vital—this country is. For better or for worse, the island has become a prize in the new Arctic chess match….

A few months ago, we randomly walked into Wallingford’s Fat Cat Records. Greeting us, face-out by the cash register, was not Nirvana, not Soundgarden, but Peer Gynt Suite, by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Was this a Norse omen, a mischievous prank from Loki? For us, two Seattleites with a trip to Norway on the…

Greenland is too vast to take in all at once. Yet a few days in Nuuk—the island’s compact, curious capital, just a four-hour flight from Newark—offer a surprisingly complete portrait. Nuuk changes like the weather that shapes it: by turns wild and polished; intimate and bold. To Northerners, it feels as hectic as Manhattan; to…

Icebergs drift past in improbable forms: a crouching sphinx, a Viking ship, a chess game abandoned by giants. Fog and midnight sun blur together until hours lose their meaning. From the deck of the MS Fridtjof Nansen, time hangs suspended—a mesmerizing, shifting stage set for whatever happens next. Suddenly, the voice of our expedition leader…

From the Bounty to Brando, French Polynesia stirs our most primal escapism. Lush, verdant peaks teetering above gin-clear lagoons, filled with a brilliant, sapphire menagerie — it only begins to describe the allure, as does the scent of gardenias drifting through the air like a persistent opiate. With the same ancient Polynesian culture firmly rooted…