BY: JANET STEINBERG With its lush, year-round Mediterranean climate, 100 miles of sweeping prime Pacific coastline, an annual average of 300+ days of sunshine and fresh ocean breezes, burgeoning wine country, and Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara is one of America’s best-kept secrets.. Its unique east-west coastline (the only one from Alaska to Cape Horn) Riviera provides soothing year-round southern exposure and perfect temperatures ranging...

BY: JANET STEINBERG Stress got you down?  When all else fails, head to Napa Valley.  With more than 270 wineries set amidst 38,000 acres of rolling vineyards, hundreds of divine restaurants, a myriad of championship golf courses, and a plethora of world-class accommodations, Napa Valley is the place for your own personal Urban Renewal. Napa Valley, 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, exudes...

BY: JANET STEINBERG Key West, Florida is many things to many people. This Southernmost Point in the continental United States (only 90-miles from Cuba) is a place where pirates once preyed and presidents once played.  It is a place where straight meets gay, where drunk drinks with sober.  lt is Caribbean and continental, traditional and avant garde. It is Mallory Square Pier...

BY: JANET STEINBERG I was lucky to “get out of Dodge” just in time.  Well, it wasn’t really Dodge City, Kansas, but it was Cincinnati, Ohio just before the ice and snow piled up.  I headed south, way south, for fifteen glorious sunny days which I am about to share with you. Day 1: As Silversea’s Silver Spirit set sail on the first...

BY: JANET STEINBERG “I would not eat the soup of life with a fork; I would continue to use a big ladle.”  Those words of my late friend, Holocaust survivor, and world-renowned restaurateur George Lang, have remained with me long after his death. Surviving a year of my husband’s health issues with flying colors, my handsome hunk of a husband...

Happy New Year from everyone here at The Travel Authority! BY: JANET STEINBERG Yes, it was guiltless! My recent 24-karat Silversea Caribbean cruise on the luxurious Silver Spirit was pure pleasure…pure pampering…pure rest…and pure relaxation.  Yet I felt not an ounce of guilt on this golden gilt trip.   WELCOME ABOARD SILVER SPIRIT  As our ship glided away...

BY JANET STEINBERG Williamstown, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, is a charming college town that is a mecca for art and culture. It is home to Williams College, the Clark Art Institute and the Tony-awarded Williamstown Theatre Festival. The permanent collection of Williams College Museum of Art has over 12,000 works of art ranging from 9th-century B.C. Assyrian stone reliefs from the palace...

BY JANET STEINBERG Life is what you live  ‘til the moment you die… This is how the time goes by.” Zorba the Greek Kalimera (kal-ee-meh-ra).  (Good morning).  Welcome to Athens, Greece.   If you are cruising from the port of Athens (Piraeus), it’s a good idea to arrive several days before sailing to allow time...

BY: JANET STEINBERG   “He who has not seen Cairo,” said a traveler of old, “has not seen the world.  Her soil is gold, her Nile is a marvel, her women are as the Damsels of paradise, her houses are palaces, and her soil is soft, sweet-smelling as aloes,...

BY JANET STEINBERG Surprise! Surprise!  Knoxville, Tennessee, resting on the banks of the Tennessee River and back-dropped by the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, is one of travel’s best-kept secrets, Surrounded by unsurpassed natural beauty, it is a magical meld of rustic, Appalachian wilderness and a cosmopolitan downtown.  Blending small town charm with some big city attractions, it is perfect for that quick...