When Linda, a reader and friend from school, asked me for European travel tips, I was excited. Europe is an easy and accessible vacation destination for first time international tourists and experienced travelers alike. But if you’ve never left your home country or planned a trip yourself, going abroad can be intimidating. Europe holds so many diverse countries within a relatively small landmass and the sheer number of choices can be overwhelming. There are language barriers

My friend and colleague Jack Dura loves fall. On crisp autumn days when he’s not covering a story for The Bismarck Tribune, you’ll find him tromping along the trails in the upper Midwest in search of fall foliage. His passion is contagious. He’s also the only person that has ever said “leaf peeping” in my presence without eliciting a shudder. (For some reason, that phrase usually gives me the creeps.) So when he offered to give us a field report from some of his favorite Minn

The Northern Lights are a trending topic among travelers these days. I count myself lucky to have grown up seeing these gorgeous, shimmering lights spreading across the nighttime horizon. Created from the collision of charged particles with molecules high in the atmosphere, the Northern Lights (or aurora borealis) put on a stunning natural light show near the Earth’s northern poles. Those of us who live in the Upper Midwest and Canada are lucky enough to be able to see the au

Bighorn sheep are some of the rarest animals in North Dakota. Writer Jack Dura finds them near the Little Missouri National Grassland in this guest post. Here’s Jack! On a chilly, overcast evening, 23 bighorn sheep milled about on a scoria road south of Watford City.A dusty blue Chevy pickup rolled down the road, sending the bighorns scampering off to the south side of the trail where they grouped around on a sage flat under a badlands knob. These rams, ewes and lambs represe

If you can’t decide between an outdoor adventure and doing a little urban exploring, The Greenway is the perfect solution. You can be busy outdoors all day, yet still be steps away from boutique shopping, art galleries and restaurants in downtown Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The Greenway is the gorgeous, green heart of these sister cities, 2,200 acres of outdoor space along the banks of the Red and Red Lake Rivers. Start your trip on the 20 miles

I have driven by St. Cloud at least 100 times in my life — maybe more. For those of us who take I-94 into “The Cities” — for some reason, I never call the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro “The Twin Cities” — St. Cloud is the almost-there mile marker, the spot where my mom would turn around in her seat and say “Only about an hour more!” This weekend, I finally pulled off interstate and checked out what the city had to offer. The most interesting cities capitalize on what makes them