Travel insights and tips on some of the top attractions and best cities in the world

Music lovers exploring Southern California should put the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles near the top of the itinerary. Spread across four floors in the L.A. LIVE entertainment district, the museum lets you mix a song at a producer's console, study performance costumes worn by GRAMMY-winning artists, and settle into the Clive Davis Theater for films and recorded artist interviews.

Nothing drains vacation energy faster than watching an hour vanish while you inch toward a two-minute ride. The good news is theme park lines are largely predictable, and a handful of proven strategies can shrink them dramatically. Arriving before the gates open, hopping into single-rider lines, monitoring live wait times in each park's official app, and riding marquee attractions during parades or nighttime shows all deliver shorter waits without costing a dime.

Atlanta's history covers a lot of ground — literally millions of years of it. The story of this area stretches from the prehistoric creatures that once roamed Georgia to the Civil Rights Movement that changed the course of a nation, with a hometown soft drink and a beloved sporting tradition woven in along the way.

The best views of the Toronto skyline don't come from a single address. They come from stacking a few perspectives on top of one another, and the best time to look depends on whether you want clear lake horizons by day or a lit-up cityscape after dark.

San Diego is one of the easier California cities to explore without a rental car. The MTS Trolley links major hubs like Downtown, Old Town, and the Santa Fe Depot; an extensive bus network and rideshare cover coastal spots and hillier neighborhoods; and walking handles compact districts like the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy.

Seattle earned its reputation through invention. This is the city that launched Boeing jets, grew a software industry from a garage-sized idea, and built a 605-foot tower for the 1962 World's Fair. For those interesting in science and technology, Seattle offers a lineup of attractions built around discovery.