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

Fernbank Museum exhibits stretch from Mesozoic skeletons to a fiber-optic ceiling mapping Georgia's night sky to a third-floor lab where you can build your own insect, while the trails out back trade galleries for canopy walks and barred owls. Grown-ups get an evening of their own here, too.

To visit the Statue of Liberty, you'll board the official ferry at Battery Park in Manhattan or Liberty State Park in New Jersey, the only two authorized departure points for reaching Liberty Island. The whole outing typically fills half a day, so knowing what to expect, from where to catch the boat to which ticket actually gets you onto the grounds, makes the difference between a smooth visit and a confusing one.

This Magic Kingdom guide is built to help you make sense of that sprawl before you ever step through the gates, from the quickest path to your first ride to the dining spot worth saving room for.

Few museums offer the sheer breadth of world-class art found at the Art Institute of Chicago. With a permanent collection spanning roughly 300,000 works, from Impressionist masterworks to contemporary installations, this Michigan Avenue landmark consistently ranks among the top cultural stops in the country.

This guide maps standout San Diego dessert shops to the areas travelers explore most — the Embarcadero waterfront, Little Italy, La Jolla, and Old Town — with picks for vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free eaters noted along the way. Consider it permission to schedule dessert between every stop on your itinerary.

A Southern California trip puts world-famous theme parks, beaches, and wildlife encounters within easy reach, but all that convenient fun comes at a price once admission, hotels, parking, and meals start adding up. The good news? You don't have to cut the attractions you came for. By traveling during quieter seasons, choosing your hotel location carefully, limiting parking fees, and focusing on three or four must-see destinations instead of a dozen, you can keep costs under control from the start.