Thinking of taking a movie location vacation?

Why every awesome adventure is a movie location vacation

It’s not made of mashed potatoes or shaving cream, but Devils Tower still looks like a great landing pad for space aliens.

The mashed potatoes and shaving cream, of course, are from the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Remember when an obsessive Richard Dreyfuss can’t get that monolith out of his head? Yeah, that was intense.

How to handle a vacation disaster.

What to do when Mother Nature tries to ruin your vacation

Mother Nature vs. your vacation — you’ve been there too? But she doesn’t have to win. That’s worth remembering, even with Kīlauea about to engulf the interesting parts of Hawaii’s Big Island in slow-moving lava. And even with all those summer vacations that are up against the possible calamities, including earthquakes, hail storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and wildfires.

It's time to travel now.

Why you should travel now — before things start to get crazy

Sometimes when you’re traveling, your timing is terrific. Sometimes, it’s just lucky.

On our trip to South Dakota last week, we were just lucky. Temperatures in the mid-70s, almost no visitors. Matt Plank, the assistant curator of reptiles of the Reptile Gardens, a private collection of alligators, snakes, and turtles, just outside Rapid City, described the mayhem of tourist season to me.

Here's the best vacation advice from Christopher Elliott

My best vacation advice? There’s no need to do it all

Want my best vacation advice? Don’t try to do it all at once.

Otherwise, you could end up like me: babbling incoherently after two straight days of driving through Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota. I’m not making that up. If you try to push it when you take time off, you could end up wishing you stayed home.

Tell the truth about your last vacation. Christopher Elliott, author

Tell the truth about your last vacation

It’s time to tell the truth about your last vacation — the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Was that hotel or vacation rental overrated? Did that five-star restaurant only deserve four stars — or less? Was the place too crowded, too expensive?

How to survive a long road trip with kids. By Christopher Elliott

The truth about how to survive a long road trip with kids

There’s no survival guide for long road trips with kids, but maybe there should be.

Chances are, you’ll drive somewhere in the next few weeks, and you’ll probably need one. Last Memorial Day, for example, an estimated 28 million Americans hit the road — the most since 2005 — prompting AAA to declare that the great American road trip is back.