Travel & Tourism

Queens, N.Y. – September 16, 2026 -- Tickets for guided tours of Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Queens are on sale through December, priced at $150 plus tax and fees, with weekly Saturday slots and monthly Sunday dates available at JimHensonExperiences.com.

September marks Jim Henson's birthday with extra tour dates.

The Shop is running additional tours on September 26 and 27 to coincide with the back-to-school season and the anniversary of founder Jim Henson's birthday, featuring a look back at his life and legacy.

October tours line up with New York Comic Con weekend.

Visitors can view puppets and archival items with a Halloween theme, including characters like the Skeksis, drawing on the Shop's history of building unsettling creatures. Extra tour availability is scheduled for the New York Comic Con weekend for fans traveling to the city.

Papenburg, Germany – September 15, 2026 -- Carnival Cruise Line has opened bookings for Carnival Tropicale, the fifth and final ship in its Excel class, which will begin sailing from Galveston, Texas, on April 15, 2028.

The ship will carry the Star of Texas on its bow

Carnival Tropicale will offer four-, five-, six- and eight-day cruises from Galveston, connecting guests to destinations in Carnival's Paradise Collection, including Celebration Key, RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay, Isla Tropicale and Puerta Maya, along with Caribbean ports like Progreso and Nassau.

Ben Clement, EVP of maritime and new builds at Carnival Cruise Line, said the ship will bring a new vacation option to Texas when it debuts in 2028, citing its dining, attractions and Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico itineraries.

Cocoa Beach – September 15, 2026 -- Florida's Space Coast has kicked off its third annual Fall Is for Foodies culinary program, running through Oct. 25 with prix fixe menus and dining specials at more than 30 restaurants across the region.

Tasting menus range from $15 to $95 per person

Koko in Cocoa Beach, the first Michelin-recommended restaurant in Brevard County, is offering a nine-course tasting menu with kaiseki and kappo influences for $95 per person. At the other end of the price scale, Wild Ocean in Titusville serves a half-pound of local-caught rock shrimp with garlic lemon butter, corn on the cob and fresh-brewed tea for $15.

Macao – September 15, 2026 -- More than 20 legendary hypercars from Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and Pagani go on free public display across Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace from September 23 to November 22, 2026.

The fourth edition of the "Wynn Signature – 2026 Hypercar Exhibition" ties its theme to the Year of the Fire Horse, a zodiac cycle that recurs only once every 60 years. Since launching in 2023, the event has become an annual fixture on the global automotive calendar.

Ferrari's three flagship halo cars unite under one roof

The F40, F50 and LaFerrari appear together, alongside additional Ferrari models spanning different eras, tracing the brand's shift from carburetor-era engineering to hybrid technology.

Ya'an – September 15, 2026 -- Diplomats, cultural experts and international students toured Ya'an, China, on September 9 as part of the "Ya'an in Dialogue with the World" cultural exchange event, visiting sites tied to giant panda conservation and centuries-old tea traditions.

Visitors tour the Bifengxia panda research base in Yucheng District

The group explored the Bifengxia Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, part of Ya'an's cultural tourism brand "Green Lungs of Sichuan, Home of the Giant Panda." François Tchiegue, ambassador for China-Africa Cultural Exchanges from Cameroon, crossed the site's see-through suspension bridge and described the fresh air and scenery, saying he was delighted by feeding animals and seeing giant pandas.

Miami – September 15, 2026 -- Avianca has rolled out Business Class Americas across 100% of its routes within the region, giving travelers on international and select domestic flights in Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala access to a premium cabin that previously wasn't available network-wide.

Economy passengers now get a free 22-pound carry-on on every international fare

Under its "More for Everyone" initiative, Avianca is including a 22-pound carry-on bag on all international fares, including U.S. routes. The airline has also added complimentary food and beverages on international Americas flights lasting longer than 3.5 hours, on top of its existing Café del Cielo onboard sales service.

Beijing – September 15, 2026 -- China Daily and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism launched "China Bound • Beijing," an English-language smart travel platform, on Sept 9 at the World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development in the city.

The platform bundles a website, two mini-programs and an AI assistant into one system.

It runs as a city-level extension of China Daily's broader "China Bound" platform, accessible via www.chinabound.cn/beijing, plus dedicated Beijing pages on the Alipay and WeChat mini-programs. Users can find these by searching "ChinaBound" or "游在中国" within either app.

Seattle – September 15, 2026 -- Holland America Line is moving up the renovation of its Oosterdam ship by five weeks, adding five new voyages after strong demand for cruises aboard the newly reimagined vessel.

Oosterdam's first post-renovation cruise now departs October 31, 2027

The ship will undergo its Holland America Evolution transformation in Marseille, France, returning to service with a 10-day voyage from Civitavecchia (Rome) to Trieste, Italy. Guests on that sailing will visit Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Croatia.

Because the dry dock start date moved earlier, several previously scheduled voyages between September 11, 2027, and December 9, 2027, have been canceled. Affected guests and travel advisors are being contacted directly about rebooking options.

Anguilla -- Cap Juluca, A Belmond Hotel on Anguilla's Maundays Bay, reopens October 10, 2026, with a refreshed beach bar, a new bespoke rum and an exclusive spa treatment unavailable anywhere else in the Caribbean or Latin America.

Cap Shack gets a new look and its own rum

The resort's beachfront bar and grill, led by Chef de Cuisine Primrose Ritchie-Gumbs, relaunches with a menu built around local ingredients: grilled Caribbean spiny lobster with Creole butter, a Sandy Ground lobster roll with curried brown-butter mayo and mango chow, and Island Harbour crayfish cooked over open flame. Cap Juluca also debuts CAP RUM, a small-batch, barrel-aged rum made exclusively for the property in partnership with Topper's Rhum.

Nassau – September 15, 2026 -- Resort packages are now on sale for the seventh annual Baha Mar Tennis Cup, a four-day charity event running Thursday, December 10 through Sunday, December 13, 2026, in The Bahamas.

Tennis legends John McEnroe and Mark Knowles host the fundraiser again this year.

The event supports the Baha Mar Resort Foundation and the Mark Knowles Children's Tennis Initiative. Eight celebrities will pair with eight tennis professionals for the Celebrity Pro-Am, a format that debuted in 2025. Past participants have included Tommy Paul, Coco Gauff, Andy Roddick, Victoria Azarenka, and Milos Raonic, among others. The 2026 professional and celebrity lineup will be announced in the coming months.