Travel writer / International toddler wrangler / Twitter skeptic. @NYTimesTravel, @Afarmedia, far and wide. Former: Travel editor @SFGATE.
East Bay, Baby
Joined December 2020
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The dissonance between my fear that AI is taking over the world and the reality of dealing with maddeningly stupid, time-wasting customer service robots makes me think that driving us to shout "TALK TO HUMAN" over and over (i.e. slowly driving us insane) is their master plan.
The AI future is a nightmare. @malindoair offers ~no~ way to speak to a person. All "customer care" is handled via an AI chat bot or AI form. No phone number. No human chat or email or airport help desk. Nothing.
My most recent "36 Hours" for @nytimestravel is about one of the most beautiful places on the planet, the Central Coast of California. I spent a week driving San Luis Obispo top to bottom and boiled those 7 days down to 2.5. nytimes.com/interactive/2025…
Inevitably, these "36 Hours" guides leave out places I'd hoped to include. Sometimes those spots were featured in a previous version of the guide. Other times they didn't fit well into the itinerary because of geography or timing. (My 2015 guide to SLO: nytimes.com/2015/05/10/trave…)
I’m still learning what Big Beautiful Bill means for our family, but as far as I can tell, we’ll go from repaying our student loans at 10% of our annual income to 30%. Multiply that by the 43 million Americans with student debt, what does that look like for the economy?
Checked into an @Airbnb late Saturday. It was crawling with mature bed bugs: in both beds, on the walls. We left (at midnight, in the rain, carrying sleeping kids) and were refunded. Since the reservation was canceled, I was unable to review it. Airbnb said they'd "taken action."
Aaand…our bed bug @Airbnb is still online. @AirbnbHelp swore the unit was “temporarily suspended” while they confirmed the “absence of bed bugs” and that the issue was “actively being looked into.” There is simply no way that happened in a few days. airbnb.com/l/DFcf8Ck0
Still up! If anyone would like an apartment in the coolest neighborhood in CDMX where the bed is especially “lively,” this is your place. @Airbnb saw our photos and videos and paid for us to relocate (as they should have) but haven’t taken down the listing.
I had photos and videos. Airbnb not only refunded me but covered our hotel stay. That seemed right, considering. I'm not sure what "taking action against the listing" means, but lucky you, it's available for tonight! airbnb.com/rooms/7984365?che…
Would genuinely love to know whether this was an oversight or @AirbnbHelp intentionally allowed an apartment overrun with bedbugs to remain online and rentable two days later. There's no way an infestation that extreme could be remedied in two days.
Guadalajara isn't a secret, but it is far less touristed and more affordable than Mexico City and every bit as charming.
An easy and cheap direct flight from San Francisco makes Guadalajara and three surrounding towns a perfect summer escape.
📝: @FredaMoon sfstandard.com/2025/05/26/gu…
Airlines should be required to seat children with their parent/guardian without having to pay seat selection fees, which are essentially taxes on family travel.
Tell me how we can Make Traveling with Family Great Again!
There’s no better place to start a family than the USA so I want to make it easier for you to travel with your kids.
Here’s your chance to tell me, your Transportation Secretary, what I can do to make travel easier for your family. Send me your best ideas!
Mexico is my favorite country—and the one I know best outside my own. Still, Guadalajara managed to surprise me. In my two weeks there (condensed into this @nytimestravel "36 Hours"), each day was a revelation—artistic, culinary, architectural, personal. nytimes.com/interactive/2025…
Part of my job is eating out, which means I feel some obligation to at least try the restaurant everyone is going on about in the city I'm visiting. Otherwise I'd likely never eat at another tasting menu, $200+ per person, Michelin-starred restaurant again in my life.
I could have written 10K words about this trip, two decades and 1000s of miles in the making. But what I most wanted to convey is that Mexico is its best—its most beautifully complex, culturally compelling, and wildly underappreciated—away from the coasts. nytimes.com/2024/12/02/trave…
Reporting this piece reminded me that a city I once loved so deeply is not only still there—having been obscured by tech boom-era excesses, then hit hard by the pandemic—but is more beautiful and compelling than ever. I'm lucky to live at its doorstep. nytimes.com/interactive/2024…
Example: I wanted to include dim sum. New school or classic. But weekend dim sum is a multi-hour EVENT. It's also best with a group. I considered take-out in the Richmond—Good Luck Dim Sum, specifically—but ultimately decided there wasn't a way to do it justice in the itinerary.
Another example: I always recommend out-of-towners take the @SFBayFerry to Alameda's Spirits Alley for beer (@factionbrewing, @AlmanacBeer or, my favorite, @therakealameda), a tasting at @StGeorgeSpirits, or wine at @DasheCellars. But that's also a (great) half-day outing.