10 University Art Classes You Can Take for Free Online

The world of MOOCs (short for “massive open online courses”) is a booming one, featuring more than 10,000 online courses listed by 800 different universities. Many are free, and even more are self-paced—allowing you to take classes at your own convenience—meaning it’s never been easier to go back to school. And there are plenty of enticing offerings when it comes to the visual arts.

Interested in mastering a new, hands-on creative skill? You can learn to draw your own comics or capture artful digital photographs. Wish you could brush up on Art History 101? There are courses exploring the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt and the development of the artistic avant-garde. Below, we’ve rounded up 10 of our favorite art and design classes offered by colleges and universities across the globe.  Click Here

 A new book with new ideas for travel!

Lonely Planet Magazine

Designed exclusively with North American readers in mind, Lonely Planet offers fresh travel ideas, practical tips and advice, essential information and stunning photography. Every issue will contain travel news and discoveries, inspiring photography and the stories behind them, trip ideas and recommendations, and more.

Popular Travel Books

USA's Best Trips
Whether exploring your own backyard or somewhere new, discover the freedom of USA's open roads with Lonely Planet's USA's Best Trips, your passport to unique experiences waiting along American highways. Featuring 52 amazing road trips, from 2-day escapes to 2-week adventures, you can journey through the Rockies' spectacular parks or follow scenic Appalachian byways, all with your trusted travel companion. Jump in the car, turn up the tunes, and hit the road!

The New York Times 36 hours: 150 weekends in the USA & Canada
The New York Times has been offering up dream weekends with practical itineraries in its popular weekly "36 Hours" column since 2002. The many expert contributors, experienced travelers, and accomplished writers have brought careful research, insider’s knowledge, and a sense of fun to hundreds of cities and destinations, always with an eye to getting the most out of a short trip. Want to read what Sam Sifton suggests in his beloved borough of Brooklyn, or David Carr in Minneapolis, Mark Bittman in Death Valley, or Ariel Kaminer in lower Manhattan? Here is where to do it, with full-color photographs to entice you and handy maps to guide you.

Long Island Summer 2016

Summer is here! Come on out and discover Long Island.
For more information visit
www.DISCOVERLONGISLAND.com

The natural world of Winnie-the-Pooh : a walk through the forest that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood / Kathryn Aalto.

Delve into the home of the world’s most beloved bear! Few people know that the Hundred Acre Wood—the setting for Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures—was inspired by Ashdown Forest, a wildlife haven that spans more than 6,000 acres in southeast England.The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh explores the enchanting landscapes where Pooh, Christopher Robin, and their friends live and play. You will discover how Milne's childhood connection with nature and his role as a father influenced his famous stories, and how his close collaboration with illustrator E. H. Shepard brought those stories to life. This charming book also serves as a guide to the plants, animals, and places of the remarkable Ashdown Forest, whether you are visiting in person or from the comfort of your favorite armchair. In a delightful narrative, enriched with E. H. Shepard’s original illustrations, hundreds of color photographs, and Milne’s own words, you will rediscover your favorite characters and the magical place they called home.

How to Decode a Travel Brochure

Travel expert Rick Steves shares insider tips on cutting through the clutter of travel brochures.

By 

• Kathleen Squires

• Be skeptical when reading travel brochures, because they are designed to help you spend money. They're propaganda—paid advertising—for a business.
• Look for a straightforward, up-front price. (It's better than having the tour company trying to pry money out of you over the course of your vacation through various sales gimmicks.)
• Keep in mind that a brochure is designed to make the place look really good. If it's not showing me a wide shot of a hotel, I assume that the wide shot is ugly. If it's just showing me the garden in the back, that means the front is ugly.
• With hotels, words like "deluxe," "luxury," and "Superior" (along with a checklist of facilities, like a shoe-shine machine in your hallway) do nothing to quantify the character, ambiance, friendliness, and convenience of the place.
• The word "area" should send a red flag: If the brochure says your hotel is in the "Florence area," right away you know it's halfway to Bologna in the middle of nowhere.
• If you're taking a tour of some kind, keep in mind that the more sights that are packed into a short tour, the more time you're spending on a bus and the less time you're spending seeing them.
• Bragging that a place is a member of the local tourist board may mean only that it paid to be included. Similarly, if a place points out that it is  on UNESCO's World Heritage List, they have nothing else to talk about

ROAD TRIP!

Drive I-95 : Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia Drive I-95 offers easy-to-follow 30-mile color maps providing mile-by-mile overviews of the road ahead. These help you quickly locate upcoming services on each side of the road going North or South. The maps and the fun stories of the road are useful for family travelers, seniors, salesmen, truckers, campers and RVers, University students and their parents, military personnel and people who live and work near I-95

Interstate 95 is America's Main Street, stretching from Maine to Miami. It is the U.S.'s busiest highway, with 75,000,000 people living and working along the route, and it journeys though 7 of America's major cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Jacksonville and Miami.There is so much to see along the way that one of our fans wrote, Drive I-95 "makes your road trip a vacation unto itself. It mentions many un-advertised and curious stops along the way."

Day Trips from New York City: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler

Rediscover the simple pleasure of a day trip with Day Trips from New York City. This guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for vacationers to do, see and discover within a two-hour drive of the New York metro area.

Trips for Lit Lovers

Off the Beaten Page encourages avid readers, particularly those in book clubs and other groups, to leave the security of their living rooms and seek to experience in person the places they’ve read about. Inspired by years of excursions with her own book club, award-winning journalist Terri Peterson Smith offers lively, expert guidance through fifteen US destinations ideal for anyone eager to mix their love of travel and quality time with friends or family with their desire for meaningful cultural experiences.

Walking New York: The Best of the City

Presents itineraries for fifteen walking tours in Manhattan, with descriptions of the attractions located along each route; information about the history, architecture, and culture of the city; maps; and photographs.

Kayaking Long Island

 Paddling Long Island is the only book on the market to depict routes and destinations across the whole of Long Island and the New York City area. And it showcases 50 of the very best. It is a diverse selection, too. After all, according to skill level, weather, personal mood, and other factors, a paddler may want open, fast water one day, but a quiet, protected experience at another time, and something in-between later on. It’s all here, from New York City to the far eastern tip of Long Island’s Montauk Point.

Smithsonian.com: The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013

...the top towns also boast heartwarming settings where the air is a little fresher, the grass greener, the pace gentler than in metropolitan America. Generally, they’re devoted to preserving their historic centers, encouraging talent and supporting careful economic growth. There’s usually an institution of higher learning, too.

Most important are the people, unpretentious people with small-town values and high cultural expectations—not a bad recipe for society at large.

Click HERE to see the entire list of 20 small towns to visit.

Globe Trekker Australia

Megan McCormick, Ian Wright, Justine Shapiro, and Estelle Bingham admire Uluru, dive the Great Barrier Reef, experience Surfers Paradise, visit the Port Arthur prison colony site, come face to face with Tasmania's wildlife, mine for opals in Cooper Pedy, attend a traditional Aboriginal corroboree ritual. They have traversed the Australian continent to find the country's most unusual and exciting places.

Travel DVD New Arrival: St. Petersburg

A window to Europe was what Peter the Great wanted to create when, in 1703, he laid the foundation stone for the new capital city of his Russian empire. He sent 50,000 serfs into the swampy delta of the Neva to pound the harbor city out of the ground. Under Catherine the Great, St. Petersburg finally became the thriving metropolis which Peter the Great had dreamed of.

Travel DVD New Arrival: Hidden India

Bruce Kraig travels the small Indian state of Kerala, visiting markets, spice plantations, rice paddies, elephant parades, traditional dances, and more.

Travel DVD New Arrival: Rick Steves Travel Extras

This is the only DVD that includes all four of these half-hour Rick Steves' Europe TV shows - Lisbon and the Algarve, Portugal's Heartland, Israel, and Egypt - plus extras. New and updated extras include: Rick Steves' European Insights; Opening the Door to Luther, with Rick Steves; and Rick Steves' Europe: Six Seasons of Bloopers.

Winter Getaways: Backroads & Byways of New England

Share an insider’s knowledge of New England’s roads less traveled and explore all its hidden corners with this guide. Journey to bucolic countryside, dramatic and rocky coastlines, pristine lakes and mountains, picturesque covered bridges, retro clam shacks and fishing villages - New England’s beauty exceeds all expectations.

Description from Goodreads.com

Winter Getaways: Winter Backpacking

Whether you're new to backpacking in the winter months and looking to make your first experience as warm and enjoyable as possible, or a practiced winter backpacker interested in making day trips and camping trips more comfortable, this easy-to-read guide was written for you. You'll learn all about staying warm and comfortable throughout the day and night, how to fit a backpack and pack it properly, winter travel, navigation, menu planning, cooking and nutrition, how to set up camp, winter hazards, first aid, winter survival, how to ensure a fun winter backpacking experience for kids and dogs, and much more.

Description from Goodreads.com