DALLAS: JR’s Suite at Southfork Hotel (Southfork Ranch)

Confession: I was not allowed to watch television as a child, except for Fraggle Rock and the family-friendly Sunday Night Movie. So I missed all the really great evening soaps of the ’80s: Falcon Crest, Dynasty, Dark Shadows, and yes, even Dallas.  I didn’t get to see any of the philandering, the catfighting, the feathered hairdos and fabulous outfits, or obsess over a single outrageous plotline featuring a gunfight and a dream sequence…poor me, right?

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t know about the glory of these shows, and of course I wanted to make up for a bit of what I’d missed by visiting Southfork Ranch, where Dallas was shot, when visiting the actual city of Dallas. In fact, I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate to do.

The first effects I realized upon driving into the magnificent 350-acre Southfork Ranch property is that TV soap opera production budgets must have been much better in the late ’70s and ’80s.  This property was a working ranch owned by the Duncan family until Lorimar Productions landed a helicopter there one day and said, “We must shoot our new show Dallas on this very spot.” And when Dallas became such a big be successful that the Duncans couldn’face to face live onsite anymore without being constantly bothered by avid fans, the family sold the estate to the producers.

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The city of Tikal, Guatemala. Photo: Daniel Loncarevic

In about 750 CE, the Mayan city of Tikal  had a population of more than 60,000 souls. During its peak, archaeologists believe that the city center spanned almost six square miles, and further inquiry tells us that Tikal’s population may have spread outwards from the center for at least 47 square miles.

The city remained a secret for more than a thousand years; Spanish conquistadores passed within a few miles of Tikal on their rapacious journey through the area, but never learned of its existence. In 1848, the Guatemalan government made the first official alertness and report on the city; it was declared a National Park in 1995. Today, modern Mayans celebrate their ancestors with pilgrimages to Tikal, which hosts more than 100,000 Guatemalan visitors each year.

Much of Tikal is still unexcavated, but you can see its Grand Plaza, Acropolis, pyramids, and temples onward Smithsonian Journeys’ Guatemala: Land of Eternal Spring  tour in 2010.

Where else can you find pyramids? Share below.

Photos Matt took on his journeys to the Grand Canyon, top, and Ko Lipe, Thailand.

In the year that I’ve been doing the Frugal Traveler column as a weekly blog, I’ve gained new respect for all the other travel bloggers out there: they write, take photos, shoot video and maintain relationships with readers while roaming the world, often on extremely low budgets, often without hope of making a dime from their work. A select few, however, have managed to turn travel blogging from a pastime into a profession — and a fairly lucrative one at that, the kind of pursuit that might inspire the cubicle-bound and the newly laid off.

Matt in Kakadu National Park in Australia.

One of these is Matt Kepnes, a 28-year-old Bostonian who, while completing an M.B.A. in 2005, took an 18-month backpacking trip to Asia and had his eyes opened to the possibilities of travel blogging as a job. In March 2008, he created NomadicMatt.com, a blog detailing his ongoing low-budget adventures around the world. Today he makes a living solely through his online endeavors — and is doing well enough that there’s little reason to think about coming back home and getting what his parents (or yours) might call a “real” be in action at jobs.

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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is definitely single of the highlights of California’s festival calendar.

Held at the beautiful Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, the popular score festival will be held over three days on 16, 17 and 18 April 2010.

The lineup has yet to be announced, of course (being so far away ‘n’ all), but to give you an idea of calibre, the lineup for last year’s event included the likes of Leonard Cohen, The Killers, Joss Stone, Paul McCartney, James Morrison, The Chemical Brothers and more!

To find out more, visit www.coachella.com.

One of Galileo’s famous telescopes

There’s always a part of us that looks back when we were teenagers and asks, “What would I have done differently?”

Maybe you would have eaten a little healthier or been a little kinder to that kid that didn’t have many friends. Perhaps you wouldn’t have had your class picture taken with that terrible haircut. For many of us who love to travel, we imagine going back in time and effective ourselves, “You really should study abroad.” Maybe you can’t change the past, but that doesn’cheek by jowl mean you can’t give a little advice to your grandson, daughter, or nephew.

Smithsonian Journeys is proudly introducing a new program this year specifically for high school students called Smithsonian Studies Abroad. Students will not only learn a new language, they will experience livelihood in a new culture by discussing social and political issues with fantastic guest speakers, explore the host country on weekend excursions, and interact with the local community.

One of our inaugural programs is located in Florence, Italy, the homeland of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Galileo.

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There’sitting something magical going on in Marfa, Texas. This dusty West Texas town has recently become an artists’ retreat¸ hipster hangout, and buzzy little up-and-comer to what cowboys hang out with silver-haired émigrés from Martha’s Vineyard. During my stopover, a pair of journalists from Vancouver had traveled there just to see the art galleries and relish at Food Shark, the food truck in the town center.

Longtime residents of Marfa—the ones whose families have been ranchers in this county for 150 years—hate what’s happening to their town. They don’t patronize Food Shark, or the Fair Trade coffee shop, and they stay far away from those community activities that “the artists” enthusiastically plan and attend. They hate the natural side movables of civic evolution: higher prices, strangers moving in next passage, the old five ‘n’ dime enforced to close. Many of them grumble about packing up and moving to Alpine, the next town up the road.

But I wonder this: Do they realize what happens to towns who do not receive this influx, and the attendant boost to the local economy? Just look at Valentine, on the highway between Van Horne and Marfa.

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Detest New Year’s Eve? Escape to 1 of these beautifully remote destinations. Not a party popper in sight!

I HATE New Year’s Eve. No, I insignificant really HATE it.

I dislike intensely the hype, I shrink from the expense, I hate the hassle, I hate the anti-climax and I hate being forced to have fun.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could run away some place where New Year’session Eve doesn’t exist??

Well the good tidings is, you can!

Check out these 5 beautifully remote destinations where silence rules and the only counting you’ll be doing will be the stars!

1. Australian Outback, Australia

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With Australia’s population concentrated along the main coastal cities, you’ll be pretty safe deep in the Australian outback.

You may run into some sheep shearers in high spirits, oh and there’s that huge sacred rock, Uluru (200 miles from Alice Springs).

Just you the rock and the stars. Beats Times Square!

2.

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