Ikon Pass adds a new Tahoe resort for winter 24/25

Shopping for the frequent flyer, motorsport enthusiast, or person who seems to have everything? Holiday gift-giving is never easy—especially for the person who already seems to have more than they want or need. Luckily, Carl Friedrik has us covered this year with the launch of its limited-edition collaboration with Williams Racing, which brings together luxury travel essentials and racing heritage for a gift that’s anything but ordinary.

Inspired by Williams’ racing heritage and F1’s 1990s golden era, the new Grove Collection brings a vintage, motorsport twist to travel pieces that people use every day. Fronted by 1996 Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill, this collection features rich chestnut leather, vintage-inspired racing stripes, and Williams’ signature “Forward W” logo, making each piece a standout gift for travelers who appreciate thoughtful design and a little racing history.

My first trip to Kyoto was an exhausting three-day bender. I rose at 5 a.m. to see the sunrise from Fushimi Inari, spent a small fortune Ubering between temples, and probably snapped a terabyte’s worth of photos of geiko, monks, and monkeys. I departed the ancient city with the nagging feeling that I had simultaneously seen everything and nothing—a regret akin to rushing through a magnificent dinner.

When I returned this past summer with my girlfriend, I kept in mind Kipling’s advice to the traveler: “The first condition for understanding a new country is to smell it.” With the UNESCO sites safely ticked off, I wanted to savor Kyoto slowly. Mornings in coffee shops with a book. Afternoon strolls through Gion to admire art, watches, and antiques. Dinners at out-of-the-way izakaya, perhaps followed by nightcaps at bars recommended by waiters. Like a Heian roué, I would lounge, loiter, and lollygag my way through Kyoto.

From the rim of Canyon de Chelly, the view is almost impossibly beautiful. Sheer red sandstone walls plunge hundreds of feet toward a green ribbon of cottonwood trees and cultivated fields. Ancient stone dwellings cling to narrow ledges high above the canyon floor. It’s the sort of landscape that makes you reach for your camera before you’ve even begun to understand what you’re looking at.

But Canyon de Chelly is much more than another spectacular Southwestern landscape. People have lived here for nearly 5,000 years, and unlike most of the great archaeological sites of the Southwest, this is still a place where families live, farm, and maintain deep connections to their ancestral homeland. It’s also the setting for one of the most tragic chapters in American history.