TRAVEL

2012 Oscar nominee The Descendants strips Hawaii of its exotic tropes and offers a glimpse of paradise rarely seen by tourists.

Mardi Gras 2012 Photos! Over the four-day weekend there was drinking, dancing, and King Cake eating as the streets of New Orleans flooded with flamboyant costumes, frivolous floats, and frolicking late night flesh-flashers.

For those in a hurry this Ash Wednesday, one Ohio church has a solution: drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessings.

Archaeologists have discovered ruins of two huts at Kharaneh IV, one of the largest Late Pleistocene sites in southwest Asia, located about 70 km east of Jordan's capital Amman.

What is Fat Tuesday? What is the history of Mardi Gras? How did it begin in New Orleans?

Jeremy Lin's meteoric rise to fame = Linsanity. Taiwanese tours to New York for Knicks games = More Linsanity. Jeremy Lin and Tonics, Lintinis, and Lin-Mint Shakes = Total Linsanity.

Two expert committees appointed by the Indian Supreme Court began documenting the wealth of the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple complex in Thiruvananthapuram.

The two-week-long Mardi Gras annual festival kick started in New Orleans, Louisiana, Monday with celebrities, entertainers and revelers taking part in parades.

Scores of carnival revelers carried out vibrant huge parades on the streets of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz, as a part of traditional German street fest Monday.

A rare natural phenomenon occurs at a little-known Yosemite waterfall each February. For two weeks only, Horsetail Fall turns red at sunset, making the waterfall appear like it's flowing with lava as a firefall.

The Frankfurt Airport strike will continue through Wednesday as the GdF union and airport operator Fraport AG struggle to reach an agreement.

The U.S. State department issued a new 2012 travel warning and map for visitors to Mexico earlier this month. Alarming as some of the figures may be, there are still plenty of spectacular spots across Mexico that are not to be written of over safety concerns.

The 2012 Brazil Carnival is widely viewed as a test to see if the South American nation is ready to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Marked by folk dance, parades and more cultural activities, the three-day Carnival of Oruro in Bolivia started on Saturday with fanfare and feasts.

Rio de Janeiro Carnival Parade 2012 in Pictures: Dazzling Sequin-clad Samba Dancers and Celeb Attraction (PHOTOS)

Three skiers were reportedly trapped and killed in an avalanche near the Stevens Pass area in the Cascade Mountains in rural eastern King County, Wa. on Sunday.

Australia-born author and motivational speaker Nick Vujicic married fiancé Kanae Miyahara on Feb.12 in California. Vujicic, 29, was born with a rare condition of the absence of limbs called Tetra-amelia syndrome.

While the Brazil Carnival observes various street parades by Samba groups from across the country, check out a few pictures of the annual block parties held in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on the opening day of the carnival.

The 610 Stompers is a group of ordinary men with extraordinary moves that will march through New Orleans this Mardi Gras to spread the message of world domination through dance.

Surrealist pop culture photographer Jacob Sutton's new L.E.D. Surfer video featuring snowboarder William Hughes mixes sports, fashion and high art to mesmerizing effect.

Drunk Pilot? A Frontier Airlines flight, operated by regional carrier Chautauqua Airlines, was delayed in Omaha by two hours after concerns were raised that the pilot may be intoxicated.

Victoria Beckham posed for photographs with Anna Wintour next to a Union Jack-covered NYC subway train under Grand Central Station Wednesday as Britain's new tourism ambassador for the GREAT Britain campaign.

Hyatt Hotels Corp posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, citing solid corporate travel.

Guillaume Blanchet is the man who lived on his bike, pedaling around Montreal for 382 days cooking meals, napping, and surfing the net.

The owner of Atlantic City's Steel Pier amusement park hoped to capitalize on Boardwalk Empire nostalgia by bringing back the famous diving horses. However the idea was soon nixed after thousands spoke out in protest.

The 2012 Mardi Gras season is well underway and New Orleans' biggest krewes and dance troupes are gearing up for a blowout celebration on Fat Tuesday.

The Mob Museum in Downtown Las Vegas is open for business!

As fans question Whitney Houston's cause of death, many decide to visit the site of her passing, the Beverly Hilton hotel, aboard Hollywood's Dearly Departed, the Tragical History Tour. But is it too soon?

A few blocks from the Mississippi River levee where a homeless W.C. Handy composed St. Louis Blues more than 100 years ago, the first national blues museum in the United States is taking shape.