This month members of our editorial staff get a chance to step up and "show 'em how it's done." Editor Max Hartshorne blogs from above the Arctic Circle in Greenland and captures the charm of Graz: Austria's "other city." This month we also unveil Max's personal web page, with links to all his stories.

The Canal du Midi

Senior Travel Editor Kent E. St. John contributes his formula for an ideal vacation: a stroll down the medieval streets of Montpellier and a jolly cruise along the Canal du Midi aboard the 46-foot charter "Magnifique" combined with jovial company and, of course, exquisite food and wine; after all, c'est la France!

Cindy-Lou Dale visits the Harnas Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia and talks with owner Marlice Van Vuuren about her vision for a "role model conservation area" that benefits animals, eco-tourists and the local economy. Harnas' international sponsor, Angelina Jolie, has already paid for fencing to enclose 100 square miles, and Van Vuuren says that's just the beginning. Don't miss Cindy-Lou's dazzling photogallery of Namibian landscapes and wildlife.

First-time contributor Linda Ballou takes us rafting on the Tatshenshini River from the Yukon Territory to Alaska through turbulent whitewater rapids, past icebergs the size of apartment buildings "calving" off twenty glaciers in the largest non-polar ice field on earth. She reports that the Chilkat guides are great cooks!

For good measure we throw in a snake safari in Northwest Nevada, a budget-minded tour of Tokyo and a visit to the beaches in Trinidad where giant leatherback sea turtles lay their eggs!