Sometimes the exotic sound of a faraway place is alluring enough to entice one to visit there. Names like Marrakech, Bali, Machu Picchu and even Timbuktu tempt me to seek them out. Others pique my curiousity because of their significance to the history or culture of the world: St. Petersburg, New Orleans, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Beijing, Istanbul. Then there are all those places which, without even seeing a picture, I add to my list of have-to-go-theres. You would correctly surmise that that list is rather lengthy because my job puts a great many of those temptations squarely in my path. (Perilous, perilous job!) It’s a great testament to those who write the articles which appear in Global Traveler that they often have me muttering, “I’ve got to go there!” after I’ve only read the raw text of a piece. Art director Tracey Cullen does a magnificent job of creating lovely layouts with pictures which reveal the fascinating subjects of our Destinations articles, and readers tell us over and over again how appealing the magazine covers are, compelling them to pick up an issue and dive in to the colorful pages. The words, however, suck me in long before the point where those pages go to press. Senior editor Jan Hecht and I often share with each other our personal reactions to the text we email back and forth before Tracey works her magic on it. November’s Day Off piece on Belfast and December’s Spa Report on the Cedar Court Grand Hotel in York had us both hankering to take an extended tour of the British Isles to explore our roots. And wait ’til you read Barbara Radcliffe Rogers’ January First Person account of her stay in Madeira! After reading about the lush landscapes and unique flora of that remote island (Jan and I are both avid gardeners) in combination with all kinds of wonderful wines and libations there, we agreed this was another locale to add to the bucket list. So you see, my job isn’t just about commas and quotation marks and subject-verb agreement; there’s a healthy dose of armchair traveling and dreaming mixed in, too! — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor