Quietly-great travel sites worth a click

Most travel guides assume you have the constitution of a marathon runner and the budget of a minor tech heir. The reality is usually more about finding a decent taco and a way to get home without walking three miles in humidity.

If you are stuck in a loop of midwestern civic pride, Choose Chicago will try to convince you that deep dish is a reasonable lunch choice while highlighting jazz clubs that actually justify the wind chill. Meanwhile, Visit Denver leans hard into the mountain-proximity thing, mostly serving as a reminder that people there are much more hydrated than you.

For the west coast, Discover Los Angeles handles the broad strokes of Hollywood logistics, but Secret Los Angeles is where you go to find out which nondescript strip mall is currently hiding the city’s best speakeasy. It is a necessary antidote to the polished tourist brochures, focusing on the weird pop-ups and neon-lit bars that make the traffic almost tolerable.

Then there is Visit Las Vegas, a site that manages to make sensory overload look organized. It is essentially a directory for people who want to lose their money in a room with very nice carpet. If you manage to make it out of the casino, Uber is the inevitable utility player waiting to ferry you back to a hotel room you will barely sleep in.

Check out the full list at /categories/travel.