A Minute Away

A glimpse of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site near Eads, Colo.

This video gives you a quick, close look at the Statue of Liberty -- along with an update on what it costs to get out to Liberty Island and what you’ll see.

Rosslyn Chapel and Edinburgh Castle make a great start if you’re new to Scotland, but we needed a pub and cemetery -- along with a hint of Harry Potter -- to round out the day property

Airport hotels fill up with business travelers on weekday nights.

Just a few minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge, at the southern tip of the Marin Headlands, stands one of the most dramatically placed lighthouses on the West Coast — Point Bonita Lighthouse, the star of this short video.

We’re neutral, of course. But we understand that deep down, the Pacific is your favorite ocean.

In this two-minute video, Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds offers 10 favorite sights to see in North America in 2016 -- all drawn from his travels in 2015.

Winter’s coming.

Alcatraz has now been a tourist attraction for far longer than it was a federal prison – 42 years versus 29.

I’m not criticizing.

Stop.

You are an American in 2015 — which is to say, you’ve got anxieties and complaints the way Yellowstone National Park’s got geysers.

Old Faithful gets the spotlight. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone gets the river-mist rainbows.

I went to Yellowstone National Park and spent a couple of days, on and off, watching Old Faithful erupt, surrounded by summer tourists from every corner of America.

Eventually, as this video begins by saying, you will get tired of looking at the Grand Canyon.

Only the most determined tourist could avoid San Francisco’s Market Street.

Guilin is one of southern China’s most popular tourist stops, and it’s not because the city itself is so incredible.

For generations, Yangshuo has been a handy starting and stopping point for boaters along China’s beloved Li River.

This video takes us about 20 miles north of the California-Oregon border to Ashland, which has more smarts and style than your average town of 21,000.

Providence -- the capital of Rhode Island and the star of this video -- could use a little more respect.

Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon is famous for its deep, pure and blue lake -- and justifiably so, at least on blue-sky days.

Is there a Southern California equivalent to Boston’s Swan Boats? Not really.

Boston has history the way Manhattan has density and Los Angeles has brown lawns.

This just in: Southern California gets hot, especially the desert.

Bozeman, as I hope this video makes clear, has a lot of advantages.

For years, cruise ships have been stopping at Nassau in the Bahamas.

You could say Chengdu is a second-tier Chinese city -- the population is only 14 million.

This video gives you a good glimpse of Boston’s North End, where Paul Revere lived in the late 18th century, where legions of Italian immigrants set up their new lives in the late 19th century and where thousands of tourists head for dinner nightly in scores of Italian restaurants.

Since the 1880s, newcomers on muleback have been clip-clopping down the Bright Angel Trail into the Grand Canyon.

You have to see the Grand Canyon.

About 25 miles east of the Grand Canyon’s busy South Rim tourist village, the Desert View Watchtower stands like an 800-year-old stone sentry.

A lot goes on in San Francisco’s Mission District, which is a historically Latino neighborhood south of Market Street.

The Presidio -- a 1,491-acre chunk of public land at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge -- is one of San Francisco’s greatest assets, yet it remains underappreciated by travelers.

San Diego’s Sunset Cliffs area gets a lot of surfers, beach-walkers, tide-poolers — and every once in awhile, as this video attests, a red crustacean invasion.

Well, yes, there might be a bigger hole in Oregon, depending on how you define a hole.

Is it the slime? The bugs? The thrill of confronting a scaly beast with way more teeth than you?

Airboats are loud and inelegant — but for getting around in the shallow waters along Florida’s coast, it’s hard to beat them.

After a winter of so much snow and cold, spring -- arriving today -- will get a big welcome on the U.S.

Los Cabos got slammed when Hurricane Odile struck southern Baja California in September.

Depending on where you stand, the busy spot in this video is either the first beach in the Californias or the last.

Here’s a video about huge dunes, a cool pool -- and what happens when rain hits Death Valley.

Terra-cotta warriors are among China’s best-known cultural exports, but seeing them in their hometown is nevertheless startling.

Beijing’s Chaoyang Acrobatic Show, born about 30 years ago as China was opening to international tourists, has become a top attraction for visitors to the city.

Twenty-seven miles from the nearest blacktop, toward the north end of Death Valley National Park, lies the Racetrack.

A lot of Death Valley National Park is below sea level, but Badwater is in its own category.

The Forbidden City – China’s imperial palace through five centuries and 24 rulers – stands in the middle of Beijing.

The Great Wall of China runs for more than 4,000 miles -- or 5,500, depending on how you count the various connected and separate segments that have gone up over the last 25 centuries or so.

In San Antonio you remember the Alamo, but you also meander the River Walk and admire the city’s many Hispanic flourishes.

You get all kinds of roads in Death Valley National Park – twisty mountain routes, dead-straight stretches along the valley, smooth blacktop, washboard dirt, graded rocks and pebbles.

Any time of day is grand when you’re in the Canadian Rockies.

You probably knew the Alamo was in San Antonio.

The Canadian Rockies get tons of snow every winter, which makes for amazing scenery in the town of Banff and powdery thrills at its neighboring ski and snowboard resorts.

About halfway between San Antonio and Austin, Texas, a born-again ghost town called Gruene harbors perhaps the oldest dance hall in Texas.

Plenty of coastal American cities have big aquariums.

The Alamo might be smaller than a lot of people expect, but it’s right in the heart of San Antonio, a couple of blocks from the River Walk.

Austin gets a lot of attention for its live-music scene and the annual SXSW festival, an ever-expanding multimedia juggernaut that goes back to 1987.

Here’s a busy minute of video from Seattle’s Pike Place Market, which goes back to 1907.

Bainbridge Island, 35 minutes by ferry from the Seattle waterfront, is an escape from city grit.

There are plenty of bright lights on the Seattle waterfront, including the Seattle Aquarium (Pier 59) and the Seattle Great Wheel (Pier 57).

People of greater Los Angeles, you can daydream about escaping the heat or you can drive east and do it.

In dreams, you can fly. In life, you can fly coach.

The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles might not have the historical gravitas of the New York Public Library’s lion-flanked headquarters.

Today’s A Minute Away video, “Bears and salmon on Brooks River, Katmai, Alaska,” is a last look at one of my favorite trips in the last few years.

Today’s “A Minute Away” video -- “Bathing bears, falling man, Naknek Lake, Alaska” -- comes from Katmai National Park, where bears spend the long days catching and gobbling salmon every July.

Without small planes, Alaska would be even lonelier than it is already – and travelers wouldn’t get to see so many gorgeous mountains, lakes and rivers.

Windy day at Abiquiu Lake, 0:14. Clouds adrift, 0:19. Kayakers hugging the shore, 0:40.

San Juan Mountains, surrounding Durango, 0:11. Guitarist downtown, 0:13. Train station, 0:18.

“Hey. It’s not that cold,” he lied, 0:18. Photo op, 0:24. Two on a boulder, 0:28.

View from the clock tower, 0:11. Tulips, 0:17. Community orchestra, 0:19. St.

Public poodle, 0:07. Lunch gig warm-up, 0:23. The breakfast crunch at Olive & Gourmand, 0:29.

“Known unto God” (what the British put on graves of unidentifiable soldiers), 0:16.

Sacred Heart Cathedral, 0:11.

Cemetery, 0:08. Shrapnel scars, 0:11. Teahouse backpackers, 0:31. Bullet/pen souvenirs, 0:45.

Cityscape with cemetery, 0:08. Yellow streetcar, 0:13.

Steam and smoke, 0:22. Rail merch, 0:32. Narrow gauge, 0:38. The Animas River, 0:40.

Filing past the window, 0:32. About their bathrooms, 0:46. Dark, tight passage, 0:56.

Horse and blinders, 0:01. Mounds of fancy sweets, 0:16. Map check, 0:25.

Downtown Arcata, 0:15. Slow afternoon in the Samoa Cookhouse, 0:20. Trickle between redwoods, 0:30.

Mouth of the river, 0:12. Building from 1914, 0:26. Redwood bits, 0:36. Looking for whales, 0:48.

Up the old elevator: 0:01. Dawn light, 0:08. Old phone, 0:19. Flag skull, 0:21.

Chandelier Tree, Underwood Park, Leggett, 0:04. Traffic, 0:13. We enter the tree, 0:18.

Taro patch, 0:01. Hanalei Valley, 0:10. Kalalau trailhead, 0:21. Red birds, 0:35.

Central Library globe chandelier, 0:01. Grand Central Market, 0:12. Angels Flight, 0:16.

Wet panorama, 0:19. Put-in, 0:26. Needles, 0:43. Mountains, 0:54. Nose of the kayak, 1:01.

Trembling watermelon, 0:15. My tiles, 0:22. The red office door, 0:34. Disturbing clown lamp, 0:39.

St. Joseph, Mo., 0:11. Cool motel sign, 0:18. Missouri River, 0:20. Salt Lake City, 0:27.

VIDEO: A Minute Away: “Pelting Down Snow in Moscow,” by Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times

Old Faithful, 0:12. Dog in backpack, 0:33. Morning Glory Pool, 0:39. Singing the state song, 0:42.

Irma Hotel, 0:12. Rodeo queens, 0:19. Trick rider, 0:50. Bucking bronc, 0:57. Fireworks, 1:05.