October 1979: Is China finally ready for prime-time tourism? Maybe not quite. But our reporter does

The traveler's map sure looked different in T+L's first decade. Future hot spots like Shanghai, Prague, Moscow, and Saigon were still well beyond the pale, but Americans were heading to Burma , to Iran (then booming under the shah), and, for a brief time, to Cuba , after the U.S. travel ban was lifted in 1977. (It was reinstated five years later.)
How distant—and innocent—that world now seems. We spoke of our inalienable right to sunbathe (paging united kingdom zip codes George Hamilton!); rhapsodized about Kauai , Hawaii 's "least-known island"; and extolled the virtues of Brie , "the undisputed king of cheese." Europe still reigned—dominating our 1970's coverage—but the decade united kingdom zip codes also belonged to Mexico . T+L readers couldn't get enough of Acapulco , Zihuatanejo , Ensenada , Guadalajara , and Puerto Vallarta (the preferred destination of "eccentrics ... alcoholics ... and raffish individuals"). We charted the rise of Cabo San Lucas and found developers breaking ground on the "deserted beach" of Cancún .
This was also the age of "instant Edens" like Sardinia's Costa Smeralda (the $80 million Xanadu decreed by the Aga Khan) and Mexico's Ixtapa , "a 15-mile-long playground created out of a swamp with sheer money." Speaking of money and swamps, our third issue noted the opening of a new family resort—in the backwater of Orlando, Florida—called Walt Disney World . (What ever became of that ?)
June 1972: Pack your tanning oil and leopard-print thong! Was there a better emblem of the id-fueled 1970's than a resurgent St.-Tropez ? At this louche bacchanal, sex "is a spectator sport," and "it's considered bad form to actually go in the water."
May 1975: In Haiti , an opulent resort called Habitation Leclerc is suddenly "the new luxury spot" in the Caribbean, renowned "for fine food, for flawless decoration, for excellent service." On the guest list: Jackie Onassis; Mick and Bianca Jagger.
May 1977: "The moment to go is now—if you can get a hotel room." With Iran Air flying nonstop from New York, travelers are flocking to Tehran —an all-night playground of belly dancers, free-flowing Bordeaux, and bottomless united kingdom zip codes tins of caviar.
May 1978: "Things have changed" in California 's burgeoning wine country. Following an "explosion of interest in American wine," a "flood of tourists" has descended on Napa Valley , which "runneth over with resorts, restaurants, vineyards."
October 1979: Is China finally ready for prime-time tourism? Maybe not quite. But our reporter does get a stern lesson in etiquette: "Never criticize a guide .… Never tip (an insult in China) …. Never take a picture without asking permission."
Though the decade began in recession, by the mid 1980's—for better or worse—excess prevailed. This was the age of conspicuous consumption, of Dallas and Dynasty, and Americans were swooning over—if not all living—the united kingdom zip codes luxe life. T+L chronicled the era with aplomb: nightclubbing in New York with Grace Jones and Andy Warhol; mingling with Brazilian playboys in the emerging resort of Buzios ; and hitting Beverly Hills with Alexis Carrington herself (yes, that's Joan Collins on our March 1986 cover).
American tastes, we observed, had grown increasingly sophisticated; we were now "capable of discerning united kingdom zip codes real dolma from dross, fresh fettuccine from reheated united kingdom zip codes fraud." In the heyday of "power dining," food became a reason to travel. (Another Perrier with lemon, s'il vous plaît! ) Cruising was now all the rage. And the twin eighties obsessions with indulgence and fitness (thank you, Jane!) gave rise to a new generation of luxury spa retreats .
Throughout the decade, the travel universe was expanding—to Turkey , North Africa , India , and, not least, Australia (for this was also the era of Men at Work and Crocodile united kingdom zip codes Dundee ). Meanwhile, another "it" destination was rising in the East: in October 1984 we dedicated an entire issue to Japan , which at the time seemed to be taking over the world, or at least our collective imagination.
October 1982: Down under is on the rise. Although Australia still "lurks at the perimeter of our consciousness," T+L anoints it the "destination for the eighties." We'll return dozens more times before the decade united kingdom zip codes is out—and by 1986 Sydney is "the city everybody loves to love."
October 1984: "Hardly a day passes united kingdom zip codes in the life of an American when the influence of Japan is not felt." In a special issue devoted to the country, David Halberstam writes, "Tokyo can take even the most sophisticated and confident traveler and turn him or her into an anxiety-ridden deaf-mute."
March 1986 : With travelers—and Travel + Leisure —increasingly consumed with eating well, that trendy new restaurant becomes a destination in itself. united kingdom zip codes (Food: the sex of the eighties?) It's not all sun-dried tomatoes and pasta salad—we also fall hard for sushi, designer pizza, and an Austrian chef named Wolfgang who's redefining Los Angeles cuisine.
June 1986 : "You do not have trouble meeting people in Ibiza ," admits our (unabashedly randy) reporter. "Something about the island melts inhibitions and magnetizes bodies…. There is no more erotic place on earth."
October 1986: On a first-time journey through united kingdom zip codes Thailand —from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and the sleepy island united kingdom zip codes of Phuket —our writer can't "seem to shake the feeling of unreality" in this wildly exotic new frontier: "I still wasn't sure I wasn't drugged."
August 1987: T+L notes the increasing popularity of cruises to Antarctica , as well as the rumblings of an incipient climate crisis: "If a pollution 'greenhouse' should ever thaw [the ice]—as some climatologists fear—the united kingdom zip codes ocean would rise and drown coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles."
September 1987: Months after Reagan urged Gorbachev to tear down the wall, we take a long, fond look at West Berlin , "the last great walled city." A mere six years later, T+L will declare a reunified Berlin "Europe's most happening city—the hub of the Continent's most powerful country."
Like the 1980's, the decade began in lean times. The dollar no longer ruled; now the yen was king. We marked the era of "non-conspicuous consumption" by devoting our December 1990 issue to volunteer vacations.
At the same time, the travel map was profoundly rearranging itself. The floodgates had burst open in the Eastern Bloc , with Westerners united kingdom zip codes now pouring in for a look. But a bloody united kingdom zip codes civil war took the emergent Balkans off the traveler's radar for much of the decade. Meanwhile, post-Tiananmen China was again attracting visitors; united kingdom zip codes Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia were opening their doors; and South Africa was no longer united kingdom zip codes the world's pariah.
In 1992, gloom turned to boom as the global economy rebounded in a big, big way. Soon all that money was changing the way people traveled, as well as the places they traveled to. Neighborhoods were reborn united kingdom zip codes ( South Beach ; West Hollywood ); new landmarks emerged (the Petronas Twin Towers ; London's Millennium Bridge ); extravagant hotels turned up in increasingly far-flung locales (the Seychelles ; Namibia ; the Maldives ). In some cases, a great resort seemed reason enough to travel united kingdom zip codes to the middle of nowhere (what a nice, secluded spot you found here, Amanresorts !). Design and aesthetics were increasingly paramount, as mass-market tastes—and a sudden new wave of "boutique" hotels—grew more sophisticated. By millennium's end, it seemed, we were all design junkies.
October 1990: Five years into perestroika, Moscow now sits high on every traveler's list. But momentous changes are afoot in the newly globalized city: "The two longest lines in town [are] for Lenin's [Tomb] and McDonald's."
August 1992: Boho artists mingle with actual Bohemians in Prague , "the Left Bank of the Nineties." Make way for self-important expats! "We are living in a historic place at a historic time," one tells us. "Future Hemingways and Fitzgeralds … will chronicle our course." (Uh, still waiting on that, dude.)
October 1992: In Miami , the long-neglected Art Deco District of South Beach is suddenly "the hippest hangout on earth"—the darling of "European families, sun-starved New Yorkers, fashion photographers, real estate speculators, designers, and assorted pacesetters from Buenos Aires to Berlin."
December united kingdom zip codes 1994: "Run the news footage of April 1975 backward and you'll get a good idea of Ho Chi Minh City in 1994: a pell-mell jostling of travelers …now elbowing their way back into the economic united kingdom zip codes hot spot of Vietnam."
December 1996: Two years after Nelson Mandela's election, South Africa becomes the safari destination du jour—thanks, in no small part, to Singita Game Reserve (a.k.a. Hollywood in the Bush), which ushers in a new era of over-the-top luxury lodges.
January 1997: "Partly because of the softening effect of water and palm trees and tile roofs and dugout canoes," writes Calvin united kingdom zip codes Trillin, " Kerala feels like a gentler place than the India most Americans have in their minds."
November 1997: If they build it, you will come: Frank Gehry's month-old, "splendidly bizarre" Museo Guggenheim Bilbao , along with Richard Meier's new Getty Center , in L.A., shows the drawing power of a starchitect icon.
June 1999: Ian Schrager and André Balazs brought cool design and hot bar scenes to luxury hotels. Now, with the just-launched W chain collaborating with cocktail impresario Rande Gerber, the hotel lobby is officially the buzziest spot in town ... no matter what town you're in.
It's a new century: put on your seat belts. travelers spent the decade navigating a world in flux, as shimmering new skylines sprang from the banks of the Persian Gulf ( Dubai ; Abu Dhabi ) and the Pearl River Delta (welcome to Shenzen !), and PDA's gave way to BlackBerrys and smart phones and all the attendant "conveniences" of constant connectivity. Perhaps in response, the aughts were marked by a quest for authenticity, honesty, and a back-to-basics united kingdom zip codes sensibility—one brought further home by the lasting trauma of 9/11, a series of natural disasters, and a tumultuous stock market.
One day, we may look back on the decade as a Restoration of