USA Today’s 10Best recently asked readers to choose the nation’s top casino hotels — “top” being defined as “top-notch gaming and excellent amenities” — winnowing down a list of 20 possibilities nominated by travel experts to a top 10. Las Vegas accounted for two, and Atlantic City had three. The rest were spread across the country, from Connecticut to Mississippi and California.

An hour east of Los Angeles, Yaamava’ took the No. 2 spot with shout-outs for its 20 restaurants and bars, expansive pool deck and a diverse entertainment lineup that ranges from Ice Cube to Dan + Shay, Flogging Molly and Andrea Bocelli. Closer to home, Sonoma County’s Graton Resort & Casino came in at No. 9 for its upscale guest rooms, restaurants and entertainers — Billy Ocean and 98 Degrees will be appearing in October.

Here’s the list. Find more details at https://10best.usatoday.com.

10 best casino hotels in the U.S.

1 Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut

2 Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel, Highland, California

3 Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

4 Ocean Casino Resort, Atlantic City, New Jersey

5 Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, Biloxi, Mississippi

6 Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Atlantic City

7 Mount Airy Casino Resort, Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania

8 Resorts Casino Hotel, Atlantic City

9 Graton Resort & Casino, Rohnert Park, California

10 ARIA Resort & Casino, Las Vegas

We’re finding the “moments on the water” list especially inspiring, with its mixture of Mississippi River and Norwegian fjord vibes, Alaskan cruises and Portuguese riverways.

Norway’s splashy attractions include the Salmon Eye, a mind-blowing, floating restaurant-meets-sculpture in Hardangerfjord near Bergen. It’s part art — the world’s largest floating art installation — part tasting menu and part aquaculture learning lab.

Alaska makes the top spot on the list, thanks to a surge of new offerings in the Inside Passage, from new cruise ships to a new port on Prince of Wales Island and a huge, floating dock in Skagway.

And the Faroe Islands — which are halfway between Iceland and Norway — are suddenly a hot spot for cold water surfing, spectacular hikes and Instagram-worthy landscapes, including a lake that sits above the ocean. (Yes, really.)

Find the full list of Travel+Leisure’s top 50 spots at www.travelandleisure.com. Meanwhile, here’s just a peek.

Top 7 places for water adventures

1 Coastal Alaska

2 Coastal Norway

3 Douro River, Portugal

4 Faroe Islands, Denmark

5 Kimberley, Australia

6 Mississippi River

7 Queen Anne ship, Southampton, England

They recently featured readers’ takes on the top 10 historic small towns in the U.S., a list that includes Winterset, Iowa (No. 10 on the list), the county seat of Madison County which is known for its covered bridges — as in the 1995 movie, “The Bridges of Madison County.”

Arizona’s Winslow takes the No. 6 spot not only for its place in pop culture — cue the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” — and setting on historic Route 66, but for its Anasazi history. And 17th century architecture rules supreme in Wickford, Rhode Island, which holds the No. 2 ranking.

Take a peek at the list below, then check out the full story, complete with photos and snippets of history, at https://10best.usatoday.com.

1 Ludington, Michigan

2 Wickford, Rhode Island

3 Abilene, Kansas

4 Ruston, Louisiana

5 San Elizario, Texas

6 Winslow, Arizona

7 Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

8 Cumberland, Maryland

9 Jonesborough, Tennessee

10 Winterset, Iowa

You can truly use whatever vegetables you have, following the usual rule of thumb of adding them to the wok in order of hardest to softest (i.e. carrots and broccoli stems first, bok choy stems and cabbage next, bok choy leaves or peas last).

This dish travels well, too, so pack up leftovers for your trip, and you can avoid airport fare or road trip fast food altogether.

Pre-Vacation Fried Rice

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons neutral oil, such as sunflower or grapeseed

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

4 cups diced mixed vegetables (cabbage, green onion, carrot, broccoli, celery, bok choy, peas, or whatever you have on hand)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 package firm tofu, drained

4 cups cooked rice (I like to use brown jasmine)

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon mirin (or 1 teaspoon agave syrup or honey)

Salt to taste

Optional toppings:

Hot sauce, such as sambal oelek or Sriracha

Furikake (toasted sesame seeds and seaweed)

Sliced green onion

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute until fragrant.

Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the chopped vegetables, adding the hardest vegetables first to stir-fry for a few minutes and then gradually adding the softer vegetables and greens. Stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Empty the contents of the skillet into a serving dish and return the empty skillet to the stove. Heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Use your hands to crumble the tofu into the skillet, breaking up any larger chunks with a spatula or spoon. Stir-fry the tofu for 5 to 7 minutes until the liquid has evaporated, and the tofu dries out slightly.

Add the cooked rice and stir-fry an additional 2 minutes. Finally, add back in the vegetables along with the soy sauce and mirin and stir-fry for 1 minute to allow the flavor to infuse the fried rice. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt or more soy sauce or sesame oil.

Serve warm, topped with sambal oelek, sliced green onion and the toppings of your choice.

Registered dietitian and food writer Laura McLively is the author of “The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook.” Follow her at @myberkeleybowl and www.lauramclively.com.

No, not “To be or not to be?” We were seeing “Macbeth” later, not “Hamlet,” and anyway, this query had higher stakes than any royal monologue. How many days in a row could we order the same outrageous raclette grilled cheese at Skout Taphouse and Provisions, just across from the park, before someone, you know, said something?

With its melty Alpine cheese, thick rashers of bacon and lingonberry jam — truffle fries on the side — the Ultra Meltathon ($15) is enough to make anyone mangle a monologue and start saying that all the world’s a sandwich or music be the love of food.

The Bard first cast his enchanting spell over this city in 1935, when thespians gathered at the local Chautauqua in Lithia Park to stage “Twelfth Night.” But Lithia Park and the profusion of charming restaurants nearby spin a magic of their own, one with ties to the theater company that dominates not only the city’s economy but its very vibrancy. All those factors have inspired more than menu puns — yes, Midwinter Night’s Dram, we’re looking at you. They’ve also spun off a literary subgenre that includes 20 cozy, modern-day murder mysteries set in the Shakespeare theaters, the eateries, the hotels and this gorgeous park. (More on the books in a sec.)

Lithia Park was designed by landscape architect John McLaren, of Golden Gate Park fame. Today, it invites locals and visitors to begin their woodland wanderings just steps from the festival’s open-air Elizabethan theater and the city plaza. McLaren is not the park’s only tie to the Bay Area either. The park’s historic Butler-Perozzi Fountain was originally created for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco.

Here, trails wind up the canyon and into the woods. Ashland Creek tumbles by in all its splashy glory. There are rolling lawns and woodsy glades for picnickers, a play structure for tots, and pickleball courts, where the thwock of wiffleballs wafts through the air. A new Ashland Japanese Garden — complete with koi pond, waterfall, and sand and stone garden — opened in 2022. And on the main, paved trail near the duck pond, you’ll find cellist Daniel Perry beguiling passersby most mornings. It’s idyllic.

The park’s name, by the way, is a nod to Ashland’s mineral springs, which contain lithia salts. For the last century, anyone who was spa-curious – or had no sense of smell – could sample the, er, fragrant water as it burbled from the bubblers in the plaza drinking fountain. Oregon’s water authority closed the fountain last winter over concerns about other, less salubrious minerals in the water – barium and boron among them — although the city has argued that the bubblers are not a “public drinking fountain” in the conventional sense. The water’s sulfurous smell prevents anyone from actually chugging the stuff.

Historical appeal aside, who would want to drink that stuff when the alternatives include hoppy Oregon IPAs and pinot noir? You’ll find those beverages – along with nine types of Moscow Mules, a Best Damn Old-Fashioned and the aforesaid Midwinter Night’s Dram – at the venerable Oberon’s, a Shakespearean restaurant and whiskey bar on the plaza. Its Elizabethan decor conjures up Puckish whimsy with its twinkle-lit trees and wood-paneled booths, and a menu that ranges from giant roasted turkey legs to savory pies, sausages and flatbreads.

If you were hoping to disentangle real life from the imaginary, you’ve come to the wrong place. This isn’t just Shakespeare central, it’s also the setting for Ellie Alexander’s cozy, best-selling “Bakeshop Mystery” series. If you’re a fan (raises hand), Oberon’s is the inspiration for Puck’s, where Torte pastry chef (and amateur sleuth) Juliette “Jules” Capshaw hangs out with the fictional director of the very real Oregon Shakespeare Festival company.

So yes, we’re here for the Shakespeare — a heart-stoppingly powerful production of “Macbeth” we’re still talking about and an utterly delightful “Much Ado About Nothing” — but we’re also here for Jules and her foodie finds. And Alexander, who lives in Sunnyvale now, understands our obsession with Skout’s Ultra Meltathon grilled cheese. She loves their gigantic Go Big Pretzel, too, served with beer cheese sauce, mustard custard, house kraut and pimento cheese.

The Oregon-born Alexander only moved to Ashland after the book series took off, but her childhood summers had included forays to the city’s famous Elizabethan theater — her dad was a high school English teacher in the Portland area — and she certainly knew the area. So when her agent approached her about writing a mystery series, “I just knew,” she says.

“One of the things about cozy mysteries in general is that quintessential village vibe. There’s such an open, generous sense of community that reverberates through Ashland, and it’s been one of the themes through the series,” she says. “I love that that’s real. There’s nothing fictional about that piece.”

Alexander was still living in Ashland in 2021, when Tom and Lisa Beam opened the casual Skout Taphouse just across from the park. Giant roll-up doors and picnic tables, camping lanterns and a vintage camper bring the outdoorsy vibe indoors, while bright umbrella-shaded tables dot the expansive, creekside patio.

Just around the corner, you’ll find Jamie North’s Mix Bakeshop — the inspiration for Jules’ fictional Torte bakeshop — where you can enjoy a Stumptown Coffee latte with your flaky almond croissant ($5.25) or pick up sandwiches for a picnic at the park. Jules also hangs out with the Larks chef at the 1920s-era Ashland Springs Hotel, our home base for the week. Larks’ real-life chef, by the way, is Walnut Creek-native Franco Console, and everything on that menu is heavenly, especially the Warm Butter Cake with Pear Compote and Cereal Milk Ice Cream ($13).

We’re betting Jules would love Cocorico, too. Italian-inspired cuisine meets Pacific Northwest ingredients at Nat and Grace Borsi’s 2-year-old restaurant. Think burrata ($13) with baby carrots and snap peas, a Spring Campanelle ($22) with tomato confit, mizuna and grilled zucchini, and a Chickpea Tagine ($23) with rose harissa, dried blueberry and asparagus. It’s elevated but laidback all at once, with plenty to delight vegetarians, as well as omnivores.

Can we talk about the corpses, though? It’s true that the fictional Jules stumbles on them everywhere — in the park, at the theater, on snowy Mount Ashland and in a museum on the Southern Oregon University campus. Several locations were even suggested by Alexander’s Ashland neighbors, including “sweet little retirees with a basket of banana bread” who popped up on her porch to say, “So I was thinking about it, and a good place to kill someone would be …”

The only dead bodies we saw were onstage, thank heavens. And we know whodunnit — Macbeth and his wife. But those eerie witches just slayed.

If You Go

Lithia Park: Enter this public park, which is open daily, at 59 Winburn Way in Ashland. The Japanese Garden is open from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. https://ashlandparksfoundation.org/

Skout Taproom: Open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 21 Winburn Way; www.skoutashland.com.

Oberon’s: Open from 4 p.m. until midnight Sunday-Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday-Saturday at  45 N. Main St.; www.oberonsashland.com.

Mix Bakeshop: Open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 8:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 57 N. Main St.; www.mixashland.com.

Cocorico: Open from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 15 N. First St.; https://cocoricorestaurant.com/.

Ashland Springs Hotel: Rooms start at $197, including continental breakast. 212 E. Main St.; www.ashlandspringshotel.com The hotel’s Larks restaurant is open from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday and until 8:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday; https://larksashland.com/.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Performances of “Macbeth,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Coriolanus” and several otehr plays run through mid-October. Prices vary by play, but tickets for “Much Ado” start at $35. Find details at  https://www.osfashland.org.

Some of us might have had “see the Olympics in Paris” on our list. NatGeo has “run an Olympic marathon in Paris.” Turns out the city is hosting a Marathon for All on Aug. 10, when 20,000 lucky lottery winners will race the 26.2-mile route from Paris to Versailles.

Oh sure, you want to ride a horse? Go on safari? How about a horseback safari in Kenya?

Route 66 road trip? How about doing that while 600 hot air balloons soar overhead?

It’s a list that will fire your imagination, even if riding horses on safari sounds a tad scary. (There are lions!) Here’s just a peek at the top 8. Find details on all 20 adventures and plenty of other “best of the world” travel inspiration at www.nationalgeographic.com.

7 Coolest Travel Adventures for 2024

1 Go on horseback safari in Kenya

2 Run an Olympic marathon in Paris

3 Ski tour UNESCO sites in Georgia

4 Bear watch in Alaska’s Katmai National Park

5 Hear legendary live music in Kyoto

6 Cruise an epic river in Colombia

7 Road trip Route 66 in New Mexico

8 Explore ancient art in Algeria

So where are we all going? If you’re heading abroad, chances are high that you’ll be going to sunny shores such as Cancun, which notched the No. 1 spot, and the four Caribbean islands on the list — or to glitzy European cities.

Sticking to the U.S.? Las Vegas, baby — although beachy destinations, including San Diego, accounted for six out of the top 10.

Here are the hottest international and domestic destinations for summer 2024 among U.S. travelers. Find more details at Tripadvisor.com.

Most popular international destinations for summer

1. Cancun, Yucatan Peninsula

2. London, England

3. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

4. Paris, France

5. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

6. Rome, Italy

7. Bavaro, Dominican Republic

8. Palm – Eagle, Aruba

9. Barcelona, Spain

10. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

Most popular domestic destinations

1. Las Vegas, Nevada

2. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

3. Orlando, Florida

4. Honolulu, Hawaii

5. New York City, New York

6. Chicago, Illinois

7. Key West, Florida

8. Ocean City, Maryland

9. San Diego, California

10. Boston, Massachusetts

Up and coming destinations for 2024

If you’re looking for something a bit more off the beaten track, Tripadvisor also parsed “fastest growing destinations,” basing their rankings on on year-over-year increases in search traffic. Cusco, Peru, is apparently hot once more, and islands — including three destinations in Maldives — and beaches figure prominently here. But there are some surprises, too. College Station, home of Texas A&M University and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, took the No. 2 spot on the domestic list. And Pennsylvania’s Pocono Manor sits at No. 4, ahead of Waimea, Hawaii.

Here are the top 10 spots — international and domestic — stirring new interest among U.S. travelers this summer.

Fastest growing international destinations

1. Maunabo, Puerto Rico

2. Puerto Rico, Spain

3. Playa Avellana, Costa Rica

4. Cusco, Peru

5. Iru-fushi, Maldives

6. St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

7. Aguas Calientes, Peru

8. Male, Maldives

9. Fasmendhoo, Maldives

10. Andros, Bahamas

Fastest growing domestic destinations

1. Yosemite National Park, California

2. College Station, Texas

3. Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

4. Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania

5. Waimea, Hawaii

6. Fort Myers Beach, Florida

7. Tavernier, Florida

8. Sandusky, Ohio

9. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

10. Mackinac Island, Michigan

The top spot goes to Ouray, a Colorado mountain town the magazine editors say feels “like you’ve stepped foot in a live-action REI commercial.” But California gets several sensational shout-outs, starting with the coastal town of SLO — San Luis Obispo — at No. 3, thanks to its balmy temperatures, small town vibe and proximity to surfer-friendly beaches, rolling vineyards and winery tasting rooms.

San Francisco comes in at No. 14, with a must-see list that hits all the biggies — the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Academy of Sciences, Alcatraz and all the other places tourists congregate, snap photos and chatter about “San Fran,” the SoCal sobriquet that makes locals shudder. (Hmm, do the denizens of Los Angeles — No. 11, by the way — roll their eyes when we refer to “SoCal”?)

Also on the SoCal list: San Diego, with its 70 miles of soft, sandy beaches and lush, museum-packed Balboa Park, sits at No. 21.

You’ll find all 50 destinations, complete with restaurant and sightseeing tips, at www.mensjournal.com/travel/. Meanwhile, here’s a peek at the top 10:

10 Best Vacations in the U.S.

1 Ouray, Colorado

2 Chattanooga, Tennessee

3 San Luis Obispo, California

4 New Orleans, Louisiana

5 Bend, Oregon

6 Boise, Idaho

7 Chicago, Illinois

8 Sedona, Arizona

9 Washington, D.C.

10 Portland, Maine

But if you were, Afar’s editors suggest Iceland’s Highland Base Kerlingarfjöll. The sleek Nordic retreat about three hours from Reykjavík is run by the same team behind the Retreat at Blue Lagoon. And the new Raffles London at the OWO nestles 120 guest rooms and suites inside the historic Edwardian building that once served as Winston Churchill’s Old War Office — that’s the OWO reference.

California gets a nod for The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos, a 19th-century stagecoach stop and tavern that is now a luxurious 67-room Auberge Resort in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country.

And if you’re planning a Hawaii getaway, Afar’s list includes the post-tsunami reimagining of Kona Village, now a Rosewood Resort on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawai‘i with individual thatched-roof hales, a cultural center, swimming pools and four restaurants and bars spread across 81 acres of dramatic, volcanic landscape.

Here’s a peek at the North American hotels and resorts on the list. Find all 31, along with details and photos at www.afar.com and on newstands April 23.

Best New North American Hotels

The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Los Olivos

Kona Village, a Rosewood Resort, Island of Hawai‘i

The Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City

Ambiente Sedona, Sedona, Arizona

ULUM Moab, Moab, Utah

Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo, Jalisco, Mexico

Maroma, a Belmond Hotel, Riviera Maya, Mexico

Tripadvisor recently featured 10 spectacular, open-to-the-public castles in Europe, Japan and here in California as the best places to conjure fairy-tale dreams. The list is topped by Neuschwanstein, the fantastical Bavarian palace that inspired Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was one of three palaces commissioned by “Mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, England’s Windsor Castle comes in at No. 3, and most of the others date back to the 15th or 16th centuries.

But the most recent castle on the list wasn’t completed until 2007. That’s winemaker Dario Sattui’s spectacular Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga, a 150,000-square foot, Tuscan-inspired castle and winery built from handmade bricks and roof tiles shipped from Italy and ironwork forged by artisans on site. Like many of the other castles on the list, it has secret passages, a drawbridge and moat, a chapel and a torture chamber — but this Napa Valley castle offers wine tastings as well as tours.

Find details on Castello di Amorosa at https://castellodiamorosa.com and on the other castles at www.tripadvisor.com. Meanwhile, here’s a peek at the list.

10 castles for fairytale dreams

1. Schloss Neuschwanstein, Schwangau, Germany

2. Château de Chambord, Loire Valley, France

3. Windsor Castle, Windsor, England

4. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

5. Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City, Mexico

6. Himeji Castle, Hyogo, Japan

7. Alcázar of Segovia, Segovia, Spain

8. Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic

9. Castello di Amorosa, Calistoga

10. Osaka Castle, Osaka, Japan