Beach Happy

Shanna Dickerson Left the Best Job in Music for a Rock in the Middle of the Sea

She produced shows for Jay-Z and Metallica, then sold her furniture and her car and moved to St. John with almost nothing. Twelve years later she...

A trainer lunging at the end of a long dock over calm water

Five Exercises You Can Do Anywhere, From the Travel Trainer on 30A

No gym, no equipment, no excuses. Sean Miller's five basics — plus the one thing he says matters more than any of them.

Jeff Margaretten and a guest plating sushi at a kitchen island

The Architect Who Moonlights as a Sushi Chef

He designs homes by day. Then he swaps the T-square for a chef coat — a habit that started at a make-your-own-sushi party in Atlanta and...

Seeking Susegad in Goa

India's smallest state has a word for the unhurried life: susegad. Here's how to find it — the empty beaches down south, the waterfalls inland, and...

Does the Beach Make You Happier? We Commissioned a Study to Find Out

1,040 Americans, one research lab, six findings. Among them: there is a happiness sweet spot for annual vacation days, and anticipation beats nostalgia every time.

An open-top four-wheel drive blasting through a water crossing in the pines

What Do You Call a Group of Land Rovers? Notes From the 30A Sand Rover Rally

A circus of puffins. A murder of crows. But there's no collective noun for 100 mud-caked beach cruisers gathered in a Florida state park — so...

A pale, sunlit living room opening onto a Pacific ocean view

Designing for Calm: Sarah Barnard on Homes That Support You

A WELL- and LEED-accredited designer on what changed when our houses became our offices — spare rooms turned into silence rooms, bathrooms treated as spa retreats,...

The thatched Bilou beach bar standing above the white sand of Awera Island

Bilou Sunset Beach Bar: The Off-Grid Bar at the End of the Mentawais

Sixty miles west of Sumatra, on three hectares at the tip of Awera Island, a South African family built a solar-powered thatched bar that doesn't advertise...

The twin white butteries marking the entrance to Alys Beach at sunset

All in the Details: Alys Beach, Florida

A 158-acre town of white masonry on 30A where every home must have a water feature, the lake is curved after Marilyn Monroe, and the chimneys...

An aerial view at sunset of the pink-lit coastline and granite boulders at Esperance

Sky to Sea: Jaimen Hudson's Unlikely Path to Happiness

At 17 he went over the handlebars and landed on his head. Paralyzed from the armpits down, he taught himself to type with his knuckles, then...

Ragan Smith in a wide-brimmed hat smiling at dusk beside the water

One Choice: Ragan Smith's Resilience

Doctors said she would never sit up, never walk, and would not likely survive. She was sitting up by nine months and took her first steps...

Giving Their All: The Couple Who Sold Their House for a Beach Cart

They emptied the 401Ks, maxed the credit cards, then sold the house and moved into an RV. In 2020, female-only founders got 2.4 percent of U.S....

Daisson Hickel beside his white Land Rover Defender on a bluff above the water

Happiness Is a State of Mind: A Green Beret's Transition to 30A

Eleven deployments, combat diving instructor, and now a coffee kit in an ammo box and a rental fleet of vintage Defenders. Daisson Hickel on what goes...

Sean Couch seated on the edge of a fountain beneath palm trees

A Legacy of Giving: The Foundation Sean Couch Never Knew Existed

His grandfather drove used cars and never flaunted a dollar. Then the will arrived, and Sean Couch learned he'd been entrusted with a multi-million-dollar charitable foundation...