Cape Town: This summer’s must-do magic

A telescope can conjure images of stunning depth and detail from the night sky. Still, some of my most vivid stargazing memories are of nights that I’ve left the telescope in its case to instead see only what I could with nothing more than my eyes. On these nights, I might catch a glimpse of…

If your kid has outgrown their car seat (or will soon) or the car seat you have is expired or has been in an accident, now is the time to buy a new one: Target’s twice-annual car seat trade-in event is happening from September 21 to October 4. Between birth and roughly age 12, most…

Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter Upgrade pick If you’re willing to pay for laptop power in a tablet, the iPad Air is the tablet for you. The 6th-generation Apple iPad Air (M2) isn’t quite as advanced as an iPad Pro, but it comes close—for far less than Apple’s most powerful tablet costs. It has a bright LCD…

Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter Top pick Slightly sweet, fresh, fruity, and overall balanced, this white has a light sparkle and reminded us of green apples and dried pears. It went well with the nuttiness in hard cheeses and cured meats. Why we like it: The Leitz Eins Zwei Zero Riesling is a good choice if you’re…

New Zealand’s reputation as one of the best destinations in the world to view the night sky is well established. From sleeping under the stars in a glass capsule at the Lindis, a billion-star dining experience at Mt Cook Lakeside retreat, experiencing a Wanaka starset on a private lake cruise, to a starlight soak at…

No matter how good your blackout curtains are at blocking light, they’ll be hopeless if they don’t cover your window properly. And in fact, you may need bigger curtains than you think. Step one to success is to measure your windows. Even though I tend towards impatience, I’ve come to accept that measuring properly the…