A 50-year love story that started at JFK Airport

02.17.24

In travel news this week: The woman who was surprised by two men at JFK Airport (and married one of them), the world's rarest passports and the Japanese beef croquette so popular customers must wait 43 years to get a box.

By Maureen O'Hare

❤️ Love is in the air

The arrivals hall at John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 3, 1971, was teeming with people. Among the crowds was 24-year-old Linda Ford, clutching her suitcase. She knew no one in the US – but two men were waiting for her. One would change her life forever. Read their story.

The Big Apple has plenty of juice when it comes to romance, but it can't top Paris as the international capital of love. More and more Americans are now traveling abroad to pop the question, and many are choosing France. An incredible 36,000 visitors a year head to the City of Light to propose marriage to their partners.

Cruising also saw a huge boom in the 1970s and '80s, going from an estimated 500,000 cruise passengers a year in 1970 to five million in 1997. Experts say that's mainly down to the success of one TV show, "The Love Boat," in which romantic adventures unfolded at sea. Here's how it transformed an industry.

🇯🇵 Taste of Japan

In Takasago City, Japan, a brand of frozen Kobe beef croquettes is so popular that the waiting list is longer than most mortgages. Customers must wait 43 years before they can lay claim to the covetable "Extreme Croquettes" — maybe update your will if that timeline's getting tight, though.

Japan's long been at the forefront of technological innovation. Bakery chain Kimuraya is advancing that further by using AI to produce "romance bread" targeted at the nation's love-averse youth. There are five themed flavors: a fateful encounter, a date, jealousy, heartbreak and mutual love.

The Japanese island of Kyushu is where sugar was first introduced to the country by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The island retains a sweet tooth to this day and is home to Japan's most beloved sweet treats. Try to squeeze in as many as you can on a trip to the region.

🛂 Travel trivia

If you want easy access to the greatest number of destinations worldwide, then there are six passports that will set you up better than any other, according to the Henley Passport Index. Four of them are in Europe and two are in Asia. How does your own passport fare?

Those are the world's most powerful passports, but for the world's rarest, you need to belong to a nation without any land: the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. There are just 500 or so of its diplomatic passport in circulation.

If that's whetted your appetite for trivia, test your travel knowledge with our video quiz. Only seasoned globetrotters need apply.

🇹🇷 Destination inspiration

Gito, Turkey. (Emre Corbaci/iStockphoto/Getty Images)

On the Black Sea coast near Turkey's border with Georgia, there's an alpine wonderland of which few international travelers have heard. Rize province is filled with untouched valleys, plateaus and high-altitude mountain ridges, which make for a refreshing escape when summer temperatures rise.

Another tip for a lesser-visited spot: Just 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) from downtown Tokyo, the Japanese castle town of Odawara invites travelers to become feudal lords for a day. Visitors can dress in full "daiymo" gear and learn about the country's feudal history.

If you're needing to update your luggage ahead of any trips this year, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have tested the best hard-shell carry-on cases and revealed their favorites.

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👀 In case you missed it

A shipwreck mystery in the icy depths of Lake Superior has finally been solved.

But another remains.

A badly timed vacation to Costa Rica completely changed this woman's life.

She was stranded, but she spotted a business opportunity.

A passenger had to "fight off" maggots on a Delta flight.

The larvae fell onto the unfortunate woman from an overhead bin.

They bought a house in France for $20,000 without seeing it.

Here's what happened next.

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