ANOTHER GREAT READ FROM SIMON DOONAN

I just love his writing style! Is Europe Still Worth the Schlep? You can buy croissants at Costco. (by Simon Doonan) An excerpt: " However, Caprese salads aside, one cannot escape the fact that every year the list of reasons why you might wish to blow your wad on a European sojourn gets shorter, and the list of reasons why you might bag it, and consider your local options, gets longer. As I joined the line of knackered and cash-strapped returning U.S. citizens at JFK, I could not help but ask myself the following question: Now that you can Google Earth any place that takes your fancy, now that Europe is full of Gap and Starbucks, now that you can buy macarons and croissants at Costco, now that trash culture is global—even Austria has cheesy Real Housewives-style reality shows, so Europe no longer affords any escape—is it still worth the cost and kerfuffle of hauling one’s ass across the Atlantic?" MORE: SLATE.COM