An unbuttoned oasis in an otherwise buttoned-up downtown, Hotel Harrington ends a 109-year run.

The Centre County area of Pennsylvania also offers plenty of places to fish, kayak, hike, mountain bike, ski and bird-watch on its 750,000 acres of public lands and in its six state parks. On the Pennsylvania State University campus, home to Nittany Lions athletics, there is also an arboretum, the largest creamery in the United States, a sports museum and upcoming arts museum.

Disneyland has once again updating its treehouse. The recently reopened Adventureland Treehouse Inspired by Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson — yes, that's its full name — shifts its focus to more old-fashioned theme park trickery.

The supersized gas station and convenience store chain with award-winning bathrooms, now located in about 50 locations in seven states, is “a travel center, not a truck stop,” said Charlie Creech, the general manager of what is currently the nation’s largest Buc-ee’s, in Sevierville, Tenn. “We’re mostly for traveling families.”

Recently designated the Wellness Capital of Texas, the sleepy town, 80 miles west of Dallas, is waking up. In a few years, the town, named for the mineral water found underground, could become a renewed tourist destination with the opening of a new upscale restaurant and the reopening of two old hotels. Rose Jordan, director of tourism for the Mineral Wells Area Chamber of Commerce and CVB, said the target tourist — a “wellness traveler” who’s the present-day version of the people who visited Mineral Wells 150 years ago — seeks healthy food and experiences in nature.

Time is still ripe for a brisk hike or overnight backpacking trek on the 40 miles of Appalachian Trail that crosses this Mid-Atlantic state, mostly atop South Mountain.

Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Ore., is dotted with rustic accommodations, a cozy lodge and a constellation of 100-110 degree geothermal pools perfect for soaking during the fall and winter.

The Massachusetts city has monetized its tragic past by marketing itself as a destination for all things witchy. In October, every weekend is Halloween.

Disneyland is part tourist attraction, part cultural institution, and our country’s gradually changing view of Halloween — one from a costume-and-candy-driven day of partying to nearly two months of horror or spooky-themed extravaganzas — is evident in how the Anaheim institution has evolved from once barely acknowledging the holiday to being completely consumed by it.

This year, the old Ohio State Reformatory, also known as the Mansfield Reformatory — the world’s largest free-standing steel cell block, which was used as a filming location in the 1994 thriller, “The Shawshank Redemption — has added more Hollywood-like special effects to some areas as well as daylight “Beyond the Scare” tours.