IF YOU'RE FEELING EXOTIC...

Written By Unknown on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 | 3:08 PM

"America is a conspiracy to make you happy." -John Updike

Welcome to The Carry-On, a handy grab bag of HuffPost Travel’s most riveting industry snippets, travel hacks and destination discoveries from the past week.

In this roundup, we hope to pack seven days of our site’s breaking news into a tote of travel-size tidbits, small enough to fit any overhead bin.

The Fourth of July is upon us, travelers, and you know what that means: today is essentially the last day of the workweek!

We'll be posting a whole bunch of fitting places to celebrate America's birthday this weekend, but if you're feeling exotic...

May we suggest the Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlin? ...because there's no better place to savor your freedom than in a jail cell or "no sex" coffin.

Perhaps Diagon Alley is more your vibe. It's not teeechnically open yet, but we're sure the animatronic goblins will let you in -- it's a free country, you know.

The Midwest is pretty much a foreign nation in itself (WHAT is an "Iowan Great Lake"?!), but it's a less-than-terrible place to celebrate, we guess.

And if you'd like to stay alive this weekend, we do NOT suggest a visit to the world's tallest water slide. Altitudes of that extreme are totally un-American.

Belgium, you completely crushed Team USA's dream of remaining a World Cup contender for the Fourth of July. However, we concede that your waterways become extremely photogenic at twilight. Happy long weekend, travelers!
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