Columns

Pack light. Be happy. Photo: Steves

You’ll never meet a traveler who, after five trips, brags, “Every year I pack heavier.” The measure of a good traveler is how light he or she travels. You can’t travel heavy, happy and cheap. Pick two.

Too much luggage and camera gear marks you as a typical tourist. It throws up a wall between you and the grizzled Spanish fisherman mending his net. Serendipity suffers. Changing locations becomes a major operation. Con artists figure you’re helpless and...

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by Julie Skurdenis

Last month I described three Guaraní-Jesuit missions my husband, Paul, and I visited in Argentina in August ’07. This month I’d like to describe two more, these in Paraguay, that we visited on a separate trip several weeks after seeing the Argentinian missions.

Jesus Mission

The first of the two Paraguayan missions we visited, Jesus de Tavarangüe, was founded in 1685. Located 25 miles north of Encarnación, Jesus Mission followed the usual Jesuit...

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by Randy Keck, part 1 of 3 on Thailand

Despite my many travels to Asia over the years, the visit I made to Bangkok in March ’08 was my first since the latter stages of the Viet Nam War. This long-awaited Bangkok reunion was part of an 11-day Thailand visit hosted by Value World Tours (an ITN advertiser) and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

“Thainess” — even in Bangkok

While the primary focus of my Thailand visit was a river cruise in central and northern Thailand,...

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Due to the recent horrendous Post Office price increase to magazines, we now must charge $2 per issue on a one-year subscription.

About the same as you pay for a glass of iced tea in a restaurant.

We think the abundance of Travel information you find in International Travel News is more valuable than half a latte at Starbucks.

A woman called up to complain, saying that she could get another Travel magazine for $12. I fought the urge to say that they know what their...

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Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 387th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

Before you get to the articles and letters sent in by other ITN readers — who write for your benefit as well as a love of travel, not for any personal gain — here are some news items you may find of interest.

Travelers flying into Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport are no longer being asked by Immigration officials to state where they will be staying while in South...

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I pulled on the rope, whereupon the bucket promptly made the expected 180-degree tumble. A cascade of delightfully warm water washed over me. Feeling clean once again in the Kenyan bush, where we were on a hiking safari, I sat down on the rickety chair in the makeshift shower enclosure to dry my feet. As I bent over, one leg of the chair gave way and I landed on my right shoulder.

Excruciating pain and the inability to raise my arm suggested a rotator cuff tear. I didn’t think I had...

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Jolly olde England and the Emerald Isle of Ireland continue to enchant and entice, even with the pound whomping the dollar nearly two to one. Here’s what to expect if you visit in 2008.

Great Britain

• The Heathrow Express train connecting LONDON’s Paddington Station with Heathrow Airport is now the most expensive rail journey per mile in Britain. Save money by riding the tube (London’s underground) or using the regular train.

• Those going...

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Longtime readers of this column certainly realize that Moreen and I are extremely fond of the Middle East, especially its people.

Having said that, 9/11 hurt us personally, seeing that men of the Muslim faith, others of whom had always treated us with utmost respect and kindness, would initiate such violence toward our country. No, we weren’t naive. We knew that some reviled our country’s global power controls and others envied our open lifestyle.

During 35 years of travel in...

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