by Jim Hendrickson, Lynden, WA

In April ’08 I joined a group of 19 Americans and six Canadians on a cultural-immersion program to Venezuela offered by Global Awareness Through Experience, or GATE (La Crosse, WI; 608/791-5283, www.gate-travel.org), a nonprofit organization. I had previously traveled with GATE in Guatemala (Nov. ’06, pg. 6) and gained profound insights into the cultural and political situation there.

On this trip I wanted to personally experience life in today’s...

by Susan Lowe, Covington, WA

“You’re stopping over in Hong Kong again?”

My husband and I must have heard this question a dozen times in the weeks leading up to the trip I had planned for us in January ’08. One well-meaning friend even asked, “What is there to do in Hong Kong besides shop?”

I had been in Hong Kong twice in the previous 12 months as stopovers on other Asian trips, but on this trip I would be heading for all the fascinating and inexpensive shopping...

by Harlan Hague, Stockton, CA

Like foods and fads, travel destinations are constantly being discovered and rediscovered. Western Europeans have known for years that Croatia is a delightful place to visit, but North Americans have been visiting the country in numbers only in recent years.

Croatia burst onto the world news and into public consciousness during the 1990s. As communist influence in Eastern Europe waned, Yugoslavia disintegrated violently into its constituent parts...