by Fred DeVinney, photos by Jean DeVinney, Oakland, CA

The guidebooks and some friends had warned us about the huge crowds and endless souvenir shops that can ruin the experience of some French villages that are just too spectacular and/or charming for their own good. Rocamadour, near the Dordogne region, and Les Baux-de-Provence are two prime examples of these very popular, often overrun, stunning villages. But these two locations ended up being among the highlights of our 2006 trip...

by Yvonne Horn, Santa Rosa, CA

Nothingness stretched seemingly forever as viewed from my window seat aboard the Ethiopian Airlines Fokker 500 turboprop en route to Bahir Dar from the country’s capital city of Addis Ababa. Nothingness, that is, if one discounts the ferocious landscape of deep canyons and jagged tumbled mountains unfolding below and the now-and-then-glimpsed handful of tiny communities of tukuls, circular dwellings perched precariously on barren plateaus. No roads —...

by Jennifer Petoff, San Francisco, CA

My husband, Scott, and I recently moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco to pursue a new job opportunity. In the process of relocating, we were able to carve out time for a month-long trip to Australia and New Zealand in March ’07. The trip represented the perfect opportunity to put my blogging skills to the test.

A blog, or web log, is a terrific way to keep in touch with family and friends during an extended trip. In contrast to...