Quito Tour Bus (phone 2435 458 or 2458 010), the city’s first double-decker tourist bus service, allows passengers to hop on and off at 12 bus stops throughout the city. 

The 3-hour ride, departing daily from Ave. Naciones Unidas every hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., covers all the major attractions in the north and center of the city. 

A one-day ticket, available at the Tourism Information Office at Foch Square and a number of other locations in Quito, costs $12 for adults and $6...

In Belize, Francis Ford Coppola’s Turtle Inn Resort (Placencia Village; phone 011 501 523 3244 or, in the US, 800/746-3743) offers 2-tank dives off Gladden Spit, where whale sharks swim in the spring. The world’s largest fish, the filter-feeding whale shark, has been recorded to reach as long as 41 feet and weigh up to 21½ tons.

Dives take place from two days before to 10 days after the full moon in March, April, May, June and July. Dives cost $215 per person per day, or you can...

Offa’s Dyke, a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site in Wales, was damaged in August when someone with a bulldozer carved out a 50-yard section and used the dirt to fill in a road nearby. It is a criminal offense to disrupt or damage protected monuments, and the authorities are investigating. 

A popular walking trail for visitors, the 1,200-year-old monument is a long earthwork stretching about 80 miles from the Wye Valley to Wrexham. The dike is thought to have been built...