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I traveled to Albania, Macedonia and northern Greece in June ’11. Albania is trying very hard to attract and impress tourists. I encountered friendly, welcoming, accommodating people, and they were not just those in the tourist industry.
In Macedonia, our local guide was not as friendly as the one in Albania.
On April 22, 2012, 24 strangers from around the USA met in Miami with two representatives of Road Scholar (Boston, MA; 800/454-5768) and prepared to go to Cuba. When we returned on April 30, we did so as a group of friends.
That the 16-day “Treasures of Turkey” tour of Insight (Rye, NY; 888/680-1241) was sold out and there would be 40 travelers plus a tour director and driver on the motorbus was daunting news.
Not to worry! The tour members turned out to be a very interesting and diverse group of travelers, with nary a complainer among them. The other English-speaking tour members came from eight countries.
European Christmas markets have enchanted me since I bought my first carved wooden nutcracker at one in Nürnberg in 1962 while teaching in Germany. Since retiring, I have gone six years in a row to these festive markets, which are open during the Advent season. On a “Rhine Winter Voyage” aboard AmaCello, Dec. 2-14, 2011, I was there with AmaWaterways (Chatsworth, CA; 800/626-0126).
Having purchased our tickets using American Airlines frequent-flyer miles, four of us flew Qantas Airways to Auckland, New Zealand, on Feb. 22, 2011, and then on toward Christchurch aboard Jetstar. Ten minutes before landing, we were informed there had been an earthquake in Christchurch and our flight was returning to Auckland.
On Aug. 13, 2010, I booked a cruise for my wife and myself on the Ocean Princess, selecting it because we were particularly interested in the stops in Japan and Russia. We were to embark in Osaka on April 1, 2011, and the ship would make stops in Hiroshima, Hakata (Japan), Vladivostok (Russia), Inchon (South Korea), Tianjin and Dalian (China), with disembarkation in Shanghai on April 11.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake occurred in northern Japan, nearly 500 miles north of Osaka, resulting in a tsunami and damaged nuclear reactors.
by Ann Cabot; Austin, TX
Perhaps you’ve heard about Oaxaca’s Day of the Dead festival, but have you heard of the Night of the Dead festival in Pátzcuaro? No? Neither had I until I joined an exceptional 2011 tour to Mexico designed to give visitors a very personal experience.
The preparation of blowfish, or puffer fish, must be done carefully, as certain parts contain a deadly neurotoxin. In Tokyo, laws coming into effect in October will allow restaurants each to serve blowfish without a license to do so. Officials noted that outside of Tokyo, where restrictions on serving blowfish have been less stringent, very few poisonings have occurred. Within Tokyo, the licensing requirement had led to blowfish being served mainly in expensive, high-end restaurants.
“Lonesome George,” the giant tortoise in the Galápagos Islands that was the last of his subspecies, died of undetermined causes on June 24. At an estimated 100 years old, he was only middle-aged.
TripAdvisor has partnered with Rail Europe and other rail networks in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, so now travelers can use TripAdvisor’s “Flights” search engine to compare plane trips against train trips when researching fares for particular routes.