Features

Winter is the best time to see some of Japan’s iconic wildlife, including red-crowned cranes, Blakiston’s fish owls and sea eagles in the northernmost island of Hokkaido, and snow monkeys, south of Tokyo, on the island of Honshu. In March 2019, an opportunity to see this wildlife for ourselves came when my wife, Norma, and I signed up for a 7-day tour, “Winter Birding and Bird Photography in Japan,” with Gunnar Engblom, guide and owner of Kolibri Expeditions (Lima, Peru; kolibriexp@gmail.com, kolibriexpeditions.com).

The adventure begins

Our alarm went...

Like you, I love to travel (though I’m still a bit of a novice by some ITN readers’ standards, having visited only six continents and 60-plus countries). I’ve always viewed travel as a combination of entertainment and education, but my trip to Israel in November 2018 far exceeded my expectations and has had two lasting impacts that I didn’t expect.

The tour

My tour, “The Holy Land: Past, Present, and Future,” was offered by National Geographic Expeditions (Washington, DC; 888/966-8687, nationalgeographic.com/expeditions). What attracted me...

Last year, an enigmatic email from a friendship begun six years before on an adventurous trip to Papua New Guinea piqued my interest. My friend Knox Bell shared that Original World/Spirit of India (San Rafael, CA; 888/367-6147, originalworld.com) was looking for “intrepid travelers” for a month-long adventure into the “Ancient Cultures of the Indian Himalaya” (plus Ladakh), and he thought of me! Within 30 minutes, I had called the travel agent and I was on board.

After having to cancel two other trips due to a complicated medical year, it meant a lot to have...