Travelers' Intercom

On the 140-foot-high Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge, just outside Queenstown, New Zealand, my wife, Margaret, and I were at the Kawarau Bungy Jump operated by AJ Hackett Bungy (Station Building [corner of Shotover & Camp streets], Queenstown, New Zealand; phone +61 0800 286 4958, www.bungy.co.nz). Opened in November 1988, this was the world’s first commercially operated bungee-jumping site.

The rains had been coming down for some time before our visit on Nov. 15, 2016, so the river was up. This meant that jumpers weren’t able to drop all the way down into the water...

Helen Harper’s letter “National Trust Sites, England” (Nov. ’15, pg. 27), about tours by the Royal Oak Foundation, motivated me to write with more info. Many travelers, even if they’re Anglophiles, might not know about England’s National Trust (P.O. Box 574, Manvers, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, S63 3FH, U.K.; phone +44 0344 800 1895, www.nationaltrust.org.uk). 

The National Trust is sort of a combination Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, preservation-and-historical society, public/private-donor-supported, not-for-profit marvel of an organization. It operates many historical...

When I visited Portugal in May 2016, I rented a portable Wi-Fi hotspot from Portugal Internet (www.portugalinternet.com). 

Small enough to carry in your pocket or purse, this device connects to the Internet over any available mobile phone service in Portugal and creates a Wi-Fi access point for your smartphone, tablet or computer. Multiple connections can be made at one time. 

With this unit, I was able to access the Internet wherever I went. It even enabled me to use my smartphone’s GPS while driving through the countryside or walking around the city. I...