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The Republic of Moldova is a place I long wanted to visit, as it’s near my usual destination of Romania. On a solo trip, May 3-15, 2016, I began in Bucharest, Romania, where I had the pleasure of staying at the Grand Boutique Hotel (Negustori 1B, Bucharest 2, Romania; phone +40 31 425 62 30, http://grandboutique hotel.ro), located behind the National Theatre Bucharest on a lovely residential street.

The hotel, a restored private villa, hadn’t been open long. It had 19 beautiful guest rooms and the air of an opulent European luxury inn. I paid $110 per night, which...

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My wife, Debby, and I are on an 18-month tour of Europe, and we wanted to share some travel snippets with fellow ITN readers. 

• On April 12, 2016, we flew from Dallas/Forth Worth to London’s Heathrow Airport. Flying American Airlines in first class, shortly before we landed we were given a little ticket to fill out that enabled us to skip the Immigration line at Heathrow.

• Our round-trip first-class flight ended up costing us very little because in 2014 we had gotten American Airlines Citi®/AAdvantage® Platinum Select® credit cards, one for...

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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...

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El Panecillo and La Virgen de Quito. Photos by Stephen O. Addison, Jr.

When my wife, Paula Owens, and I spent several days in Bogotá, Colombia, in July 2015, our visit was not without hiccups, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. [See “Procuring Cash in Colombia,” Oct. ’15, pg. 12, and “Advice for Visitors to Bogotá,” Nov. ’15, pg. 12.] 

We expected a similarly pleasant experience for our July 2016 visit to Quito, Ecuador, especially since both capitals are located in the Andean highlands, with Quito being only 450 miles south of Bogotá and just south of the equator. The two cities experience similar weather,...

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A woman testing the reading glasses as Judy Faitek looks on. Photos by Matt Norton

My niece and nephews, ages 27 to 30, accompanied me on a trip to Tanzania, Aug. 1-12, 2016, with Overseas Adventure Travel, or OAT (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com). I had been on safaris twice before, but they had never gone.

I was expecting the animals would be spectacular, and they were. I had never seen so many lions and leopards and their kills as well as zebras, gnus, gazelles, elephants and, my favorite, warthogs. I kept track of all the birds, and we identified 57 different ones. The guides were amazing and had fabulous tracking skills. But, as awesome as our...

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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...

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My husband, John, and I generally are independent travelers, renting a car at our destination, but we felt a bit intimidated by the Cyrillic we knew we’d encounter on signs in Bulgaria. I had read outstanding reviews of the private guide Patrick Peneff (www.guide-bg.com) over the past few years in ITN, so we decided to make our April 1-15, 2015, trip to Bulgaria a guided tour with Patrick.

Patrick answered all of my emails promptly, and we booked the trip on Dec. 6, 2014. Including a 10% discount for early booking, a total of €2,975 (about $3,200 at the time) covered...

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Façade of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum. Photo by Victor Block

When my wife, Fyllis, and I spent a week in Venice with Untours, Sept. 7-14, 2016, we followed the busy tourist trail to the usual places. We jostled with crowds and pigeons in Piazza San Marco, rode water buses past the stately mansions that lined the Grand Canal and oohed and aahed at numerous architecturally magnificent churches and the equally magnificent art they contain.

Since we were traveling (for $2,998 for both of us, land only) with the aptly named Untours (Media, PA; 888/868-6871, untours.com), which I call the “nontour tour company,” we followed its motto...

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