If your heart is set on seeing waterfalls in Western Australia, as was the case with the Reeds during their dry-season trip (“Australia’s Kimberley Coast,” June ’15, pg. 30), you should make careful inquiries before booking a visit. Australia is experiencing drought conditions in many areas, and most of the waterfalls on the northwestern coast are often reduced to mere trickles. That’s how it was when I visited in late July-early August 2015.
I had the pleasure of a 10-day, 9-night expedition-type sailing on L’Austral, one of four ships operated by Ponant Yacht Cruises & Expeditions (408 Avenue du Prado, 13008 Marseille, France; 888/400-1082, http://en.ponant.com), Aug. 20-30, 2015.
All of Ponant’s ships have been built for polar cruising and are well known in the European market for voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic. The company is not well known in the American market, so I’m pleased that ExpeditionTrips (Seattle, WA; 877/412-8527, www.expeditiontrips.com) brought this company to my attention.
In Turkey on Jan. 12, a suicide bomber targeted the popular Istanbul neighborhood of Sultanahmet, killing 10 people, including nine German tourists. The bomber was identified as a Syrian national and is believed to have been allied with the militant Islamist group Daesh (ISIL). The Sultanahmet neighborhood includes the heavily touristed sites of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.
Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 481st issue of your monthly foreign travel magazine.
With this issue, we begin our 41st year of publication!
(Part 1 in a series)
Jack and Elizabeth Kaufman of Lake Quivira, Kansas, wrote, “We would like ITN readers to share their experiences in chasing the northern lights (aurora borealis). Where did you go to see them? Did you travel on your own or take a tour? When did you go (month and year)? To glimpse this marvelous show of nature, how long was your wait? How long did they last?”
An Amazon River cruise, Aug. 16-24, 2014, was the sixth trip my husband, Ed, and I took with International Expeditions (IE) (Helena, AL; 855/246-0405 or 205/428-1700, www.ietravel.com).
We’ve traveled with them often because the accommodations on their tours are always quite nice and their guides are very knowledgeable. Including internal air, the cost of this 9-day/8-night tour was $4,716 each.
My husband, Jack, and I traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia, Jan. 14-Feb. 3, 2015, and were shocked at the extreme amount of air pollution we encountered almost everywhere we went.
In October 2015 I was able to check off one of the adventures on my bucket list: to travel through the waterways and canals of the northeastern US and southeastern Canada.
In a letter about the Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten (Bellevue, WA; 866/552-0371, www.hurtigruten.us), a reader complained about their policy of not permitting guests to take their own water to the dinner table (July ’15, pg. 26).
