February 2006

The tour was labeled “Grand Tour of the Middle East” and that it was. Offered by the British company Explore Worldwide (in the U.S., book through Adventure Center,1311 63rd St., Ste. 200, Emeryville, CA 94608; phone 800/227-8747 or visit www.adventurecenter.com), it also was offered as three separate one-week tours in each country, but I took the 3-week combined package. October 2005 turned out to be a good month in terms of weather — not too hot and not terribly cold.

Eldertreks (597 Markham St., Toronto, ON M6G 2L7, Canada; phone 800/741-7956 or visit www.eldertreks.com) hosted my 20-day trip to BORNEO, Malaysia. It cost $2,195, not including international air; my total airfare from Denver was $1,461.

—by Vernon Hoium, Minneapolis, MN

Here are two lovely B&Bs from our April ’05 trip to NEW ZEALAND.

On our month-long trip to INDIA in November-December ’04, we found the Clarks Shiraz (54, Taj Road, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA; phone +91 05622 222 6121 or visit www.hotelclarksshiraz.com) to be a fine and efficient hotel, far better equipped to accommodate travelers than several of the other hotels we stayed in. But somehow it gave us one of the least-satisfying experiences.

We were looking for a hotel that would be close to the train station in Madrid, SPAIN, with easy access to downtown and also reasonably close to the airport. We eventually found a hotel on the Internet which seemed to come pretty close to our criteria.

A group of five of us traveled by car through Germany, Austria and Slovenia in May ’05. Most of our accommodations during the trip — guest houses, “Zimmers,” “sobe” (in Slovenia) or hostels — combined our double and triple rooms and gave us a per-person rate. All prices listed here include tax and breakfast. I made all of the reservations except one over the Internet, and only the hostel asked for a credit card number to hold. All had free, convenient parking.

I had the pleasure of traveling with my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter by car through the countryside of FRANCE in June ’05. We stayed in the following delightful homes.

Sixty kilometers south of Ajaccio in the seaside village of Propriano, Corsica, FRANCE, my wife, Christine, and I stayed in a wonderful apartment owned and operated by Marie-Francoise and Jean-Pierre Dereani, Villa les Lauriers (20110 Propriano, Corse du Sud, Corsica, France; phone/fax 00 39 04-95-76-29-60 or visit www.dereani.com).

We rented this 2-bedroom, ocean-view, fully equipped apartment in September ’05 for €450 ($525) per week. This included all fees except for €35 ($41) to cover apartment cleaning at the end of the rental period.

—by Carol Coverly, South Yarmouth, MA

Mid-August seemed like a good time of year to visit friends in Minsk. The weather was perfect during our 5-day stay in 2005.