Festivals

Varini de Silva of Ceylon Express International (9542 Dumbreck Dr., Huntington Beach, CA 92646; 800/423-9566 or www.ceylonexpress.com) carefully planned my trip so I would see Sri Lanka at the time of the Kandy Perahera, continuing from there on a ’round-the-world trip. She arranged for part of the tour money go to the Foundation for Coexistence, which offers hope to the people of Sri Lanka for a speedy recovery from the devastating tsunami of December 2004.

I have been traveling independently to Bhutan as well as taking groups there since 1999. Having returned from my 26th visit, I feel the need to try to advise those people intending to visit this tiny kingdom in the next few years that they need to go to see Bhutan for the right reasons. A lot has been written about this magnificent Buddhist enclave, and I will admit to the fact that it is still one of the most delightful places on Earth to visit. However, after my last trip, in October ’05, I vowed to never return during the high, festival (tourist) seasons.

We took a 2-week trip to Malta plus an add-on week in Sicily, April 16-May 6, ’05, with Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/221-2610 or www.gct.com). For my wife and me, the cost was approximately $6,254 from Los Angeles. The experience became a once-in-a-lifetime highlight.

All the credit goes to our Malta program director, Stephen Micallef-Grogan, who led our Grand Circle group of 27 experienced travelers. Stephen, a native of Malta, is fluent in English, Maltese, French and Italian and has been a registered tour director for 12 years.

My husband, Al, and I traveled through Holland and Belgium, April 18-May 6, ’05, at the peak of the spring flower season.

Michael Keating, Olney, MD

I’d like to alert fellow ITN readers to the upcoming 9th Pacific Islands Festival of the Arts. It’s held every four years by 27 island nations (including Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia) to meet and greet each other and share their traditions and cultures. It’s not really for tourists, but you can’t keep something that colorful a secret for long.

by Kevin Keating

As this is the month we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I got to thinking about Ireland.

“O Oysters, come and walk with us!”

The Walrus did beseech.

Back in 1996 on a freighter trip down the Pacific coast, the captain of the MV Widukind took five of us passengers ashore at Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica, to while the day away as the ship was being loaded and unloaded. We went to the resort Fiesta Hotel (Apostado Postal 171-5400, El Roble, Puntarenas, Costa Rica; phone 506 663-0808, fax 506 663-1516 or visit www.fiestaresort.com), which impressed us greatly with lots of activities going on for the hotel guests, both children and adults. We were impressed enough to consider returning.