September 2011

by Sandra Scott

The Department of State alerts travelers to the hurricane season in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. In general, hurricane season in the Atlantic begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins May 15 and ends Nov. 30.

by Philip Wagenaar (First of two parts)

by Steven Cole; Lowell, MI

I am a man who absolutely loves to shop, something that makes my wife’s female friends extremely jealous. I even love to grocery shop. But most of all, I love to shop for things for our home on our trips abroad.

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is JAMES E. McGEE of Sun City, CA:

The “Where in the World?” picture of the tannery in Fez, Morocco, and those dying vats reminded me of when I bought a leather handbag in the shop above the tannery in December ’09.

I had to turn the bag inside out and hang it outside for two months to get the awful smell out! They don’t process leather very thoroughly, and it was really rank.

But, at $10, the price was right — and now it’s a very nice bag.

DORI PORTNER
Larkspur, CA

I routinely travel with just a carry-on. (In 2005 I took a five-week trip to Australia with a 22-inch bag and a shoulder tote.) Even before the restrictions on liquids in planes, I traveled with small sizes of products to help keep my luggage down to a carry-on.

I use GoToobs (San Francisco, CA), which are refillable squeezable tubes, and also share a lot of items with my husband to save space in the quart bags.

On the classical music tour “From the Alps to the Adriatic with KDFC” in May-June ’11, our tour bus, chartered by Earthbound Expeditions (Bainbridge Island, WA; 800/723-8454), traveled through several countries, but when it arrived at Venice we encountered all sorts of red tape.

At the bus arrival area, the Piazza di Roma, passengers must debark from the buses and proceed on their own by taxi or vaporetto (water bus) to Venice.

I almost hate to let the word out on this wonderful find! My husband, Mike, and I spent eight nights in an apartment on Praça de Luís Camões, in the Chiado (historic) part of Lisbon, in February ’11. From the first enquiry we e-mailed to the owner, Paulo, until the day we left Lisbon, this was one of the best apartment rental experiences we’ve ever had! All questions were answered promptly and thoroughly.

A friend and I spent two weeks motoring around southwestern Scotland and England’s Lake District in late June-early July ’11 eating a great variety of local fare, but NONE was better than our lunch at the charming Queen’s Head Hotel (Townhead, Troutbeck, Cumbria LA23 1PW, U.K.; phone 015394 32174), just three miles north of Windermere.