July 2018

I would like to assure world traveler Albert Podell, whose letter “Longtime Traveler’s Reactions to His First Cruise” appeared in the May 2018 issue (page 24), that not all cruises are equal.

Three months before a solo trip to Saudi Arabia that I was taking with Spiekermann Travel Service (Eastpoint, MI; 800/645-3233, www.mideasttrvl.com) in January-February 2018, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She would still be undergoing chemotherapy on the dates of my trip, so I canceled it.

When traveling, I take time each night to edit my photos on Facebook and create a posting of five to 40 photos with captions.

I abandoned making scrapbooks years ago. I then tried making custom photo books after trips, but it took lots of time to look through photos and layouts. My big discovery was that I can use my Facebook postings to easily create a quality photo book.

In my experience, most cruise passengers fall into two categories: those who cruise primarily to enjoy the ship and shipboard activities and those whose focus is on the cruise’s destinations. My wife and I fall into the latter category.

On June 30, 2017, we booked the Jan. 18, 2018, sailing of Viking Ocean Cruises’ “Southern Mediterranean Discovery” itinerary. This cruise was to begin in Rome (Civitavecchia) and end in Barcelona, with stops at Trapani (Sicily), Tunis, Cagliari (Sardinia), Algiers and Valencia.

My husband, Gery, and I were quite taken with the lead article in the November 2017 issue of ITN about an 8-day “Southern Mediterranean Discovery” cruise with Viking Ocean Cruises that featured Tunis and Algiers as ports of call.

For a trip to Greece that my husband and I took from March 25 to April 16, 2018, we had our arrangements made by a travel agency based in Athens, Fantasy Travel (19 Filellinon St., 105 57 Athens, GREECE; phone +30 210 3310530, www.fantasy.gr), working with Litsa Christou (litsa@fantasy.gr).

An 85-year-old on a solo trip around the world, I left Dallas on Jan. 4, 2017, and returned Jan. 28. I traveled 30,000 miles, spent 100 hours in airplanes and visited eight new countries.

I took 11 different flights, one of which was with Buddha Air over the Himalayas, including a look at Mount Everest.

The last essay topic, “My Trail is Australia,” inspired a lot of subscribers to take a shot at the prize, but ITN staff narrowed the entries down to three...