January 2006

In the central volcanic range in Russia’s Siberia, the town of Esso is on a tributary of the Kamchatka River. When we visited in July ’03 the streets were unpaved and without sidewalks.

When we toured Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, we first spent an entire afternoon in the temple complex. Later, we went to see the sunset on a famous hill. You can climb the hill up a very rough, rocky (actually boulders) path or take an elephant ride up.

The sunset was something I have not seen the like of anywhere else in the scores of countries I have traveled. Take good film to capture this phenomenon, and go early; it gets very packed up there!

My sisters and I traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia, independently in February ’05 and used Bun Pao Smith (e-mail bunpaosmith@yahoo.com) as a guide and driver.

My wife and I took an excellent “Splendor of Ireland” tour with Harp & Shamrock Tours, June 7-19, ’05. (We opted for a 4-day extension, and our actual return was on June 23 because Aer Lingus had a mechanical problem that caused us to remain in Ireland a fifth day.)

Aidan Murray, the driver and tour guide, specializes in small-group tours of six to 10 people in a 14-passenger Mercedes bus. He has 24 years of Ireland tour experience.

We took a wonderful trip to the Czech Republic in July ’05. Since my husband’s hobby is genealogy, this theme has directed our last several trips.

Based on a reader’s recommendation (March ’05, pg. 87), we hired Gabor Stern to drive us on a Danube Bend trip in Hungary in May ’05. We took the trip at a leisurely pace — nine hours — and spent slightly less than if we had taken a group tour: at $18 per hour, $162 total.

My wife and I would like to second Harriet Hughes’ warm endorsement (Nov. ’05, pg. 93) of Cristian Florea of Crif Tours (phone 40 722 606 610, e-mail remtours@digicom.ro or visit www.discoverromania.ro). We traveled through Romania with Cris on a modified “Classic Tour of Romania” in October ’04. The cost for two was €3,190 (near $3,839), land only.

We have been fortunate in our journeys overseas with tour guides and have had many fine experiences. Cris was definitely one of the best guides we ever had.

Having read another traveler’s comments (April ’05, pg. 35), we engaged a tour operator in Romania who turned out to be exceptional. Her name is Costela Petcu of AKS Tours (phone +40 21 313 6338, cell +4 0744 294 373 or e-mail costelape04@yahoo.com)

For our trip in Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria, Aug. 31-Sept. 22, ’05, she met us at the airport, introduced us to our driver/guide for the next 18 days, took us to dinner upon our return to Bucharest and even checked in on us while we were having another dinner. The driver, Christian, was exceptional.

I spent two wonderful weeks on the South Island of New Zealand in March ’05.

My wife, Charlotte, and I (in our 70s) had a wonderful, unforgettable trip to Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin in January ’05. I had searched the Internet and contacted all of the reputable travel agents in Bamako, the capital of Mali, and the only one who would do exactly what we wanted was Toguna Adventure Tours (B.P.E. 5096, Bamako, Mali, West Africa; phone 223 229-5366, fax 5369, cell 223 621-5079, e-mail togunaadventure@afribone.net.ml or visit www.geocities.com/toguna_adventure_tours).