July 2006

On the island of Crete, we stayed at the Minoa Palace Resort Hotel (73014 Plantanias, Chania, Crete, GREECE; phone 011-30-28210-36500 or visit www.minoapalace-chania.gr) in September ’05. Our third-floor room with a king bed overlooked the garden and pool and (if we stood on tiptoe) the ocean. €170 ($210) included a fantastic buffet breakfast.

The dinner buffet surpassed any buffet we’ve been to in recent memory. It cost €48 ($59) including wine.

My husband, Howard, and I spent three weeks in southern ITALY in April ’06 and wish to share a unique treasure.

Casa Artè (San Marco 2900/2901, Calle del Frutariol 30124, Venice, ITALY; phone [39] 041 520 0882 or visit www.casaarte.info) — located in a relatively quiet area just west of Campo Santo Stefano. About a 10-minute walk west of St. Mark’s Square along a busy path, the main (and well-marked) route to the Accademia Bridge.

You may need to press the buzzer at the front door to be admitted; the entrance was usually kept locked during our stay. The hotel does not have an elevator.

By staying in an apartment for our week in Paris, my son and I saved a whole bunch of money! Compare the approximately $880 a week we spent to a couple of hundred dollars a night in a hotel — I’ll take an apartment anytime. Our stay was in April ’06. (My wife and I stayed in the apartment for two weeks a couple of years ago.)

We stayed at the B&B Torann na dTonn (Ventry, Dingle, County Kerry, IRELAND; phone 066-915992) for three nights in mid-May ’05. It’s located about two miles from Dingle on the Dingle loop,

Our room was on the second floor, with a most unbelievable view of the bay. You couldn’t find it as nice at the Ritz-Carlton, and the price was only $60 for two!

Our hostess was just wonderful. Her husband is a newscaster for a radio station.

In ENGLAND, an excellent hub from which we visited Avesbury, Stonehenge, Portsmouth, etc., was Shaftesbury, which is worth a stop in itself.

by Misty Patton, Thornton, CO

You could imagine my delight when my fiancé and I decided a honeymoon in Africa was in order. After all, what better way to begin our new life together than by celebrating with an exotic destination?

by Tim Leffel, Nashville, TN

Sutri, Italy, north of Rome, was once known as the “Gate of Etruria.” The Etruscan ruins include a very well-preserved theater from 1 B.C. which is almost round; it is still very easy to see the stepped seats, the niches for grand chairs and thrones and the square openings that led to underground paths.

The gates of the amphitheater face a tall, heavy stand of medieval wall, which uses Roman and Etruscan stones, and a rise of auto road that reenters the town.