July 2008

Hotel Elun (Camino a Punta Larga KM 02, Frutillar, CHILE; phone/fax +56 [65] 420055 or 420170, cell 09 346 7035, www.hotelelun.cl).

If you’re looking for peace on Earth, consider the Casa Del Mar (Jalan Pantai Cenang, Mukim Kedawang, Langkawi 07000, Kedah Darul Aman, MALAYSIA; phone [60] [4] 955 2388, fax 955 2228, www.casadelmar-langkawi).

This modest, 2-story hotel (about 30 rooms) appears unassuming at first from the street. We found it by accident when walking along Cenang Beach on the island of Langkawi (northwestern Malaysia).

Hotel Sari Konak (Mimar Mehmet Aga Cad. No. 42-46, 34122 Sultanahmet, Istanbul, TURKEY; phone +90 [212] 638 62 58, fax [212] 517 8635, www. istanbulhotelsarikonak.com), which translates into the “Yellow House Hotel,” is located in the old section of Istanbul. My husband, Heinz, and I stayed there Oct. 24-25, 2007.

This hotel is simple but clean, and the location is perfect, since it is practically within spitting distance of both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. We paid €89 ($130) per night for a double room. Breakfast, included in the price, was ample.

On a 12-night visit to Sicily, ITALY, in May ’07, our favorite hotel was the family-run Villa Belvedere (Via Bagnoli Croce, 79, 98039 Taormina, Italy; phone +39 0942 23791, fax 0942 625830, (www.villabelvedere.it). The location, difficult to find by car the first time, is very near the Botanical Gardens, which you walk through to reach town.

The public rooms are elegant, the gardens and pool area are gorgeous, the lunches by the pool were delicious (€8 for an antipasto plate with enough for two) and the included breakfasts were very good.

While in Rome, ITALY, in late October ’07, we experienced these hotels and restaurants.

In Barcelona, Spain, we highly recommend the apartment owned by Valentin Rasero (Calle Jovellanos, Number 1, Barcelona, Spain; phone [34] 659979837, e-mail barcelonaapartment@gmail.com).

For our family trip to Spain in June ’07, we rented the 3-bedroom, 2½-bath apartment to accommodate our family of seven (five adults and two teens) for one week. This second-floor, air-conditioned apartment is reached by an elevator or stairs.

For budget travelers to PARIS, we have some recommendations from a wonderful 4-day visit at the end of April ’07.

When in Amsterdam, we cannot imagine staying anywhere else but this Private Apartment (728 Prinsengracht, 1017 LB, Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS; phone +31 [0] 20-4203314 or [0] 638303660, e-mail lhaak@live.nl, www.prinsengracht728.nl).

For our 2-week stay, March 20-April 3, 2008, we paid €950 ($1,475). She gave us a discount for our long stay; the usual rate is €600 per week.

by Jay Brunhouse, Contributing Editor

Quentin Burke of Holtville, California, wrote the following to ITN readers: “Is it preferable to carry a timer or an alarm clock when traveling? Mostly, we’ve found it better to simply set a miniature digital interval timer to ‘eight hours’ for a night’s sleep than fumble with teeny buttons and worry whether we got a.m. or p.m. right on a so-called travel alarm clock. Also, a timer is handy to have in the pocket in certain instances to signal ‘Got to get back to the boat/airport/bus depot in two hours.’