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Six days/five nights in AUSTRIA, Dec. 23-28, 2012. Highlights: Christmas Eve dinner, midnight Mass/Christmas Day concert at the Mozarteum/Salzburg walking tour/“Salzburg during Mozart’s Lifetime” at Dommuseum/Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf. Land, $3,850. Single supp., $1,700. The Annemarie Victory Organization (New York, NY; 212/486-0353).
7-day/6-night canal cruise and walking tour, Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 21-27, 2012. Highlights: Champagne-and-canapé welcome/Renaissance castle Château de Tanlay/lunch, wine tasting in Chablis/gardens and Cistercian architecture at Abbaye de Fontanay. Cruise, $4,650. Single supp., from $1,750. The Wayfarers (Newport, RI; 800/249-4620).
8-day/7-night cruise of northern SCOTLAND and islands aboard the 50-passenger Hebridean Princess, April 30-May 7, 2013. Highlights: Embark Oban/Isle of Muck/in Inverie, Scotland’s most remote pub/Tanera Mòr island/bird-watch at Balranald Nature Reserve, Uist. Cabins, $4,900-$8,040. Single cabins, $5,250-$7,350. Hebridean Island Cruises (Ft. Lauderdale, FL; 877/600-2648).
The Deep Water Bath overflow drain cover is absolutely my favorite travel gadget.
I visited the former Portuguese colony of Macau, China, in November ’11, and what I enjoyed most was the Macao Museum (No. 112 Praceta do Museu de Macau, phone [853] 2835 7911, fax 2835 8503 — open 10-6 Tues.-Sat. Adult, MOP15 [$2]; senior or child, MOP8).
I’ve been organizing my own trips for 50 years! Here’s how I plan my travels.
Re Lew Toulmin’s article “Tips on Last-minute Cruising” (April ’12, pg. 59), I also recently discovered and investigated a “last-minute cruise” listed on Vacations To Go (Houston, TX; 800/338-4962). With Silversea Cruises, the 17-day cruise, Jan. 10-27 2012, was from Fort Lauderdale through the Panama Canal to Valparaíso and Santiago, Chile.
I have traveled all over the world on various tours. My trip to Indonesia, May 3-27, 2011, introduced me to a new way of travel — as a member of Friendship Force International (Atlanta, GA; 404/522-9490).
Friendship Force’s mission is to build global goodwill through personal friendships. Their trips emphasize “faces, not places,” and traveling with them changes the way you see the world.
by Cynthia Thompson; Lebanon, NH
If you enjoy cruising on a relatively small ship, with the chance to go ashore almost every day to tour interesting sites that, frequently though not always, are archaeological in nature, then a trip on the Aegean Odyssey is the vacation for you.
The 19th-century clipper ship Cutty Sark (King William Walk, Greenwich, London SE10 9HT, U.K.) reopened to visitors on April 25, 2012.