Columns
What’s Cooking in… Nepal
Kathmandu has been on my “wanna visit” list for years. The perfect opportunity arose in March 2017 when my husband, John, and I were in Kuala Lumpur (better known as KL), Malaysia. AirAsia (airasia.com), an excellent budget airline, was flying from KL to Kathmandu, Nepal, for $169. Perfect! For $83, we booked a room at Hotel Shanker (Lazimpat, Kathmandu 44600, Nepal; phone +977 1 4410151, www.shankerhotel.com.np) because it was a family-owned heritage hotel. The location was excellent, and they had a pool and Internet access.
It's more than a tour -- it's an education
Honolulu or Havana? The world is full of travel opportunities that are more than enjoyable -- they can be transformational.
Britain’s royal residences: where the queen cools her crown
Chances are you weren’t invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which took place at Windsor Castle (neither was I), but that doesn’t mean you can’t
Playing around in Shakespeare's Stratford
Within Stratford's compact old town, you can walk easily to most sights. The River Avon, which flows right through town, has an idyllic yet playful feel, with rowboats and swans; there's also an old, one-man, crank-powered ferry just beyond the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. If you'll ever enjoy a Shakespeare performance, it'll be here; even if you flunked English Lit. The prime sight in town is Shakespeare's Birthplace, a half-timbered Elizabethan building where the playwright grew up. This is also the house where Shakespeare and his bride, Anne Hathaway, began their married life together. I have to admit that I find the birthplace itself a bit underwhelming. It's as if millions of visitors have rubbed it clean of anything authentic. Still, the house makes for a good introduction to the Bard, largely thanks to its entertaining modern exhibit (which you see at the start of your visit) and the helpful, well-versed (and often costumed) docents. With some imagination you might get the sense that Shakespeare's ghost still haunts these halls.
Biometric scans introduced in US airports. Also, countries with highest homicide rates
Dear Globetrotter: Welcome to the 510th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine. Yes, in this day and age, an actual magazine! And we have a lot of longtime supporters, Barb Hartwell of St. Petersburg, Florida, among them. Barb wrote, “International Travel News was responsible for propelling my husband and me toward one of the most wonderful trips we ever took and for leading me to a very special friendship. “The very first sample copy I received (and I don’t know who was kind enough to have it sent to me) prompted my husband and me to call the company Travel Downunder (Bellevue, WA; 866/258-1629, www.travel-downunder.com) and tell the agent, Wendy Schatz, that we wanted to take the identical trip to Tonga that was put together for Penny and Dan Strohl of Oakland, California, and that was described in such beautiful detail by Penny in the article ‘Tonga — a South Pacific Paradise’ in the August 2005 issue of ITN. “In the ensuing preparations for that trip, we were put in contact with the Strohls, who became very good friends of ours, although we lived in Florida, far from their home. Since my first email contact with Penny, she and I have emailed each other two or three times a week. (Yes, that’s for the last 13 years!) My husband and I visited twice with the Strohls in Oakland, and I took a little trip to New England with the Strohls after my husband died in 2009.
Bastille Day: France's party for the people
For the ultimate summer party in France, visit during Bastille Day, the country's Independence Day.
The Geografile
Hashima, an island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, is shaped like a battleship and is nicknamed Battleship Island.
Going to the dogs (and other animals) in Europe
It was at the Ireland School of Falconry (just outside of Cong, north of Galway), where a great guide took our tour group on a "hawk walk." For about an hour, we wandered through the enchanting grounds of Ashford Castle, with our guide sporting a Harris hawk on his forearm. After learning about falconry, each person in our group got an opportunity to toss and catch a bird on his or her arm. With each toss, the glove was rotated to the next person and the guide tucked a little chicken meat in the padded palm -- and the hawk knew just where to return. The experience was both intimate and intense.
Bentley’s 4WD cross-Australia adventure (Part one)
David Bentley, an Aussie friend who my wife, Gail, and I knew all the way back in the early 1970s when we were living in Tasmania, is a resident of Queensland and a 4WD freak. He recently completed an arduous, coast-to-coast journey solo from northeastern Australia to the far southwest in his faithful Troopy, a rather rare, long-wheelbase, diesel-engine, 78 Series Toyota Land Cruiser known as a Troop Carrier. As David’s colorful, slang- and wit-filled reports from the road began to arrive, I felt compelled to share his mind-boggling adventure with our globetrotting readers. This 3-part article is edited from his reports. — Randy Keck Days 1-2 (May 7-8, 2018) — My much-anticipated trip across the centre of Australia via the Simpson Desert and the Canning Stock Route is finally under way from my home in Mooloolaba, Queensland. My wife, Jane, had planned to be with me for the whole trip, but she couldn’t get leave from her job, so I’m on my own until Perth. The drive from Mooloolaba, on the Sunshine Coast two hours north of Brisbane, to Roma, 500-plus kms westward, was relaxed and uneventful except for heaps of roadwork on the Warrego Highway.
Website compares Europe plane/train/bus trip lengths and costs. Also, credit card coverage change
Dear Globetrotter: Welcome to the 509th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.
Santorini: More than just a pretty face
The words "Greek Isles" evoke visions of sun-bleached houses shoulder-to-shoulder against a hillside with a mesmerizing view of glittering blue water.
London’s Victoria Embankment Gardens
Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the Old War Office: London’s concentrated wealth of “must visits&rdquo
Sightseeing skills for the ancient world
Climbing the Acropolis, communing with the druids at Stonehenge or marveling at the sprawling remains of Pompeii -- exploring the remnants of Europe's distant past brings a sp
The Geografile
Borneo is the world’s only island divided between three countries: Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Futuristic Oslo
I'm always inspired by Norway's capital Oslo -- a classic old city that keeps chugging into the future.
An Egyptian temple in Madrid
In October 2017, my husband, Paul, and I rented an apartment in the iconic Plaza Mayor in the oldest section of Madrid.