Features

September 2019 issue | Appears on page 6

Walking the ‘blue paths’ of Greece’s Cyclades
By Yvonne Horn
Blue-domed church seen on the way to Ancient Arkesini, on the island of Amorgos.

In the Cyclades, a group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, trails are called “blue paths.” With every turn, you can expect a view of the sea. How prescient of our group of 11 walkers to have signed up to explore paths on three of these islands with an organization called The Blue Walk!

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, The Blue Walk (phone, in the US, 551/258-3955, www.thebluewalk.com) offers small-group walking vacations in Italy, Spain and France as well as...

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September 2019 issue | Appears on page 20

An introduction to the tribal cultures of central Myanmar
By Ken Mallory
A group of women from the Akha tribe.

“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.”

Karl Grobl of Jim Cline Photo Tours (San Diego, CA; 858/353-6210, www.jimclinephototours.com) set the stage early with the above quote from the late...

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September 2019 issue | Appears on page 32

Visiting the tiny island of Dominica in the aftermath of devastating storms
By Steve Lopes
A number of recently built foreign-owned vacation cottages line the waterfront.

My wife, Lois, and I first considered visiting Dominica after being seduced by Paul Crask’s “Dominica” Brandt Travel Guide, but events got in the way — specifically, tropical storm Erika (2015) and hurricane Maria (2017), each of which devastated the country.

Nevertheless, Dominica retained its appeal, and in the spring of 2018 we asked ourselves, “Would it be wise to visit a country so recently overwhelmed? Would it be safe or even minimally...

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August 2019 issue | Appears on page 6

Exploring the elegant gardens of Tuscany
By Beth Habian
View of the beautiful garden at Villa Poggio Torselli near San Casciano Val di Pesa.

I’m not a big planner. Many of my life experiences have been the result of my opening the door each time opportunity knocked.

After earning my college degree, I took a 3-month “temp” position at a publishing office in Sacramento to bridge the gap between graduation and figuring out what it was I was going to do next. Twenty-five years later, I’m still at ITN, my life enriched by the travels I’ve been blessed to have experienced as part of my job...

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August 2019 issue | Appears on page 18

A foodie’s dream day at Moscow’s GUM
By Fred Steinberg
GUM is Moscow’s iconic shopping and dining mall, located on Red Square.

If you would be interested in visiting a department store that is unlike any other store you know, then put Moscow’s GUM on your travel bucket list.

You cannot compare GUM with Le Bon Marché in Paris, Harrods in London or Isetan in Tokyo. No, GUM (www.gumrussia.com) is the giant, architecturally dramatic shopping-and-dining mall that frames most of the east side of Moscow’s Red Square.

GUM is unique in that it is basically a complex of three parallel 3-story...

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August 2019 issue | Appears on page 28

Hitting the highlights on a luxury cruise from Tokyo to Shanghai
By Robert Siebert
The nearly symmetrical cone of Japan’s Mt. Fuji towers over the clouds.

My international wanderlust had its inception during my Army days in Saigon in the late 1960s. I got a taste of Penang and Hong Kong while on leave, and travel within Asia has captivated my attention ever since.

The plan

In mid-October 2018, I flew nonstop on Japan Airlines (codeshare with American Airlines) from New York to Tokyo for a 14-day cruise from Yokohama to Shanghai. Another nonstop flight, this time with China Eastern Airlines (codeshare with Delta), brought...

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July 2019 issue | Appears on page 6

A dream realized in Southern Africa
By Dorothy Botnick
Cape Town’s harbor, with Table Mountain in the background.

Sometimes, when you dream of a trip for a long time and begin planning far in advance, you wonder if everything will live up to your expectations. In our case, our adventure to Southern Africa (May 20-June 11, 2018) was almost everything we wanted it to be, and we returned home excited about having taken one of our best trips ever.

Making plans

I began planning this trip about a year and a half in advance. As part of my research, I looked at articles on the...

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July 2019 issue | Appears on page 20

Spending a week cruising the Dalmatian Coast
By Bill Reed
Each night we would dock at some wharf and stay there during the night. The boats would “raft up,” and we had to walk through several boats to get to ours.

Last month, I recounted the 9-day trip my wife, Betty, and I took to Slovenia and Croatia. This month, I’ll concentrate on the 7-day trip down and up the Dalmatian Coast, from Split to Dubrovnik and back to Split, that we took immediately after.

When our excellent trip to Slovenia came to an end, our guide, Sanjin, dropped us off in Split. It was there that we boarded a fairly small (by cruise-ship standards), 32-passenger boat for a trip booked with Adventure Life (...

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