After a 15-hour flight from San Francisco, via Dubai, on Emirates airline, my husband, Bill, and I arrived in Tehran, Iran. This was the beginning of our 3-week September 2019 tour with JMG Tibet Tours (Lauderhill, FL; 866/548-4238, www.jmgtibettours.com).

Though I don’t enjoy writing, I really felt compelled to share this amazing experience because so many of my preconceptions were wrong.

About the tour

This was owner Jeff Garrett’s first venture taking a...

Interested in history, religion, art, animals, birding, swimming, hiking, scenery, ceremonies and UNESCO Sites? Then Sri Lanka’s the place for you! And it’s all packed into one easy-to-navigate island.

Poring over ITN magazines, I happened upon a write-up of a tour of Sri Lanka in which the author highly recommended Varini de Silva of Ceylon Express International (Huntington Beach, CA; 800/423-9566, ceylonexpress.com). What a find she was!

Varini, born and raised in...

There are classic, iconic sites one must see on a first trip to Ireland — wonderful locations such as the Cliffs of Moher, the Ring of Kerry and Temple Bar. On our first visit, my husband, Emmett Lee, and I saw all of those plus a few others, spending two weeks exploring, but for our latest trip, in June 2019, we planned 24 days of sightseeing to visit places we had missed the first time.

We covered Northern Ireland and the northwest counties of the Republic of Ireland during...