September 2012

The highlight of a 6-week, customized tour of Brazil that my husband, Maurice, and I took, January-March 2011, was the four days we spent in the Lençois Maranhenses region, Feb. 1-4 (July ’12, pg. 29).

For first-time visitors to Jerusalem, the Old City is unexpectedly chaotic and crowded. Welcome refuge can be found in the 154-year-old Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family (Via Dolorosa 37 91194 Jerusalem, Israel +972 2 626 58 00).

My wife and I stayed at the hospice April 17-21, 2012. From its hillside location a short walk from the Damascus Gate in the Muslim Quarter, it overlooks a corner of the Via Dolorosa.

In booking the arrangements for a wonderful trip to Tuscany for three women and myself, Gina at Villa Vita International (Phoenix, AZ; 866/590-8181) was most helpful.

We stayed for a week, Oct. 12-19, 2011, at Il Borgo di Vila Bossi-Pucci (Via Romita 2/a, Loc. Montagnana, Monstespertoli, 50025, Firenze, Italy; UK phone +44 [0] 203 006 4980), about 24 kilometers southwest of Florence. The villa grounds overlook a valley and have walking paths, a swimming pool and a library.

Bulgaria is a country that I highly recommend everyone visit.

My wife, Carolyn, and I took a 7-night, customized tour through Romania, May 25-31, 2012. We normally don’t splurge like that, but the prices in Romania are very favorable.

Having enjoyed a cruise in Europe in 2006 and another in China in 2007, both with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 800/706-1483), my husband, Tom, and I were puzzled by a subscriber’s critique of his “Romantic Rhine” cruise with Viking (“Found Anchorages Inconvenient,” May ’10, pg. 24).

I spent two weeks in Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo, Jan. 1-18, 2012, on a trip arranged by Fulani Travel, a British company with an office in New York City. There was one other tour member besides me.

I first contacted Fulani Travel in January 2011. At a price of €2,775 (near $3,439), single occupancy, the trip included transport, hotels, breakfasts, services of a guide and driver, tips to local guides, road tolls and entrance fees.

I made airline reservations with Expedia.com in December 2011 to visit family in Belarus. The flight itinerary I chose had me departing Dec. 20 on Delta Air Lines from Cincinnati for New York (JFK Airport), where I was to connect with Aeroflot and continue to Minsk, Belarus, via Moscow, Russia. The reverse trip would be made on Dec. 28.

by Charlie Ogg, Houston, TX. Photos by Jack Ogg

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 31 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

For details, call the State Department at 202/647-5225 or visit www.travel.state.gov.