Columns

May 2021 issue

The back road to Mostar - Off the beaten path in Bosnia & Herzegovina
By Rick Steves
Farmers’ market in Nevesinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Photo by Rick Steves

As we’ve had to postpone our travels because of the pandemic, I believe an occasional dose of travel dreaming can be good medicine. Here’s one of my favorite European memories in what was a part of Yugoslavia — a reminder of the adventure that awaits us at the other end of this crisis.

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Looking for a change of pace from Croatia’s touristic Dalmatian Coast, I’m driving east from Dubrovnik to the city of Mostar, in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Almost everyone making this trip takes the scenic coastal route. But with a...

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May 2021 issue

State Dept. Travel Advisories. Airlines and digital health passports. FAA seeks fines for unruly passengers
By David Tykol
Street scene in Oranjestad, Aruba

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 542nd issue of your monthly worldwide travel magazine. Focused on travel outside of the US, the articles and letters inside are mostly written by our subscribers, who share their experiences, travel tips and reflections. (Don’t overlook the ads. though; they’re keeping travel going.) The other component to our content is news, such as the following.

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With the return of international travel on the horizon and some people already visiting opened countries, there is one tool that may help you...

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January 2021 issue

The Geografile
By Bryan Henry

Thirty-eight countries are islands that border no other country.

January 2021 issue

On-the-Road Travel Tips (part 10)
By Randy Keck

In this time of continuing challenge but renewed hopes, we are happy to unveil another selection of readers’ On-the-Road Travel Tips (each followed by my own comments). If there’s something special that you do to make your travel experience work better while actually traveling, we invite you to share your wisdom in the form of a travel tip in 125 words or fewer. See my email address at the bottom.

Joyce Renee Lewis (Camano Island, WA) — Here are some more tips I thought I’d share (Oct. ’20, pg. 30 & Dec. ’20, pg. 27).

• Before...

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October 2020 issue

In light of COVID-19, countries have new entry requirements for visitors
By David Tykol
A flamboyance of Chilean flamingos has inhabited the Caribbean island of Aruba for nearly 15 years and can be seen on either Flamingo Beach or De Palm Island.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 535th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

The outpouring of support for ITN in response to Evenyl Roemmich’s “Travel Resource Challenge” (July ’20, pg. 26) continues to move and stir us. Thank you.

A couple of subscribers have commented on the low number of pages in recent issues of ITN, offering suggestions for collecting more articles and letters to print. The dearth of pages is not due to a lack of material; it has to do with the reduction in advertising.

The number of pages in each issue...

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November 2020 issue

The results of our poll “Should ITN also cover the US?”
By David Tykol

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 536th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

With a pandemic having halted most international travel, and with Americans banned from visiting many countries, three months ago I shared with you a subscriber’s reasoning that ITN, for the first time since its inception in 1976, might consider covering domestic travel along with foreign. So, addressing each subscriber to this magazine, I put the question to you: “Should ITN cover US travel too?”

Wow, did the emails and letters pour in! Hundreds of them. I saw...

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September 2020 issue

Countries opening borders. COVID-19 safety considerations on commercial airlines
By David Tykol
One of four statues of mothers around the Fountain of the Mothers of Macedonia in Skopje, North Macedonia. In the background, on a 15-meter-tall platform, is a 13-meter-tall bronze statue of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 534th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

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We are continuing to collect subscribers’ responses to the question ‘Should ITN cover US travel too?’ This publication has had a longstanding policy of only covering destinations outside of the US and its territories, but these are unusual times, and in my column last month a reader suggested, “… it might be time to reconsider it, at least in a small way.”

That was John Reeves of Jackson, California, and he gave several reasons for making...

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September 2020 issue

Fado: the Lisbon blues
By Rick Steves
Fado is sung from the heart. Photo by Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli

As we’ve had to postpone our travels because of the pandemic, I believe an occasional dose of travel dreaming can be good medicine. Here’s one of my favorite European memories — a reminder of the fun that awaits us at the other end of this crisis.

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It’s after dark in Lisbon’s ramshackle Alfama neighborhood. Old-timers gather in restaurants, which serve little more than grilled sardines, to hear and sing Portugal’s mournful fado — traditional ballads of lament.

I grab the last chair in a tiny place, next to two bearded men...

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