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Women cooking at a religious festival in Kerala, southwestern India.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 525th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, your connection to other world travelers who want to share what they’ve learned while on the road, in the air or out at sea.

Covering destinations outside of the US, this magazine prints subscribers’ experiences, observations and candid opinions. If you have a recommendation or a travel tip to contribute or would like to request information from other travelers, email editor@intltravelnews.com or write to ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818.

Meanwhile, I’ll...

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Painted limestone head of a bearded Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt’s first female pharaoh, at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 521st issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, which is assembled largely from YOUR travel reports and articles, that is, items submitted by our subscribers. It’s travelers like you informing other travelers, your fellow readers, with the focus on destinations outside of the US.

I’m just here, aided by the rest of the ITN staff, to coordinate things, make announcements and share additional news.

Here’s an item.

You’ve heard that measles is resurging in the US as well as across the developed...

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Completed in 1874, this neoGothic church was declared the Cathedral of Saint Florin in 1997 — Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 519th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

Last month, I described how, unlike members of the general public, ITN subscribers have special benefits on our website.

For one thing, if you’re a subscriber, you can have full and unlimited access to all posted articles, letters and news items from the magazine — great when planning a trip and looking for recommendations of guides, tour companies, hotels, etc. In the search bar, just type in a company or destination name and see...

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Karen Wagner (right) shared copies of ITN with passengers on the Eurodam.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 522nd issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, the one our subscribers — you! — help write.

Speaking of subscribers, during a round-trip cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Holland America Line’s Eurodam in November-December 2018, Karen Wagner of Monarch Beach, California, attended a Cruisecritic.com Roll Call meet-and-greet organized by another passenger.

She wrote, “I just asked for some time at the meeting to make an announcement and pass something around.” She then told passengers about ITN and...

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A bridge over a canal in Venice, Italy.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 524th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, the publication mostly written by its subscribers, people who find travel very rewarding. ITN also stands out from other travel publications because it only covers destinations outside of the United States and its territories. It’s for people not afraid to step out of their comfort zone.

If you’re just back from a trip and would like to share a discovery, a lesson learned or a recommendation with people who will appreciate what you have to tell them, write in. We’ve got...

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John Scott displaying the products of a cooking class in Seoul, South Korea, in 2013 (see April ’16, pg. 54).

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 518th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

When people who are not ITN subscribers visit our website, what they're seeing is essentially a preview of what it actually offers.

Nonsubscribers can read only a few selected articles from each issue in full, but for all the rest of the articles, letters and news items on the site, they're allowed to read only a limited number before being asked to subscribe in order to continue.

Any ITN subscriber, however, can log in to the real deal, ITN Online, and view ALL of the...

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Visitors exploring the colorful medina in Essaouira. Photo by Randy Keck
This is part one of a three part series. Read part two here. Read part three here.

In April 2019 I ventured to exotic Morocco with the hope of finding a balance between discovering its historic, cultural and natural world attractions and finding the on-the-ground pulse of the country today.

I found a land of contradictions, often difficult if not impossible to define. Moroccans today appear to live with a tug-of-war of values between the often polar-opposite, if not polarizing, influences of East and West. One example of this was style of dress, which was more traditional...

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Our group enjoyed a picnic under an argan tree in Tafraout, Morocco. Photo by Randy Keck
This is part three of a three part series. Read part one here. Read part two here.

In the second part of this series, I described the first half of my hosted April 2019 journey around Morocco with the small-group adventure-tour operator ElderTreks. This month, I’ll share highlights from the second part of our trek, from the dunes of the Sahara back to Casablanca. First, however, I wish to share a few thoughts about shopping in Morocco.

Morocco shopping mania

On most of my overseas excursions, I tend to contribute very little to the local economies by way of...

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