Religious Sites

We are extremely interested in history and enjoy visiting different cultures. In August ’04 we visited Bulgaria. After spending 10 days in this largely unknown jewel of the Balkans, we wanted to tell our friends that Bulgaria has everything anyone would expect for a perfect vacation.

Customized tour

Our trip was planned by Balkan Travel & Tours in New York City (phone 888/763-4288 or 212/594-9000 or visit www.balkan-travel.com). It cost $1,115 per person, with additional airfare from LOT Polish Airlines of about $740.

by Julie Skurdenis, part one of two

by Ed Kinney

I arranged a 12-day tour to India, Feb. 4-16, ’04, through Vacations International (725 E. Chubbuck Rd., Chubbuck, ID 83202; phone 888/453-0832 or 208/406-1360, e-mail info@vacations-international.com or visit www. vacations-international.com).

The local agency they used was Moksha Tours & Travels (Madurai, India; visit www.mokshatours.com).

The ITN staff found the strategy described in the following letter clever and thought that, with the wealth of guidebooks available on so many destinations, some readers might be inspired to use this method in planning which sites to visit.

In view of the plethora of guidebooks on England and their sometimes divergent opinions, a few years ago I thought it might be both interesting and useful to determine the degree of conformity among them in choosing what they considered that country’s top tourist attractions.

by Lei Chatfield, Contributing Editor

Imagine: nomadic yurts, incredibly beautiful tiled mosques, medieval architecture and an ultramodern city created by a dictator “president” with portraits of him and his family at every turn. This mosaic is Central Asia.

by Julie Skurdenis

I am standing atop Bulethi Pagoda in Bagan, Burma’s most important archaeological site. I’ve huffed and puffed up a steep staircase to the uppermost platform encircling the structure. The platform is narrow — only three feet wide — and I lean back against the stone to steady myself as I gaze out over the plain far below me.

If you want to experience a country that is still off the beaten path, I suggest Burma. My wife, Jane, and I were there for two weeks, Dec. 21, ’02-Jan. 5, ’03, with Escapes Unlimited (2012 Lerner Lane, Santa Ana, CA 92705; phone 800/243-7227, e-mail info@escapesltd.com or visit www.escapesltd.com). The cost from Savannah, Georgia, was $3,240 including excellent hotels, almost all meals, visa fees and bottled water.

Having been to all but a handful of European countries, my wife and I were thinking, “Where next?” As luck would have it, she had just read Randy Keck’s article on Romania (June ’03, pg. 108). She immediately got on the Internet and contacted all the companies mentioned in the story. Each responded, and we chose Balkan Travel & Tours (325 West 38th St., New York, NY 10018; phone 888/763-4288, e-mail balkantravel@worldnet.att.net or visit www.balkan-travel.com).