Food & Wine

In Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand, the class "Cooking with Poo," led by chef Khun Saiyuud Diwong (known as Khun Poo, short for chompoo, or "rose apple"), instructs students, in English, on traditional Thai cooking.

You're finally going to Morocco. That's great! So what do you need to know that might not be prominent in your guidebook?

First, upon arrival at the airport, you must complete a challenging Immigration form. Remember to complete a duplicate form or take a photo of your completed form; you'll need to provide essentially the same information at each lodging check-in.

5-day, 4-night culinary tour in FRANCE. Departs May 29, June 26, Sept. 11 & Oct. 2, 2019. Highlights: In Beaune, Maison Champy wine boutique/Citroën 2CV through Côte de Nuits/e-bike through Côte de Beaune vineyards/hands-on cooking experience in private home. From $4,395. Single supp., $700. Butterfield & Robinson (70 Bond St., 3rd Floor, Toronto, ON, M5B 1X3, Canada; 866/551-9090, www.butterfield.com).

15-day, 14-night birding tour in the Andes, March 3-17, 2019. Group limit, 12. Highlights: Fly Santiago, Chile, to Mendoza, Argentina, for birds in foothills/Uspallata for Andean condor, crested gallito/tasting Mendoza wines near colony of monk parakeets/San Juan lowlands/Yeso Valley, Chile/wine tasting in Colchagua Valley/Valparaíso/waterfowl at Maipo River/on Cachagua Island, Humboldt penguins. From $5,700 ppdo. Single supp., $900. Alvaro's Adventures (Half Moon Bay, CA; 650/504-7779, www.alvarosadventures.com).

Irish cuisine has long been the fodder of jokes -- a kind of penance to suffer through in order to enjoy the people, music and lush scenery of the Emerald Isle. But that's an outdated notion: Travelers today find fresh, inventive, flavorful meals there -- and many Irish towns are working to establish themselves as foodie destinations.

Pat Ove of Aurora, California, wrote, “Reading Stanley Mui’s article about his 10-day trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, for less than $1,000 (June ’17, pg. 44) brought back many happy memories of the $100-a-day trips my husband and I took for 20 years.

There must be many budget travelers reading ITN who are having exciting adventures discovering the world on $100 a day. I would love to read about their journeys. (For purposes of this information request, and considering inflation, perhaps the total of $100 per day should not include overseas airfare.)” 

Regarding traveling outside of the US on $100 a day (excluding international airfare), ITN subscribers were asked to tell us how they did it and where and when they traveled, specifying modes of transport, types of accommodations used and how those were found plus any other budget-travel tricks. The tips rolled in, and we’re presenting the responses over a few months.

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My sister and I left our husbands home to take care of our pets and gardens and went to explore ITALY on our own for two weeks in July 2014. The idea was to stay close to local life, use public transportation and try to speak the local language.

Kathmandu has been on my “wanna visit” list for years. The perfect opportunity arose in March 2017 when my husband, John, and I were in Kuala Lumpur (better known as KL), Malaysia. AirAsia (airasia.com), an excellent budget airline, was flying from KL to Kathmandu, Nepal, for $169. Perfect!

For $83, we booked a room at Hotel Shanker (Lazimpat, Kathmandu 44600, Nepal; phone +977 1 4410151, www.shankerhotel.com.np) because it was a family-owned heritage hotel. The location was excellent, and they had a pool and Internet access.

The feature article “Crossing Russia in Luxury on the Trans-Siberian Railway” (May ’18, pg. 40) surely had readers dreaming about such a great trip. However, the tour’s price tag — $20,595 per person (not including air) — must have discouraged many.

My husband and I stayed at a quinta (villa) in Portugal that I think ITN readers would be interested in knowing about.