My wife, Rosalie, and I were fortunate to be staying near Russbach, Austria, Oct. 4-6, 2013, during the Almabtrieb, a ceremonial cattle drive marking the end of summer.
In summer, the cattle are sent to the high Alpine pastures to graze, and at the end of summer they’re brought down by herdsmen and returned to their owners. The cows are crowned with brightly colored headdresses, ribbons and flowers.
by Mary Beltran, Associate Editor
8 days, 7 nights in Tuscany region of ITALY. Departures May-October 2014. Highlights: Tour starts and ends in Rome and visits market towns like Greve plus medieval Montepulciano and the Renaissance Pienza, with tours of Florence (Church of Santa Croce), Siena (Contrade Museum) and Orvieto (funicular) / four tastings of wine or “Presidia products” / cooking lesson. Land, $2,600 per person, double occ. Single cost, $3,219. TourCrafters (Libertyville, IL; 800/482-5995).
Americans do not need a visa to visit Mongolia, and there are no entrance or exit fees. The best time to travel there is summer, since by September the nights are getting cold. During my trip, Aug. 19-30, 2013, day temperatures were in the 70s and nights in the 60s. Rain was light in the Gobi and heavy in Ulaanbaatar (known as UB) and Hustai National Park.
My trip began in UB. Downtown UB is very small, and it’s possible to walk everywhere. The main street, Peace Street, is about four miles long. Mongolia’s infrastructure is like China’s in the ’80s.
My wife and I used Portrush, a resort town on Northern Ireland’s beautiful Antrim coast, as our base for almost two weeks of exploring the area, July 13-27, 2013.
For £600 (near $980) per week, we rented La Mouette (12 Magherabuoy Dr., Portrush, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT56 8GP, U.K.; phone [028] 2586 1258 or 07712 185 713), a nicely furnished, 4-bedroom, 3-bath, 2-story house with a nice kitchen, sitting room, family/dining room and a large sunroom.
As a solo traveler, I enjoy the hospitality of a small hotel or guest house, and in central London the Lime Tree Hotel (135-137 Ebury St., Belgravia, London, England, SW1W 9QU, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 20 7730 8191) was excellent in this regard.
The Cook Islands is a lovely vacation destination in the South Pacific, but in early April ’13 my companion and I used the Cooks as a stopover for three days, recovering from our 9-hour flight from Los Angeles before continuing on to New Zealand.
An added incentive from the airline, Air New Zealand — a business-class ticket with a Cooks stopover cost almost $1,700 less than a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.
Oslo recently overtook Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. The last time I was in Oslo, a plain cup of coffee cost $4. Beer, while very good, was $8 a glass.
Whether you’re in an outlandishly expensive country or just want to save money, there are plenty of strategies for stretching your food budget in Europe. Here are some tips.
(Second of two parts)
The custom of tipping for various services varies from one country to the next. In this column last month, I listed the gratuities that are expected in the European countries. This month I provide guidelines on leaving gratuities in other parts of the world.
The information in this list has been culled from my experience, the Internet (including http://wikitravel.org/en/Tipping, www.lonelyplanet.com and www.tripadvisor.com) and more.
My husband, John, and I are always on the lookout for unique recipes, especially anything that is characteristic of a locality. On our visit to Ottawa in August 2013, we didn’t think we would find something uniquely Canadian, since the culinary cultures of Canada and the United States are so closely linked, but we did!