Hotels and Lodging

After cruising down the Red Sea, the ship I was on docked at Muscat, Oman, on Nov. 7, 2016, and I disembarked.

Taxi cabs were readily available just outside the dockyard gate, and American dollars were accepted by the drivers, giving visitors the convenience of not initially needing local currency to pay.

When I researched hotels in Muscat, it became clear that there were many. I narrowed down my decision based on cost and the part of the city I wanted to stay.

In Barcelona, Spain, new laws affecting tourism went into effect in February 2017. New hotels are prohibited from being built near the city center, and no new licenses for short-term rentals (such as those booked through Airbnb.com) will be granted to landlords. 

Currently, there are about 75,000 hotel beds and 50,000 licensed short-term-rental beds available in Barcelona. The city announced in November 2016 that it was fining Airbnb more than €500,000 (near $538,000) for listing unlicensed rooms in Barcelona on its website.

The Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, once the summer home of the Pope, opened to the public on Oct. 22, 2016.

Occupying 135-acres (more than Vatican City), Pontifical Villas have been Vatican property since 1596, when the property was claimed by Pope Clement VIII to repay a debt. Pope Francis has declined to stay in the Villas, which has allowed them to be opened to the public.

Castel Gandolfo is a small town overlooking Lake Albano in the Alban Hills, roughly 15 miles southeast of Rome. 

An organized tour that my wife, Annaloy, and I would take in Belize did not include the Caracol ruins, so, in February 2016, before joining the group tour, we took an independent tour in San Ignacio that turned out to be excellent.

To make arrangements, we contacted Albert Williams (albert@bzmtours.com) at Belize Magnificent Mayan (BZM) Tours (#16B, San José Succotz, Cayo District, Belize; phone, in US/Canada, 315/351-0720, bzmtours.com). 

The white stone of the Triple Bridge shimmered in the evening lights. In the background, the pink façade of the Franciscan church off Prešernov trg provided a beautiful color contrast. What an impressive sight on the first evening of my May 2016 adventure in “Titoland”! 

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 492nd issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

For the first time since he took the column over from ITN’s founder, Armond Noble, in March 1999, our editor, David Tykol, is not writing the “Boarding Pass.” He needed some time off to attend to family matters, and he gave me the instructions to “write whatever you want.” So buckle your seat belts and please place seat backs and tray tables in their upright positions, ’cause this might get bumpy.

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