Hotels and Lodging

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.

While I am no longer trying to get the cheapest place in town on trips, five accommodations stand out as great bargains. You can find these places on Google and TripAdvisor or in Lonely Planet guides.

• Hotel Terrasol (Barricada Avenue, Granada, NICARAGUA), at $40 a night for a double, including a light breakfast, offers air-conditioning and cable television (American networks) plus a great restaurant and fantastic service. If you want a full breakfast for a little extra, order it when you check in. I last stayed there in February 2010, my tenth visit.

Nili Olay; New York, NY

My favorite city is Bucharest, Romania. From my 18th trip there, I have some wonderful hotels and restaurants to recommend.

May 1-5, 2013, I stayed at Hotel Scala (C.A. Rosetti nr. 19, 020011, Bucharest, RO; phone +40 31 104 11 11, fax 31 814 61 48), a beautiful boutique hotel in a former architect’s home in a location very handy to the center of the city.

While on a driving tour of the Benelux countries with my husband, Colin, April 2-30, 2013, we mainly took back roads, wandering through the countryside. We had made some lodging reservations in advance, but since we were uncertain where we would be some days, we chose to rely on last-minute accommodations at those times.

My husband, John, my daughter, Dorie, and I booked a private tour of Ethiopia for Jan. 16-Feb. 1, 2013, with someone whom friends of ours had used two years before, Daniel Damtew Aseffa of Glory Ethiopia Travel & Tours (P.O. Box 15303, Comoros St., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; phone +251 11 860 1099, www.glo.ethiopiatravel.com.et).

After speaking to Mr. Damtew via Skype and sending emails back and forth, we paid him by means of wire transfers a total of $9,194 for the three of us.

Like Jack and Anne Dini (“Returning to the Homeland: Albania,” Oct. ’13, pg. 52), my companion and I also followed the advice of Carol Probst (“Albania — Enjoying Europe Without the Costs and Crowds,” Dec. ’12, pg. 36) and took a tour with Albania Travel Net (Him Kolli str. 35, Pallati Agolli, Tirane 1003, Albania; phone +355 42247518) and guide Enea Kumi.

After 17 years, in 2013 I paid a return visit to a truly unusual and interesting country. I was in Ethiopia in 1995 visiting the tribal south on a rugged tour, mostly camping. I returned with a friend, Jan. 6-21, to explore the unique rock churches in the Christian north. I found a changed country, with no starvation and with decent roads and a much-improved tourist infrastructure, in terms of hotels and restaurants. 

My wife and I took a wonderful trip to Bologna and environs, May 8-19, 2013. We have hiked in the Dolomites, driven in Tuscany, gone with small groups and traveled on our own in Italy, but when we wanted to visit Bologna I was unable to find a tour that I liked that concentrated on just that city.