I’ve taken six trips to Syria, most recently in March ’08 (Oct. ’08, pg. 17), and recommend the guide Nabil Mallah, who works with the travel agency Omayad Tours & Travel in Damascus (P.O. Box 34968, Damascus, Syria; phone 00963 11 3342255 or 3316058, fax 11 2212639, e-mail omayad.trvl@net.sy or visit www.omayadtours.com.sy). The office is located on the first floor of the Mazloum Building, behind the Four Seasons Hotel on Brazil Street.
My wife, Eva, and I took the 4-day/3-night “Queen Charlotte Track” tour from Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company (London Quay, Picton, New Zealand; phone +64 3 573 6078, fax 573 8827, www.marlboroughsounds.co.nz), and we highly recommend this company.
They offer hiking, biking and sea kayaking trips a half day to five days long — great service, organization, guides and facilities. Our hiking trip, Dec. 27-30, 2007, cost US$1,000 each, all-inclusive.
From FRANKFURT, Germany, Sept. 12, 2008. . .
My husband, Jerry, and I, and our friends Barbara and Harvey Hellering wanted to visit Toulouse, Carcassonne and the Dordogne region of France. Since none of us wanted to drive, we decided to hire someone to arrange the trip and do the driving. Through ITN, we found Connie Wilson, an American living in France and proprietor of France à la Carte (La Chaîne Soulière, 37240 Manthelan, France; phone +33 [0] 247 921 640, http://francealacarte.net).
by Inga Aksamit, San Rafael, CA
“Are you going to go zip-lining?” everyone asked when told that my husband, Steve, and I were headed to Costa Rica for our next set of adventures.
My wife and I (both seniors) spent 12 days in Bali in August ’08. It was the dry season. The weather was excellent, with a high of about 82°F every day.
Starting in Helsinki, Finland, my wife and I toured the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — in August ’08.
A controversy was sparked earlier this year by Thomas Kohnstamm’s new book, “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventure, Questionable Ethics & Professional Hedonism.”
My husband and I, in our late 60s, traveled in Italy, Germany and France from April to mid-July 2008 with an emphasis on inn-to-inn walking. We do not like to carry a full pack, stay in hostels or huts, camp, reserve ahead, go with a group or pay a lot to arrange for a tour company’s independent walk.
We very successfully spent several days each walking in Tuscany, around the perched villages area north of Nice, in the Dordogne and along the Rhine and Mosel rivers.
by Clyde Holt, Hinesburg, VT, photos by Clyde and Jane Holt