Gardens

by Yvonne Michie Horn

When Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens opens for the season in the spring of 2010, its ornate gates will swing wide for the 168th time, providing, as from Tivoli’s first days, “a magical place for recreation and fresh air.”

That is how Tivoli’s creator, Georg Carstensen, a publisher of periodicals, described what he had in mind when he approached King Christian VIII to ask for permission to realize his dream. He topped off his proposal by mentioning that “when the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics.”

Here are a few nice places in Venice.

Strolling through the flower-lined canal streets in Amsterdam is a great delight in summer, particularly if you’re staying in a hotel that makes casual sunrise and sunset walks convenient.

by Yvonne Michie Horn

by Yvonne Michie Horn

In addition to recommendations found in ITN, a good resource for planning a trip to NEW ZEALAND is the government’s well-organized website www.newzealand.travel, where you can choose what kind of accommodation you want (B&B, hotel, etc.) in your price range. A list of locations pops up with descriptions and contact information.

For our February-March ’09 trip, we stayed in comfortable places and had delightful meals. B&Bs ran between US$47 and $68 per night, including ample breakfasts. Here are some of the highlights.

While our experience of small hotels, especially in Provence, is that great hospitality is a given, we received the ultimate in helpfulness at Au Saint Roch Hotel et Jardin (9 rue Paul Mérindol, 84000 Avignon, FRANCE; phone +33 [0] 4 90 16 50 00, fax 90 82 78 30, www.hotelstroch-avignon.com). My husband and I and our daughter and son-in-law were traveling together in May ’08.

I was delighted to read of Randy Keck’s enjoyment of the Azores (April ’09, pg. 72 & May ’09, pg. 75). My husband, John, and I, traveled there March 31-April 6. Azores Express (800/762-9995, www.sata.pt) was our agency also. We paid $1,209 each for round-trip air from Boston, inter-island flights and six nights’ accommodations.

by Yvonne Horn