Having traveled much of the civilized world on all seven continents, I hungered to journey someplace that would open my eyes to new cultures. The Silk Road, traversing the Caucasus and five of the ’Stans in Central Asia, offered a rich blend of architecture, people, philosophies, history, landscapes and food.
In southwestern France, I took the tour “Dordogne — Prehistoric Cave Art” with Andante Travels (The Clock Tower, Unit 4, Oakridge Office Park, Southampton Rd., Whaddon, Salisbury, England, SP5 3HT, U.K.; in US, 888/331-3476, c), Sept. 7-14, 2015.
I had heard of the Lascaux cave, which was the main reason I went on this tour. However, I had no idea that there are hundreds of various caves and rock shelters in Western Europe that show signs of humans dating back 40,000 years.
Taiwan was not a country I had expected to visit. I was planning a trip to South Korea, but when I saw a tour from Adventures Abroad (Blaine, WA; 800/665-3998, www.adventures-abroad.com) that included Taiwan, I thought, ‘Why not include another country?’ So I chose the Oct. 7-22, 2015, “Taiwan and South Korea” tour.
(Third of three parts)
I have subscribed to ITN for many years but have never written in about my travels. However, I thought my November 2014 tour to South America was a wonderful trip worth knowing about.
(Second of three parts)
My husband and I generally are independent travelers, but for our customized 20-day, 19-night trip to Peru, April 20-May 9, 2014, we used the services of ITN advertiser Tara Tours (Miami, FL; 800/327-0080, www.taratours.com).
Our decision to use a tour operator was driven by a lack of time to do all the investigation to make the arrangements, ourselves, particularly the segments that we wanted to do by bus and within the Sacred Valley. Tara Tours’ José La Torre arranged our trip and did a superb job.
In all my years of travel, few tour group companies have lived up to their motto more than Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com), with its promise of opportunities for learning and discovery.
The “Crossroads of the Adriatic” trip that my wife, Fyllis, and I took to Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Bosnia, Oct. 27-Nov. 11, 2014 (priced from $2,995, land only, or $4,195 with round-trip air, New York/Dubrovnik), lived up to that goal and then some.
My wife, Jacquey, and I traveled to France for our first river cruise with Viking River Cruises. On our 8-day cruise, “Portraits of Southern France,” the Hermod was scheduled to sail May 3-10, 2015. We had also signed up for Viking’s 3-day Paris package that preceded the cruise.
On the group tour “Burma: Land of Golden Temples & Floating Gardens” that my husband, Dusty, and I took with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com), our guide Kyi Kyi (pronounced Chi Chi) was a gem. (For the tour, Aug. 4-19, 2014, the price for the two of us was $12,188, including both internal and international airfare.)