Because of our interest in travel, nature and other cultures, my wife, Annie, and I visited Madagascar, traveling May 22-June 6, 2013, on a tour with Far Fung Places (San Francisco, CA; 415/386-8306, www.farfungplaces.com).
by Sharon VanDewark; San Diego, CA
A free app called Visitobus (www.visitobus.com) has just been released, offering an audio guide of Paris that can be used on smartphones.
You listen to the guide while riding on a regular city bus on popular bus routes 27, 30, 42 and 69, which include most of the tourist sites in central Paris. In between stops, you learn about local history.
I read the letter “Turkmenistan – Dangers & Annoyances” (March ’14, pg. 23) about a subscriber’s trip to that country while on a “five ’Stans” tour. We were in Turkmenistan during an Oct. 15-Nov. 4, 2013, tour with MIR Corporation (Seattle, WA 98104; 206/624-7289, www.mircorp.com) but didn’t have the complications and annoyances that he had.
The name of our trip was “Journey Through Central Asia – the Five ’Stans.” There were 14 in our group.
Jack & Yvonne Prevo; McKinney, Texas
by Yvonne Horn, Contributing Editor
In ITN, I especially enjoy reading travelers’ write-ups about countries on the list of places my husband, Juergen, and I want to visit. For those countries, in addition to the travelers’ experiences, I am especially interested in the tour companies used and the costs, as we like to take customized private tours.
During a brief visit to México, D.F. (Mexico City), Mexico, on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, my wife and I decided to try a hop-on/hop-off bus tour to see areas outside of the downtown’s historic center.
By Beth Habian, Features Editor
by Margie Weathers; Hayesville, NC