12 days/12 nights in FRANCE, Sept. 2-14, 2012. Highlights: Château Lynch-Bages winery, Bordeaux/rock church in St. Emilion/cruise on Drônne River/Château Hautefort/Brantôme Abbey, founded in 769/Sarlat market/medieval Rocamadour/prehistoric art at Grotte de Font-de-Gaume and Lascaux II. Land, $3,895. Single supp., $550. Intimate France (Oakland, CA; 800/676-1247).
Outside of Shannon, Ireland, a 19th-century Gothic revival castle has been operating since 1963 as the Dromoland Castle hotel (phone +353 61 368144 or, from the US, 800/346-7007). Room rates at the 5-star hotel run €378-€1,044 (near $493-$1,361) in summer and €176-€585 in winter.
(Part 2 of 2 on the Netherlands)
11-day / 10-night tour. Highlights: In Copán, HONDURAS, Hieroglyphic Stairway, sculpture museum / in Quiriguá, GUATEMALA, texts and portraits on stelae / pyramids in Tikal / bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs in Palenque, MÉXICO / Temple de los Frescos in Bonampak / market in Chichicastenango, Guatemala. Land, $2,900. Single supp., $400. Domestic air, about $125. Mayatour (Doral, FL; 888 / 349-6292).
My wife and I had a very enjoyable 12 days in Hungary in October ’12 arranged by Adam Molnar of Custom Travel Hungary (Marczibányi tér 9, Budapest, H-1022, Hungary; phone [36 1] 316 9947).
We began corresponding nine months prior to the trip. Designing the itinerary and selecting and booking the hotels, Adam made all of our arrangements outside of Budapest. He would pick us up in Bratislava, Slovakia, and drop us off in Budapest.
(Part 1 of 2 on the Netherlands)
Let me tell you how it is I came to be in Amsterdam and why I decided to visit some of the special “hidden” places that are called hofjes.
11-day / 10-night tour in HONDURAS, GUATEMALA and MÉXICO. Highlights: 1,250 glyphs on the Hieroglyphic Stairway in Copán, Honduras / 65-ton stele in Quiriguá, Guatemala / Mayan archaeological sites at Tikal, Yaxha, Topoxté / frescoes at Palenque, Mexico / jaguar and crocodile statues in Yaxchilan / Antigua, Guatemala / Chichicastanango handicraft market. Land, $2,900. Single supp., $400. Internal air, about $125. Mayatour (Doral, FL; 888 / 349-6292).
To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, my husband, Dan Holland, and I visited Tuscany, Oct. 25-Nov. 8, 2012. We stayed in the small village of Ghivizzano, north of Lucca, in the Serchio Valley between the Apuan Alps and the Apennines.
A century ago, two families, one from Belfast and the other from Hilltown, County Down, emigrated from what is now Northern Ireland to Toronto, Canada. Years later, a member of each family met and married. They had four daughters and a son. No one from either side returned to visit their homeland until 2011, when the four sisters and two of their husbands (including me), gathering from their respective homes in Toronto, North Carolina, Nebraska and Arizona, met in Belfast for a 7-day family heritage trip, Sept. 28-Oct. 4.
by Ernest Christman; Albuquerque, NM