Features

January 2005 issue

Ukraine — in the wake of Catherine the Great

by Gloria Grant, Chevy Chase, MD

As a docent at Washington, D.C.’s, Hillwood Museum, featuring fabulous Russian treasures, I have been fascinated with a trip Catherine the Great made down the Dnieper River in 1787. Accompanied by the Austrian emperor and other diplomatic guests, she led a tour of her expanding empire from Kiev to the Crimea, sailing in a fleet of 80 red-and-gold Roman-style galleys, each with its own orchestra.

So when I learned of a tour in Catherine’s wake, together with visits to the homeland of the dashing Cossacks, historic cities closed to visitors...

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September 2010 issue

Finding a superb home base in northern Thailand

by Henk Bouwman; Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

During our April ’10 trip to northern Thailand, my wife, Chanjira, and I visited the city of Chiang Mai. Located 700 kilometers north of Bangkok (a one-hour flight away), Chiang Mai is a charming and relaxed city with a pleasant climate — not as hot as Bangkok because of the elevation. There are lots of things to see and do there.

Where to stay

We spent four days at U Chiang Mai (70 Ratchadamnoen Rd.; phone +66 53 327 000, www.uchiangmai. com), a relatively small (41 rooms), intimate boutique hotel in the middle of the...

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April 2005 issue

Choosing and reserving a room

We wanted to know the questions you ask when deciding at which hotel to stay and even which room within a hotel. What are your minimum requirements? What’s on your “I hope they have it” list? How do you go about locating, researching and booking a hotel room? Responses from a couple of readers appear below. (You also may wish to refer to Contributing Editor Philip Wagenaar’s article, “How to Find the Right Accommodation at the Right Price” [Dec. ’00, pg. 146].)

Send in your own hotel tips. Write to Reserving a Room, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818, or e-mail editor@...

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July 2005 issue

Pleasant surprises on a carefully planned stay in Japan

by Larry Taylor, Fullerton, CA

Japan is a land of contrasts: temples and technology, kimonos and karaoke, Buddhas and baseball. . . My wife and I have always thought we would like to visit Japan, but we had heard stories about high prices and difficulties getting around in the congested cities. These perceptions led us to put off a visit.

But in spring ’04 we decided to spend four days in the Tokyo/Kyoto area after disembarking from an Orient cruise on the Crystal Harmony. We would “get our feet wet,” as they say, with this short stay. As it turned out, all our preconceived...

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May 2011 issue

The spectacular scenery of Namibia
Namibia may not be everyone’s idea of a safari country. It doesn’t have the variety, large herds or impressive migrations of animals one can experience in East Africa or Botswana. However, as my wife and I discovered in September ’10, Namibia impresses with spectacular scenery, wildlife that have adapted to the incredibly harsh desert environment, and the opportunity to meet native people little affected by the outside world.
January 2004 issue

A piece of paradise in the Cook Islands

by Dan Gifford, Arlington, VA (Part 6 in a series of 6)

On the island of Rarotonga, nothing can be built taller than a coconut tree. This inspired bit of zoning regulation sums up why we chose the largest of the Cook Islands over better-known South Pacific destinations like Tahiti or Fiji. No highrise hotels, no megaresorts, no way to accommodate hoards of people.

We owed our stop here to an acquaintance of mine, a remarkable woman named Diana Lockwood. Diana founded Pacific Islands Institute, a company that specializes in travel to Melanesia, Micronesia and the rest of the...

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March 2004 issue

Far Horizons » The Philippines: Cebu and Mactan

by Randy Keck, part 2 of 2 on the Philippines

The second portion of my recent visit to the Philippines focused on the island of Cebu, specifically on the area around Cebu City and adjacent Mactan Island, both rich in terms of historical significance.

In 1521 the famous explorer Magellan met his end at a battle on Mactan Island after incurring the wrath of local chieftain Lapu-Lapu, who had no tolerance for the explorer’s exploitative practices. A monument on Mactan commemorates the historical significance of that important battle.

During the early part of the era of...

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May 2010 issue

Enjoying the party-like atmosphere of Oaxaca’s Day of the Dead festival

Fred DeVinney, Walnut Creek, CA

In Condé Nast’s 2009 Readers’ Choice poll, Oaxaca, Mexico, was listed among the top 10 cities in the Americas (excluding the US). After my late-October ’09 trip there for the marvelously colorful Day of the Dead festivities, I can certainly understand why.

El Diá de los Muertos is celebrated each year in Oaxaca during the week leading up to the first of November. Instead of mourning the dead, Mexicans celebrate their memory, and this is the time for a joyous reunion of family members, living and dead.

Colorfully decorated cemeteries and...

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