Travelers' Intercom

Most visitors to Paris go with a list of recommended restaurants, but I thought ITN readers would like a list of wonderful wine bars, part of the true Parisian experience. I visited all of the wine bars listed below from January to September 2009, most several times.

Reporting on the prices is somewhat of a problem. For years, the tax on restaurant meals was 18.6% while the tax on fast food was just over 5%, which led to riots in the streets, literally, with chefs in white toques throwing eggs. Finally, very recently, the government reduced the tax at regular restaurants to the same...

Just our luck! My husband, Frank, and I picked the rainiest week of the year when we visited Nicaragua in October ’08. Fortunately, almost every day had some sun, except the Sunday we watched an NFL game in our room during a sideways rainstorm.

We spent three nights in Granada, three in San Juan del Sur and one near Managua airport before an early-morning departure. Except at the hotel in San Juan del Sur, we spoke Spanish throughout our trip.

Because we were arriving late at night in Managua and had read about crimes against tourists driving to Granada, we arranged for a...

My wife, Amber, and I decided to add a quick, one-night stay in Tallinn, Estonia, to our 2-week Nordic capitals tour in July ’07 simply because it was easy to get to and because there was a chapter on the city in our “Rick Steves’ Scandinavia” guidebook.

The city ended up exceeding our expectations and now holds a lofty place near the top of our list of favorite travel destinations. The Baltic capital revealed an engaging medieval Old Town surrounded by a bustling modern city.

The Old Town has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list since 1997, and we spent nearly all of...