Travelers' Intercom

Helen Harper’s letter “National Trust Sites, England” (Nov. ’15, pg. 27), about tours by the Royal Oak Foundation, motivated me to write with more info. Many travelers, even if they’re Anglophiles, might not know about England’s National Trust (P.O. Box 574, Manvers, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, S63 3FH, U.K.; phone +44 0344 800 1895, www.nationaltrust.org.uk). 

The National Trust is sort of a combination Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, preservation-and-historical society, public/private-donor-supported, not-for-profit marvel of an organization. It operates many historical...

My niece and nephews, ages 27 to 30, accompanied me on a trip to Tanzania, Aug. 1-12, 2016, with Overseas Adventure Travel, or OAT (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com). I had been on safaris twice before, but they had never gone.

I was expecting the animals would be spectacular, and they were. I had never seen so many lions and leopards and their kills as well as zebras, gnus, gazelles, elephants and, my favorite, warthogs. I kept track of all the birds, and we identified 57 different ones. The guides were amazing and had fabulous tracking skills. But, as awesome as our...

My husband, John, and I generally are independent travelers, renting a car at our destination, but we felt a bit intimidated by the Cyrillic we knew we’d encounter on signs in Bulgaria. I had read outstanding reviews of the private guide Patrick Peneff (www.guide-bg.com) over the past few years in ITN, so we decided to make our April 1-15, 2015, trip to Bulgaria a guided tour with Patrick.

Patrick answered all of my emails promptly, and we booked the trip on Dec. 6, 2014. Including a 10% discount for early booking, a total of €2,975 (about $3,200 at the time) covered...