Travelers' Intercom

In the letter “Car and Driver in Morocco” (July ’07, pg. 34), the writer mentioned that his driver was not a licensed guide and could not be seen behaving as one. That brought to mind a trip my husband, Steven, and I made to Morocco in April 2001.

We were staying at a hotel a few blocks from the medina and, throwing caution to the wind, we decided we could maneuver the medina without a guide. We did, however, remember that all the travel books said not to pick up a guide who is not licensed.

We were barely inside the gates when a very drunken Moroccan man wanted to be our...

For some years I have watched travelers in restaurants in central and southern France, northern Italy and the islands of Corsica, Sicily and Sardinia both struggling with menus in a mysterious foreign language and failing to use any of a series of little paperbacks on eating and drinking in the country they are visiting. When I ask them if they have ever come across restaurant guides, the answer is consistently negative.

The little books I have listed below not only will take the mystery out of ordering a meal but may be used to break the ice with the wait staff. I have consistently...

In Budapest, Hungary, the Terror Háza, or House of Terror Museum (Andrássy út 60, Budapest 1062, Hungary; phone + 36 [1] 374 2600 or visit www.terrorhaza.hu), deals with the years of fascist and communist oppression, from WWII to the fall of communism in 1989.

The building was previously known as “The House of Loyalty.” It is where the so-called “enemies of the state” were rounded up and systematically interrogated, tortured and executed. When the Red Army fought its way into Budapest in 1945, the Hungarian communists took over the building and made it the headquarters of the...