Travelers' Intercom

My wife, Paula, and another couple and I visited the Republic of Ireland, June 14-25, 2012. I have a few tips on topics that did not receive sufficient coverage in the guidebooks and Internet resources which we consulted pre-trip.

If you’ll be driving, update your GPS maps before you go. Several new motorways were not on our 5-year-old GPS map. We ended up using my smartphone’s map and navigation apps to supplement our GPS device. That worked well except in very rural areas with no cell phone service. I finessed that problem by caching maps for our next day’s planned route each...

My wife, Bune, and I took the 18-day “Ancient Persia – Modern Iran” trip from MIR Corporation (Seattle, WA; 800/424-7289), April 3-20, 2012. The land price was $5,895 per person, and internal airfare was $150. All meals were included as well as first-class accommodations (or best-available).

When I initially thought about going to Iran, I had several concerns based on misconceptions about the country. I wondered what the people would be like toward us. Bune was worried that demonstrators against America would pose a danger. What if we were kidnapped?

I called several tour...

I visited Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina, in late October ’11. I came by bus from Mostar and left by train for Pécs in Hungary. I fell in love with Sarajevo and hope to go back sometime.

I would highly recommend taking a tour (check with the tourist office or your hotel) that includes the tunnel under the airport runway; it was Sarajevo’s lifeline during the siege (1992-1996). The half-day tour that I took included some of the surrounding hilltops that illustrate how vulnerable the city was.

I ran into the tour by chance, just as it was beginning, and joined...