Travelers' Intercom

On a trip to Croatia in June ’04, we found three restaurants which were excellent.

In Krk Town on the island of Krk, we recommend Konoba NONO (Krckih iseljenika 8, Krk, Croatia; phone +3 85 [0] 5 1222 221). It’s just outside the Old City and across a small inlet.

The great-grandson of the founder was spinning noodles on a thin stick for their fabulous goulash in front of a wood-fired, open oven. The very filling goulash with beer cost a bit under $17 for the two of us. When we didn’t have quite enough kuna to pay for the meal, they suggested we walk back to the Old Town, find...

In Europe, my husband, Jim, and I use our US-issued credit union debit card to make withdrawals from ATMs. We seldom use charge cards and mostly operate with the local currency.

When the ATM is outside a bank, everything works perfectly, but when banks have the machines inside a vestibule between the sidewalk and the bank lobby — and the outside door is locked — the only way you can enter to access the ATM is if you have a chip-and-PIN card.

Our debit card, with a PIN but no chip, does not work on the vestibule door locks!

The last time this happened, in Greece in 2008...

I found Istanbul as interesting as ever on my eighth trip to my favorite city. Istanbul is all about the people in the streets, both past and present. If you are not too timid, you should stay where the Turkish people are — bustling about the streets in the Sirkeci district (pronounced Sirkajee). From there you can walk anywhere you would want to visit.

If you go off-season (October through April) you will have a choice of hotels with no need to make reservations. May and November are excellent times to go because there are few tourists and the weather will be great. It is still...