Columns

July 2010 issue

Boarding Pass
By David Tykol

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 413th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

Wondering if continuing ash clouds from the volcano in Iceland will affect a flight of yours in Europe? Charts predicting the locations of ash clouds up to five days in advance can be found on the website of the UK’s National Weather Service, Met Office. On the maps of Europe shown, the projected ash cloud overlays are updated every six hours.

In fact, ash clouds from volcanoes around the world have been tracked since the mid-1990s. The International Civil Aviation Organization has...

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May 2004 issue

4WD hot springs day trip from Santiago

by Randy Keck

On my return from the Antarctic, I had the opportunity to stop over in Santiago, Chile, for a few days with friends Scott Jones and Anne Keller, whose large apartment tends to be a haven for a constant stream of globetrotting international visitors.

We decided on a free day to venture southeast of Santiago up the renowned Canyon del Maipo into the Andes in search of two hot springs: Baños Morales and Baños Colina.

The climb on our last leg to Baños Colina would prove to be a fun test for Scott’s newly acquired 1981 four-wheel-drive Mercedes G Wagon, a...

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March 2004 issue

Boarding Pass
By David Tykol

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 28th anniversary issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine!

ITN subscriber Toby Carlson of State College, PA, hit a snag in his plans to join his daughter for a Sierra Club hike in the Italian Alps.

“All was going well,” he said, “until I reached the airline’s check-in gate at Gatwick Airport near London in preparation for my flight to Milan. The clerk scrutinized my passport, gave me a hard-eyed look and handed it back saying that the photo page was ripped. I would not be allowed on the flight.

“True enough, my passport...

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March 2004 issue

You simply must visit South Africa
By Philip Wagenaar

by Philip Wagenaar, second of three parts

Last month I discussed my travels in Johannesburg. This month I will continue my travelogue of South Africa.

The Blue Train

If you want to splurge, take the 25-hour journey on the Blue Train from Pretoria, a little north of Johannesburg, to Cape Town. (If you desire, you can continue on the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth.) This luxurious but expensive train ride, which was started in 1997, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Before we even had a glimpse of the blue-colored train, the check-in at the elegantly...

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January 2005 issue

Mosquitoes, too, like Latin America

In February a few years ago, a group of middle-aged novice travelers ventured to Costa Rica to tour Braulio Carrillo National Park, which rises and falls between cool, high mountains and low, torrid jungles, all of it washed by swift, curving rivers and waterfalls.

Unbeknown to them, this lovely, pristine region was a mosquito-infested area fraught with health perils. Eight of the group’s members contracted traveler’s diarrhea, four came down with typhoid fever and two were infected with malaria.

Because tropical environments are havens for the cultivation of exotic diseases...

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February 2004 issue

Kilroy Was Here » Seven ocean roll

by Kevin Keating

After boarding Oceania Cruises’ M/S Regatta in Barcelona, my friend Joe Lynch came to anchorage in a ship’s bar called Martinis. Lloyd Mthenby, a barman from South Africa, was juggling the ice and the olives, “And,” Joe told me, “this young man from Johannesburg is the best bartender I’ve ever met at sea.”

Now, that’s high praise coming from Joe, because he travels more than most people. And he’s a good judge of barkeeps over the waves and on the shore.

As a matter of fact, Joe had plenty of good things to say about all the ship’s crew.

“...

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June 2010 issue

Havana to Cienfuegos
By Randy Keck
Sightseeing in style in Old Havana. Photos: Keck

by Randy Keck (Second of three parts on Cuba. Part one, in the May 2010 issue, thoroughly explored the legal considerations for Americans considering traveling to Cuba.)

Havana — lost in time

The most accurate way to describe Havana and Cuba in general is with two words: time warp. This haunting reality was ever present during my 12-day January ’10 Cuba tour, which was hosted by Toronto-based ElderTreks (800/741-7956, www.eldertreks.com), an ITN advertiser. Their website offers a full description of the itinerary our group of 16 experienced, “Cuba: the...

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July 2010 issue

El Charco del Ingenio, San Miguel de Allende
By Yvonne Horn

by Yvonne Michie Horn

San Miguel de Allende was just another sleepy, colonial backwater in Mexico until the 1950s, when it was discovered by creative and artistic souls. Slowly and then more quickly it became an expatriate darling until it stretched far beyond its quaint, cobbled streets and lovely old buildings.

Gated communities — largely American and Canadian inhabited — had gradually taken over six of the seven canyons surrounding the town’s historic center. In 1989, the canyon known as El Charco del Ingenio was the only one left.

No matter that the canyon had...

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