If your trip is going to cover three weeks or more, here is an option which guarantees no film damage by x-ray machines at airports.

Take an inexpensive, empty 35mm camera. Wait until you arrive and then purchase a couple of 24-print rolls. Have your film processed as you use it at one of the plentiful one-hour Kodak kiosks. Keep one roll ahead as you go.

No pleading with rigid airport inspectors who lie to you about the possible film damage their x-ray machines will cause. No...

I would like to identify my traveling credentials before giving you my thoughts on the controversial subject of tipping.

I have traveled to 161 of the nations on ITN’s “Official List” and 248 of those on the Travelers’ Century Club list. I have set foot on 197 islands (not boasting, just identifying). I was a traveling salesman in Northern California for 15 years, attending dozens and dozens of conventions, so I have stayed in hundreds of hotels and motels and eaten in jillions of...

The article on Easter Island in the March ’04 issue was excellent. We enjoyed our visit there a few years ago.

The sentence that caught my eye was the one in which the author said the people there are honest. We felt that way too, when we stayed at Hotel Otai, until we were robbed. The screen on our window was slit, and money, travelers’ checks, flashlights, boots and other personal items were stolen.

The hotel did have a safe, but who would expect to have their boots and other...