(part 3 of 4 on Vietnam and Cambodia)

My sojourn in southern Vietnam began on arrival in Saigon on an afternoon flight from Da Nang. During my time in Saigon I never once heard it referred to as Ho Chi Minh City by a local.

Greeted by my new guide, Hoa, who speaks four languages fluently, I transferred to and quickly settled into the Renaissance Riverside Hotel, a 5-star highrise overlooking and providing expansive 180-degree views of the Saigon River.

During my two-plus...

Attending the ITMI (International Tour Management Institute) annual symposium in January 2007 provided the opportunity to get updates on two emerging group-tour-industry trends. One of these is the dramatic increase in student travel programs, a subject I will address in a future column. Another is the growth of family travel, also now known as and titled in the industry as intergenerational or multigenerational travel. The number of major tour operators now providing group programs for this...

I had the opportunity to travel to Mendoza, the attractive city of 100,000-plus in the heart of northern Argentina’s booming viticulture region, in April ’06. While the city is a thriving regional commercial center, it is the huge wine industry — featuring literally scores of wineries (bodegas) in Mendoza and the surrounding districts — that primarily provides both its national identity and its popularity with foreign visitors. Mendoza has an annual 3-day wine...