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...

by Julie Skurdenis, part one of two

By all accounts, Genghis Khan was not a nice guy. Nice guys finish last, and Genghis Khan was determined not to be at the back of the pack. In the late 1100s and early 1200s, this Mongol warrior carved out a vast empire that stretched from Beijing to the Caucasus Mountains in Western Asia. His capital was in Karakorum in central Mongolia, 240 miles southwest of Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia’s present capital.

With my husband, I traveled halfway ’...

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 342nd issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

A year and a half ago, ITN Contributing Editor Jim Patterson, who wrote the “Focal Point” column, went on hiatus following abdominal surgery. Recently, he informed us he was fit to travel again and we were looking forward to new material from his latest trip.

Sadly, we received this news from his wife, Betty: “Jim died of a heart attack photographing the beautiful flowers in Monet’s...