by Jennifer Petoff, San Francisco, CA

My husband, Scott, and I visited Buenos Aires in April ’08. It was our first trip to South America and we wanted to make it memorable.

For a number of reasons, we decided to rent an apartment for our 10-day trip rather than stay at a hotel. We expected it would give us a more authentic and local experience and hoped it would provide us the opportunity to be a part of one of the unique barrios that comprise Buenos Aires.

In addition...

by Julie Skurdenis, Contributing Editor. Photos by Paul Lalli

I consider myself a seasoned Indophile. With four previous trips to India spread out over a dozen years, I thought I had seen the best this vast subcontinent had to offer. On my fifth trip, in January ’08, I wanted to revisit a few old favorites, like the Taj Mahal, plus add something totally new.

My husband, Paul, and I chose Gujarat, a state in the northwest of India that juts out into the Arabian Sea. It turned...

by Marisue Pickering, Orono, ME. Photos by John W. Pickering

In late April/early May ’08, my husband, John, and I were the guests of a Chinese couple who had lived with us for a year in the early 1990s, when they were in the United States as students. Now well established in the man’s home city of Shanghai, our friends provided us with round-trip air tickets and organized a visit that included time in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Our friends

Our friends,...