My family and I had a wonderful 10-day trip through Spain in June ’05. We fell in love with Seville, where we had a fabulous local guide. Concepcion Delgado (phone 902-158-226 or mobile 616-501-100 or visit www.sevillawalkingtours.com) speaks excellent English and loves sharing her city with others. Anyone with only one day in Seville ought to begin the day with her tour.

She leads a daily 2-hour walking tour of the old part of the city. It starts at the statue in Plaza Nueva at 10:30...

After traveling in Laos and southern Thailand on a trip in 2001, I found myself in Bangkok on the first of December awaiting my flight home in a week. The city was decorated with yellow banners and pictures of the King for his birthday on Dec. 5th.

Thinking that there might be some special celebration, that morning I walked from my guest house to the area around the King’s residence. I wandered into a huge auditorium and found myself among 500 well-dressed Thais. Just before a program...

In his August ’05 “Discerning Traveler” column, Dr. Philip Wagenaar offered some tips for handling collision damage waivers (CDWs) when renting a car, to which I would like to add some notes. The CDW is a good way to save money, but it has to be watched.

If you decline the CDW when renting a car, you are promising to return the car in the same condition as when you received it. If it is damaged from any cause, whether it is your fault or not, you must pay to fix the damage.

In...