Around May 2016, when I was searching on Kayak.com for flights to Guadalajara, Mexico, the Mexican airline Volaris (www.volaris.com) always showed up as having the cheapest fares. When I looked at its Yelp.com rating, it was a dismal 1.5 stars. Despite all the negative reviews, I had a budget to meet (under $1,000 for a 10-day trip), so I booked tickets. The outgoing flight was delayed by more than three hours. I was forgiving because, at least, we were given a sandwich, a drink and a...

If your travels ever take you to Romania and/or Bulgaria, I’d like to recommend a tour company there whose owners developed a wonderful 3½-week journey for my companion and me, Oct. 13-Nov. 3, 2016.

After an extensive Internet search, I found Balkan Trails (29 Mihail Sebastian St., Bldg. S7, Ent. A, Apt. 37, Sector 5, Bucharest 050784, Romania; phone +40 723 578 452, www.balkantrails.com), run by Vlad Trestian, a Romanian, and his wife, Zoe, a Bulgarian. Both Vlad and Zoe...

For the visit to our 105th destination (as defined by the Travelers’ Century Club’s list of countries and territories at www.travelerscenturyclub.org), we were seeking a cheap foreign trip that required less than an 8-hour plane ride. Coincidentally, Travelzoo.com was promoting an air-inclusive deal from Azores Getaways (Estrada de São Gonçalos, 235, 9500-343 Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal; phone, in the US, 617/934-8474, azores getaways.com/en).

The deal was very...