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For five days in May 2017, my husband and I stayed at a reputable 4½-star hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The morning of the third day, I removed our passports from our room’s safe to carry with us. We were gone most of the day.When I went to return the passports to the safe, it wouldn’t open. The sign said “E-code,” which meant we were using the wrong code. I tried several times, each time waiting 15 to 20 minutes before trying again, but the safe did not...

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While reading Mark Gallo’s article “Tipping Abroad” (July ’17, pg. 53), I recalled an incident in Australia in the ’80s.

It was the first day of my first trip to Australia, and after a long flight from San Francisco to Sydney I was exhausted. That evening, rather than going out and eating a large meal, I decided to order from room service.

Shortly after I ordered, a bellhop arrived. I removed the bill from the trolley, signed it (including the tip...

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Prior to my flight to Italy on April 25, 2017, I called Delta Air Lines to request meet-and-assist services. I informed the agent that I could walk perfectly well but, since I was now 82 and traveling alone, I wanted to have help in Amsterdam on May 9 to make the 90-minute connection to my flight home to Portland.

Because I had a 3-hour layover upon arriving in Venice for my flight back to Amsterdam, I did not need assistance for that international transfer, nor did I need it for two...

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We decided that Latin America would be our 2017 travel destination, sailing on a 22-day “Amazon Exploration” cruise aboard the 684-passenger Regatta of Oceania Cruises (Miami, FL; 855/335-2723, www.oceania cruises.com).

We left Miami on Feb. 2, sailing for eight days through the Caribbean and nine days on the Amazon River, then along Brazil’s coast, ending with two days in Rio de Janeiro.

We would like to share information about a surcharge, or tax, that...

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Roman Theatre of Verulamium in St. Albans, England. Photo by Diane Harrison

My parents and I travel frequently to London and enjoy day trips on the train. On our May 2017 trip, we visited St. Albans, a small city on the outskirts of London. We had traveled previously to St. Albans and remembered the town’s interesting Roman history and beautiful cathedral. 

We decided to visit on a Wednesday, as there is a weekly street market on St. Peter’s Street on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. The market includes vendors selling just...

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A painting at Azuwa Maryam — Bahir Dar.

For 37 years, I had wanted to visit Ethiopia. Finally, early in 2017, I contacted Awaze Tours (Haile Gebrselassie Rd., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; phone +251 11 663 4439, www.awazetours.com), a company I learned about from the Bradt travel guide “Ethiopia,” by Philip Briggs, and from recommendations on Trip Advisor.com.

Habte Fentaw, Awaze Tours’ founder and manager, was informative, helpful and supportive in his rapid responses to my queries. He arranged a private 7-day...

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Edna R.S. Alvarez (center), flanked by the chef de cuisine and the guest house owner, receiving a cake for her 78th birthday —  Sel d’Ailleurs.

On a week-long bird-watching trip to the High Atlas mountains in Morocco in March 2017, the tour group I was with stayed at a wonderful boutique guest house, Sel d’Ailleurs (KM 59 Imarigha, Road of Taroudant, 42152 Asni, Morocco; phone +212 6 66 57 14 77, www.seldailleurs.com/en).

About one hour south of Marrakech, Sel d’Ailleurs is situated down a dirt road from the tiny Berber village of Marigha. Surrounded by a nature reserve as well as village homes and farms, it...

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I spent 12 days in beautiful Papua New Guinea (PNG), which is the eastern half of an island shared with Indonesia. 

I had wanted to visit PNG for many years and knew about the adventure trips led by Greg Stathakis of PNG Travel (Santa Barbara, CA; 800/676-1241, www.pngtravel.com) from articles I’d read in ITN and at TripAdvisor.com. Greg has escorted small groups to PNG for 38 years and has advertised in ITN for many of those years.

For the trip I took with Greg, May...

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