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Part of my large single room at Parkhotel Laurin on a rainy morning in Bolzano. Photo by Marilyn Hill

Throughout all of my travels, my overall favorite hotel is still the Parkhotel Laurin (Via Laurin, 4, 39100 Bolzano, Italy; phone +39 0471 311 000, www.laurin.it/en). My stay there in May 2016 was my sixth, and I paid $115 per night for seven nights, including breakfast and tax.

You can see the Dolomites from the Laurin, and I first discovered the hotel on a group tour that included Bolzano to see the 5,000-year-old “Ötzi the Iceman” at the South Tyrol Museum of...

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In order to attend the wedding of my brother’s son, Andy, I traveled to Marrakech, Morocco, with my sister, Nancy (another ITN subscriber), and her husband, Bob Gatland, along with their son, Kevin, and his wife, Julie, during the last week of October 2016.We spent three nights at the pleasant Palais Sebban (43 Derb My Abdellah Ben Hssein, Rue el Ksour, Marrakech 40000; phone +212 5244 40226, www.riad-palais-sebban.com).This is a small but traditional hotel with intricately designed...

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Four friends and I traveled together on a fabulous 7-day canal barge cruise in Burgundy, France, Sept. 17-23, 2016. Aboard the Magnolia, which had room for six guests and a crew of four, we cruised the Canal du Bourgogne from Dijon to Escommes.The company we traveled with was CanalBargeCruises.com (Redmond, OR; 888/264-3983, www.canalbargecruises.com). With a discount for early booking, the price for all five of us was $15,900, which included cabins with en suite baths, half board (...

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I felt I had to let other travelers know how wonderful my third trip to Tunisia was. I traveled there with a group of four, Nov. 11-20, 2016, on a tour arranged by Gil Travel (Philadelphia, PA; 800/223-3855, giltravel.com). One traveler and I each had single accommodations but paid no single-supplement charge. I paid $2,795. Most meals and water were included. Round-trip airfare on Delta Air Lines from New York’s JFK to Tunis was $1,020.(I learned about Gil Travel from Jerry...

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I took a one-week tour of Cornwall with Dacey’s Cornish Tours (St. Paul, MN; 651/484-4689, www.daceyscornishtours.com) in June 2016 and highly recommend it. The price was about $1,300, which included full English breakfasts at the hotels.The company owner, David, and his two helpers, Harry and Jimmy, are very knowledgeable about this area, and nothing was too much trouble for them in fulfilling a guest’s request.The tour began and ended at the Lancaster Gate Hotel in London, near...

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Harvey and Linda Segal in a tulip field near Noordwijk, Holland.

I turned 70 in 2015, and my wife, Linda, and I decided to celebrate my birthday that April while on a bike trip in the tulip bulb region of the Netherlands, when the fields were in full bloom and the Keukenhof gardens were open.We’ve taken a variety of hiking and biking trips in Europe, from self-guided tours, staying in 2-star hotels, to guided tours, with lodging in 4-star châteaux and our meals in Michelin-starred restaurants. For Holland, I investigated about a dozen bike...

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Night view of Ljubljana, Slovenia, from the castle. Photo by Nili Olay

My husband, Jerry, and I mostly travel independently, hiring drivers and guides when necessary. I began planning a 3-week trip to Slovenia and Croatia for 2015, but when I priced out the trip using the services of a guide/driver, it was more than I cared to pay, so I began looking at group tours. 

I had used the Rick Steves audio tours in Athens and Rome with great success, and his “Best of the Adriatic in 14 Days Tour” had many departures in September and went to my...

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While in Montréal, Québec, Canada, in August 2016, my husband, Frank, and I stayed three nights at Le Square Phillips Hôtel & Suites (1193 Place Phillips, Montréal; 866/393-1193, www.squarephillips.com). It’s located within walking distance of the Old City, the old port, downtown and major museums. Our king studio had a full kitchenette and a dining area for four. High ceilings and tall windows made it feel even more spacious. The rate of CAN236 (...

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