My husband and I wanted to visit India to experience the Golden Triangle, so three months before our Feb. 18-26, 2016, trip, we contacted Tailormade Journey (25 Grangewood, Wexham, Slough, South Bucks, England, SL3 6LP, U.K.; phone +44 1753 577 330, www.tailormadejourney.com). Our correspondence was with Gouri Wahie.

The land cost of the private trip for the two of us was £1,648 (near $2,185), with six nights in 5-star hotels, including breakfast.

We were met at the...

My month-long trip to Greece, June 6-July 6, 2015, began with a short visit to Sparta, located in the southeast of the Peloponnese peninsula. The bus ride there from Athens took less than 3½ hours and cost less than $20 (in euros).

The KTEL bus system is a really good outfit — fast, reliable and not too expensive — and it traverses the entire country. They even go to the island of Corfu! (In my hometown library, I found a list of every place the bus goes in Greece...

Albania and Macedonia are wonderful places to visit. They have marvelous ancient towns, huge fortresses, lovely churches and mosques, Roman ruins, beautiful mountains, lakes and ocean beaches. It all is very affordable, a fraction of the cost of a trip to Western Europe, and you see so few other tourists that you have a feeling of discovery.

My wife, Jeanne, and I arranged for a private tour, June 8-21, 2016, with the help of Albania Travelnet (Sami Frasheri, Str. 14, Metropol Trading...