International Travel News

The Discerning Traveler

April 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

You simply must visit South Africa

By Philip Wagenaar

by Philip Wagenaar, third of three parts

Last month I talked about my travel on the Blue Train and hopefully intrigued you with the idea of visiting Cape Town. This month I will discuss additional areas you may want to explore.

Wine country

To get away from the bustle of Cape Town, visit the picturesque wineries nestled in the magnificent rolling hills around Stellenbosch, the second-oldest town in South Africa, and the village of Franschhoek. Each community features...

March 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

You simply must visit South Africa

By Philip Wagenaar

by Philip Wagenaar, second of three parts

Last month I discussed my travels in Johannesburg. This month I will continue my travelogue of South Africa.

The Blue Train

If you want to splurge, take the 25-hour journey on the Blue Train from Pretoria, a little north of Johannesburg, to Cape Town. (If you desire, you can continue on the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth.) This luxurious but expensive train ride, which was started in 1997, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience....

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

You simply must visit South Africa

By Philip Wagenaar

by Philip Wagenaar, first of three parts

“You now have to set your watch one hundred years back,” the captain announced as the plane descended toward the Johannesburg airport.

Just a few weeks earlier a screaming headline in the newspaper The Cape Times had proclaimed, “Never would a colored heart beat in a white neighborhood.” A Jew had just received a colored man’s heart in the second transplant performed by Prof. Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town....

January 2004 issue | Appears on page

Pay the IRS on your schedule with EFTPS

by Philip Wagenaar, Contributing Editor

I heaved a sigh of relief. I had just filed our income tax return. It was March 2, 2003. Now I could fully enjoy our cruise, which left on March 10. I only had to make sure that the IRS would receive my payment by the April 15 deadline.

I figured I had two options. I could either send the tax due before we departed on our cruise and lose more than a month’s interest or I could ask our daughter to mail the check on April 14. However...

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Phillip Wagenaar's column, “The Discerning Traveler,” appeared regularly in ITN from 1995 until January 2018. Philip died in December 2018.

Both Philip and his wife, Flory (who died in 2012), were MDs, and they traveled independently, often for weeks or months at a time. In his column, Philip wrote on specific destinations and also comprehensively covered topics such as obtaining visas, exchanging currency and telephoning overseas.