by Inga Aksamit, San Rafael, CA

Many travelers to Asia find themselves with a layover in Hong Kong, a thriving metropolis of seven million people where East collides with West. Reclaimed by China in 1997 but still a melting pot of international commerce, Hong Kong is awash in gleaming highrises and blinking neon signs touting some of the biggest names in business.

If you arrive in Hong Kong after a long flight en route to another Asian destination, there are worse places to...

After seven months of planning, learning a bit of the language and becoming somewhat culturally savvy, 14 Friendship Force members, myself included, arrived in Moscow to stay for one week with Russian host families.

We landed in a brand-new world of more than 15 million people, with speeding underground trains connecting acres of public squares, metro stations as resplendent as art galleries, spectacular palaces, enormous apartment buildings and pigeon-swept monuments.

This...

by Jeanette Dewey, Abington, PA

As much as I enjoy the change of seasons that comes with living in Pennsylvania, by late February each year I yearn for some sunny skies and warmth. Last year I decided that a 10-day tour of Costa Rica would to be an easy solution — no hotel reservations to make or itinerary to plan and no language problems. (As it turned out, English was spoken everywhere we went and US currency was accepted.) All I would have to do is be where I was told to be at the...