It was on Boxing Day, the first day of our 2015 trip to London, that we finally, and inadvertently, discovered how to substantially alleviate the jet lag that had plagued our previous 30 trips to Europe.

Time in the UK is “only” five hours ahead of the time at our home in Charlotte (versus six hours for most of the Continent), but we suffered from jet lag just as much in the UK as in the rest of Europe. On our first European trip, we learned the benefits of spending the...

I was interested in running a half-marathon in Belize, my 157th, so my wife, Audrey, and I had our longtime friend and travel agent, Kathy Waldorf (Elk Grove, CA; 916/399-3104, www.katstravelfun.com), put together a travel package for us. It was an outstanding adventure and a must-go location.

We paid $3,031 for the package, which included air and lodging. Additional costs were for travel insurance ($374), ground transportation from Belize City to Placencia and back ($140), a visit to...

I reserved an apartment in Antwerp, Belgium, for July 2019 through the short-term-rentals website Vrbo.com. The apartment I booked was owned and operated by Smartflats, a Belgian “aparthotels” company.

In the photographs, the apartment appeared reasonably attractive. One photo showed an extended verandah that faced a modern office or apartment building many stories high across a narrow street.

But the reality, when I arrived there, was that that building across the...