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My husband, Bucky, and I flew Icelandair from the US to London through Reykjavik in September ’04. Due to unfortunate events, we were stuck in Reykjavik for a day, and Icelandair offered us a free bus ride to the Blue Lagoon, where I found out that I could have a floating massage in the outdoor thermal mineral pool. 

I lay on a buoyant mat with a pillow roll and a heavy but thin blanket on top. The water was warm, but the air was cool, and the therapist kept gently pushing me down so...

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Tell us about the funniest thing that happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Include your full mailing address. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged. 

This month's winner is JAMES STEFAN of Sarasota, FL:

 

Several years ago, I was visiting Mostar in Bosnia &...

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Lahemaa national park

Lahemaa, meaning “Land of Bays,” is the crown jewel of Estonia’s national parks. After a July ’08 visit, my wife, Kathy, and I wish to return to this wonderland of stony, unspoiled coastline and inland forests teeming with wildlife. The largest national park in Estonia, it covers 280 square miles and features sleepy villages, restored manor houses, 14 lakes, eight rivers and four waterfalls.

HARVEY HAGMAN

Fort Myers, FL

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Of these three AutoBank ATMs on the left, we used the second and third machines.

On a small-group tour of Southern Africa in May ’13 that we booked with Africa 2000 Tours (Knysna, South Africa), a wonderful company and a frequent advertiser in ITN, I learned a few lessons about precautions to take while traveling.

• When I retrieved my checked bag at the Cape Town airport, one of the two main zipper pulls (plastic) was broken. I could not use my TSA lock to secure the two pulls together to lock my suitcase. Gill, our resourceful trip leader, provided me...

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During a brief visit to México, D.F. (Mexico City), Mexico, on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, my wife and I decided to try a hop-on/hop-off bus tour to see areas outside of the downtown’s historic center.

Several bus tours are operated by Turibus (México, D.F.; phone 514 11360 or 01800 280 8887). For 140 pesos (near $11) each, we took their tour “Circuito Chapultepec — Centro Histórico,” which over about 3½ hours makes two dozen stops. At the stops, recorded...

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My husband, Ed, and I were in Brussels, Belgium, one May ’12 afternoon.

Walking through Place de l’Agora, we found the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, a glass-roofed arcade built in 1847 in the Italian Renaissance style. It is considered to be the oldest indoor shopping mall in Europe and certainly set the tone for all other similar arcades. This building is probably 300 feet in length, and its glass ceiling gives a solarium feel to the place.

About midway in the...

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My wife, Betty, and I paid $6,800 to 2AFRIKA, Inc., for the 13-day tour “Affordable Kenya & Tanzania.” We booked our own airfare.

The tour originally was scheduled for May 2012, but a few weeks before the trip was to begin, 2AFRIKA owner Kenneth Hieber informed us via e-mail about a warning issued by the US Embassy in Nairobi regarding possible terrorist attacks. Other tour members were planning to cancel or had canceled, and our trip was rescheduled for Nov. 5-17, 2012.

...

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I was very pleased with the trip “NEPAL and the Mystical Himalayas” that I took with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925), my 11th trip with OAT. In addition to the 15-day tour, itself ($3,895), I took the 8-day pre-trip to BHUTAN ($2,395) and the 8-day post-trip to TIBET, China ($2,595). I had single accommodations throughout, with no single supplement charged.

I let OAT book my flights. Going from Richmond, Virginia, to Newark, New Jersey, and then on...

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