In October 2013, in Westways Magazine (an AAA publication), I read a brief article by travel writers John and Sally MacDonald that chronicled their travels with their seven grandchildren after they had granted each of them a Dream Trip.

I began to think about my own travels. I had traveled to 50-plus countries, and my wanderlust had started when I was very young. At 19, I hitchhiked halfway around the world. After getting married, I convinced my wife, Vera, that we should sell our...

My wife, Marilyn, and I took a customized 3-week trip to India arranged by Swagatam Tours (New Delhi, India; www.swagatam.com) in February 2019. A tour guide was provided in each of the various cities, and two were outstanding enough for us to recommend.

Both were friendly, thorough, well informed and entertaining and spoke English that was easy to understand. They both provided suggestions on the best angles and locations for taking pictures and took good pictures of us at the...

At the end of each of our annual Japan sakura (cherry blossom) visits, my husband, Clyde, and I look for more gardens with flowering plants as we return to the Ueno district in Tokyo’s Taitō ward.

In past years we visited the Fuji Matsuri, or Wisteria Festival, at the Kameido Tenjin Shrine in Tokyo’s Kōtō ward. It’s held during the last few days of April. We were last there in 2017, when I decided that I really don’t like the scent of wisteria and that the 2017...