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September 2011 issue | Appears on page 11

Jaipur’s kite festival

Boys and men take to the rooftops to fly their kites — Jaipur.

Merchants sell brightly colored patangs (kites) and spools of metallic string in Jaipur bazaars for two weeks in advance of Makar Sankranti, the annual kite festival, held every year here in India on Jan. 14. That’s the day, according to Indian astrology, that the sun transits into the Northern Hemisphere. I was lucky enough to see and photograph the celebrations in 2011.

Those familiar with “The Kite Runner,” the best-selling novel by Afghan writer Khalid Hosseini...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 12

About Day of the Dead in Mexico

I am submitting some advice about visiting Mexico around the Day of the Dead. Celebrated throughout the country on Nov. 1 (All Saints’ Day), the holiday is held to honor and remember deceased friends and family. It starts the evening of Oct. 31, goes through the night and sometimes lasts until Nov. 2.

Typically, there are large processions plus offerings of food and flowers at graves.

We received some very good advice from Cynthia, a Canadian and one of two owners of the...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 12

Visiting Kurdistan

The most memorable aspects of my journey with my husband through Kurdistan in the first two weeks of May ’11 are the speed-bump-filled roads and the incredible number of security stops. However, despite the annoyance of the constant braking and fishing for passports to show security guards before and after every city, town, village, hamlet and lemonade stand, it was well worth the effort in order to enjoy the wonderful scenery and culture presented by this rarely visited area of...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 14

Fascinating Saxony

My husband, Bernie, and I visited eastern Germany, Sept. 16-26, 2010, to attend his class get-together. After the reunion, we went to Dresden.

We had been to Dresden in 1991, two years after the Berlin Wall fell. At that time, the famous Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) as well as the Zwinger Palace were simply piles of rubble. Now they are completely restored, using some of the original pieces of stone. We could see the difference between the new and old stones.

The...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 24

Visa glitch; Africa 2000 saves the day

By far, the company most recommended by those who responded to our “Person to Person” request for a good, reliable guide in Cape Town, South Africa, was Africa 2000 Tours (Knysna, South Africa; phone +27 44 3841262), owned and operated by Gill and Graham Maskell. What a find!

My husband, Gerald, and I had them make private arrangements for us for Nov. 16-20, 2010. The cost of $7,222 for the two of us included airfare, Johannesburg-Nelspruit-Cape Town; a three-night safari...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 26

Sans visa, no entry to Syria

From the Editor — Suzanne M. Stein of Chesterfield, Missouri, was partway through an Adventures Abroad tour of Iran, Syria and Jordan, Sept. 30-Oct. 31, 2010, when a paperwork problem forced her to leave the group. What travelers can do so the same thing never happens on any tour they’re taking is part of what I’ll cover here.

Ms. Stein wrote to ITN, “The morning of the group’s flight from Tehran, Iran, to Damascus, Syria, several of us with no Syrian...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 30

Access America paid off

When I went online and booked my air travel with Continental Airlines for a February ’11 trip to Belize and Guatemala, I impulsively added on the Access America trip insurance offered with my ticket, since the insurance cost only $25.

I then remembered that I also had trip insurance by virtue of having paid for both the trip and the plane ticket with my Continental OnePass Plus MasterCard (issued by the airline but administered through Chase Bank).

My Feb. 4 flight from...

September 2011 issue | Appears on page 32

New Zealand Travellers

New Zealand’s South Island has it all: alps, glaciers, rainforests, sandy beaches and swinging bridges, just to mention a few. And an excellent way to see it all is with Jan King’s New Zealand Travellers (169 Cable Bay Road, RD1, Nelson 7071, N.Z.; phone [64] 3 545 2546), an advertiser in ITN.

I had done this itinerary in ’97 with the previous owner of New Zealand Travellers and was so taken by the experience that I decided to do it one more time while this 72-year-...