My wife, Vera, and I stayed at the Etap Hotel Valence centre (65 Av. du Tricastin, 26000 Valence, France; phone +33 892680673), Oct. 7, 2010.

It is located beside the highway (A7 l’Autoroute du Soleil) as it follows the Rhône south. Through windows with blackout curtains to block the light, you can see the river traffic as well as the highway, but you can’t hear anything due to airport-hotel-style, soundproofed double windows.

Cheap at €48 (near $66) for two, it was clean, with...

After my two teenage sons and I took the wonderful “Rhine Getaway” cruise from Viking River Cruises in June ’10, we took the train in Switzerland from Basel to Lucerne for a two-night stay.

We stayed at Hotel des Alpes Luzern (Furrengasse 3, CH-6004 Luzern; phone +41 [0] 41 417 20 60), just over the bridge from the train station. It’s in the Old Town and we walked everywhere.

It cost CHF600 (near $627) for a triple for two nights, including breakfast. (Single rooms from CHF130...

Syria isn’t often visited by Americans. My wife, Arlene, and I first traveled there in 1999 and were so impressed with the country’s historical, archaeological and biblical treasures that we decided on a repeat visit in February 2010.

We traveled with Voyages Jules Verne (21 Dorset Sq., London, NW1 6QE, U.K.; phone +44 20 7616 1000). The cost of our eight-night group tour, “From the Apostles to the Crusades,” was $3,281 each, which included air from London to Damascus. We upgraded...