During my trip to Zagreb in July ’09, I visited the Atelier Meštrović (Mletaçka 8, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; phone 385 1 428 586, www.mdc.hr/mestrovic/atelijer/opci-en.htm). Ivan Meštrović’s studio and 17th-century house are the setting for a vast array of his sculptures and models.

Examples of Croatia’s most famous sculptor’s renderings of famous people, religious icons and just plain folks are exhibited inside as well as outside in the garden. This is a fascinating museum where you can...

For those not in the US military, it has been virtually impossible to visit Wake Island, “the Alamo of the Pacific.” After several failed attempts, I had almost given up.

Finally, permission was granted to Valor Tours along with Military Historical Tours to take a group of 141 to that most difficult destination. The “Return to Wake” tour, Dec. 8-12, 2009, cost $3,500, including round-trip airfare from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Wake.

Our tour group represented over a dozen nations...

For independent travel in India, I highly recommend Swagatam Tours Pvt. Ltd. (www.swagatam.com), which is based in New Delhi and has offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

I had signed up for two package tours for February-March 2010, one in southern India with Adventures Abroad and the other in Raja­sthan and Gujarat with Explore. To fill in the gap between them, a fellow ITN reader suggested I contact Swagatam to arrange visits to Varanasi and Khajuraho.

Several months...