My husband, Kurt, and I took our third trip to Syria, March 19-23, 2007. It has certainly become one of our favorite places. The friendships we have developed over the years have been wonderful, and we’d love to extend these friendships to those of you interested in visiting such a beautiful place.

This trip was two weeks in Damascus with the exception of five days exploring Palmyra, Aleppo, Hama, Crac des Chevaliers and the Saladin Castle. We arranged it ourselves but on a...

My wife, Marie, and I took a 2-week Morocco holiday, Sept. 30-Oct. 12, 2007, and were introduced to an outstanding guide. I would like to share his name and our experience.

After meeting our inbound flight from Paris at the Casablanca airport, Said Baadoud (phone +212 76 3020 41 or e-mail saidbaadoud2001@yahoo.fr) escorted us for a week through Casablanca, Rabat, Volubilis, Meknes, Fes and Marrakech.

After a few days in Marrakech, Said then guided us on a 3-day trek through the...

If you are traveling to China on your own and planning to spend a few days in Beijing and/or Chengde, you may like to consider employing the services of Mr. Sun Qingjun, or Harry (harrysun@ heinfo.net), an excellent bilingual guide from Chengde now residing in Beijing.

I met Harry in 2002; he was the leader of my first escorted tour to China. At that time, he was Assistant Director at the Chengde office of CITS (a government-sponsored tourist agency). I decided to pursue Harry’s...