My wife, Jacquey, and I traveled to France for our first river cruise with Viking River Cruises. On our 8-day cruise, “Portraits of Southern France,” the Hermod was scheduled to sail May 3-10, 2015. We had also signed up for Viking’s 3-day Paris package that preceded the cruise.

When we checked in to our hotel in Paris, we were told that instead of being transferred to Chalon-sur-Saône, the original point of embarkation for our cruise, we would be bused to Lyon to embark the Hermod on...

In all my years of travel, few tour group companies have lived up to their motto more than Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com), with its promise of opportunities for learning and discovery.

The “Crossroads of the Adriatic” trip that my wife, Fyllis, and I took to Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Bosnia, Oct. 27-Nov. 11, 2014 (priced from $2,995, land only, or $4,195 with round-trip air, New York/Dubrovnik), lived up to that goal and then some....

A few years ago, the Royal Oak Foundation, the American partner of the British National Trust, began offering tours of the UK through Just Go Holidays, now known as Albion Journeys (Festival House, Jessop Ave., Cheltenham, Glos., GL50 3SH, U.K.; in the US, 866/834-8358, www.albionjourneys.com/royaloak). 

Having taken two of these tours, my friend and housemate, Mary Campbell, and I highly recommend them as pleasant ways to see properties otherwise inaccessible to those of us who...