http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/travel/columns/messagecenter?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterMessage Centeren-us1514020http://www.washingtonpost.comhttp://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gifhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9488-2005Apr22.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9488-2005Apr22.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTI LOVED the guide to dining in New York ["10 From Tom," April 17], but I'd like to see other cities get the same treatment. Specifically, Chicago. I would love some suggestions for a romantic but moderately priced restaurant and a family-friendly (really infant-friendly) place for an early dinner.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37389-2005Apr8.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37389-2005Apr8.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTJOHN AUCHARD'S article on Ethiopia ["Into Ethiopian Air," April 3] was refreshing, terrific and informative. It far surpasses any travel article I have read. Thank you for good Sunday-morning reading.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1020-2005Mar25.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1020-2005Mar25.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTYOUR ARTICLES about travel to European cities that do not accept the euro were intestesting ["Non-Euro Europe," March 20]. However, you should be aware that individual chain hotel properties in foreign countries may not honor rate guarantees provided in U.S. dollars by the chain's central booking agents in the United States.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27143-2005Mar11.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27143-2005Mar11.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTTHANK YOU, thank you, thank you for getting the story right on Texas barbecue ["Texas Eat 'Em," March 6]. I'm a displaced Texan and I claim Austin as my adopted home town. I'm looking forward to a trip home in April and have been dreaming of the barbecue, so I was excited to see the story . . . that is, until I realized you left out the institution known as the Salt Lick.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7515-2005Mar4.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7515-2005Mar4.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTI'M HEADED back in April for my fourth visit to Greenwood Beach Resort on Cat Island in the Bahamas ["One Cool Cat," Feb. 27]. When I first found it on the Internet, I thought it was too good to be true. Nope. It is a wonderful place.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35259-2005Feb18.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35259-2005Feb18.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTI REALLY enjoyed Gayle Keck's "Second Time Around: San Francisco" [Feb. 13]. A suggestion for first-, second- or anytime visitors: San Francisco City Guides (www.sfcityguides.org). Affiliated with the San Francisco Public Library, they conduct about 70 different walking tours in neighborhoods all over the city. And they're all free. I've done a few and they're fun and informative, even for Bay Area natives like myself.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17224-2005Feb11.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17224-2005Feb11.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTJOHN DEINER captured the essence of the Queen Mary 2 ["Queen for a Year," Feb. 6]. The criticism heard on board may be due to unreasonable expectations created by all the publicity. His decision to remain on board during port calls illustrates how the huge ocean liner is not perfectly suited to conventional Caribbean itineraries. Tendering is an annoyance when yours is the only cruise ship at anchor.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63780-2005Feb4.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63780-2005Feb4.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTWHAT A nice surprise to see the article about Beach Road Chicken Dinners [Smart Mouth, Jan. 30]. I grew up in Jacksonville in the '60s and '70s, and we lived within a couple of miles of Beach Road. I was always excited whenever my parents went out on Saturday nights, because that meant I would get a carry-out dinner for myself. On Sundays, lots of folks would go to Beach Road for Sunday dinner.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44818-2005Jan28.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44818-2005Jan28.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTIT WAS refreshing to have the rugged northwest of Ireland featured ["Ireland's Warm Cold Season," Jan. 23]. Even with giveaway fares, I am reluctant to visit my dear mother in Sligo during the winter months. Two words come to mind: thermal underwear.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26702-2005Jan21.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26702-2005Jan21.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTREGARDING THE items about when not to drive I-95 and buying an E-Z Pass ["Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Security Line," Jan. 16]: Delaware, which has always been the worst bottleneck on I-95, still manages to screw it up so that you can't get to an E-Z Pass lane unless you've anticipated the need to do so some miles before reaching the toll plaza. It doesn't have the common sense to put one lane on the left, one in the middle and so forth.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56547-2005Jan7.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56547-2005Jan7.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTGARY ANTHES really captured the Bodie we visited last August ["Bodie: Is Anyone Home?," Jan. 2]. But he was too quick to dismiss Bridgeport as a base for visiting that ghost town. Besides being 10 miles closer than Lee Vining to Bodie, Bridgeport has its own "handful of modest accommodations."]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25091-2004Dec24.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25091-2004Dec24.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMT NO "Third Man" tour to Vienna is complete without a spin on the giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad) in the Prater ["Vienna, With a Twist of Lime," Dec. 12]. In the film, Harry Lime takes Holly Martins on the wheel and from the top, Orson Welles makes his famously creepy speech justifying evil and comparing humans to insects. The Prater is easily accessed from the Vienna undergound.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55408-2004Dec10.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55408-2004Dec10.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTYOUR COMMENTS about "skippering a cabin cruiser" through the canals of France and "cooking your own meals" made a self-drive canal trip seem much more difficult than it really is [Travel Q&A, Dec. 5]. We rented a small barge (penichette) from Locaboat Plaisance a few years ago. Anyone with even the smallest experience with boating can pilot one of these barges.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32050-2004Dec3.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32050-2004Dec3.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTI ENJOYED your article about the French Christkindlmarkts in Strasbourg, Colmar and Kayserberg ["Old World Holiday," Nov. 28]. Those towns are wonderful any time.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14849-2004Nov26.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14849-2004Nov26.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTMATT BRADLEY'S article about trying to speak Vietnamese ["Innocence Abroad," Nov. 21] reminded me of my son's experience. He lives and works in Saigon, needed to buy paper clips and, like Matt, thought he had the pronounciation right.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45467-2004Nov12.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45467-2004Nov12.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTMY DAUGHTER, Elizabeth Dalmas (age 12), read your article on the Simpsons and the mystery surrounding which state they actually live in [Springfield 101, Oct. 31]. Elizabeth told me she knew it was Springfield, Ill. I asked her how she knew.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28210-2004Nov5.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28210-2004Nov5.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTYOUR ARTICLE on the Alcott houses in Massachusetts brought back good memories ["Boston's Alcott Trail: Little Women Slept Here," Oct. 31]. We lived in Durham, N.H., when my daughter, Amy, announced that over the summer she was going to read everything in the library about the Alcott family. By the time her birthday came around in August she had completed her goal, and I took her to Concord, Mass., to see the Alcott houses. Too bad I didn't know about the houses in Boston at the time -- we could have visited those also.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9476-2004Oct29.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9476-2004Oct29.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTWILLIAM TRIPLETT did a nice job evoking the spooky party atmosphere that abounds in New Orleans at Halloween ["Spooky. Silly. Sweet!", Oct. 24], but I wanted to clarify a few items.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54548-2004Oct22.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54548-2004Oct22.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTPUNTA CANA, in the Dominican Republic, is a treasured paradise on an island of culturally proud people ["Punta Cana Made Easy," Oct. 17]. The writer likened a visit to the resorts there to a cruise vacation. Cruises are a relaxing and easy way to travel, but a cruise is also a cultural appetizer, rather than a full-course meal.]]>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35738-2004Oct15.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35738-2004Oct15.html?nav=rss_travel/columns/messagecenterSun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:23 GMTTHE ITEM about cruises to ports within a three-hour drive [Oct. 3] was very informative, but it should have described the parking facilities at Baltimore, Philadelphia and Norfolk. For example, at Fort Lauderdale, Port Everglades, there is a parking garage with a nominal daily fee. One can walk across the pier to the ship.]]>