Hello Reader,

🧭 Where in the World?

We escaped the Twin Cities just in time to avoid traffic slip sliding around in the slush. Today, we’re in sunny Santiago, Chile, revisiting the Bellavista neighborhood we lived in 15 years ago. We've met up here with a group of old and new friends to taste some wine, read some poetry, absorb some culture, and maybe even dance a few tango steps when we move on to Argentina in a couple of days. More detail to follow, but I’m not promising dance videos.

🛫 Get Going: Tours We Recommend For You

What do people who travel with Travel Past 50 have in common? They relate to Groucho Marx’s famous quote: “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” Our travelers are generally independent travelers, who make an exception to their normal solo travel in order to visit places they may not otherwise go and learn things they may not otherwise learn.

Does that sound like you? Check out our featured small group tours and you can be an independent traveler enhancing your travel experience with a bit of help from your mates.

IRELAND INFO SESSION, February 25

Join a free webinar conversation with Ciarán McHugh to learn about his unique custom experience in Sligo, Ireland. The free online travel talk will cover slow travel, hidden heritage, and what makes Ireland truly special beyond the usual tourist trail. If you’re curious about a more personal, more meaningful way to see Ireland, sign up now for the free webinar.

Free online Zoom conversation, Wednesday, February 25, 2 p.m EST. Register here.

p.s. the Ireland in Focus October 2026 tour is on sale now. Save when you mention TP50.

ON SALE NOW: ANDALUCIA (SPAIN) AND PALERMO (SICILY, ITALY)

We’re excited to add these Elective Study Abroad experiences to our Fall calendar. Join us for a wonderful combination of discovering places and ideas with expert instructors.

Join us: October 4 – 11, 2026, Palermo and the Evolution of the City​

Join us: November 8 - 15, 2026, The Architecture and Cuisine of Andalucia​

Travel Past 50 readers get $250 off per person for any Elective course enrollments. Just use the exclusive code, TP50. Chat with us if you have questions. Note: space is limited for these small groups. Guarantee your spot with a $750 deposit today.

(Note: Elective’s November course in Istanbul has just a couple spots remaining.)

E-BIKE APPROACH TO PATAGONIA

Our friend Sherry Ott, experienced traveler, tour leader, and travel writer at Ottsworld.com, is repeating her popular e-bike trip to Patagonia. On this trip she partners with a local Chilean company to create an amazing ride on rural roads with majestic scenery, plus stays in posadas and estancias and meals included. This is the perfect pace for a Patagonia experience. Visit Patagonia Ebike Small Group Tour for more details, and email info@Ottsworld to chat directly with Sherry to express your interest.

VOLUNTEER TRAVEL

If you’re looking for some meaning and a bit of adventure in your travel, look at Biosphere Expeditions. Join any one of their expeditions and you’ll be helping research and document wildlife, in locations from Germany and the Azores to Sweden and Kyrgyzstan. Tom did their expedition to Malawi a few years ago and loved it. Truly a unique experience as you actually become a scientific researcher.

🧳 Our Latest Posts

While I’m catching up on writing about visiting Puerto Rico in January, you might like to look back at our prior post about Buenos Aires. Notable cafes, here we come…and we have plenty of ideas for updating this post. Do you have Buenos Aires favorite places you’d like us to visit?

🗞️ Travel News From Around the Web

• ​Viking Cruises announced new itineraries on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers for 2027. Sailing on board the Viking Mississippi, guests can choose the new 15-day Bayous, Blues & Bluegrass itinerary, which operates between New Orleans and Louisville, with ports of call along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. A shorter option—the 8-day Mississippi & Ohio River Explorer itinerary—offers a journey between Memphis and Louisville.
• Tourism to the United States continues to fall. Last year, as tourism grew world wide, the United States saw a decline of about 6 percent, or 11 million foreign visitors. Many blame the decline on the vast amount of bad publicity the US Immigration Enforcement is getting, like this very frightening story about a British woman with a valid US tourist visa who was incarcerated by ICE for six weeks.
• ​Good news for United Airlines frequent flyers, if you hold one of United's co-branded credit cards. The points you earn by flying United are going up, and the miles you need to redeem for free flights is (perhaps) going down.

💸 This Week's Best Deals in Travel

• One of our favorite travel brands, Patagonia, is having their winter 50 percent off sale. Lots of good deals here if you want to do a little searching.
• ​Thrifty Traveler Premium membership just paid for itself again as we were able to book round trip flights to Spain in May for both of us for less than 90,000 Delta miles – a fare sale notice we got via text from Thrifty Traveler. That 90,000 points is the equivalent of $900 for both of us, which is about $1300 less than a typical fare for two to Spain. If you use this link to subscribe, you'll get $20 off the annual membership. That's a year of almost daily deals for $80. And, like we just proved again, that's a great investment in travel.

📖 What We're Reading

Tom is making a point of catching up on some must-read books that somehow have escaped his reading list over all these years. After finally reading Pride and Prejudice last month, this month he's gotten into Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë.

Kris is reading The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett, a delightful little book about the Queen taking to reading in her later years.

You can see most of the books we recommend in one place at our Amazon book shop. If you'd prefer an alternative to Amazon, there is Alibris.com, where we frequently buy used books, and Bookshop.org, which supports independent booksellers. And, if you're into art books, like we are, check out the catalog at Taschen, the world's foremost publisher of art books.

If you buy a book through our links, we make a small commission at no additional cost to you.

❝Travel Quote of the Week❞

Hotel rooms inhabit a separate moral universe. – Tom Stoppard

Read past editions of our newsletter here.

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Have any feedback? Ideas for future posts or email topics? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at feedback@travelpast50.com.

Happy travels,

Kris and Tom

Tom Bartel and Kristin Henning ​Travel Past 50​ Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. Join our Facebook community.

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