Hello Reader,

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🧭 Where in the World?

We’re on our way, traveling again. It almost doesn’t matter where we’re going, or from whence we cometh. It will be a welcome change to new scenery, new people, and new information. Whether we are trying to figure out ground transportation or diving into art history, we know our daily intake of U.S. news will subside a bit. And for that we are grateful. No worries, we’ll still be of this world, and reporting on the four countries (France, England, Ireland, Spain) we’ll visit over the next several weeks. Stay tuned, and forward this email to friends who might want to follow us, or intercept us on the way.

🛫 Get Going: Tours We Recommend For You

SOUTH AMERICA. South America is in our sights, and we have just a couple rooms still available for our custom small group tour, South America Wine and Culture, February 21 – March 3, 2026. Don’t miss this chance to enjoy wine, tango, gorgeous Andes scenery, and the historic and artistic cities of Santiago (Chile) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). We’ve drawn from our months living in Santiago and our multiple visits to Argentina to create this itinerary, and we're excited to share these places with you.

Look for more info at the link above. Just reply to this email with your questions or to review the booking form.

ELECTIVES STUDY ABROAD. We’re on our way to Montpellier, France, for what Kris is calling ultimate luxury: fine accommodations and the pleasure of an educational experience with expert instructors. We’ll be studying Art and Art de Vivre in France, but look for courses in architecture, history, religion, mythology, ecology and more – in appealing cities around the world. There is plenty of free time blocked out. Electives has already demonstrated superb advance communication, preparing us for arrival, the town, and our curriculum.

Book your Electives Study Abroad now for 2026 and beyond.

🧳 Our Latest Posts

Over here at Travel Past 50, we see most of you are at some stage of preparing for travel abroad. The questions keep coming. (Thanks for asking!)

• What’s the best international phone data plan?
• Do I want to change money in advance? (No.)
• What about travel insurance?
• I heard there are protest demonstrations in my destination. Is it safe?
• EEK, I watered the plants. Now what am I forgetting?

For answers to these FAQs and more, start here.​

🗞️ Travel News From Around the Web

• Warning! Alarmist alert! We've never seen this in all our travels, but it seems it could happen. And, if it does, it's very dangerous. This is a Wall Street Journal story about some planes' ventilation system sucking poisonous gases into the planes' cabins during flight.
• After reading the above, should you ever feel like flying again, here are some tips of how to get an upgraded seat. (Best tip: be sure to check out your plane's seating chart to make sure you're actually getting the best experience for your extra money or points.)
• Would you ever travel to Afghanistan? Somalia? North Korea? Some adventurous travelers do, and there are agencies that arrange and guide tours to such spots. We admire and aspire to educational travel like this.
• ​Tripit, the app we use to keep all our trip information in one spot has added a great new feature: a neighborhood safety score. Neighborhood safety scores for train stations, ferry terminals, and shuttle and car rental pick-up and drop-off locations will be available on the Tripit app for Apple iOS 26 and Android. Users can see an overall risk score and risks broken down by categories like physical, theft, women’s, and nighttime safety. You set a personal risk threshold and Tripit will alert you when a location goes above it. We're not sure how that would work in some of the spots mentioned in the previous item.

💸 This Week's Best Deals in Travel

• One of the consistently best deals in travel for us of a certain age is AARP membership. Discounted flights on British Airways (London is one of our favorite destinations), car rental discounts, discounts from lots of hotel groups, movie tickets, the list goes on.
• For useful travel gadgets, the Waschii portable clothes washing bag can't be beat, especially when it's on sale, like it is now for 25 percent off. Definitely our favorite find for travel accessories of the past year.
• This is not a deal, per se, but if you're a fan of Swiss Army knives, like we are, the price of Swiss Army knives will be going up dramatically soon due to 39 percent tariffs. We carry three between us. This is the one Tom carries for hiking, this is the one Tom has in his pocket for every day use, and Kris favors this one in her purse, which is very useful in case she encounters a wine bottle that needs opening. Be careful, though, none of these are TSA friendly. You can only take them in checked bags if you're flying.
• Finally, our favorite travel walking shoes, Xero Shoes, is currently offering up to 30 percent off various styles, and 10 percent off everything else. Check out their very handy shoe finder function to determine what shoe fits your style best. (Even if you don't find your style on sale, sign up for their emails and get 15 percent off your first order.) Kris can always find room for a pair of these lightweight marvels.

✈️ Points and Miles News

• One of the cool things about being retired is the lack of schedule. If we see a great deal somewhere out there in the future, we can grab it and make firm plans later. That's the essence of Thrifty Traveler's daily emails. In the last week alone, we've got notice of super deals to Marrakesh, Fiji, Naples, and Tokyo. To take advantage, it just requires a bit of flexibility. With their premium plan, you get notices for all destinations and all classes of service. Business class to Tokyo? Here we come.
• American Express has joined Chase in dramatically increasing the annual fee for their Platinum Card to $895. To make the card worth it, they're also adding benefits, such as $600 in annual hotel credits (when booked via Amex Travel) and $300 in select digital entertainment value. It also comes with lounge access to their Centurian Lounges and Delta lounges (when you're flying Delta.) Check the benefits carefully to see if this hefty fee would be worth it for you.

📖 What We're Reading

Kris is reading Irish Fairy Tales and Folklore, edited by W.B. Yeats, with some select Yeats poetry thrown in. She also happened on a book that looks like it will dovetail nicely with the Montpellier visit: The French Art of Living Well, by Cathy Yandell. (The title surfaced because Yandell was a professor at Kris’s alma mater, though long after Kris’s era.)

Tom is bouncing between The Hallmarked Man, by Robert Galbreath (one of J.K. Rowling's noms de plume) and Separation of Church and Hate, by John Fugelsang, for when lighthearted entertainment just gets to be too much.

We're now recommending books at Bookshop.org. If you buy a book from Bookshop, it benefits independent local booksellers, and you can even pick your own favorite local bookshop to directly support. For our previous book recommendations, check out this list..

❝Travel Quote of the Week❞

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met. – William Butler Yeats

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Happy travels,

Kris and Tom

P.S. What more can we do for you? Reply to this newsletter and ask us anything.

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

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