Hello Reader,

🧭 Where in the World?

Even a week after Memorial Day, we’re still suspended in that space between spring and summer, it seems. Judging from the activity in our TravelPast50 Community Facebook group, though, planning is underway for many of you!

Discussions range from walking tours in Brugge, to riding the rails in Canada, to inbound USA travel, to speculation on this summer’s air fares and hotel rates. Do you have questions about your next destination, or helpful experience you can share? Look for our Travel Past 50 Travel Community and chat us up!

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🛫 Get Going: Two Spots Open on our Ireland Tour

It's your lucky day! Due to a cancellation, we've had two spots open up on our Ireland in Focus tour to Sligo, Ireland October 17-24, 2025. This is a rare opportunity to stay in an historic Irish Manor House and do an in-depth exploration of the history, culture, poetry, and beautiful scenery of, to our minds, the most interesting small slice of the "Emerald Isle." Check it out right away. These spots will probably sell quickly.

🧳 Our Latest Posts

Planning to get away is sometimes the hardest part, especially if you have pets. We get it and have covered What To Do With Your Dog While On Vacation to outline a range of options. Whether you are bringing in a pet sitter or using a boarding kennel (a.k.a. ‘resort’), you’ll find these tips useful.

🗞️ Travel News From Around the Web

• What are the World's Happiest Cities? Here's a list from the BBC. We've visited eight of the top ten, btw, and can testify that we were quite happy while we were there. You have to get down to 17 on the full list until you get to a US city – New York, which we also love.
• Security and SIM Cards. We’re reviewing several of our safe travel posts (more on that next week). We were reminded by one purveyor of eSims to be careful about where you buy your SIM card. (That stands for Subscriber Identity Module and is the way you can adapt your mobile phone to the network of choice in your destination.) Depending on the country you are in, purchasing a SIM card involves providing your passport information. So steer clear of the pop-up vendors in and around airports and train stations, and go to a reputable store. Purchasing an eSim online removes this risk.
• Passports. The Feds have mostly caught up from the post-COVID-era backlog of passport applications. Tom and I both got our renewed passports back within 4-5 week. A couple reminders, though: You cannot use your passport or card while your application/renewal is in process. Children’s passports expire in 5 years, so don’t forget to check their expiry dates, too.
• 2026 Solar Eclipse Bookings are now opening up for tours and stays geared to viewing the 2026 solar eclipse. We’re seeing options by land and by sea…and by island. The eclipse will sweep down from Greenland along the west coast of Ireland, then pass across northern Spain and, late in the day, the Balearic Islands. Mark your calendar for August 12, 2026.

📖 What We're Reading

Kris is emerging from 16th Century China (Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See) and moving on to short stories by Ron Rash, Burning Bright. In the long form journalism category, she's reading most of the June issue of The Atlantic, including the interview with Trump on his comeback, "I Run the Country and the World" and an interview with Carl Hiaasen, "We're All Living in a Carl Hiaasen Novel." Most fun of all is the breezy travel account, "An Innocent Abroad in Mark Twain's Paris," which ought to be required reading for travel writers if not for any traveling American.

Tom is reading Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, which has lain unopened on his bookshelf since he bought it in 1982. He's about halfway through it and is wondering what took so long. It's a marvelous read.

For our previous book recommendations, check out this list.

❝Travel Quote of the Week❞

"He (Pope Leo XIV) is good to travel with, because he doesn't talk much." – Alejandro Moral Antón, prior general of the St. Augustine order, of which the new pope is a member.
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Happy travels,

Kris and Tom

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

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