The best part of my three-week trip to Ecuador wasn’t the friendly people, delicious food, incredible diversity of wildlife or even the perfect weather in July when it’s brutally hot in Hampton Roads. The best part was learning how one person can make a difference. After taking an adult education course, Angel Paz recognized an Andean cock-of-the-rock on his farm. He set up a blind and invited birders to visit, but the story doesn’t end there. With time, he also found a thought-to-be extinct bird, the giant antpitta. In 2005, Paz and his family established a refuge dedicated to birdwatching and forest conservation.

Visit refugiopazdelasaves.com.

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This month I attended a Canine Camp Getaway at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This is an annual vacation event for people and their dogs. Thirty-plus activities are repeated hourly over several days in and around the spacious grounds — swimming, agility, barn hunting, dock diving, skateboarding, performance tricks and much more. It was a great opportunity to introduce travel and new interests and skills to my dog Ellie (in photograph). Along with the other 150 dogs and their owners, it is certainly something to enjoy for those who consider their canine one of man’s best friends.

caninecampgetaway.com
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In April, the Council of Garden Clubs of Virginia Beach sponsored a day bus trip to the Northern Neck, planned by member Laura Jacobson. We lunched at the Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club (it was a family home after the Civil War, circa 1870) in Kilmarnock. Historic Christ Church (built 1732-35) in Lancaster County still has its original high-backed pews and three-tiered pulpit. We enjoyed the small-town charm on Main Street, Kilmarnock (a deed was recorded in 1778). Our final stop was Ditchley Cider Works and farm in Kilmarnock. We nicknamed the cows Oreos, but they are actually Belted Galloway cows, or Belties.

ditchleyciderworks.com
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A few weeks ago my wife and I embarked on our first ever cruise to the western Caribbean. We enjoyed port calls to Key West; Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; and Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. We especially enjoyed meeting people from all over the world and experiencing countries we had not been to. Our favorite by far was Grand Cayman! The beautiful turquoise waters are breathtaking. In the end, we both wondered why we hadn’t done a cruise much sooner than we did.

visitcaymanislands.com
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Costa Rica is a birder’s paradise because of its many colorful birds. This tiny country, which is the size of West Virginia, has about 900 species, including more than 50 hummingbirds. For comparison, the entire United States has 100 to 200 more species but only 15 hummingbird species. During a birding trip to the northern part of Costa Rica in February, I saw nearly 300 species, including this handsome Purple-crowned Fairy.

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In October, my wife, Cris, and I embarked on a Rhine River cruise. We traveled by riverboat through 68 locks on the Rhine, Mainz and Danube rivers from Amsterdam to Budapest. These windmills are near Amsterdam, at Kinderdijk, which is in the Alblasserwaard polder where the Lek and Noord rivers meet. About 19 windmills were built around 1740 to drain the polder. This is the largest group of old windmills left in the Netherlands. We also toured castles, forts, and large and small towns. The trip was very interesting and educational.

iamsterdam.com
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While spending last summer in Haifa, Israel, where I grew up in the 1950s, I was intrigued by a street sign on Mount Carmel honoring the great German poet and writer Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). Haifa had many German Jews who immigrated there in the 1930s as the Nazis took over. These refugees perceptively took seriously the grave dangers that were building. Though Heine converted to Christianity from Judaism, stating that it was “the ticket of admission into European culture,” these German emigres nonetheless revered one of their own whose literary genius flew in the face of degrading Nazi antisemitism. He prophetically said, “Those who burn books will in the end burn people.”

touristisrael.com
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Earlier this month, I visited Harbour Island in the Bahamas and it was exquisite. I was there as part of a group of 10 ladies celebrating a friend’s 40th birthday. I have seen a lot of the Caribbean, but this island was a step above the rest. The water was a stunning shade of crystal clear turquoise and the surrounding towns on the island were unique and quaint. We swam with sea turtles, stingrays and even pigs. I recommend this island to anyone wanting a more curated Caribbean experience. The pink sand beaches don’t hurt either!

harbourislandguide.com
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Titanic Belfast Museum is a massive museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and stands on the site of the shipyard where the RMS Titanic was built in the early 1900s. Not only does the front of the aluminum-clad structure mirror the shape of the ship’s prow, but its height is also the same as Titanic’s hull at 124 feet (with the addition of its funnels, the actual ship was 175 feet tall). Inside there are nine interactive galleries telling the ill-fated ship’s story from start to finish. I have visited many exhibits about the Titanic over the years, but this one, standing where the ship actually stood, was the most poignant of all. 

titanicbelfast.com

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For most people, “Austria” conjures Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart, or Vienna, the center of 19th century European culture. One hour’s drive north of Salzburg is the 12th century village of Hallstatt, nestled between the majestic, snow-covered Alps and a lake formed when the last glacier retreated. First inhabited nearly 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic time, it prospered over the centuries because of salt mines. The museum and archaeological digs bring this history alive. Today, Hallstatt is a quaint village of the past with excellent restaurants lining the lake, serving Austrian delicacies and fish fresh from the lake. A day on the lake or a cable car up to the peaks of the mountains with a walk on a glacier is a great way to spend the day. Escape the bustle of the city, as we did, and enjoy Austria as it was in a past time.

hallstatt.net/home-en-US/

Share your adventure Tell us about one favorite part — a restaurant, a hike, a monument, a hotel room — of one of your trips. Day trips, too. Submit a high resolution horizontal photo and a description of not more than 125 words to whatatrip@pilotonline.com. Include the city where you live.