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But travel in foreign countries is more than the sum of its parts. It is a matter of cumulative exposure to the unknown and the unpredictable. To be successful, a trip abroad takes work, adaptability and patience, all very American characteristics. Americans may in fact be the world's most successful travelers, seldom—in the 1980s at least—evincing the faults of isolation, but showing an openness to experience at all levels. Consciously or not, knowledge is what they bring back along with the Koda-chromes and fishermen's sweaters: knowledge and the overriding memories of good times. As one Rome-based American allows, "It's a great year to be in Europe, to be thin and to have dollars." And stamina. Never in peacetime have so many Yanks deployed themselves across the map of Europe in search of entertainment, uplift and, dammit, a good time. It may all prove a little too much for some. But England, as usual, has the answer. Its name is Ragdale Hall. A gracious old country manor in the midst of the rolling Leicestershire hunt country, it exists to restore and rehabilitate vacationers who are suffering from too much dammit. Rooms start at $61 a day, and guests are offered psychocalisthenics, saunas, massage, beauty treatments, tennis, swimming, diet meals, no children, no tour guides and no alcohol. There is absolutely nothing to do at all. It's marvelous.
—By Michael Demarest.
Reported by Adam Cohen/New York and Mary Cronin/ London, with other bureaus
* One dollar last week bought .65 British pounds 7.7 French francs, 1,525 Italian lire, 119 Portuguese escudos, 148 Spanish pesetas, 2.1 Swiss francs, 2.6 deutsche marks.