Accommodations Worldwide

For budget travelers to PARIS, we have some recommendations from a wonderful 4-day visit at the end of April ’07.

• Hôtel de Nevers (53 rue de Malte; phone +47 00 56 18, fax +43 57 77 39, www.hoteldenevers.com) is just off Place de la République, about equidistant between Métro stops République and Oberkampf.

A very clean, one-star, family-run hotel with a helpful front desk staff. Elevator. We had a bright room with a double bed, table and chairs, cupboard, room for our suitcases, and a small private bath with shower for €53 ($80) per night. The breakfast of croissant,...

My husband, Dick, and I took the “Essential Iran” tour with MIR Corp. (85 South Washington St., Ste. 210, Seattle, WA 98104; 800/424-7289, www.mircorp.com), Sept. 8-17, 2006, and thought ITN readers might be interested in the observations of two ordinary American tourists, a rarity there.

We paid about $2,400-$2,500 each, including flights Tehran-Shiraz-Isfahan-Tehran. In 2007, the 10-day trip costs $2,795 per person for two to 16 travelers.

Our “tour group” consisted of only the two of us plus an Iranian guide. Interestingly, he was a graduate of Marshall University in West...

Hotel Italia (Via Venezia 18-00184, Rome, ITALY; phone 06-4828355, fax 4745550 or visit www.hotelitaliaroma.com) is in a safe location in Rome where one can return alone at night from the bus or subway easily. It’s 10 minutes from the train station (Stazione Termini) and a few steps off Via Nazionale, which has bus routes to the Vatican and all stops between. Across Via Nazionale is a grocery for lunch supplies.

We stayed there Feb. 9-11 and Feb. 19-20, 2006. Five adults in one room (a different one each time) paid a total of €135 ($180) per night. Our room had four beds each time...