Travelers' Intercom | International Travel News

June 2011 issue

Montevideo visit

Stephen O. Addison, Jr., wrote about the Radisson Montevideo Victoria Plaza in Montevideo, Uruguay (Feb. ’11, pg. 74). My wife, Dorothy, and I, on a tour with Vantage Deluxe World Travel, had occasion to stay at this hotel March 5-6, 2011, and we can confirm all that he said.

We were a group of 14, but there was only one clerk checking in and the process took 45 minutes! During this time, all our bags sat in the lobby and were not delivered for over 90 minutes. Only one elevator was working.

The most annoying thing, however, is one Mr. Addison mentioned: the windows...

February 2009 issue

Sublime setting in Rome

My wife, Elissa, and I were in Rome Oct. 13-18, 2008, and reinforced our opinion that we had found a wonderful ristorante in a magical setting.

Halfway between the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon is Piazza S. Ignazio. It’s dominated on one side by its eponymous church and on the other side by some architecturally pleasing buildings. Most of these buildings are apartments, but the one across from the church houses a local carabinieri (police station).

On another side of the small piazza is the Ristorante da Sabatino a S. Ignazio (Piazza S. Ignazio, 169; phone 06-6797821, www....

August 2009 issue

Double-check Delta, Northwest tix during merge

Because I planned to use a companion ticket for my wife, Betty, I had to book our Delta round-trip flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Chicago O’Hare, Oct. 14 and 21, 2009, by phone rather than online. I made my reservations on May 31 and was placed on flights actually operated by Northwest and stopping in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) both ways.

I confirmed the schedule and transaction online on the Delta website. My printouts showed the Delta flight numbers along with the Northwest flight numbers, with the notation that Northwest would be operating the flights.

I’ve had some...

September 2011 issue

Jaipur’s kite festival

Boys and men take to the rooftops to fly their kites — Jaipur.

Merchants sell brightly colored patangs (kites) and spools of metallic string in Jaipur bazaars for two weeks in advance of Makar Sankranti, the annual kite festival, held every year here in India on Jan. 14. That’s the day, according to Indian astrology, that the sun transits into the Northern Hemisphere. I was lucky enough to see and photograph the celebrations in 2011.

Those familiar with “The Kite Runner,” the best-selling novel by Afghan writer Khalid Hosseini or the movie adapted from it, may recognize certain features of the event, but Jaipur’s...

November 2009 issue

Panama highlights

On a custom tour our family took to Panama in June-July ’09 (Oct. ’09, pg. 32), we stayed on SAN CRISTOBAL ISLAND at the Dolphin Bay Hideaway (phone +011 [507] 6417 7351 or [507] 6772 9917, www.dolphinbayhideaway.com), a small, private B&B in Bocas del Toro.

We highly recommend it. The owners, Erika and José, went out of their way to ensure that we had a great time. We ate most of our dinners there; Erika is a great cook (ask for the lobster!).

On our way to and from everything else we did, we saw dolphins playing. They got within just a few feet of our boat.

In...

March 2009 issue

Traveling with a wheelchair

In response to Thora Jervey’s request for accounts of wheelchair travel (Sept. ’08, pg. 63), might my wife, Gerry, and I offer some thoughts?

We have traveled by land and sea around the globe with Gerry being dependent upon a wheelchair. It takes planning!

First, for land travel we require a wheelchair-accessible room as a base. We have found Holiday Inns to be very dependable here and abroad. They book wheelchair rooms as a separate category. That is to say, it’s like reserving the honeymoon suite. They are reserving that specific type of room; it’s NOT ‘We know you prefer...

December 2008 issue

Yosakoi Soran in Sapporo

Seventeen years ago, a university student in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, upset with the island’s horrible winters (average snowfall is 240 inches), decided to start Yosakoi Soran, a celebration in early June, as a sign that winter was finally over and everyone could enjoy a few months of relief.

From a small group in the first few years, this event has grown to, in 2008, over 340 groups comprising over 45,000 dancers seen by well over two million spectators. The population of Sapporo more than doubles for the duration of the 5-day festival.

This year the festivities...

April 2009 issue

Off the beaten path in China

My wife, Joan, and I are inveterate independent travelers with 45 years’ international experience. We usually travel by car or rail, with vaguely planned itineraries and seldom with prebooked overnight accommodations.

We lived in Chengdu, China, from January to May ’05 and traveled widely throughout the country. Our “organized” tours included five nights on a 3-star Yangtze boat with two Italian tourists and 162 people who spoke only Chinese and a one-day round-trip minibus tour from Kunming to the Stone Forest with 16 Chinese tourists. Following are some tips on traveling in China...