Travelers' Intercom | International Travel News

April 2007 issue

Kraków

Kraków, Poland, is a small city. The Old Town — encompassing the town square, the old city walls, the opera house, museums and churches — is less than a square kilometer. The castle, called the Wawel, is a kilometer from the town square. Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, is a 15-minute walk beyond the castle.

Old Town’s town square has a lovely market square built in the Middle Ages. In its center is the Cloth Hall, a long, Renaissance-period building which today houses crafts and souvenir stands on the ground floor and a museum on the second level. During a visit my husband,...

November 2008 issue

Guide in Agra

Four of us were in India over Christmas 2007 and had an excellent tour guide in Agra: Javed Khan (phone 91 991 703 1888 or e-mail javedtall12@yahoo.com).

We had our own driver, so we paid Javed just to give us tours. He speaks excellent English and his prices are very good.

On the first day, Dec. 17, we drove from Delhi to Agra, then met Jayed at Akbar’s Mausoleum in Sikandra for two to three hours in the afternoon. The second day, he was with us for about five hours; we met him at the Taj Mahal, where we had a great tour, and then went to the Agra Fort.

Including the...

May 2008 issue

Rome’s Termini: bigger, better, bella

Rome’s Termini is a rather lovely train station. Really! It once was awful, but now it’s rather fine.

I first visited the station about 10 years ago, on a rainy January day. On the Eurostar Italia, my companion and I arrived at the dirty station, where litter gathered in doorways and on the tracks. I needed a coffee, but there seemed to be no open cafés. Everything was shuttered. Suspicious characters with scruffy beards followed us with their eyes.

I walked along the grimy platform to the ladies’ room, where I opened the toilet stall door to find a hole in the floor rather...

October 2007 issue

Historic cemetery in Stavanger

As we were strolling through pleasant neighborhoods between tourist attractions in Stavanger, Norway, in May ’07, my wife and I wandered into the Eiganes Gravlund (cemetery).

Despite covering approximately six square blocks, the cemetery has the feel of a small town’s church graveyard. At the time of our visit, flowers were blooming throughout and several townspeople were busy tending the gravesites and flowers. There were a wide variety of trees and even some topiary.

This graveyard, like all of the others we saw in Norway, was incredibly neat and well maintained. There was...

November 2007 issue

Fake bills in Buenos Aires

My wife and I visited Argentina in August ’07. Upon our arrival at Buenos Aires’ airport, in nearby Ezeiza, we passed through Immigration into the baggage-claim area and went to a money-exchange kiosk run by Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.es). Since we needed money for transportation to our hotel, we exchanged $300 into pesos and received an exchange rate of 2.77.

After collecting our luggage, we made our way to the arrivals hall taxi kiosk and paid with a 100-peso bill, which was accepted without any problem.

The following morning we attempted a financial transaction...

March 2008 issue

Surin’s elephant roundup

It was not easy to make the arrangements in advance to attend the Elephant Roundup in Surin, Thailand, but it was well worth the effort. The Elephant Roundup, a “rodeo” in which elephants participate in events, is held each year during the third week of November.

The morning we attended the show, we took a tuk-tuk to the elephant arena at 6:45 a.m. The elephants were assembling and being fed just outside. The show began at about 8 o’clock. We were glad we had had friends reserve bleacher seats for us in the shade for the 3-hour show.

The events included introducing the...

December 2008 issue

Roommate or single supplement

Judy Puckett requested comments from readers as to how they’ve located suitable travel partners (Oct. ’08, pg. 18). I am very glad that she asked for this information. I have a related request.

My wife, a schoolteacher, often cannot travel on the dates I want to travel. Sometimes she simply has no interest in my destination. This leaves me with the option of either finding a roommate or paying the single supplement.

I view single supplements as something to avoid for this reason: whatever I save in not having to pay a single supplement becomes my deposit on the next trip I...

April 2008 issue

Myanmar arrangements

I’ve used Santa Maria Travels & Tours Company, Ltd. (No. 233-235 Second Floor 32nd Street, Pabedan Township, Yangon 11141, Union of Myanmar; phone [+951] 256 178 or 250 657 or 384 743, fax [+951] 384 064 or visit www.myanmartravels.net or www.santamariatours.com) many times and have found the agency to be both personal and professional.

It offers great hotel rates in Yangon, where they can book a 2-star or better hotel (with AC, private bath and breakfast) for $20 or an impressive 4-star hotel for $40 in off season or $52, high season. They have similar good rates throughout the...