Travelers' Intercom | International Travel News

December 2008 issue

Trekking NZ’s Queen Charlotte Track

My wife, Eva, and I took the 4-day/3-night “Queen Charlotte Track” tour from Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company (London Quay, Picton, New Zealand; phone +64 3 573 6078, fax 573 8827, www.marlboroughsounds.co.nz), and we highly recommend this company.

They offer hiking, biking and sea kayaking trips a half day to five days long — great service, organization, guides and facilities. Our hiking trip, Dec. 27-30, 2007, cost US$1,000 each, all-inclusive.

At their office on the waterfront in Picton, we rented walking sticks and were given red duffel bags to pack what we wanted to...

April 2008 issue

Ludus Tours for Oktoberfest

Germany’s Oktoberfest is one of the biggest parties in the world. Each year more than six million visitors arrive in Munich for the 3-week festival celebrating beer, schnitzel and song. With so many people descending at the same time, it’s important to work with a tour company with experience, which is just what I got with Ludus Tours (Ludus Group, P.O. Box 50251, Austin, TX 78763; 866/343-6133, www.ludustours.com, www.oktoberfesttours.com and www.trackandfieldtours.com).

I spent a week with Ludus in October ’07. The package included five nights in a very comfortable 3-star hotel,...

May 2008 issue

Best Airline from/to the US

Qantas economy ‘excellent’

I had not flown with Qantas since 1983, but for an October ’07 flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Los Angeles, since they were the best buy, I bought a ticket.

The economy class was excellent. The plane was clean, and all the stewardesses went out of their way to be helpful.

Next, the food — delicious, and plenty of it! We had a nice choice. They also went up and down the aisle with snacks, including, sometime during the middle of the night, a big basket of apples and water.

I got off the plane very happy.

JEAN CATER

June 2007 issue

Great beer & food in Dublin, Edinburgh & Amsterdam

My husband, John, and I and another couple visited Ireland and Scotland, finishing up with a few days in Amsterdam, Sept. 2-16, 2006. Since John is a home brewer, we are always on the lookout for good beer when we travel, and we found plenty of it in all three cities in which we stayed.

Beer prices were around €4-€4.50 (about $5.30-$6) in Dublin, about £2.40 (near $4.70) in Edinburgh, and €3.50-€4 ($4.60-$5.30) in Amsterdam.

• In DUBLIN, we ate several times at The Bull & Castle (Christ Church, Dublin 2; www.fxbrestaurants.com/cindex.html), which was just down the street...

October 2008 issue

Grand Circle Travel trip to Lapland

On a Grand Circle Travel trip to Lapland, we saw these graves. The white “flowers” that cover them are actually lichen. — GRACE NEWMAN, Ponte Vedra, FL

November 2007 issue

Renewing a passport

I read with interest the letter titled “Missed Cruise Due to Visa Snafu” (June ’07, pg. 32), about passengers not having enough blank pages left in their passports for stamping.

When I made my last visit to Tibet, in 2005, it was no longer possible to send a passport directly to the Chinese Embassy service in San Francisco. When I went to a visa service in Seattle, I was told that my passport was “no good” as it didn’t have two “real pages” left for Immigration to stamp.

I assumed that she meant that though the last page has a number on each side, it is not considered “two...

September 2007 issue

Fernando de Noronha, Brazil

Dive! Dive! Dive! No, not a line from a submarine movie but the call to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, a great dive and snorkel venue which is not very well known to many people other than Brazilians.

“Noroonya,” as it is pronounced, is a volcanic archipelago about 250 miles off the northeast coast of Brazil. Brazilians call it “The Emerald of the Atlantic” because it is so pristine. I visited the island for four days, March 4-7, 2007.

Fernando de Noronha was ﬁrst described by Amerigo Vespucci in 1503, was used off and on by French, English and Dutch pirates and ﬁnally was...

June 2008 issue

Determining travel insurance reimbursement

Some situations take longer to conclude than others, as in this next letter. — Editor

My wife, Judy, and I went on a tour of Viet Nam with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), March 4-28, 2006. About 60 days prior to the trip, Judy’s doctor changed one of her medicines, but follow-up visits prior to the trip indicated no potential problem. While in Hanoi she had a reaction from her medicine that required immediate care, hospitalization and then return to the U.S.

Inadvertently, we had duplicate medical evacuation insurance with both HTH Worldwide (purchased yearly) and Trip Mate...