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June 2005 issue

Rude awakenings on cruise

ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a reader to Holland America Line.

I am writing in reference to our cruise on the MS Noordam, May 9-19, ’04, out of and returning to Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy.

This was a cruise we chose to celebrate our golden anniversary on May 16. For this special occasion we picked a cabin in one of the best categories (B) and were very disappointed. The cabin, number 68, was large and very nice, but of the nine days at sea, we were able to sleep past 7 a.m. on only two days, and often we were unable to take a nap in the afternoon....

October 2005 issue

Get rail ticket punched

In Paula Prindle’s article about Italy (July ’05, pg. 20), she said the conductor was not worried about their unpunched train ticket on the way from Rome to Venice. I suggest that travelers not rely on that as the standard for Italy.

As part of our November ’04 trip, my husband and I spent some time traveling by bus in Croatia and by bus and train in Slovenia. In both countries the bus and train personnel were fantastic. In Slovenia, even though we always knew where to get off the train, the conductor was always looking out for us. Also, on the trains in Slovenia we did not have to...

November 2005 issue

Mont-St-Michel sans crowds

When we visit Mont-St-Michel, France, we prefer to stay on the island rather than the mainland because of the change in the atmosphere when the last of the day-trippers leave by about 5 p.m. It goes from a noisy, crowded, carnival atmosphere to one of magic, romance and solitude. You can walk the ramparts without running into anyone else, and looking up in the dark at the beautifully lit abbey is an unforgettable sight. We’ve made four visits to Mont-St-Michel.

The magical experience of staying on Mont-Saint-Michel in northwestern France begins, unfortunately, with fighting for a...

March 2006 issue

Easter Island guide

My wife, Mary, and I took a 35-day cruise on Holland America Line’s Statendam, embarking Nov. 17, ’05. This was a wonderful experience for us, even though we had traveled on many shorter cruises. The stops in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Easter Island, Tahiti, Bora Bora, American Samoa and New Zealand all were excellent, but I want to provide information to ITN readers about one special guide we had on Easter Island.

ITN contributed to our finding this guide, Patricio Rojas (e-mail patricio@aotour.cl or visit www.aotour.cl); in the October ’05 issue, page 83, Margo Wilson recommended him...

December 2006 issue

Attn: bird lovers

Lake Nakuru, Kenya, is a bird lover’s paradise. It is very shallow and can fluctuate up to 12 feet each day. When the water is low, you can see a white band of crystallized soda along the shoreline.

On the lake are up to two million greater and lesser flamingos. There is pink as far as you can see — and when they take off from the lake and fly into the air you see pink, white and black (the wingtips). Beautiful!

On our July-August ’05 trip we also saw marabou storks (famous for their feathers), pink-backed pelicans (much prettier than their drab brown cousins that we usually...

April 2006 issue

Guide in Turkey

Being loyal ITN subscribers, and packrats, we scanned several years of back issues as we researched our October-November ’05 trip to Turkey. We found a reader’s referral (May ’99, pg. 117) for a guide/tour operator, so we followed up and made contact with Mehmet Ozbalci of Turfantastik Tours & Travel (Millet cad. Inan Is Hani No: 5 / 610, Aksaray, Istanbul, Turkey; phone [90] [212] 589 33 25, fax [90] [212] 586 32 56, e-mail turfantastik@tnn.net or mehmetozbalci@tnn.net).

Mehmet is the owner/operator of his small company and personally plans and leads custom small-group trips...

September 2005 issue

Looked after by Andes Adventures

I would like to tell you about a company that really came through when things went awry. The company is Andes Adventures (1323 12th St., Ste. F, Santa Monica, CA 90401; phone 800/289-9470 or 310/395-5265 or visit www.andesadventures.com).

I booked a 10-day tour to Machu Picchu, Peru, with Andes Adventures for Oct. 7-16, ’04. The cost was $2,425 from Los Angeles, with single supplement included as well as all meals and round-trip internal air Lima to Cusco. This was a fully inclusive trip.

The tour was exceptionally well organized, and the tour guide was great. It was a great...

June 2005 issue

Central Portugal base

The small town of Nadadouro was our base in Portugal during a stay in 2001. Ninety kilometers north of Lisbon, this area is ideally located for exploration of central Portugal, including the towns of Óbidos, Fátima, Nazaré, Tomar, Peniche, Sintra and all points north as far as Porto, a 2-hour drive.

We rented a condo, Casa Paula (Quinta da Boa Vista, 30 Nadadouro, 2500 Caldas da Rainha, Portugal; phone 351-262-978260, mobile phone 919-187-283 or e-mail davidclark@mail.telepac.pt). It had a large veranda overlooking Lagoa de Óbidos. The view of this lagoon and the Atlantic beyond was...