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April 2006 issue

Driver/guide in England

I had a great trip to England along with four friends, July 23-Aug. 6, ’05. It was arranged through Midway Motor Travel (Southerwicks, Corsham, Wiltshire, England, SN13 9NH; phone from U.S. 800/214-8738 or e-mail admin@midwaymotortravel.com), and our driver/guide was Anton Prole.

Anton is a great driver and a knowledgeable guide as well as charming and witty! When we started making plans for the trip, we dealt only with him, since he would be our guide. Due to the rapport built up between us while doing the planning, when we arrived in Southhampton (on the QM2) we felt like we were...

September 2005 issue

Flights via São Paulo

In the fall of 2004 we decided to make a spring trip to Brazil. In mid-November, after looking at different options, we called Gate 1 Travel and booked a 10-day trip for March 10, ’05, called “Kaleidoscope of Brazil,” which was sponsored by Varig Brazilian Airlines.

I believe the cost of this trip was $2,676 each, which included round-trip airfare from Miami (but not from Virginia to Miami).

When we did not receive the usual written confirmation after a month, we called Gate 1 and were courteously told that everything was fine. The next we heard from Gate 1 was in January...

June 2005 issue

Angkor in Cambodia

A terrific highlight of our September/October 2000 trip to Southeast Asia was Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We were not prepared for the vastness of Angkor’s temple area. We spent four hours seeing Angkor Thom (a city with a large complex of buildings, terraces and grounds), and it took half a day to visit Banteay Srei.

The drive there also gave us a chance to see how some of the rural people live. It was fun to see farmers driving 2-wheeled ox carts just like those depicted on bas reliefs in the temples.

A favorite site was Ta Prohm, where the encroaching jungle...

November 2005 issue

Driver-guide in Oman

We wanted to share a nice “find” we made in Salalah, Oman, while on a cruise in April ’05. It is a great cab driver and tour guide named Khalid Bakheet (phone 99489979 or contact his friend, Ali Atif Al Yafai, who is the assistant front office manager at the Hilton Salalah Resort, Box 699, Salalah, Oman 211; phone +968-23-211234 or fax 23-210084).

Khalid communicated quite well in English, and he knew a lot about his country and the world. I believe we paid him $50 for three hours, but we were with him for about four hours and it was well worth the cost. We all were very happy with...

October 2006 issue

EgyptAir’s business class disappointed

On Feb. 21, 2006, a companion and I flew on EgyptAir from New York (JFK) to Cairo, Egypt, with Grand Circle Travel. We were on GCT’s “Ancient Egypt and the Nile” tour with a 5-day pretrip extension to Jordan. We upgraded to business class (which we do on long flights).

Upon check-in at JFK we were sent to the Swiss International Air Lines business-class lounge, which was the finest lounge I had experienced. It had a full buffet dinner after 4 p.m. as well as free Internet service, excellent drinks and a beautiful sitting area.

Following this positive early experience to our...

September 2005 issue

Check your passport

We have a trip to Russia planned in a few months and I just found out that to visit Russia a visa is needed and there must be two blank pages in the visa section of one’s passport.

Mine is full. Pages can be added, but the passport has to be returned and it can take a month or more. The good news is that it does not cost anything. The bad news is that the passport could be lost in the mail.

You can also, when renewing your passport, request double visa blank pages at no cost. I would recommend everyone make that request.

If you are planning a trip to Russia, check your...

June 2006 issue

Mongolia plus the Gobi

A customized, private tour to Mongolia was created for my wife, Darlene, and me for Aug 1-17, ’05. Featuring nomadic culture and Buddhist heritage, with an extension to the South Gobi desert, it was arranged by Original World/Spirit of India (Box 446, Mill Valley, CA 94942; 888/367-6147 or www.originalworldjourneys.com) and used Active/Adventure Tours of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The land cost of this trip was $2,968 per person ($2,188 plus $780 for the Gobi extension). Airfare was $2,298 ($1,608 Dallas/Fort Worth to Moscow and $690 on to Ulaanbaatar). The total per person was $5,266...

August 2005 issue

Landings infrequent at Pitcairn

ITN was mailed a copy of a letter sent to Discovery World Cruises*, as follows.

I was a passenger on the “In the Wake of the Bounty” cruise of the M.V. Discovery, Jan. 31-Feb. 15, ’05. My sole purpose in taking this cruise was to visit Pitcairn Island. To insure this, before booking I spoke with your company and was told they had Zodiacs available for landing. I was prepared for the possibility of weather preventing landing, but I was not prepared to find that Discovery World Cruises had absolutely no in intention of ever going ashore at Pitcairn Island.

From the second day...