Travelers' Intercom

ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a reader to Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), a subsidiary of Grand Circle Travel (GCT).

Thank you so much for your recent “form letter” noting that we had not chosen to travel with Grand Circle Travel or Overseas Adventure Travel this year and offering us a “frequent traveler credit.” This “generous offer” combined with the incessant mailings from Grand Circle Travel and Overseas Adventure Travel are really annoying in light of the way we were treated after we were confirmed in September 2004 for an OAT barge trip to Provence...

I took the “Pearls of the Baltic Sea” trip with Elderhostel (Boston, MA; 877/426-8056, www.elderhostel.org), sailing on the Minerva II out of Dover, England, July 13, 2006, and returning there on the 30th. We were among 70 Elderhostel travelers on a Swan Hellenic (Commack, NY; 877/800-7926, www.swanhellenic.com) cruise, and the rest of the 600 passengers on board were middle-aged British.

No bingo, no napkin-folding classes and no gambling of any kind but superior lectures (!), a wonderful library, an excellent spa, an exercise gym and fine food. Public areas were linked by...

For me, the highlight of a visit to Tunisia was ancient Carthage. The city of Tunis has a number of suburbs. One is Carthage — modern and bustling — but located within it, on the coast, is ancient Carthage. Since I took Latin, I’ve remembered that one Roman senator always concluded his speeches with “Carthage must be destroyed.”

We took the tram to the suburban train to ancient Carthage, where we spent about half a day. There are a number of locations to tour — a museum, a Roman bath and other attractions — but the most interesting, to me, was perhaps the smallest: the man-made...