Travelers' Intercom | International Travel News

May 2006 issue

A typical safari?

My wife, Dorothy, and I had been on safari in Africa on two previous occasions. The first was to Kenya and Tanzania, and it remains the best trip we ever experienced — and we have toured all the continents and over 60 countries. Our second was a walking safari through Zimbabwe and Zambia.

We wanted to visit Botswana and Namibia without retracing ground covered on the previous trips. We found what looked to be the perfect match with the safaris offered by Adventures Abroad Worldwide Travel. We booked the “Namibia and Botswana” tour departing on Sept. 30, ’05, from New York for...

February 2006 issue

Pad of greenbacks

Before I leave on an extended tour, I stop at a bank and get a pack of new one-dollar bills. They come 100 to a bundle a little over an inch thick.

I then take this pack to a local print shop which prepares business forms and ask them to cut a piece of cardboard the exact size of a dollar bill. I have them place it at the bottom of the stack of bills and use rubber cement on one end of the stack, gluing the bills together to make a pad of money with a cardboard backing. (FedEx Kinko’s shops provide this service.)

This becomes what I call my “executive scratch pad.” It’s easy...

August 2006 issue

Guide in London

Having returned from London with my friend Robin’s elderly parents (80 and 88), I wanted to recommend a driver/guide who perfectly met our needs: showing these first-time visitors as much of London as possible from the comfort of a vehicle.

Claire Ross, who was referred to us by London Walks (www.walks.com), was the perfect guide — gracious and accommodating and an excellent driver, to boot! She collected us from our Notting Hill hotel in the morning, drove us to all of the attractions that we wanted to see, including Greenwich, found us a delightful pub for lunch (The Trafalgar in...

June 2005 issue

Lucky passport

The April ’05 “Discerning Traveler” column deals with getting a second passport. There is one significant group of people that has the chance to get a legitimate foreign passport: people who have one grandparent born in Ireland. If you are in this crowd, you are entitled to become an Irish citizen.

You must register with the nearest Irish embassy or consulate by providing official documentation: birth, marriage and any death certificates of your grandparent and parent as well as your own birth certificate and a few other items.

In order to get certified copies of your...

September 2005 issue

Allow cell phone use on planes?

Knowing that lawmakers are considering allowing cell phones to be used on planes, in the July ’05 issue (page 122) Rich Harvey of Athens, Ohio, asked if anyone else was opposed to the idea. Several readers replied, as follows.

Cell phone use on planes? NO, NO, a thousand times NO! It’s bad enough that passengers can now use their cell phones before taking off and after landing. How many times have you had to listen to dozens of loud, inane conversations? “We’re taking off soon.” “We’ve just landed” and so on. Or some businessman in the next seat shouting at his secretary.

...

November 2005 issue

Would have appreciated a ‘ranked waiting list’

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...

March 2006 issue

Money Matters: trimming wallet, PIN security, rubles vs. dollars

Trimming waist and cost

I have been following the “Money Matters” correspondence with interest (October-December ’05 & Jan. ’06, pg. 92). In the December issue, Edward Lifset (pg. 73) recommends one-dollar bills and a USAA MasterCard; Robert Hersch (pg. 74) found he needed a Visa card in Tahiti, and David Williams (pg. 75) says he prints a currency-rate “cheat sheet” and avoids travelers’ checks.

I do all of the above. However, to avoid tempting pickpockets, I don’t carry 50 to 100 one-dollar bills (which would make for a fat wallet) but instead carry a small nylon/...

December 2006 issue

Elderhostel cruise fit the bill

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...