Travelers' Intercom | International Travel News

January 2004 issue

Castle heating charges astronomical

ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a reader to Mr. Joe Hyman of Country Cottages.

As requested during our phone conversation, I am summarizing the problems we had during our 2-week rental (April 19-May 3, ’03) of the property you represent, the Castello La Rocca in Traversa, the Mugello, Italy (postal address: Loc. Traversa, 50033 Firenzuola, Firenze Province, Tuscany, Italy).

You are already aware of the outrageous charge we were to be assessed for the weekly cleanup: $450 per week, or a total of $900 for the two weeks. As you know, we were not informed...

August 2010 issue

The muezzin’s call

I wanted to react to a comment a subscriber made in reviewing the Hotel Stone in Istanbul (March ’10, pg. 4). He noted two drawbacks of the hotel, the second being its proximity to mosques, where “the morning call to prayer is a wake-up call at around 6 a.m.”

I don’t want to disparage the writer’s likes and dislikes, for we all have them. I just want to say that what is a drawback for one man may be a benefit to another.

Over the years, I made a total of 36 overseas trips, mostly with my wife. We traveled as a couple independently, for that helped me satisfy my travel urge,...

January 2011 issue

Paid for a nonallowed upgrade

My husband, Tom, and I flew to Amsterdam on our way to board a ship on Aug. 2, 2010, out of Rotterdam. I had purchased our air tickets through our travel agent the previous February. In her office, we had talked about buying them through the cruise company or independently. Because the flight booked through the cruise line might not be direct, we decided to go directly from Seattle to Amsterdam with Delta.

Both Tom and I have Delta SkyMiles accounts, his with a lot of points. We first tried to get the tickets using these points, and when we couldn’t we decided to buy the tickets...

July 2010 issue

Belize delights

“The Flying Sauna” was what we dubbed the 16-seat puddle jumper that flew us from Belize City to Placencia. My mother, brother and three-year-old nephew, Daniel, and I were on the last leg of the flight that began our 8-day vacation in Belize, April 21-30, 2010.

We’d flown from San Francisco to Houston to Belize City. Now, en route to Placencia, everyone was sweating inside the hot, humid interior of the plane, but we enjoyed gorgeous views of the blue waters of the Caribbean and the lush, green, tropical landscape of Belize.

The four of us stayed at a lovely resort, The Inn...

November 2010 issue

Central America hotels & fun

From the trip two friends and I took through Central America in January 2010, I particularly recommend the following accommodations.

• Because of the possibility of encountering crime in the central part of San Salvador, EL SALVADOR, I suggest staying a cheap taxi ride away from the city center in either the Zona Rosa or Colonia Escalón neighborhoods.

I stayed in Colonia Escalón at Hotel La Posada del Rey Primero (Pasaje Dordelly, No. 4425, between Calle 85 and 87 Avenida Norte, Colonia Escalón, San Salvador, El Salvador; phone [503] 2264 5245 or 5247).

This light and...

January 2005 issue

Hell Fire Pass Museum, Thailand

My wife and I were very interested to read Dennis Cavagnaro’s article on the River Kwai (Nov. ’04, pg. 24), as we had made a similar trip in September-October ’03.

I must admit that since we were on the “Discover Thailand” tour of Overseas Adventure Travel (800/955-1925 or www.oattravel.com), we arrived in Kanchanaburi by bus on what Mr. Cavagnaro describes as a “package tour” ($1,795-plus from Orlando, Florida). Our group was only 16 strong and we stayed at a delightful lodge, the Legacy River Kwai, outside town. This lodge has separate “cabins” and a large central dining room...

April 2010 issue

Charged for scratch on rental car

My husband, Randall, and I enjoyed a two-week visit to Iceland in late June ’09. The first eight days we traveled around the country with a birding tour company, then we picked up a rental car from Hertz Iceland at Keflavik Airport for six days of touring on our own.

We had reserved a compact car at a cost of ISK19,782 (about $160) per day, before taxes, etc. At the Hertz counter, we were asked if we wanted collision damage waiver protection. There were two levels of CDW coverage: basic CDW, with a sizable deductible, and super CDW, which reduced but did not eliminate the deductible...

May 2010 issue

Pension near Ljubljana

At Ljubljana, Slovenia, I stayed near the airport at Pension Jagodic (Vopovlje 10, 4207 Cerklje, Slovenia; phone +386 4 25 21 333) on June 1, 2009.

By train from Salzburg, Austria, I arrived at the main depot in Ljubljana, went to the bus terminal and took a bus for the airport. I told the driver I was heading for Pension Jagodic and he said he knew the Burgar family and dropped me off in front of the pension, which is 15 minutes (three kilometers) from the airport.

This is a family-run property. I had a quiet, clean room with facilities en suite. I paid €38.61 ($52) for one...