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May 2004 issue

Rental car woes re full tank

Have you ever wondered if you really got a full tank of gas when you left the airport rental car parking area? Our recent experience with Avis at Milan, Italy’s, Malpensa airport is a classic case in point.

We rented a Citroen C3 from Aug. 24 to Sept. 16, ’03. When we picked up the car, the dashboard had six illuminated lights to indicate a full tank, but the first light to go dark did so after only about 20 kilometers. When our first fill-up resulted in gas mileage of only 12.6 kilometers per liter (that’s about 30 mpg), I thought that we were stuck with a gas-hungry monster in the...

February 2004 issue

Village Vacations in England

My wife and I and our daughter and son-in-law spent a week in May ’02 in southwest England with David and Christine Hale, who have a B&B and a tour service called Village Vacations (Brookmead, Rimpton, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 8AQ England; phone/fax [UK] 011-44-1935-850241, e-mail villagevac@aol.com or visit www.villagevacations.co.uk).

We are retired antique dealers who have spent two to three weeks buying antiques in England twice a year every year for the last 30 years. On those buying trips, we went where the antiques were.

The trips always included the weekly and...

March 2011 issue

Driving in Europe

I just read S. Ryan Edgar’s article “Pulling Out All the Stops on a Self-Drive Tour of Europe” (Jan. ’11, pg. 35) and would like to add some comments on driving that his article didn’t include. I rented a car and drove from Paris to San Marino to Andorra and back to Paris over five days, Nov. 13-18, 2010.

Roads in France are smoother than those in the US. The reason is the government leases out sections of the road to contractors to maintain and profit from the tolls they collect.

The major highways are toll roads and very expensive. Few toll plazas I came to had toll takers...

December 2010 issue

Remarkable Rome

What can one say about Rome’s charms that hasn’t been said before? It seems that every sight has been seen, written about and filmed. Yet, as much as I thought it would be another overcrowded European city, Rome captivated my imagination and fueled a mad dash to see everything possible.

Our enchantment began almost immediately upon checking in at the posh Hotel Eden (Via Ludovisi 49), where my husband and I and our two friends stayed for three nights, courtesy of Starwood hotel points, during September ’09. (The rate for a double room is €342 [near $477] per night.)

The...

March 2004 issue

Pickpocket ploy

As an avid traveler and ITN reader, I thought I was familiar with most of the means by which people were separated from their money, but the following was a new one to me.

In fall 2003, following disembarkation from our ship in Barcelona, Spain, our group was taken on a brief tour of the city while our hotel rooms were being prepared. The tour guide, while passing out pertinent information, also warned us about pickpockets. The “good news” was that the thieves are now very good at it and seldom resort to physically harming their victims!

Later that day, my companion made the...

July 2005 issue

New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty

If you’ve never been to New Zealand, you really need to go. Those wonderful stories about the place are all true. If you’ve already gone, chances are you didn’t visit the North Island’s Bay of Plenty. Not a lot of people do. Stuck up in the northeastern corner about two hours from Auckland, this part of the North Island is rather off the beaten tourist path — and that means things are less crowded and more authentic.

My wife, Rose, and I happened to find the Bay of Plenty because we were staying with a local couple, Clive and Helen Berry, who home-hosted us for a week in February...

October 2010 issue

Traversing locks

Walt Huse’s story “Cruising Portugal’s Douro River” (Aug. ’10, pg. 6) brought to mind an observation I wish to share.

Being an Englishman, I was used to locks on the British canals, which date from the 19th century and are made of wood. For many of them, occupants of the passing barges do the work.

On Portuguese vessels this is not so at all, as I learned on a cruise I took in 2006. I was amazed at the modernity of the locks on the Douro River. Vessels apparently were raised or lowered at the press of a button. The raising or lowering was a...

June 2010 issue

Suggests Swagatam for India

For independent travel in India, I highly recommend Swagatam Tours Pvt. Ltd. (www.swagatam.com), which is based in New Delhi and has offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

I had signed up for two package tours for February-March 2010, one in southern India with Adventures Abroad and the other in Rajasthan and Gujarat with Explore. To fill in the gap between them, a fellow ITN reader suggested I contact Swagatam to arrange visits to Varanasi and Khajuraho.

Several months before departure, both tours were canceled because not enough people had signed up, so I sent my...