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August 2010 issue

Flight arrangements for a cruise

We take a couple of cruises a year and like to make our own flight arrangements. The key is to leave a few days early and not only get our jet lag under control but have time to see the port. Leaving early also helps if weather causes delays or luggage is lost.

Our first question is ‘How much is the cruise line charging for flights?’ Then we use the ITA fare-shopping search engine (you have the option of logging on with a password or logging on as a guest; I always log on as a guest) and the Kayak search engine to get prices and times. Only once has the cruise line had a better...

January 2011 issue

Northwest Passage transit

Following the icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier through the Bellot Strait.

The Northwest Passage is the sea route linking the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans across the top of Canada. For eight years I’d looked for a way to follow in the footsteps of Arctic explorers like Roald Amundsen and Sir John Franklin, transiting the passage. In August ’09, on a 21-day expedition from ElderTreks (Toronto, Ont., Canada; 800/741-7956), my wife, Sandy, and I were among the lucky few to be able to have this experience.

From Ottawa, Canada, we flew via chartered plane to Resolute Bay in the high Arctic, where we boarded the icebreaker Akademik Ioffe by Zodiac...

October 2010 issue

Conditions on local trains in Siberia

From the editor — ITN subscribers Darrell Booth and his wife, Debra, of Houston, Texas, got a little more adventure than they bargained for.

The Booths wanted to take a train across Mongolia and Siberia and contacted a US tour company that offered group tours through an operator based in another country.

For the tours, private railway carriages owned by the operator are attached to regular trains. For the dates the couple wanted to travel, however, Aug. 12-Sept. 3, 2009, the group tours were full, so the couple had the company arrange for them to take the trip on regularly...

March 2010 issue

Teas in London

For my friend Billie Rivers and me, one of the delights of spending time in London is enjoying afternoon tea — the ambience, the slowing down, the cosseting and savoring both food and conversation. On our September ’09 trip we tried several locations.

• Through the website www.restaurantguide.com, we booked tea at 1901 at the Andaz (Andaz Liverpool Street hotel, 40 Liverpool St., London, EC2M 7QN, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 20 7618 7000).

Knowing that the Andaz, near Liverpool Street Station, is located in more of a working class neighborhood, we did not anticipate a tea as elegant...

July 2010 issue

The Angel in Wales

The Angel Hotel (15 Cross St., Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, NP7 5EN, U.K.; phone 01873-857121) is a great hotel located in the market town of Abergavenny. My wife, Rose, and I were introduced to the Angel by our English friends Betty and Alan Madden, who stayed with us there in May ’09.

The Angel is a rather plain-looking building at one end of the main street. It’s old, and the floors are a bit uneven and creaky at times. There are 32 rooms, large but not lavish, with en suite facilities and wonderful beds. It has a wonderful pub with paneled walls.

For two nights’...

January 2005 issue

A gîte can’t be beat

Inspired by the article on renting “a home away from home” (Aug. ’04, pg. 38), I am sending some comments concerning renting gîtes in France.

You can get information on or book one of the 50,000-plus gîtes by contacting La Maison des Gîtes de France et du Tourisme Vert (59 rue Saint-Lazare, 75 439, Paris, Cedex 09, France; phone 01 49 70 75 75, fax 01 42 81 28 53, e-mail info@gites-de-france.fr or visit www.gites-de-france.fr).

According to “Frommer’s Budget Travel,” there is a U.S. contact for “those strangely named gîtes. . .” It is Provence West, Ltd. (Evergreen, CO; phone...

April 2010 issue

Westernmost China

I chose the “Silk Road plus Shangri-La” tour, May 26-June 11, 2009, from China Plus (Irving, TX; 888/868-8811) because, after a day in Beijing, it went to the furthermost province in the west of China, Xinjiang. The cost, with air from the West Coast, was $4,298.

I never expected to see such contrasts, even in the landscape — from desert to mountain peaks. I enjoyed seeing Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi. What a surprise to see skyscrapers and fancy shop windows in this 2,000-year-old city!

Other highlights were Kashgar (still, for now, with mud-and-straw houses, narrow alleys and...

May 2010 issue

Recommended in London

My friend Billie Rivers and I spent two nights in Greenwich at One Six Two (162 Westcombe Hill, Greenwich, London, SE3 7DH, U.K.; phone +44 [208] 4655444, e-mail

bookings@onesixtwo.co.uk) in September ’09. The location is convenient to the London City Airport, and it’s walking distance from the park.

The guest house’s webpage described the room as a boutique-style twin room with stylish en suite shower facilities. It also had a digital TV and free WiFi access. We found our twin room to be very small. The cost was £94 (near $146) per night, with breakfast.

The webpage...