Travelers' Intercom

October 2012 issue

Capital One account changes
By Mark Price

As someone who takes advantage of the Capital One no-foreign-transaction-fee credit card, I was excited to read from many sources in the September ’12 issue (page 38) that Capital One had a high-yield money market account with a debit/ATM card with no foreign transaction fee.

I went online but could find no way to apply for such an account, so I called Capital One and was informed that Capital One had purchased ING a couple of months previously, and Capital One no longer offers such an online account.

Customers are directed to the ING website to open an online account and...

CONTINUE READING »
April 2012 issue

Servimaster in La Paz

Servimaster Tours (St. Sagárnaga No. 271-A [St. Li­nares/St.Murillo], La Paz, Bolivia; phone 591 2 2313002, cell 725 32355) arranged an excellent two-day/one-night trip for me to Lake Titicaca, Dec. 29-30, 2011.

I found them by walking down St. Sagárnaga, the main street of La Paz, where there are many tour companies and artisanal and gift shops. Servimaster’s office occupied a tiny, nondescript store, but their travel agents were excellent. This being one of the few times that I opted for a tour, I asked many questions. They spoke fluent English and patiently addressed all my...

CONTINUE READING »
March 2012 issue

Dumped in Dublin
I enjoyed reading of the variety of ways air travelers get all their liquids and gels into a one-quart bag (<a href="/2011/05/managing-liquids-and-gels-carry-only">May ’11, pg. 40</a> & <a href="/2011/06/managing-liquids-and-gels-carry-only">June ’11, pg. 42</a>). I, too, travel this way and put whatever I need in little half-ounce sample containers and containers holding up to two ounces that I’ve bought at a travel store. I have traveled to Australia, China, Egypt and many places in Europe with no problem. However, at the end of a trip to Ireland in May ’10, my husband and I were going through security in the Dublin airport when the agent took my one-quart bag out of the bin and informed me that she was going to throw out all of the travel-sized containers.
June 2004 issue

Travels in the Dominican Republic

At El Faro a Colón, the casket of Christopher Columbus

My husband, Joe, and I traveled to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Feb. 2-11, ’04, to complete visits to all the nations of the Western Hemisphere. We made Internet arrangements with Alyssa Johnson of SAS Travel & Tours in Santo Domingo (e-mail agencydr@yahoo.com) for a 10-day trip encompassing history, culture and ecology. Included was a 3-day trip around the country and to the Haitian border. Our excellent driver/guide for all 10 days was Severino Polanco, a 6'5" former national basketball player and policeman, now running his own travel business.

We had read ITN reader Greg...

CONTINUE READING »
September 2008 issue

Just Fly in Rio de Janeiro

On a fall (their spring) South America tour with Vantage Deluxe World Travel (Boston, MA; 800/322-6677), my husband, Richard, and I had good hotels, wonderful food, perfect weather and a program director who taught us so much. We had never had so much fun on a trip before. Our last stop was Rio de Janeiro, where our hotel was right off Copacabana Beach.

Sugarloaf Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue are “must visits,” but to really see Rio, go hang gliding and fly over the mountains, beaches and city. The picture shows me with Paulo Celani, owner of Just Fly (Rio de Janeiro...

CONTINUE READING »
July 2004 issue

Coping with a heat wave on a river cruise

We had heard in the U.S. about the severe heat wave and drought that was affecting all of Europe during the summer of ’03, causing rivers to be dangerously low, so we wondered how Uniworld (Encino, CA; phone 800/257-2264), with whom we were scheduled to travel down Italy’s Po River, would handle this problem. Looking back, I think they succeeded to the best of their ability.

We were scheduled to travel from Milan to Venice, June 18-26. On arrival in Milan, we were met at the airport and informed that the captain could not bring his ship, the Venezia, up the river to what was to be...

CONTINUE READING »
August 2004 issue

Suspected infected passenger put off ship

My wife and I booked passage on Holland America’s ms Prinsendam for a 22-day cruise, Sept. 1-Oct. 3, ’03. The ship started in San Francisco, stopped in San Diego and continued to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal, Aruba and the Bahamas, then on to Philadelphia and Boston.

At 6 a.m. on the seventh day I became ill with a sudden onset of a gastrointestinal disorder resulting in both vomiting and diarrhea. We sought help from the ship’s medical personnel. The symptoms were immediately characterized as those typically seen in persons who have contracted a Norwalk-like...

CONTINUE READING »
February 2012 issue

Narrow boat, auto, barge in UK
Carol Mullett raising a bridge on the Llangollen Canal.

Narrow boating is the ultimate do-it-yourself activity. You not only run the boat, cook and housekeep but operate the locks and raise the bridges on the canal or river. And “narrow” means just that, as the locks are as little as seven feet wide, which calls for a boat that is long and narrow, like a horizontal Ichabod Crane. My wife, Carol, and I have taken narrow boat vacations in England, Ireland, France and the US. On a trip in fall 2010 — when we were 77 and 80 — we visited three countries: Wales, piloting a narrow boat on the Llangollen Canal, considered among the most beautiful of...

CONTINUE READING »