After spending two weeks in Paris, May 9-22, 2008, including a day trip to London on the Eurostar, I thought, in view of the falling dollar, a few notes on prices might be of interest to ITN readers.

• For some years, my wife, Josie, and I have visited PARIS annually, and in that time there has been a small increase in prices generally, as there has been in the USA.

Early on, with the strong dollar, the hotel we’ve been using in Paris was a 2-star undervalued find. Since the...

While planning for a July ’07 trip to Norway (July ’08, pg. 32), I was given a tip for making long-distance telephone calls.

The first time I called Norway, at 11:20 p.m., I was charged $12.18 for one minute. Then a friend told me to dial 10-10-987-011+ country code + phone number. When I did that, my bill was only $1.13 for 15 minutes — much more reasonable.

I wish I’d known of this pay-per-use service in March ’08 when I called a relative in Ontario, Canada, and exchanged a...

Since my husband, Jim, and I have elderly family members, we wanted a way to keep in contact with them while on an Overseas Adventure Travel tour of Greece in May ’08. Our cell phone service is provided by Verizon (800/922-0204, www.verizonwireless.com), so I contacted the company to see if we could purchase a phone which would work in Greece.

Under their Global Travel Program, Verizon shipped a phone for overseas use directly to our home, at no charge. The equipment was set up with...