We don’t usually have favorable comments about car rental agencies, but in October ’03 we received extraordinary service from Dionysos S.A. Rent-A-Car (25 Syngrou Ave., Athens 11743, Greece; phone 210-9243310, fax 210-2943750, e-mail dionisos@otenet.gr), a franchisee of Thrifty Car Rental.

The operations manager, Andreas Tanteles, and each one of the agency’s employees with whom we dealt in person or over the phone, were wonderfully friendly and helpful.

The economy car we...

We arrived in Venice, Italy, on April 8, ’04, flying from Chicago via Madrid on Iberia Airlines — excellent service, comfort and food. Luggage was handled promptly and efficiently.

One of the local security dogs (God bless them) fell in love with a piece of my wife’s luggage in Madrid and we were inspected. The inspector spoke excellent English and was polite, professional and efficient. There was nothing illegal to be found, and the inspector said it may have been that our luggage...

My husband and I began planning our January ’04 trip to Australia and New Zealand about a year ahead. Several people mentioned that a stopover in Fiji would be a good way to end it. About that time, we read about a “Whale’s Tale day cruise.” We had our trip coordinator, ElderTreks (Toronto, Ontario; phone 800/741-7956), check it out and then made arrangements to include it in our trip.

On the morning of Jan. 22, we were picked up at our hotel in Nadi, Fiji, at 9 and entertained on the...