My husband and I have done quite a bit of traveling. We research in depth the places to which we are going. We do not like traveling with large groups, as we travel for art, history and architecture and do not want to be rushed through places where we would like to spend a lot of time. Thus, we travel alone or with a private guide.

We have found the most wonderful solution for our travel needs. We learned of Idyll, Ltd. (Box 405, Media, PA 19063; phone 888/868-6871, e-mail info@...

I want to respond to the news item “Fighting Rebels in Nepal” (Feb. ’04, pg. 18).

I was in Nepal in October ’03 and researched the Maoist situation quite thoroughly through news reports and by speaking to other trekkers. Although the U.S. State Department did issue that travel advisory, the fact is there have not been any reports at all that a single foreign visitor has been physically attacked or injured.

There has been some extortion on popular trekking routes, with trekkers...

A letter in the November ’03 issue, page 38, stated that MBNA does not charge for foreign currency conversion. That’s true. What it doesn’t say is that the various credit card companies themselves are the ones that charge; e.g., Visa, 2%; AmEx, 2%, and MasterCard, 1%. I learned the above researching the veracity of the MBNA deal.

There can be significant ATM charges from the issuer, not the credit card company. In the case of the MBNA cards, the MasterCard holder is charged by MBNA 3...