International Travel News

Travelers' Intercom

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Laterna Magica in Prague

While in Prague, treat yourself to a performance at any one of several Laterna Magica or Black Light productions. Little or none of the productions involve dialogue, so knowledge of Czech is not needed. They are a combination of music, dancing, mime, drama and film.

In June ’03 we attended Jiri Grossman’s “Wow!”, which was conveniently located off Wenceslas Square near the Jalta Hotel. It was a lot of fun — colorful, surprising and interesting with fish, mermaids, spiders, butterflies...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Brussels Card caveats

We returned Nov. 21, ’03, from nine days in Paris and three in Brussels. Brussels has a fairly new offer called the Brussels Card, advertised as “a 3-day pass to most of the major and minor museums in the area plus 72 hours of public transportation.” It costs €30 (about $36) and covers almost all of the bus, premetro (trams) and metro transportation in the major metropolitan area of Brussels, except for the rail link to the airport.

The card/pass is sort of like a camel, a horse...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Victim drivers in Spain

While driving a leased car in Spain in the fall of 2003, I encountered the following incidents that should serve as warnings to other readers.

Driving into Barcelona on a quiet Sunday afternoon, we began to encounter “windshield washers” at the stoplights. Trapped at the lights and not having any coins or cash readily available, we tried to stop them. This happened three times at different locations.

Minutes later in the very heart of the city, my rear tire went flat. You...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

The ‘approachable’ captain of Brilliance

The Traveling Tightwad (my son, Geoffrey Templeman) and I took the 14-night repositioning cruise of Royal Caribbean International’s Brilliance of the Seas in October-November ’03. The route was from Barcelona to Miami via Málaga, Lisbon, the Canary Islands and St. Maarten (Dutch West Indies).

We heartily endorse the comments of ITN readers Frank and Bev Stokes (Oct. ’03, pg. 40) and would like to add some more plus advice for future passengers.

For once, we had a captain who...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Felt welcomed, safe in Turkey

I returned Nov. 24, ’03, from a fantastic 19-day tour through western Turkey with Grand Circle Travel (phone 800/221-2610 or visit www.gct.com). In light of the Nov. 15 bombings in Istanbul, I thought some readers would be interested in the safety issues facing American tourists.

Although we were not in Istanbul when the bombings occurred, many people on our tour were encouraged to e-mail their families that they were safe. In actuality, I found that the Turks were more concerned...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Fixing a flight mixup

What would you do if you discovered that you were booked on a nonexistent flight? This was the unbelievable situation that my wife and I recently encountered.

We believe in firming up travel arrangements as early as possible to avoid the disappointment of unavailable space. In April ’03 we booked, through Adventure Center (800/227-8747), a September tour of Romania, Explore Worldwide’s “Village Folklore and Danube Delta,” land only.

An intensive search on the Internet finally...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Also experienced curtailed cruise

I read ITN reader Helmut Richter’s letter, titled “Yangtze Cruise Curtailed” (Nov. ’03, pg. 34), about the river cruise portion of his trip “Imperial China, Tibet and Yangtze” with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), and have some comments to add.

My husband and I took this identical trip Oct. 15-Nov. 4, ’02. When we signed up for this trip, we were told that this was OAT’s most popular trip and we had the impression that OAT schedules frequent departures. In fact, during the course of...

February 2004 issue | Appears on page 0

Plying the Yangtze

Re the letter “Yangtze Cruise Curtailed” (Nov. ’03, pg. 34), about a cruise that was to begin in Chongqing, China, on April 8 but ended up being curtailed on two sections of the river, it is just by coincidence that on April 9, ’03, we were leaving Yichang and heading upriver on the MV East King to Chongqing. . . we thought.

There was never any doubt in our minds that the cruise no longer left Wuhan. Our tour company, Laurus Travel (#45 - 3195 Granville St., Vancouver, B.C. V6H 3K2,...