Informing the international traveler since 1976.
ATM
An Apartment in Paris: a great base for a week-long visit
Martha and I, like many travelers, are drawn to Paris and seem to return there more often than to any other European city. On a recent 3-week trip to France, we spent our first week in Paris. ...
Romania trip with Original World
I traveled to Romania with Original World (131 Camino Alto, Ste. E-3, Mill Valley, CA 94941; 888/367-6147, www.originalworld.com), May 21-June 1, 2007. The land price was $1,490 plus $250 single supplement. The price included all breakfasts and some lunches and dinners. Each lunch not included ran me about $4 and dinner with a shared bottle of ...Hurdles in Russia
My wife, Barbara, and I enjoyed a trip to Russia, Estonia and Finland, Sept. 3-28, 2007, and have some advice for travelers to Russia. Barbara, on the recommendation of several travel books (including “Fodor’s Moscow & St. Petersburg,” seventh edition, published in 2006), bought American Express Travelers Cheques. In Russia, however, we found that there was ...Visa cash withdrawal charges
I was in Thailand in February ’07 and made four cash withdrawals at ATMs using my Visa card. The withdrawals totaled $1,152. My next Visa statement showed I was charged a total of $71.46, attributed to finance charges for these transactions. The sketchy explanation on the statement indicated a fee of $10 per transaction for a ...Bank card interruption
We have used our ATM card around the world and never had a problem. What a shock to find it would not work in Portugal, of all places, in May ’07. Two banks verified that the ATM system that works through MasterCard had been down for weeks. Our travel friends were able to bail us out, ...Debit card fee error
On our trip to the Azores in spring 2006, in the town of Velas on the island of São Jorge I went one morning to withdraw money from the ATM at the local bank. The screen gave me a message that the machine was not, at the time, operative. Needing cash that day, I went ...How much to tip on tours
Richard E. Smith of Long Beach, California, opened up the topic of tipping on tours (April ’07, pg. 4). Questions he asked included 1) “Should the cost of tipping be included in the tour price?,” 2) “Should there be an existing standard for tipping adhered to by most tour companies?,” 3) “Should an escrow tipping ...Driving Namibia
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