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23 days / 22 nights, including 4-night Yangtze River cruise. Highlights: In Hong Kong, Stanley Market, sampan ride on the harbor / Shanghai’s Bund, Yu Yuan Gardens/Three Gorges cruise / in Lhasa, Tibet, Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple / Xi’an / Beijing / Ulaanbaatar / Gobi Desert sand dunes, dinosaur cemetery. Land and cruise, from $5,869. Single supp., $2,955. Hermes Travel (Astoria, NY; 718/274-9777).
11-day / 10-night tour of TURKEY, May 3-13, 2013. Highlights: Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul / Ankara’s Anatolian History Museum / underground cities in Cappadocia / Roman ruins in Aphrodisias / Ephesus / Hellenistic Pergamon / Troy / Gallipoli. Land, $1,925. Single supp., $595. TunisUSA (Wayne, PA; 888/474-5502).
6-day / 5-night camping, kayaking tour in NORWAY, summer 2013. Easy to moderate activity (up to four hours’ paddling per day and some walking). Highlights: Art Nouveau town of Ålesund / kayak to Vermøya Island/stay at historic Åkernes farm / paddle past Bridal Veil, Suitor and Seven Sisters falls / Geirangerfjord. Land, $2,490. No single accommodations. Tofino Expeditions, Ltd. (Salem, OR; 800/677-0877).
Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.
This month’s winner is LESLEY TAMULEVICH of East Haven, CT:
My husband, Bob, and I are in our 80s, and when we travel we like to go a little more slowly and stay longer in each place. We’d rather cook our own meals and eat less than what restaurants generally serve.
I like to have an apartment wherever we go. We use Untours (Media, PA; 888/868-6871), which offers apartments in lots of overseas locations and sometimes includes a car with the rental. In every Untour apartment, there is some food stocked when you arrive, such as bread, milk, butter, eggs and cheese.
Three of us took a cruise of the British Isles, and while in Edinburgh, June 7-8, 2012, we used the services of an excellent guide to see the countryside and some of the city. Her name is Kathy Cameron (15 Arkland, Inveraray, Argyll, Scotland, PA32 8UD; phone 44 [0] 1499 302361).
I took a 2-week trip in Chile with General Tours (Keene, NH; 800/221-2216) in January ’12. For four days in Santiago, Chile, I had the good fortune to use the guiding services of Mr. Fernando Ulloa Navarro, Director of Chile Fun Tour (phone/fax 56 02 518 89 84, mobile phone 56 09 746 64 52).
Besides being extremely knowledgeable, he was also accommodating to any special requests I had and suggested some especially interesting things to do that were not on my advance itinerary. I highly recommend him.
To reduce the potential for flight delays due to weather on our way to Dubai for a round-trip 7-day cruise, my wife, Maxine, and I arrived in Dubai the evening before embarkation. We stayed at the Hilton Dubai Creek, an excellent hotel with excellent service. I used Hilton “points” for a free night.
Via e-mail, I also had arranged with the concierge for the Hilton to pick us up at the airport and, the next day, take us to the ship. Each trip was more expensive than taking a cab, about $25 instead of $12, but it was worth it, for us.
During a Southeast Asia cruise, I wanted to book a private car and English-speaking guide for Beijing and Shanghai in China and for Nha Trang in Vietnam.
The Netherlands’ Floriade World Horticultural Expo takes place once every 10 years. Running dates in 2012 are April 5-Oct. 7. On May 20, my husband, John, and I drove from Amsterdam to Venlo, near the German border, to attend Floriade 2012. Unfortunately, we were disappointed with it.
The expo’s infrastructure was impressive, with shuttles taking us from a distant parking lot to an area where we walked through a plexiglass tunnel over a highway to the large entrance. Laid out amongst a few woods were five themed areas (“Environment,” “Education & Innovation,” etc.).