STEVE, except for a JetBlue flight that leaves at midnight, there are no nonstop flights from Denver to New York’s JFK Airport, and as a traveler who is sick and very tired of flying to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Dulles, Boston or Detroit to get to JFK (to connect with an international flight), I would really like to know why. — Ellen Jacobson, Centennial, CO
My wife and I traveled to Turkey with Umit Dogan, the owner of Treasures of Travel (Box 714, Edmonds, WA 98020; 800/572-0526). The land price of our 21-day tour was $2,800 per person. We used frequent-flyer miles to fly Air France to and from Istanbul.
Because we wanted to book the tour as early as possible so as to be able to use our miles for free business-class air, we made our arrangements for the tour in early January of 2005.
Turkey My sister and I spent five days in Istanbul in September ’04, and on two of those days we scheduled private tours of the city with Insight Travel (Akbiyik Caddesi No. 104, 34400 Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey; phone 90 212 638 6310 or visit www.tour-turkey.com).
In his August ’05 “Far Horizons” column, Randy Keck asked readers to recommend long-haul, single-destination group tours. Most of our organized touring has focused on single destinations.
A small ad in ITN caught my eye and my imagination. Who hasn’t dreamed of taking a small boat cruise on the Amazon?
I took an 8-day cruise to Libya and the Mediterranean aboard the MS Sapphire of Louis Hellenic Cruises (Athens, Greece) in April ’05. I booked it through Advantage Travel & Tours (Poway, CA; 800/882-2098 or e-mail advantaget@aol.com).
I took my sixth trip to Morocco in October ’05 and chose to rent a car for the first time, after reading in a recent issue that another subscriber enjoyed driving there. (I usually use the trains and have found them almost comparable to those in Europe.)
The car was delivered with no fuss at Casablanca’s Mohammed V Airport (CMN) after my flight from Milan’s Malpensa. I stayed with friends whose apartment in a highrise overlooks the corniche and has a beautiful view of the Grand Mosque, especially attractive illuminated.
A recent television program listed things one should have for traveling, including the best shoes, the best white shirt, the best go-everywhere black pants, the best backpack, etc. What was omitted was something I consider essential: a Mobal GSM phone (Mobal Communications, 171 Madison Ave., Ste. 300, New York, NY 10016; phone 888/888-9162 or visit www.mobalrental.com — offices in the U.K. and Japan too).
My wife and I spent a week touring Sicily’s highlights with our daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons (ages 11 and 14) in the latter part of March ’04. The people were most friendly, the accommodations were very good and the food and ice cream were terrific. The temples at Segesta, Selinunte and, in particular, Agrigento were outstanding. Equally as interesting were the amphitheaters in Segesta and Taormina. Overall, it was a wonderful trip. — D.J. GARIBOTTI, Barrington, IL