I read about Hope Cottage Tours (Hope Cottage, Mackney Lane, Brightwell cum Sotwell, Oxfordshire, OX10 0SQ, U.K.; phone 44 [0] 1491 837100 or visit www.hopecottagetours.co.uk) in ITN’s MART Classifieds and began to e-mail Sue Robson, its owner and tour guide, about arranging a customized itinerary for my husband, Jim, and me.
My two sons, aged 11 and 15, went with me on a fabulous 10-night sailing around the Baltic on the MS Amsterdam of Holland America Line (Seattle, WA; 800/426-0327, www.hollandamerica.com), June 22-July 1, 2006. Not including airfare, the price was $7,000 for four of us in a family cabin (my husband opted not to go at the last minute). We embarked and disembarked in Copenhagen.
I have a few suggestions for readers going to that area of the world.
While on a 2-week independent trip to Italy in June ’06, my two girlfriends and I found a wonderful company providing day trips into the Tuscan countryside outside of Florence: Doors To Italy (27500 Pinyon St., Murrieta, CA 92562; 951/704-5729, e-mail doors2italy@verizon.net).
We were picked up in the morning by Roberto at our lodging in the city and in a very comfortable new Mercedes van with air-conditioning were driven around the Chianti Road (S222) to Siena and San Gimignano.
Iguazu Falls, located on the Argentine–Brazilian border 650 miles north of Buenos Aires, are the widest waterfalls in the world and are widely recognized as one of the 10 most spectacular. In April ’06, a month before my wife, Paula, and I were scheduled to leave for a one-week visit to Buenos Aires, we decided not to miss the opportunity to see these remote waterfalls.
I took a cruise on the Maasdam across the North Atlantic from Rotterdam to Boston, Aug. 2-20, ’06. I’m generally not a great fan of cruising on large ships, but this cruise made stops in the Faroe Islands, which I hadn’t seen before, and at places in Iceland and Greenland that I hadn’t been to on previous visits.
by Louis Bechtel, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Six of us had several delightful days in May ’05 doing excursions from Florence in a 6-passenger Mercedes minivan with tour guide Dr. Marcello Grandini (Frazione Padule 109/A, 50039 Vicchio-Firenze, Italy; phone/fax 011-39-055-8407830 or e-mail marcello.tourguide@tiscali.it).
Friendly faces, lively music, colorful art and beautiful churches are what my husband and I found on our 12-day “Danube and Black Sea Sampler,” a river cruise from which we returned on Oct. 17, ’04. The cruise was offered by Vantage Deluxe World Travel (90 Canal St., Boston, MA 02114-2031; phone 800/322-6677).
by Randy Keck
A friend and I went on a 30-day tour of Turkey in July ’03 with Cultural Folk Tours International (5631 Lincoln Ave., Ste. B, Cypress, CA 90630; phone 800/935-8875 or visit www.boraozkok.com).
The total cost, including the flight from San Antonio to Istanbul and return, was $5,720 per person plus travel insurance. We were given a $250 deduction because we paid in full in January.