04
For me, the highlight of a visit to Tunisia was ancient Carthage. The city of Tunis has a number of suburbs. One is Carthage — modern and bustling — but located within it, on the coast, is ancient Carthage. Since I took Latin, I’ve remembered that one Roman senator always concluded his speeches with “Carthage must be destroyed.”
On our cruise around South America, we sailed on two oceans and cruised in grand fjords flanked by snow-covered mountains. We encountered penguins, petrels, cormorants and condors plus porpoises, sea lions and whales. Icebergs, large and small, passed by. We visited some of the continent’s most cosmopolitan cities and some of its smaller towns. This was our adventure aboard the Marco Polo of Orient Lines (800/333-7300) in March ’03.
An article in the June ’05 issue of ITN, “Inca Ruins and Amazing Animals on a Private Tour of Peru and Ecuador” by Fred DeVinney, prompted us to contact Elizabeth Sanders of Tropical Nature Travel (Gainesville, FL; phone 877/827-8350 or visit www.tropicalnaturetravel.com).
I took an 8-day trip to Hong Kong and Beijing, China, Nov. 8-16, ’04, booking my trip through Asian Affair Holidays (800/742-3133 or www.asianaffairholidays.com), an arm of Singapore Airlines. I am a 76-year-old female with a shoulder replacement (not great), osteoarthritis (knees and left hip) and spinal stenosis that requires me to use a walker (four wheels) and to need a handicapped-equipped bathroom (i.e., handheld shower plus rails on the sides of the toilet).
I reveled in a superlative trip to the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, Oct. 4-20, ’05. I planned it with the help and guidance of Leftheris Papageorgiou, owner of Hellenic Adventures (Minneapolis, MN; 800/851-6349 or www.hellenicadventures.com), which I learned of through their ad in ITN.
Mr. Papageorgiou provided printouts with descriptions of hotels in the historic centers of Bologna, Ferrara, Mantova, Modena, Parma and Milan, enabling me to make intelligent choices.
I took a 2-week trip to Scotland. The first week, Sept. 10-16, ’05, was spent walking in the Highlands with a small group on an escorted trip arranged by a company I found on the Internet, Wilderness Scotland, Ltd. (3A St. Vincent St., Edinburgh, EH3 6SW, Scotland; phone 011 44 131 625 6635 or visit www.wildernessscotland.com).
In late summer ’05 we booked with Cruise West, through TravLtips, a Central American cruise to take place during the Christmas holidays. At the time, we noted the ship’s departure on our calendar but forgot to note that we had to be in Costa Rica the day before. You can imagine our embarrassment upon arriving at the airport to be told, “But your flight left yesterday.”
Here are our comments about our transatlantic voyage, Aug. 27-Sept. 12, ’04, aboard the Grand Princess of Princess Cruises (Santa Clarita, CA; phone 800/774-6237 or visit www.princesscruises.com).
In 2005, my wife and I were two of the estimated 60,000 visitors to the Galápagos Islands. Our trip, which we found out about through Bridgerland Audubon Society (BAS Mini-Grants, 1738 Country Club Dr., Logan, UT 84321; 435/753-7744 or www.bridgerlandaudubon.org), took place May 28-June 7 and cost $2001 per person, including everything except international airfare.
We wanted to share a very positive experience we had with our tour boat and guide and also alert readers about an airline’s actions.
My wife and I stayed at the Tokyo Hilton for six nights in October ’05. I am a member of the Hilton HHonors guest reward program, thus when we checked out I expected to see a note that said my HHonors account would be credited with a certain number of points. Since room rates are quite high in Japan and our bill was for $1,176, the amount of points I expected was significant.