June 2007

Many of us prefer traveling with a group, since it is cost effective. This often means, especially during busy travel seasons, being tightly packed in a big bus. In the last six months of 2006 my wife, Marlene, and I took three such tours, which I compare below. All prices are per person and include airfare to and from Chicago.

We started with a 17-day “Grand Tour of France,” Sept. 7-23, with Grand European Tours (6000 Meadows Rd., Ste. 520, Lake Oswego, OR 97035; 800/552-5545, www.getours.com). It cost $3,599 and we spent $180 on optional tours.

My wife, Betty, and I flew Air India from Los Angeles to New Delhi on Jan. 25, 2006, and returned on Feb. 15, 2006. Wanting to apply to their frequent-flyer program so we could get credit for air-miles with Air India and/or their partners, I asked on the plane for an application. They said they didn’t have any but usually do and to ask at their check-in desk when we stopped in Frankfurt, Germany. I did and was told, “Ask on the plane to New Delhi.” Again, they said they had none (though they usually do) and to ask at check-in in New Delhi, which I did.

My husband, William, and I were to take a 12-day Amazon River cruise aboard the Princess Regal, Jan. 16-28, 2007. The cost of our trip was $6,653 including airfare.

We flew out of San Francisco on Oct. 11, 2006, destined to board the Pacific Princess in Cape Town, South Africa, for a 29-day voyage across the Indian Ocean ending in Australia. After arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, for the last leg of our flight, with Lufthansa, the airline ramp agent denied us entry onto the plane because we each did not have one completely blank visa page in our passports.

by Ed Kinney, Contributing Editor

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. There are no restrictions on length. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.) 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 BILL O’CONNELL of Castro Valley, California:

At baggage check-in for a flight on United from Newark airport in November ’06, the agent was being “efficient” by printing out two or three sets of baggage tags at once, then summoning the travelers one by one. She asked for picture I.D. of the person next to us, looked at the I.D. (a passport) and then proceeded to attach our luggage tags to that person’s bag, thumping it down on the moving belt.

My wife, watching closely, said, “Is that our bag?”

I recently encountered an airport scam that other ITN readers might watch out for.

• In addition to the various Lonely Planet guides on India, the DK’s “Eyewitness Travel Guide: India” is well worth looking at; the copious illustrations make it very easy to find your way through tourist sites without a guide. If you are heading to the South, George Mitchell’s “Blue Guide: Southern India” is a must. Two other books we never travel without are Lonely Planet’s “Healthy Travel: Asia & India” by Isabelle Young and “The Pocket Doctor, A Passport to Healthy Travel” by Stephen Bezruchka, M.D.