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My husband, Carl, and I toured Croatia privately, Sept. 9-24, 2009. For the first part of our trip we used CroTouring (Milutina Baraèa 20, 51000 Rijeka, Hrvatska, Croatia; phone +385 51 277 086). Their guides made it not just a good trip but a great one.
Carl and I chose Opatija as our base for our first week because we wanted to explore the northern part of Croatia and the southern part of Slovenia and to enjoy the Adriatic.
My companion and I visited western Turkey on the 14-day/13-night “Glories of Turkey” tour from Neon Tours (Istanbul, Turkey; phone +90 [212] 274 90 00), a subsidiary of Key Tours (Fairfax, VA; 800/576-1784), in October-November ’09.
The land cost was $1,499 per person. The hotels were excellent, mostly five-star, alternating two-night stops with one-nighters.
Thank you, Bruce Kerfoot (April ’06, pg. 83), for recommending Mehmet Ozbalci of Turfantastik Tours (Istanbul, Turkey; phone +90 212 589 33 25 or fax 589 32 56).
My husband and I had 10 hours between disembarking a cruise ship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a late flight to Miami on Dec. 10, 2009.
I highly recommend Triplíce Tour, located in Hotel Del Rey (Rua Tarobá 1020, CEP 85851-220, Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil; phone [45] 2105-7500).
On a tour to Brazil in October-November ’09, my friend Mike and I visited Iguaçu Falls for three days and booked a day tour with Triplíce to visit Itaipú dam, the Bird Park and the falls on the Brazilian side for BRL190 (near $104). As it turned out, there were only the two of us on tour.
Our family of six took a trip to Greece, Jan. 1-12, 2010, after which three members of our family left for home while our daughter, my husband and I extended our stay two more days.
My wife, Eve, and I booked a trip to India and a pretrip visit to Sri Lanka with Overseas Adventure Travel, or OAT (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824), for February-March ’10. After an amount of ordinary procrastination, in early December we applied for our India visas.
by Ed Kinney, Roanoake, VA
For years I thought most travelers went to Ecuador only to visit its Galápagos Islands, but a 10-day tour of Ecuador proper in January 2010 changed my perspective. I found a nation of diverse and wonderful cultures, beautiful landscapes and colorful wildlife.
Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) is quite a distance out from both Kowloon and central Hong Kong. It is cheap and easy to take a regular bus to the city. There are several companies that run buses, and you can look them all up at the airport's website.
When I was there in February ’09, I took Citybus No. A21 (senior fare HK16.50, or US$2, and full fare HK33) to Nathan Road, the main drag in Kowloon.
My husband and I took the eight-day “Paris & the Heart of Normandy” cruise with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 800/304-9616). Excluding air, we paid $5,211 for two plus, for a three-day pretour in Paris, $1,398.
On shore excursions, passengers each had a portable receiver so we could hear the guide wherever we were standing. I have walking limitations, so the earphones made it possible to keep up.