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When I assemble an album of photographs from a trip, I place on the cover a picture of my travel group and the tour guide. It helps in bringing back memories of the trip as a whole, in addition to the specific memories evoked by the pictures in the album. PHIL HUGILL Bethesda, MD
My companion, Abram, and I traveled to Paris the last week in October ’11 and used our Capital One Visa card and our Wells Fargo Visa debit card. We made about 15 purchases with the Capital One card and used the Wells Fargo card four times to withdraw euros from ATMs. When we got home and got our statements, our Capital One bill, as expected, included no foreign-transaction fees. Our Wells Fargo statement, on the other hand, was a shocker. On top of what we had withdrawn, we had been charged nearly 20% of that amount in foreign-transaction and usage fees!
The article “Will I Have a Medical Emergency Overseas?,” back in the August 2011 “Eye on Travel Insurance” column, discussed the likelihood of travelers needing treatment plus the types of coverage one might want. One key thing I felt the article did not place enough importance on was where one is going, such as Antarctica, Madagascar or Svalbard in Norway, to name a few of the more remote destinations, as opposed to visiting places like the major European capitals on a tour.
During three wonderful weeks that my wife and I spent in Bali in September-October ’11, our vacation was made easy and enjoyable thanks, in large part, to our driver, Billy Dewa (e-mail billybaliman0908@yahoo.com), whose services we used on six occasions. For $40 per day, Billy — in his clean, air-conditioned SUV — would meet us promptly at our hotel in whatever part of the island we were staying.
I took the 11-day land tour of Panama, “From the Pacific to the Caribbean,” in March ’11 with Explore! Worldwide (based in the UK, with an office in Oakland, CA; 800/715-1746). It was a good experience. The land cost was $1,670 plus a single supplement of $505. There were nine participants: four from the UK, two Canadians and three Americans. With a good background in the history and natural history of Panama, our local guide, Kenny Weeks, was excellent and accommodated our special interests as well.
My husband, John, and I found Green Papaya Travel (21B Lo Duc St., Hai Ba Trung Dist., Hanoi City, Vietnam; phone +84 391 323 4507) in ITN’s The MART classifieds and would recommend them to anyone who wants to see Southeast Asia. Green Papaya was great. We communicated by e-mail and they made all the arrangements (except international flights) for our 17-day trip to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, Sept. 23-Oct. 11, 2011. We asked for, at least, three-star hotels, a car with air-conditioning, a driver and English-speaking guides.
Narrow boating is the ultimate do-it-yourself activity. You not only run the boat, cook and housekeep but operate the locks and raise the bridges on the canal or river. And “narrow” means just that, as the locks are as little as seven feet wide, which calls for a boat that is long and narrow, like a horizontal Ichabod Crane. My wife, Carol, and I have taken narrow boat vacations in England, Ireland, France and the US.
I am writing in regard to Emirates flight EK225 on May 31, 2011, from Dubai to San Francisco, on which I was a passenger in economy class.
As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 31 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
For details, call the State Department at 202/647-5225 or visit www.travel.state.gov.
