July 2007

My husband, R.C., and I cannot speak highly enough for Inside Japan Tours (Lewins House, Lewins Mead, Bristol, BS1 2NN, U.K.; phone ++ 44 [0] 870 120 5600, fax 870 746 1047) and the trip we took with them in October ’06.

I booked a flight and hotel package with Expedia for April 19-26, 2007. I did this several months before departure and opted to include the Expedia Package Protection plan, which was good because I had to use it only three hours before my flight for a very unexpected reason.

I was surprised by the reader’s letter “Re Shore Tours, Stockholder Perk” (Sept. ’06, pg. 30) complaining about Holland America Line’s (HAL’s) customer service. While experiences are individual, I have found HAL’s customer service personnel to be unfailingly prompt and helpful.

My husband and I sailed on Holland America Line’s MS Statendam for a “Japan and Transpacific Passage” (Japan/Siberia) cruise, April 29-May 21, 2006, which we booked through Vantage Deluxe World Travel. Before leaving home, we sent a copy of our 100 shares of stock to the cruise line’s parent company, Carnival Cruises, in order to receive $250 in shipboard credit.

Our latest venture with Grand Circle Travel, a 2-week Extended Vacation in Italy in September ’06, provided the high-quality foreign experience we have come to expect from that company. It was an interesting but leisurely itinerary through beautiful Tuscany and Umbria, with a superb guide, excellent (if not great) accommodations and meals, and arrangements along the way that went like clockwork.

Is British Airways discouraging business these days? Besides being among airlines offering the least space between seats, they also have implemented a policy forbidding selection of seats until 24 hours before travel. My wife and I tried for an upgrade, but none were available on our particular flight from Amsterdam to London to Miami scheduled for May 11, 2007.

Since we will be on tour the day before leaving Amsterdam, without access to telephones or computers, my six-foot-three frame will probably have to be stuck someplace other than an aisle seat.

M. Lewis Stein, Irvine, CA

Surveying the drab station and its equally unimpressive surroundings as we alighted from the train at Orvieto, my wife, Barbara, queried, “So, where is the picturesque village you promised me?”

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 JOHN LUDEMANN of Palm Desert, California:

After dinner, either my wife or I would say, “Let’s go to Italy,” and we would look at all of the slides we had made on a trip — a wonderful way to relive it.

If you’ve recently been on a long plane trip more than five hours and have shortness of breath, you could easily have pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs). This potentially fatal condition was diagnosed in my husband, John, during a one-week interval after a flight from Shannon, Ireland, to Newark, New Jersey, in March ’07.