June 2009

I consider myself a fairly canny and frugal traveler, arranging my own trips so that I spend time on the cultural and scenic attractions that interest me and don’t waste money on fancy accommodations I would only occupy while asleep. I thought I had stumbled on a great deal when I received a brochure in the mail in late December ’08 from Holland America Line (HAL) advertising a 34-day cruise, March 17-April 19, from Rio around the Horn and up the coast of South and Central America to San Diego. The “air included” price was a slim $2,499 per person.

by Wendy Schatz, Bellevue, WA

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 US, 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 WILLIAM E. TILTON, Jr., of San Mateo, Florida:

Prior to our trip to Europe, my wife, JoAnn, and I did some research on the Internet about Avignon, France, and while we knew it was the site of the Palace of the Popes, little did we realize how interesting the walled city is. We had planned on only one night there but stayed for three.

The Cathedral of Quito, officially La Catedral, is a not-to-be-missed sight in Quito, Ecuador. The different types of gargoyles, alone, are worth a visit, but for $2 a climb up the towers is an experience which will not be forgotten.

Finding the best airfare can be almost as much of a journey as the trip itself. ITN readers may find the following airfare journey an instructive example.

I have been dealing with a few airlines lately in the matters of protecting or using frequent-flyer miles.

Travelers to Paris should be aware that, at least as of my trip in March ’09, there are no longer ticket booths in the Métro stations. The booths were where you used to be able to buy tickets for the subway and the bus lines. There are now two machines instead; apparently, one takes credit cards and the other cash.

The instructions are in French, of course, but if you look hard enough you can find a button to press for an English translation that will appear on a small screen. It is fairly complicated, so I bought enough tickets to last me through my next several trips to Paris.

by Charles and Nita Swartz, Las Cruces, NM

My wife, Nita, had always wanted to visit the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We searched for tours of those countries but never found one that visited all of the places in which we were interested.