March 2004

In the January ’04 “Boarding Pass,” the editor asked readers to comment on the trend among cruise lines to automatically add $10 per day for tips to shipboard staff.

Thank heaven for Norwegian Cruise Line and its imitators who have initiated Freestyle Cruising (Aug. ’03, pg. 33). I enjoyed Freestyle Cruising on my 12-day cruise from Dover to St. Petersburg, June 3-15, ’03, aboard the Norwegian Dream, booked through Grand Circle Travel (800/221-2610).

In the past few days I have received so much mail from Grand Circle Travel that I wondered how they could offer a decent trip paying so much for mail. I get mailings from them at least twice every week.

by Thomas McKenna, Montpelier, VT

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 or Mexico.) 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 NORMAN L. ROGERS of San Anselmo, CA:

My wife and I took an extended business trip to Cairo in October ’03. During our stay at the historic, downtown Windsor Hotel (al-Alfy Street, Cairo, Egypt — $54 for a double), which was the British Officers’ Quarters prior to the ’52 revolution, we met Samir Fayek (cell phone 011-20-12-399-5147 or e-mail samirfayek@hotmail.com).

Samir is an experienced guide who runs tours for small groups of four to six people on a half-day or full-day basis. He is extremely knowledgeable, speaks fluent English and knows how to navigate Cairo traffic expertly.

We wanted to share notes from a vacation we had in Sweden, July 16-28, ’03. This trip certainly is one we will repeat. We gathered information from the Swedish Travel & Tourism Council (www.visit-sweden.com) and from articles written by ITN subscribers, some of whom we contacted.

We were a little reluctant to try the express train from Arlanda Airport to Stockholm, but it was inexpensive; we paid a family rate of $23 for the two of us. We had our luggage carts from entry and merely took the elevator to the airport’s lower level and boarded the train.

In fall 2003 I led a group through the Himalayas on our “Jewels of the Himalayas” program, Sept. 23-Oct. 17. Among places we visited in India were Darjeeling, west and east Sikkim and Kalimpong, then we entered Bhutan at the southern border town of Phuntsholing.

As part of a journey through east Central Europe in July ’03, a friend and I boarded a train in Warsaw headed for Moscow, about a 25-hour rail trip. Part of the route entailed traveling through the country of Belarus, thus a stop was made at Terespol, the border town between Belarus and Poland. Here, as part of routine passport inspections, guards boarded the train.

In ITN’s book on Italy I came across InfoRoma, experts on Rome. It was such a wonderful find that I’m writing to recommend this resource to readers, myself.