March 2006

When the original agent with whom we worked at Orient Odyssey (1385 Gulf Rd., Ste. 203, Point Roberts, WA 98281; phone 800/637-5778 or visit www.orientodyssey.com) was poorly handling arrangements for post-tour accommodations, our file was taken over by the very competent owner, Thomas Cheng, who also saw us off in Los Angeles. (We did have to push him a bit to get a reasonable connection on the transfer to San Francisco.)

Our 21-day tour, “Tibet and Grand CHINA Odyssey,” took place in October ’04. The tour was well priced at $3,180 per person, including air.

Turkey My sister and I spent five days in Istanbul in September ’04, and on two of those days we scheduled private tours of the city with Insight Travel (Akbiyik Caddesi No. 104, 34400 Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey; phone 90 212 638 6310 or visit www.tour-turkey.com).

From our initial contact with Get to Costa Rica Tours (624 Pecan Blvd., McAllen, TX 78501; 877/877-8666 or www.gettocostarica.com) to arrange a 9-day/8-night customized tour of the country, I was impressed with the company. Scheduling concerns limited the dates we could travel, and Get to Costa Rica worked within our “set” dates when most other companies would not.

“Heart of Central Europe” from Exodus Travel (based in London; in the U.S., book through Adventure Center, 1311 63rd St., Ste. 200, Emeryville, CA 94608; phone 800/228-8747, e-mail exodus@adventurecenter.com or visit www.exodus.co.uk) featured lots of variety, lots of walking, beautiful scenery, caves and a few city driving tours. We always had clean rooms, centrally located hotels and hot showers.

Varini de Silva of Ceylon Express International (9542 Dumbreck Dr., Huntington Beach, CA 92646; 800/423-9566 or www.ceylonexpress.com) carefully planned my trip so I would see Sri Lanka at the time of the Kandy Perahera, continuing from there on a ’round-the-world trip. She arranged for part of the tour money go to the Foundation for Coexistence, which offers hope to the people of Sri Lanka for a speedy recovery from the devastating tsunami of December 2004.

by Marisue Pickering, Orono, ME

Trimming waist and cost

We took an an excellent trip to Paris (six nights) and Nice (three nights), May 23-June 2, ’05, arranged by France Vacations (Chatsworth, CA; 800/332-5332 or www.francevacations.net). Round-trip air from San Francisco to Paris, Paris to Nice and return via Air France plus hotels in Paris and Nice and all airport transfers cost $1,649 per person.

The trip went without a hitch. All the airport transfers were on time, personnel were polite and the luggage was handled cheerfully.

My friend and I, who both qualify as seniors, first traveled to India in January ’03 for a month. We paid for the car and driver and then just arranged things as we went along, charging hotels and meals. Sometimes we looked at as many as three hotels before we chose one. At other times of the year, it would be best to book in advance.

My husband and I took a trip with Elderhostel (Boston, MA; 877/426-8056 or www.elderhostel.org) to the Baltic capitals — Vilnius, Lithuania; Riga, Latvia, and Tallinn, Estonia — plus St. Petersburg and Moscow, June 23-July 11, ’05. It was a great trip, very informative, and the lectures by local professors were quite enlightening as to the causes of the breakup of the Soviet Union.