May 2008

I enjoyed a month’s tour of Turkey in May ’07. Eastern Turkey is very scenic. There were two occasions that were disappointing, however.

On a 5-day trip to Istanbul, Turkey, in September ’07, we had the great pleasure of hiring Mr. Can (“John”) Gunay (www.cangunay.com), whom we found through a tour operator on the Rick Steves website www.ricksteves.com; the operator was booked that day but referred us to Can.

My husband, my sister and I decided to spend the 2007 Christmas holidays in Europe, and to that end we booked a 14-day “Christmas Markets” riverboat trip with Vantage Deluxe World Travel (Boston, MA; 800/322-6677). Following that, we would have a rental car and a Christmas week timeshare in southern France, then spend New Year’s in a small Bavarian country inn in which my husband and I had stayed for New Year’s a number of years before.

by Larry Hughes, Houston, TX

Historians will often point out that the reason we remember Columbus is that he was the last to discover the Americas. From A.D. 900 or so on, continental America was well known to the seafaring Vikings. There were settlements in Newfoundland and evidence of Viking life in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

At the suggestion of Kathy McIntosh of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, ITN asked readers the following questions.

by Larry Taylor, Fullerton, CA

I found the following inexpensive but comfortable lodgings during a February-March ’07 visit to South America (see April’08, pg. 49). Each had private bath, cable TV and, where needed, A/C. The price given for each is the approximate dollar amount for my single room.

• Hotel Rosario del Lago (Padres at Costañera, Copacabana, BOLIVIA; phone 591 2 862 2141, fax 862 2140, www.hotelrosario.com/lago).

The piéce de résistance of our October ’07 trip to INDIA was a stay at Jim’s Jungle Retreat (Village & PO Dhela, Ramnagar - 244715, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India; phone +91 5947 238038 or 238039, fax 5947 251636, www.jimsjungleretreat.com).

Opened in 2006 at the southern edge of Corbett National Park & Tiger Reserve, it’s situated far enough from the public road that you don’t hear foot traffic, horns or any sounds of civilization, only bird calls, elephants trumpeting and (if you are lucky) the roar of a tiger.

In Malta, the Marina Hotel (Tigne Sea Front, Sliema SLM15, Malta; phone 00 356 2133 6461, fax 2133 0650, www.themarinahotelsliema.com) is a family-run hotel that offers sea-view rooms, which, while not luxurious, have all you need plus wonderful views of Valletta across the bay. Ask for an upper floor to avoid street noise. We enjoyed room 305 on our 6-night visit in May ’07.