November 2005

What do you do to pass the time in an airport waiting for a flight? Have any suggestions to make the interval more pleasant? ITN asked readers those questions and printed some of their responses in the May ‘05 issue. More ideas have come in and we are presenting them here.

If you have any tips to contribute (photos with captions welcome), write to Whittle While You Wait, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramentro, CA 95818, or e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com (please include the address at which you receive ITN).

by Jan Oravetz, Ft. Myers, FL

I took an 18-day tour with smarTours (501 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1402, New York, NY 10017; 800/337-7773 or visit www.smartours.net), May 14-30, ’05, in which we spent 10 days in Malaysian Borneo, two days in Kuala Lumpur and three days on the island of Penang. The other days were spent flying. Our group consisted of 28 people, ranging in age from 22 to 86, with the average being the late 50s.

“France’s Most Beautiful Villages,” the tour my husband and I took of the Dordogne region in September-October ’04, visited places where large tour buses cannot go. Our 12-day tour was with Intimate France (Box 92, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956; phone 800/676-1247or visit www.intimatefrance.com).

We traveled in a van with eight people, with Intimate France owner George Nevin as our chauffeur and guide. In such a small group, our trip was more personalized and flexible. Sometimes George changed the itinerary to accommodate the group’s interests.

I went to GHANA, BURKINA FASO and MALI with Far Fung Places (1914 Fell St., San Francisco, CA 94117; phone 800/410-9811 or visit www.farfungplaces.com), Nov. 18-Dec. 12, ’04. The land cost was $6,000. The small group was led by the company owner, Kathleen Fung, who is energetic, concerned about her clients and extremely well organized.

“City Highlights Independent Studies” programs from Elderhostel (11 Ave. de Lafayette, Boston, MA 02111; phone 877/426-8056 or visit www.elderhostel.org) are shorter, include fewer meals and fewer group activities and are less expensive than the traditional Elderhostel European programs. I enrolled as a single in one of them, “Berlin: City of Many Faces,” Oct. 29-Nov. 5, ’04, and found it satisfactory in every respect.

For those ITN readers who might be searching for an experience which is more customized than a standard tour, I recommend the outfit which guided my 21-year-old son, Stephen, and me in Morocco: Berber Tours (Boutique Lac Iriqi, Ave. Mohamed V, 45900 Zagora, Morocco; phone 212-68-51-50-87, e-mail U.S. representative Jeffrey Teachout at admin@berbertours.net or visit www.berbertours.net).

A trip my husband, John, and I made to Australia was different from most tours as we spent most of our time in the western part of the country. Our one-month trip was planned by AAT Kings (Head Office, Level 4, 476 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria, 3004, Australia; visit www.aatkings.com. . . with a U.S. office at 801 East Katella Ave., 3rd Floor, Anaheim, CA 92805; phone 800/353-4525). We booked the trip on their website.

by Jane B. Hanrahan, Alpharetta, GA

Travel in Nicaragua has changed considerably.

Europe