November 2005

We took the 11-night “Belize/Barrier Reef/Guatemala” cruise on American Canadian Caribbean Line’s Grande Caribe, Jan. 24-Feb. 4, ’05. We had cabin 44A, and the cost for the two of us was $5,151.

ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a reader to Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), a subsidiary of Grand Circle Travel (GCT).

by Dorothy Aksamit, Sausalito, CA

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, 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 JOAN THOMAS of Hamilton, New Zealand:

On our trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador, we decided to take a half-day tour to the Historical Park. It was a good decision.

The Central Suriname Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is about an hour’s flight south of the capital, Paramaribo. On our May ’03 trip we flew in a Cessna around Tafelberg, which is a tepui, or flat-topped mountain, and saw its 12 lovely waterfalls cascading over the sharp edge of the top, the largest a golden color — quite spectacular. We were lucky to have seen Tafelberg after some rain, since the waterfalls are seasonal and they do seem to be a miracle appearing from nothing.

Several years ago on a trip to Greece, we visited Mycenae and became interested in the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and the Trojan Wars.

We enjoyed a driving tour of Greece and Turkey, May 3–26, ’05. We visited all the usual places, so I will limit comments to recommendations.

We took a 2-week trip to Malta plus an add-on week in Sicily, April 16-May 6, ’05, with Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/221-2610 or www.gct.com). For my wife and me, the cost was approximately $6,254 from Los Angeles. The experience became a once-in-a-lifetime highlight.

All the credit goes to our Malta program director, Stephen Micallef-Grogan, who led our Grand Circle group of 27 experienced travelers. Stephen, a native of Malta, is fluent in English, Maltese, French and Italian and has been a registered tour director for 12 years.

As avid travelers, we have been to over 100 countries. We love to cruise, and there is one thing we have a hard time finding good information about: how to get from the airport to the cruise port in an economical manner.