Travelers' Intercom
In Portugal, ask a teen
Rick Steves, in his September ’08 article on Portugal, missed an important point when he commented on the country’s changes and the improvements in roads and road travel.
Frequent-flyer seats sparse
We redeemed 120,000 Chase Flexible Rewards points for 100,000 frequent-flyer miles on United Airlines recently. Since 100,000 miles per year was the limit for any one frequent-flyer number, we put 50,000 on my wife’s number and 50,000 on mine.
Coping with and fighting poverty during travels
When my husband, Frank, and I planned our trip to India, we wondered how we would react to seeing people living in third-world slums or on the street, and to beggars, especially children. Would we feel so guilty about having the money to travel that we couldn’t enjoy our trip?
Credit card purchases
Responding to a reader’s request (Oct. ’08, pg. 94), I know of a credit card with NO 3% foreign exchange fee. Any card from CapitalOne.com has this feature. My choice is the “No Hassle Cash Rewards Credit Card.”
Bucharest ‘wonderful’
My wife, Debbie, and I were in Romania in November ’07 visiting the Bucharest Stock Exchange. We stayed at the Casa Capsa (Calea Victoriei nr. 36, Bucharest; phone 4021 313 40 38, www.capsa.ro) and it was wonderful — of older vintage but not in need of repair.
Baltic Holidays
Starting in Helsinki, Finland, my wife and I toured the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — in August ’08.
Inn-to-inn walking in Europe
My husband and I, in our late 60s, traveled in Italy, Germany and France from April to mid-July 2008 with an emphasis on inn-to-inn walking. We do not like to carry a full pack, stay in hostels or huts, camp, reserve ahead, go with a group or pay a lot to arrange for a tour company’s independent walk.
Guide in Agra
Four of us were in India over Christmas 2007 and had an excellent tour guide in Agra: Javed Khan (phone 91 991 703 1888 or e-mail javedtall12@yahoo.com).
Customizing a travel wallet
For years I have used a self-made closure devised of a Velcro® brand fastener on each of my travel wallets, since the wallets that come with ready-made Velcro® closures haven’t suited my needs. I would like to share with you the technique of applying the Velcro® fastener.
Southern Africa with Vantage Deluxe
My wife, our 23-year-old daughter and I took the tour “Best of Africa: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia & South Africa,” June 5-22, 2008, with Vantage Deluxe World Travel (Boston, MA; 800/322-6677).
Gobustan petroglyphs
About 70 kilometers south of Baku, Azerbaijan, the settlement of Gobustan and the Gobustan State Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are worthwhile places to visit.
Currency exchange in Bali
Upon arriving in Bali, Indonesia, Americans, Canadians and Europeans are required to pay $25 for a Visa On Arrival (VOA). The visa will be applied to a page in your passport. Most travelers from Asian countries are spared this expense.
Club ABC to Canaries
Spanish Heritage Tours, now part of Club ABC Tours (Bloomfield, NJ; 800/456-5050, www.clubabc.com), offers an 8-day trip to Spain’s Canary Islands which I took March 30-April 7, 2008.
Can guidebooks be trusted?
A controversy was sparked earlier this year by Thomas Kohnstamm’s new book, “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventure, Questionable Ethics & Professional Hedonism.”
Guide’s insight into Russia
My wife, Marilyn, and I hired Julia Ivanushkina (Tipanov str 34/3-26, St. Petersburg 195233, Russia; e-mail juliaguide@gmail.com or visit www.spbwondertour.com) to guide us on a May ’08 day tour of St. Petersburg, Russia, because we had seen her ad in ITN’s MART Classifieds.
Personalize it
After watching my black Samsonite bag go around for the third time, because my bright green plastic name tag had come off of it, I decided to take some liquid acrylic paint and a small paintbrush and put a distinctive design back and front.
Tips on getting to Lugano
While my wife, Paula, and I didn’t find Lugano, Switzerland, to be the most exciting or interesting of destinations, the city is the southern terminus of two of Swiss Rail’s most scenic train routes: the William Tell Express and the Bernina Express.