On Easter Island, Hotel Taura’a (Atamu Tekena s/n, Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Chile; phone [56] [32] 210 0463, fax [32] 255 1310, www.tauraahotel.cl) has 10 delightful rooms and serves delicious breakfasts. The surroundings are beautiful.
Our lovely, spotless room cost my husband, Joe, and me approximately $115 per night. (The costs I give here are based on the November ’08 rate of 620 pesos per US dollar.)
On a custom tour our family took to Panama in June-July ’09 (Oct. ’09, pg. 32), we stayed on SAN CRISTOBAL ISLAND at the Dolphin Bay Hideaway (phone +011 [507] 6417 7351 or [507] 6772 9917, www.dolphinbayhideaway.com), a small, private B&B in Bocas del Toro.
I traveled from Santiago to Easter Island with my friend Teresa for a visit, March 13-17, 2009. What we learned may prove useful to others planning a visit.
by Julie Skurdenis
(Part 2 of 2 on the Azores)
by Dennis Sherwood, Gig Harbor, WA (Second of two parts)
by Randy Keck, Part 1 of 2 on the Azores
by David Tykol, Editor, ITN
by Donna DeGaetani, Los Angeles, CA
A friend, Joan, and I, both seniors, took the 17-day “New Zealand Encounter” in February ’08, going from the South Island to the North Island, with visits to the Bay of Islands, Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch, Milford Sound and Mt. Cook. We traveled with AAT Kings Tours (Anaheim, CA; 866/240-1659, www.aatkings.com). The cost was $3,975, and round-trip air from San Francisco added $1,848.
It was a very well run coach tour (with an interesting and fair seat rotation), especially because of our unbelievably excellent tour guide, Ruben.