For a 10-day trip to Venezuela in December ’08, two friends and I flew into Caracas, where we would return twice during our tour of the country. The Simón Bolívar International Airport is actually in Maiquetía (my-khet-EE-yah), on the Caribbean coast, not in Caracas proper. The domestic terminal is adjacent. I was told that it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours to drive between the airport and the city, depending on traffic.
by Debi Shank, ITN
by Ed Kinney, El Cerrito, CA
In the spring of 2008, my wife, Moreen, and I decided to travel to the Far East instead of what had become a frequent destination, the Middle East. To decide where, we studied articles in ITN and other publications before selecting Cambodia and Vietnam.
by Rosemary McDaniel, Trenton, FL
Three friends and I took a thoroughly enjoyable brief trip to Scotland, Jan. 14-19, 2009. Our purpose was twofold: visit St. Andrews University in St. Andrews and spend two days in Edinburgh (where a delightful taxi driver referred to two of us as “Edinburgh virgins”).
I would like to share the following information gathered during a trip to Portugal with my husband, Kip, Nov. 5-14, 2008.
The first thing our local guide asked my wife, Nancy, and me when we arrived in Chennai, India, was the departure time of our flight to Bangkok two days hence. After a month of travel throughout India without a hitch, we wondered about his question.
The next day he advised us to be at Madras International Airport (MAA) at least three hours before our scheduled departure (our flight left at midnight around Dec. 23, 2008). We thought this to be a bit excessive, but we followed his advice; in fact, we arrived at the airport 3½ hours before our scheduled departure.
In response to a subscriber’s request, readers who take tours wrote in saying whether they prefer making their own flight arrangements for tours or having the tour company book the flights. We wanted to know, in either case, what the advantages and disadvantages are regarding convenience and cost plus how much trouble it was when something went wrong. We asked that, with any example, the writer name the tour or cruise company involved, the month and year of the trip and from where to where the flights went.
Finding the best airfare can be almost as much of a journey as the trip itself. ITN readers may find the following airfare journey an instructive example.
I have been dealing with a few airlines lately in the matters of protecting or using frequent-flyer miles.