We have never been enthusiastic fans of Charles de Gaulle International Airport (Roissy CDG) in Paris. In the past, our complaints — which were mainly about the lack of or inoperable ATMs and poor signage to car rental offices — while adding up to considerable dissatisfaction, could have been taken individually as a bit of nitpicking, but observations have compelled me to write.
Along with a group of nine other adventurers, I went on a tour of a country that few travelers have ever been allowed to visit, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), March 24-April 8, 2007.
by Dee Poujade, Portland, OR, photos by Michaela Gonzalez
In his May ’07 “Discerning Traveler” column, Philip Wagenaar described how, when going through security checkpoints at airports, anywhere, he places on the moving belt, for inspection, his quart-sized zip-lock see-through baggie with sundries in it, each of the sundry containers capable of holding no more than three ounces of liquid or gel, of course. Next to that, again for the inspectors to see, he places a 4-ounce bottle of contact lens solution.
An offputting and potentially dangerous event happened during a red-eye flight from Anchorage to San Francisco on Alaska Airlines, Sept. 12-13, 2006.
I purchased a 2-week extended holiday to Costa del Sol, Spain, with Sun Holidays for March ’07. The total price was $1,847, which included airfare from New York’s JFK to Málaga, Spain, with Iberia Air; hotel for 13 nights; transfers; meals; three local tours, and taxes. I separately arranged domestic air on US Airways to JFK Airport, which cost $248.
For our 50th anniversary, in August ’06 my wife and I left for Europe on a 2-month trip. We utilized a travel agency in Colorado for airline, train and hotel bookings. Our drive in a rental car through France would end at Strasbourg, after which we would take an Adriatic cruise.
The ship would depart its pier in Venice, Italy, at 6 p.m. on Sept. 20. To make that, we had been booked on Lufthansa flight No. 6911 from Strasbourg to Frankfurt, Germany, on that same day, connecting with Lufthansa flight 4084 to Venice, scheduled to arrive four hours before our cruise ship left port.
To mesh with a Greek Isles cruise in September ’07, I spent months on the Internet looking for an open-jaw airfare from San Diego to Istanbul with return from Athens to San Diego.
by Roger Canfield, Contributing Editor
A quick comment on cell-phone parking lots at U.S. airports, mentioned in the September ’07 issue, page 2. . . In July ’07 we had occasion to try the lot at Orlando International Airport while collecting some members of the London Symphony Orchestra for the Florida International Festival in Daytona Beach.
This was not the greatest experience, as the lot was only half paved and had no information except a board showing which airlines arrived at which terminal.