Air Travel

by Nili Olay, New York, NY

I believe I was always meant to go to Egypt...

During the middle of July ’04, my wife, Ione, and I spent two weeks in Belize City and San Pedro (on Ambergris Caye), Belize. Our American Airlines flights from Miami were comfortable and on time.

I would like to tell you about a company that really came through when things went awry. The company is Andes Adventures (1323 12th St., Ste. F, Santa Monica, CA 90401; phone 800/289-9470 or 310/395-5265 or visit www.andesadventures.com).

I booked a 10-day tour to Machu Picchu, Peru, with Andes Adventures for Oct. 7-16, ’04. The cost was $2,425 from Los Angeles, with single supplement included as well as all meals and round-trip internal air Lima to Cusco. This was a fully inclusive trip.

In August of 2004 we booked the trip “Athens, the Greek Islands and Beyond” for June 4-26, ’05, with Grand Circle Travel. The total cost for two was $7,596.80. We were told that if we paid early in advance we could save $398 and that paying in advance would “lock in the cost of the trip,” so we paid the full cost in advance. However, we received a letter dated Jan. 19, ’05, from Grand Circle stating that we owed $110 as a “fuel surcharge.”

After deliberately leaving some time to pass for reflection, I have a few comments about our Eastern Europe river cruise in August ’04. Grand Circle Travel (GCT) was the operator, and our flights were arranged on Lufthansa by GCT.

In the fall of 2004 we decided to make a spring trip to Brazil. In mid-November, after looking at different options, we called Gate 1 Travel and booked a 10-day trip for March 10, ’05, called “Kaleidoscope of Brazil,” which was sponsored by Varig Brazilian Airlines.

I believe the cost of this trip was $2,676 each, which included round-trip airfare from Miami (but not from Virginia to Miami).

Airlines and guidebooks often fail to warn travelers about the (sometimes substantial) entry and exit fees and taxes that some countries charge. These fees vary widely from country to country, over time and according to the nationality of the traveler. What can be most surprising about these fees is that often they are payable only in U.S. dollars (cash, of course), despite the traveler’s nationality. I’ve heard that sometimes only the exact amount due is accepted (no change is provided).

by Alan M. Spira, M.D.

Our trip to Ho Chi Minh City, VIET-NAM, and Bangkok, THAILAND, in March ’04 was grand. Darryll at Asian Affair Holidays (360 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Ste. 3008, El Segundo, CA 90245; phone 800/742-3133 or visit www.asianaffairholidays.com) made all the arrangements and planned each detail. Nothing went wrong. As independent travelers, we need to know all legs of our trip will work out. This was our second trip planned by Asian Affair Holidays and we highly recommend this company.

In the ’90s, my wife, Alice, and I three times hired a car and drove through the newly opened countries of Eastern Europe, but we had yet to visit the three countries that were former Soviet states: Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. In May ’05 we made up for that omission.

If we were younger, we would have handled the trip totally independently, but we’re now in our mid-70s and the thought of arriving at airports and train stations and trying to sound out the Cyrillic alphabet (let alone understand the language) in places where few speak any English was daunting.