Hotels and Lodging

by Joyce Bruck; Ocean Ridge, FL

The driver of the taxi I shared with my travel companion, Bob, dropped us off at a bus station on the edge of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It was May 2013. 

There, another driver was waiting with his old Zhiguli (Lada). He wanted “10” for the ride into town, meaning either $10 or €10, almost as much as we had paid for one person for the 286-kilometer ride from Tashkent. Then he came down to “five.”

I wrote “5000” on my hand, meaning 5,000 som, or about $2.25. At that, the driver opened his trunk for our bags and we took off.

If your “get up and go” got up and went, travel still can be wonderful. My husband, John, and I are in our 80s and kind of slow, but we still haven’t seen everything. We would slow down a tour group, and we need extra time in the morning to get ready, so we have taken to traveling on private tours. 

My husband, Jerry, and I took a 7-week trip to Mexico and Guatemala, April 23-June 8, 2013, that focused on the Mayan world and also took in nine Spanish-colonial cities.

Starting in the Yucatán Peninsula in MEXICO, we decided to spend five days first on the Mayan Riviera at Esencia. This fabulous resort is a bit out of our usual price range, but we were glad that we splurged. It is a small resort, with personalized service and extremely comfortable beach cabanas on a quiet beach. I heartily recommend it.

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is so remote that it is not “on the way” to anywhere else, which is why it took me over 30 years to finally get there. Prior to a tour of South America, I visited Oct. 24-28, 2012, reserving a hotel online and booking tours upon arrival.

Situated in the southeastern Pacific over 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile, it is a small, triangular-shaped island with a main town of over 3,000 residents and an airport with a very long runway built by NASA.  

At the end of the letter “Ethiopia Tour Did Not Go As Planned” (Dec. ’13, pg. 23) is an editor’s note with a tip for travelers about carrying the phone number of, among other offices, the American Embassy. Yes, travelers should have this, but I would warn, ‘Do not depend on their help for anything other than getting a new passport.’

After viewing HGTV’s “House Hunters International” episode about the Croatian city of Makarska, a delightful resort located south of Split and north of Dubrovnik, my husband, Josip, and I were lured there in August 2013.

At www.booking.com we found a gem of a hotel, the modern-chic Hotel Milenij (Put Cvitacˇke 4a, 21300 Makarska, Hrvatska, Croatia; phone +385 [0] 21 619 540 or fax 615 074), and off we went for a relaxing week on the Adriatic coast.

I traveled to Copán, Honduras, in October ’13 to visit the Copán Ruins, and I can highly recommend the hotel I stayed at, Hotel Marina Copán (Copán Ruinas, Honduras, C.A.; phone [504] 2651 4070, fax 2651 4477). 

It was built in 1945 and has maintained its colonial architecture throughout. The 49 rooms are positioned along a maze of corridors, with a central pool area and lush gardens. Hotel amenities include a restaurant, bar, gift shop, pool, hot tub and free WiFi access. 

After a stay in Munich for Oktoberfest, my husband, Steve, and I visited Bulgaria, Oct. 1-4, 2013, which is not just a country to check off your list. It has a lot to offer. 

We retained the services of Patrick Peneff as our guide, a decision we made based on a Mart ad and some reviews we had seen in ITN (including Jan. ’13, pg. 32 & July ’12, pg. 30).

Marcia Brandes; Atlanta, GA