Hotels and Lodging

by Joyce Bruck, Ocean Ridge, FL

From VIENNA, Austria, Oct. 5, 2009…

by James Ure, Salt Lake City, UT

“For your birthday,” said my companion, Judy Martin, “I want to buy you dinner — in Paris on New Year’s Eve.” This was her gift to me in August ’08. Our holiday week in the City of Light began on Dec. 29.

Two friends and I took a 10-day trip to Venezuela in December ’08. While our itinerary, which included visits to Caracas, Mérida and Canaima National Park, didn’t exhaust what Venezuela has to offer, we enjoyed our visit and some fine food and unique sights, especially at Canaima.

We encountered no danger and confronted absolutely no hostility, despite the rhetorical food fight between presidents Bush and Chavez.

After staying with friends in a villa in Spain (Oct. ’09, pg. 12), my wife, Betty, and I flew on April 10, 2008, from Valencia to Athens via Rome on Alitalia, with our scheduled arrival in Athens quite late. Our friend Jan, a retired airline executive living in Kansas, flew from Valencia on another carrier.

A word about low-cost airlines — portions of our itinerary involved flying within Europe, and we found a site online, www.whichbudget.com, which shows, worldwide, who flies where and when. It lists low-cost carriers and their schedules, sites and fares.

From FRANKFURT, Germany, July 18, 2009…

by Inga Aksamit, San Rafael, CA

My family (two adults and a child) traveled to Panama, June 18-July 1, 2009, having utilized EcoCircuitos (Hotel Country Inn & Suites, Ground Floor, Ste. 3, Amador, Pelican Ave., Amador Causeway, Panama; phone +011 507 314 0068, vwww.ecocircuitos.com) to arrange a custom trip for us.

The cost was roughly $7,000 for three people and included domestic airfares, ground transfers, many of the meals, guides (except in Bocas del Toro) and entry fees. We went to Panama City, Boquete, Bocas del Toro and San Blas.

From BADEN-BADEN, Germany, July 15, 2009. . .

When you’re planning for a trip, which brand of guidebook do you look to for information and why? Which series has most successfully supplied the information you find most helpful for your type of travel? Do you use the guidebooks of one particular company for the planning stage and yet carry a different publisher’s book while on the trip? Are some book series more reliable for certain parts of the world than others? Along with naming the brand of guidebook and publisher, please include approximately when you took the corresponding trip and where.