Hotels and Lodging

We spent 12 nights in Sicily, ITALY, in May ’07 (July ’08, pg. 57).

The best hotel we stayed at during our 3-week trip to ITALY in October-November ’07 (also see May ’08, pg. 34 & July ’08, pg. 56) was the Canasta Hotel (Via Campo di Teste 6, 80073 Capri, Italy; phone +39 81 837 0561, fax 837 6675, www.hotel-canasta.com).

The Canasta is one of the lower-price hotels in the high-price tourist area of Capri town. It’s also in a pedestrian zone, which means schlepping your luggage several blocks whether you arrive from the wharf by taxi or via the funicular.

In Budapest, we stayed in the excellent Hotel Victoria (Bem rkp 11, 1011 Budapest, Hungary; phone +36 1 457 8080, fax 457 8088, www.victoria.hu). It’s on the Buda side of the Danube, right on the waterfront.

During our stay in March ’08, a single room with facilities en suite cost €91 ($141) and a double, €96 ($149), breakfast included. Credit cards accepted. English spoken.

St. Moritz, SWITZERLAND, is not the sort of place where you expect to spend a budget holiday. That said, an off-season visit allows you to enjoy its glorious setting, soak up its posh ambience and relax at a reasonable cost.

In May ’08 my wife, Paula, and I spent two nights in the 3-star Hotel Waldhaus am See (Via Dim Lej 6, 7500 St. Moritz, Switzerland; phone +41 [0] 81 836 60 00, fax 60 60 or visit [in German only] www.waldhaus-am-see.ch).

Most of my travel is done with one travel partner or in a group of four, but I realize many travelers prefer the large-group experience and the camaraderie within the group.

I spent seven days in Madeira, starting May 22, 2008. This trip was offered by Sun Holidays (7932 W. Sand Lake Rd., Ste. 302, Orlando, FL 32819; 800/422-8000 or 407/345-0100, www.sunholidaytours.com). Kristen Molloy handled my reservations and did a superb job.

The package included transatlantic airfare; hotel; airport/hotel transfers; a half-day tour of Funchal; daily buffet breakfast at the Baia Azul Hotel, and three buffet dinners at this hotel plus three vouchers for dinners at nearby restaurants.

After 50 years of traveling, my wife, Alma, and I, both 82, had our first experience with the need for medical insurance on April 17, 2008.

While I enjoyed the article “A Modern Greek Odyssey” by Henry Lee (July ’08, pg. 6) and found his travel experiences and tips interesting, I am concerned about an impression on the cost of hotel rooms that may have been created.

The following tips are the result of three trips to New Zealand (in 1983, 1993 and 2008) totaling some 16 weeks. The last visit my wife, Carol, and I made, in February, reconfirmed our conviction that NZ is the most beautiful and friendly country in the world.

Here are some general suggestions.

For over six months, my husband, George, and I had been working on a trip to Bhutan, Laos and Myanmar set for May 16-June 16, 2008. When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on May 2, we weren’t sure if we should go. However, we were meeting our son and daughter-in-law, who were on a year-long trip around the world, so we couldn’t change the dates.