I was happy with the Hotel Ambassade (Herengracht 341, 1016 AZ Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS; phone +31 20 555 0 222 or visit www.ambassade-hotel.nl). I stayed there March 29-April 3, ’06, during the off-season, so my double room cost €185 ($238) per night, reduced from the rack rate of €220 ($283).
My wife and I toured the island of Hokkaido on a 7-day Japan Rail Pass in November ’04.
My wife, JoAnn, and I wanted to go to Switzerland to celebrate our 10th anniversary, so I said, “Okay, probably in the spring.” While surfing the net for fares, however, I found a round-trip nonstop Miami-Zürich flight on Swiss International on March 15, ’06, for $485 round trip. That was less than $1,000 for both of us, so I grabbed it. We spent 12 days there.
The search begins
New Zealand The 12-day “Spectacular New Zealand” trip from smarTours (501 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1402, New York, NY 10017; 800/337-7773 or www.smartours.net) was fantastic and my family and I highly recommend it to other travelers. We traveled March 6-17, ’06.
A British company that I like is Exodus (Grange Mills, Weir Road, London, SW12 0NE, England; phone +44 [0] 20 8675 . . . From the U.S., book with Adventure Center, 1311 63rd St., Ste. 200, Emeryville, CA 94068; 800/227-8747). They offer basic travel that tries to give you a real flavor of the country.
The fastest and easiest way to get to Hong Kong and Kowloon from the Hong Kong International Airport is the Airport Express train. There are several options in buying the tickets. After two trips to Hong Kong, Nov. 25-29 (staying at the Shangri-La Kowloon) and Dec. 27-29, ’05 (Holiday Inn on Kowloon), I pretty much figured them all out.
During a time of particularly nice weather in November ’05, while on a trip to Hong Kong I decided to visit the newly opened Disneyland Hong Kong.
Our enchanting introduction to India began and ended rather disappointingly on Air-India, on which we traveled round trip from New York to New Delhi.
A Natural Focus, LLC (56 Montague Rd., Westhampton, MA 01027; 413/527-5903 or www.anaturalfocus.com), conducts personalized natural history tours in northwest Costa Rica. I had a great experience on a 10-day tour in January ’06. The cost was $1,670 per person, double occupancy, not including airfare from the USA, which was $606 from Atlanta.