Hotels and Lodging

On a trip to SCOTLAND in November ’05 we stayed at the Schoolhouse B&B (Caroline St. Dornie; phone 01599 555 482 or e-mail leigh@eilan.freeserve.co.uk).

My wife and I traveled to Turkey with Umit Dogan, the owner of Treasures of Travel (Box 714, Edmonds, WA 98020; 800/572-0526). The land price of our 21-day tour was $2,800 per person. We used frequent-flyer miles to fly Air France to and from Istanbul.

Because we wanted to book the tour as early as possible so as to be able to use our miles for free business-class air, we made our arrangements for the tour in early January of 2005.

When the original agent with whom we worked at Orient Odyssey (1385 Gulf Rd., Ste. 203, Point Roberts, WA 98281; phone 800/637-5778 or visit www.orientodyssey.com) was poorly handling arrangements for post-tour accommodations, our file was taken over by the very competent owner, Thomas Cheng, who also saw us off in Los Angeles. (We did have to push him a bit to get a reasonable connection on the transfer to San Francisco.)

Our 21-day tour, “Tibet and Grand CHINA Odyssey,” took place in October ’04. The tour was well priced at $3,180 per person, including air.

We took an an excellent trip to Paris (six nights) and Nice (three nights), May 23-June 2, ’05, arranged by France Vacations (Chatsworth, CA; 800/332-5332 or www.francevacations.net). Round-trip air from San Francisco to Paris, Paris to Nice and return via Air France plus hotels in Paris and Nice and all airport transfers cost $1,649 per person.

The trip went without a hitch. All the airport transfers were on time, personnel were polite and the luggage was handled cheerfully.

My friend and I, who both qualify as seniors, first traveled to India in January ’03 for a month. We paid for the car and driver and then just arranged things as we went along, charging hotels and meals. Sometimes we looked at as many as three hotels before we chose one. At other times of the year, it would be best to book in advance.

ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a reader to Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT).

My friend Edith Ann Pazmino and I took an adventure that included three unusual islands between Asia and Australia, July 6-25, ’05. Our 20-day trip took us from San Francisco to Hong Kong, Hainan Island (in the South China Sea), Singapore, Perth and, in the Indian Ocean, Christmas and Cocos islands.

The trip would not have happened without the excellent help of Helen Svensen and Arthur Waine of Greenbelt Travel Services (5510 Cherrywood Ln., Greenbelt, MD 20770; phone 800/695-0317 or 301/474-1300, fax 301/345-3666 or visit www.greenbelttravel.com).

The tour was labeled “Grand Tour of the Middle East” and that it was. Offered by the British company Explore Worldwide (in the U.S., book through Adventure Center,1311 63rd St., Ste. 200, Emeryville, CA 94608; phone 800/227-8747 or visit www.adventurecenter.com), it also was offered as three separate one-week tours in each country, but I took the 3-week combined package. October 2005 turned out to be a good month in terms of weather — not too hot and not terribly cold.

—by Vernon Hoium, Minneapolis, MN