On our month-long trip to INDIA in November-December ’04, we found the Clarks Shiraz (54, Taj Road, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA; phone +91 05622 222 6121 or visit www.hotelclarksshiraz.com) to be a fine and efficient hotel, far better equipped to accommodate travelers than several of the other hotels we stayed in. But somehow it gave us one of the least-satisfying experiences.
We were looking for a hotel that would be close to the train station in Madrid, SPAIN, with easy access to downtown and also reasonably close to the airport. We eventually found a hotel on the Internet which seemed to come pretty close to our criteria.
A group of five of us traveled by car through Germany, Austria and Slovenia in May ’05. Most of our accommodations during the trip — guest houses, “Zimmers,” “sobe” (in Slovenia) or hostels — combined our double and triple rooms and gave us a per-person rate. All prices listed here include tax and breakfast. I made all of the reservations except one over the Internet, and only the hostel asked for a credit card number to hold. All had free, convenient parking.
Sixty kilometers south of Ajaccio in the seaside village of Propriano, Corsica, FRANCE, my wife, Christine, and I stayed in a wonderful apartment owned and operated by Marie-Francoise and Jean-Pierre Dereani, Villa les Lauriers (20110 Propriano, Corse du Sud, Corsica, France; phone/fax 00 39 04-95-76-29-60 or visit www.dereani.com).
We rented this 2-bedroom, ocean-view, fully equipped apartment in September ’05 for €450 ($525) per week. This included all fees except for €35 ($41) to cover apartment cleaning at the end of the rental period.
Clean, modern and well-equipped, Venice, Italy’s, Marco Polo Airport (www.veniceairport.it) provides a convenient gateway to the city, but the transfer between the airport and your hotel certainly won’t be the highlight of your visit.
Any good, recent guidebook should detail the choices and direct you to the websites of the various service providers. During an October ’05 visit to Venice, my wife and I learned a few lessons that will help you know what to expect and make the right choice.
My wife and I drove a rental car through Slovenia, May 20-28, ’05. We traveled from Venice and drove most of the interesting roads in Slovenia, which is full of beauty in all varieties and can be visited at a very reasonable cost.
We contacted the Slovenian Tourist Office (2929 East Commercial Blvd., Ste. 201, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308; phone 954/491-0112) and they sent us a booklet called “The Countryside, Tourist Farms” which gave information about booking accommodations at Slovenian tourist farms, called kmetij Slovenije.
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South Africa is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful countries in the world. There is a rumor that every other house in South Africa is a B&B. We are sure this is an exaggeration but only a slight one. There are literally thousands of B&Bs, guest farms, lodges, game parks and other variations on the same theme. So how to sort them out?
In preparation for my trip to Japan, I wrote to the Japan National Tourist Organization offices in Los Angeles, Kumamoto and Kagoshima. Their responses were in the form of pamphlets, maps and a valuable Japan Rail timetable. The offices in Kagoshima and Kumamoto provided more details and gave us information of tours offered.
Next I bought a Frommer’s guidebook on Japan, which gave me hotel listings, points of interest and information on hotels and their locations. My wife, Nancy, was also a lot of help, as she speaks pretty good Japanese.