Hotels and Lodging

Recently, I was a delegate to the 2005 TravelMart Latin America. It is one of the most important business events for the tourism sector in Latin America. This year, Peru was the host country.

We highly recommend “Croatia and Other Hidden Treasures of the Adriatic” with Vantage Deluxe World Travel (90 Canal St., Boston, MA 02114-2031; phone 800/322-6677 or visit www.vantagetravel.com).

Our 15-day tour, April 20-May 4, ’05, cost $6,470 for the two of us, including air from Boston and optional travel insurance. Breakfast was included daily along with several lunches and nine dinners. Two optional day tours cost $128.

I have traveled many times to Europe, and “A Gourmet European Wine, Cuisine & Travel Experience” from Olde Ipswich Tours (8 Herrick Dr., Ipswich, MA 01938; phone 877/356-5163 or visit www.ipswichtours.com), April 14-27, ’04, was the best tour, without exception, that I have ever taken. (2006 tour, May 1-15, is priced at $4,999 land.)

Great Britain

by Judith Rosen, Alexandria, VA

While awaiting information relative to a traveling companion who had been taken to the Wrexham hospital on May 23, ’05, my wife, Evie, and I spent several hours in the lobby of The Hand Hotel in Chirk (Church St., Chirk, Wrexham, LL14 5EY, Wales, U.K.; phone +44 1691 773472, fax 772479 or visit www.handhotelchirk.com).

We received assistance in calling the hospital, and everyone we spoke to during our brief stay in the Hand Hotel was extremely cooperative, friendly and polite. We were quite impressed.

Looking for a “reasonably” priced but quality hotel room in London in October ’04, I was offered a “superior double room” at the Thistle Euston (TH) near Euston Station for about $200 per night and it did not sound too bad. The room turned out to be just fine. What ultimately got to me was the “pounding” for the extras.

During a 17-day February-March ’04 South America cruise aboard the Amsterdam of Holland America Line (Seattle, WA; 800/426-0327) and on land tours that we booked separately, I was interested in observing the different types of flowers, plants and trees in each country visited.

We flew into Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 19, and the agent from the local tour company was awaiting us at the gate. We were taken by private car to the Luxor Regente, a newly renovated hotel in a good location near the Ipanema end of Copacabana Beach.

El Salvador is the smallest, most densely populated country in Central America, but it is bypassed by most group tour companies. In April ’05, I was lucky enough to find the “golden ticket” that got me not just into the country but entry into homes, social programs and even the American Embassy.