A tour of China I took Nov. 8-20, ’03, which included a Yangtze River cruise with Victoria Cruises, was booked with Sharon Carr Tours & Cruises (14580 East Beltwood Pkwy., Ste. 108, Dallas, TX 75244; phone 800/648-4856, e-mail info@sharoncarrtravel.com).
Scotland We took a 3-day/2-night tour of the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Skye in May ’04 with Rabbies Trail Burners (207 High St., Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland; phone 011-44-131-226-3133). We had a great trip.
The cost was £99 (about $182) per person for their transportation. Rabbies will arrange accommodations on Skye according to how much you want to spend. Meals are additional.
I took a group of my college students on the 9-day/7-night “Braveheart” tour of Scotland with Passports Educational Travel Institute (389 Main St., Spencer, MA 01562-1908; phone 508/885-4600), visiting Edinburgh, the Highlands and Glasgow. The $2,300 price (May ’04) included airfare on USAir from Denver, 3-star hotel accommodations, daily breakfast and dinner, transfers, tour and admission fees and travel insurance.
Our trip was arranged by JMG Tibet Tours (6001 Falls Circle Dr., Ste. 301, Lauderhill, FL 33319; phone 866/548-4238, e-mail jeff@jmgtibettours.com).
I took a 20-day custom tour, Jan. 20-Feb. 2, ’03, arranged for me by Ceylon Express International (Huntington Beach, CA). The entire cost of the trip, including international and domestic air, hotels, breakfasts, my own car and driver and English-speaking guides in each city, was about $6,300.
Pannir of Sayang Holidays (220 Montgomery St., Ste. 469, San Francisco, CA 94104; phone 888/472-9264) did a fantastic job making all the arrangements for our Viet-Nam/Laos trip, Dec. 3, ’03-Jan. 2, ’04. The price from Savannah, Georgia, was $3,600 each — a good price, considering the considerably higher cost of traveling during the Christmas season. We had a lavish buffet breakfast daily.
We highly recommend the France-and-Italy opera trip offered by the International Council for Cultural Exchange, or ICCE (426 South Country Rd., Ste. 1, Brookhaven, NY 11719; phone 800/690-4223, e-mail info@icce-travel.org).
On our trip, April 19-May 1, ’03, there were only four of us plus our excellent trip leader, David Shengold, who was very knowledgeable about music and art and spoke both Italian and French. The 2004 price of this tour, including air from New York, is $4,598.
My wife and I took a group of 15 friends on a tour of Eastern Europe, Oct. 21-Nov. 8, ’03. We planned “extended stays” so that we could spend some quality time in the cities we wanted to visit; we also do not like to repack every day. We stayed in Warsaw, POLAND, for three nights; Kraków for four nights, and Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC, and Budapest, HUNGARY, for five nights each.
Great itinerary, outstanding guides, superior accommodations and a reasonable price: what more could one ask for?
