Money Matters

For readers seeking inexpensive but comfortable lodgings in South America, here are some from a stay in February-March ’07. Each had a private bath, cable TV and, where needed, A/C, and all were listed in the Lonely Planet guide as “mid-range accommodations.” The price given for each is the approximate dollar amount for my single room.

• I cannot recommend Hotel Renovación (Av. Este 2 #2, Urb. Los Caobos, Caracas, VENEZUELA; phone +58 [212] 5710133 or fax 5778910).

My wife and I took a 6-week trip to Australia and New Zealand, Sept. 9-Oct. 22, 2007.

I spent three weeks in Italy, probably my favorite country in the world, in March-April ’07. One negative occurrence on my trip — I had my credit card number ripped off somehow. Fortunately, Visa’s computer caught and prevented over $8,000 in fraudulent charge attempts in Seoul, Korea.

I couldn’t arrange to get a replacement card while I was there, but I did have a backup American Express card.

JAMES JOHNSON

Incline Village, NV

by Jim Sill, Silverado, CA

We had our first encounter with a personal butler at the Royal Livingstone Hotel in Livingstone, Zambia, where my husband and I stayed two nights, June 21-23, 2007.

We have used our ATM card around the world and never had a problem. What a shock to find it would not work in Portugal, of all places, in May ’07. Two banks verified that the ATM system that works through MasterCard had been down for weeks.

Our travel friends were able to bail us out, thank goodness (their card had a Visa symbol on it instead of MasterCard), but we ran into other couples who were stranded and trying to get money wired from the USA.

On our trip to the Azores in spring 2006, in the town of Velas on the island of São Jorge I went one morning to withdraw money from the ATM at the local bank. The screen gave me a message that the machine was not, at the time, operative. Needing cash that day, I went inside the bank and asked the teller if I could withdraw money.

“Of course,” was the reply.

Richard E. Smith of Long Beach, California, opened up the topic of tipping on tours (April ’07, pg. 4). Questions he asked included 1) “Should the cost of tipping be included in the tour price?,” 2) “Should there be an existing standard for tipping adhered to by most tour companies?,” 3) “Should an escrow tipping account be set up for each traveler, to be refunded partially or in toto (the reason being that some cheapskates never tip a penny)?” and 4) “Should travel companies be required to advise of their tipping recommendations in their advertisements?

My wife and I visited Argentina in August ’07. Upon our arrival at Buenos Aires’ airport, in nearby Ezeiza, we passed through Immigration into the baggage-claim area and went to a money-exchange kiosk run by Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.es). Since we needed money for transportation to our hotel, we exchanged $300 into pesos and received an exchange rate of 2.77.

After collecting our luggage, we made our way to the arrivals hall taxi kiosk and paid with a 100-peso bill, which was accepted without any problem.

Richard E. Smith of Long Beach, California, opened up the topic of tipping on tours (April ’07, pg. 4). Questions he asked included 1) “Should the cost of tipping be included in the tour price?,” 2) “Should there be an existing standard for tipping adhered to by most tour companies?,” 3) “Should an escrow tipping account be set up for each traveler, to be refunded partially or in toto (the reason being that some cheapskates never tip a penny)?” and 4) “Should travel companies be required to advise of their tipping recommendations in their advertisements?