In the Tres Cruces area of Cusco, Peru, on Aug. 16, three masked thieves robbed a dozen foreign travelers at gunpoint on a tour bus headed for Manu National Park. They had piled a wall of rocks on the narrow road, forcing the Pantiacolla tour bus to stop, then attacked the driver, covering his eyes with masking tape.
Passengers were unharmed. Cash, valuables, cameras and electronic equipment were taken.
Free sightseeing and free activities are among suggestions from Switzerland Tourism (New York, NY; 212/757-5944, www.myswitzerland.com).
• When purchasing an adult Swiss Pass, Swiss Card or Swiss Transfer Ticket, you can ask for a free Swiss Family Card, which allows children under 16 to travel for free when accompanied by at least one parent. The pass allows travel throughout the rail, bus and boat Swiss Travel System network as well as on trams and buses in 37 cities.
The 1950s red Spårakoff Beer Tram, a traveling bar, serves Finnish beer and other beverages while you tour Helsinki, Finland. The 40-minute ride starts from the Mikonkatu tram stop, near Helsinki’s Railway Square, and makes five stops, including the Helsinki Opera House.
In 2009 the tram operates Tuesday-Saturday, May 19-Aug. 29, with departures every hour from 2 to 8 p.m. Tickets, available on board and at the kiosk on the Esplanade, cost €8 ($10.50).
Nohi Bus (www.nouhibus.co.jp/english), which serves Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Takayama, Japan, has translated its website into English. The line runs express buses from city to city and regional buses to smaller towns and tourist attractions. The website shows route maps, timetables and fares.
The tiny alpine town of Serfaus, Austria, is home to the world’s smallest subway, the Dorfbahn. This 1,280-meter (about eight-tenths of a mile) underground funicular holds 270 people and is free to use. It was built in 1985 to transport skiers from a parking area at one end of the pedestrian-only village to the ski lifts at the other end.
Michael Brein’s “Travel by the Metro” series of 4"x9" foldable guides helps travelers sightsee in major cities using public transportation. Listing must-see attractions plus the nearest metro stations and directions on which lines to take, the guides now cover Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sydney or Vienna. Printed guides cost $10 each and a PDF downloadable guide costs $8.
When people ask me about the scariest situation I’ve ever been in, I think back to a taxi ride I took to the Moscow airport in the early ’90s. A no-neck guy who looked like a classic Russian mafia thug picked me up in a beat-up old car and drove for an hour down puddle-filled alleys and past derelict apartment buildings. All I could think about were those movie scenes where the good guy is taken down to the riverbank to be shot. Instead, the no-neck pulled up to the airport, shook my hand and said, “Have a good fly.”
Violent crime in Nicaragua is increasing, the US embassy announced.
Nearly a dozen taxi kidnappings were reported in July. In six cases, tourists each were befriended by a stranger on a bus who offered assistance in locating or sharing a taxi at their destination. In the taxis, the tourists each were held at knifepoint or gunpoint, threatened with injury and/or rape, robbed, taken to ATM machines to withdraw funds from their accounts, then left in remote areas.
Among the assailants were a young pregnant woman and men and women of various ages.
In Hiroshima, Japan, the one-day Streetcar Pass (unlimited rides) costs ¥600 (near $7) adult or ¥300 child; the one-day Streetcar/Ferry Pass (unlimited streetcar and ferries to/from Miyajima) costs ¥840 adult/¥420 child, and the two-day Miyajima Pass (unlimited rides on streetcars, ferries and aerial tram at Miyajima) costs ¥2,000/¥1,000.
Visitors can buy a streetcar pass at the streetcar terminal in front of JR Hiroshima Station (south side), in some hotels or on a streetcar that has a conductor.
