International Travel News

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March 2014 issue | Appears on page 50

Friendly Amsterdammers

By Marilyn Hill

During my 10-day visit to Amsterdam, Sept. 5-16, 2013, I did six to seven hours of walking each day and had many exceptionally lovely “brief encounters.”

Everyone I stopped to ask for directions was so kind and seemed as if they had all the time in the world to help me. The younger set promptly whipped out cell phones to pull up maps. A woman closer to my age (78) happily chatted with me for about 15 minutes about things I should definitely see in the city.

An older couple...

March 2014 issue | Appears on page 51

Cruise Critic helpful

By Paula Prindle

My husband, David, and I took a cruise up the Norwegian coast in September ’12. We got a wealth of information from the Cruise Critic website.

Even noncruisers can use Cruise Critic to get advice from local experts at destinations as well as from people who have recently been to particular destinations.

We chose what we wanted to do based largely on feedback from recent travelers, and, of course, we returned the favor by sending in a post-cruise report of our own.

We...

March 2014 issue | Appears on page 73

La Ceiba music

By Jim Hendrickson

Travel often presents serendipitous moments that create their own special memories. While touring Venezuela in 2008, my group visited La Ceiba cacao plantation, located in San José. After our scheduled tour of the facility, five of the workers at the plantation entertained us with a performance of Afro-Venezuelan music.

JIM HENDRICKSON Lynden WA

February 2014 issue | Appears on page 12

EatWith.com

By Pat Kline

My husband and I had a Mediterranean cruise coming up in October when we read the travel item “EatWith locals program” (Aug. ’13, pg. 77) about a website, www.eatwith.com, that lists hosts in various countries who are willing to cook a meal for visitors to their city.

We like to plan our own shore excursions, so we decided to try to find a home-hosted meal. About a month before our trip, we picked two places.

In Barcelona, Spain, we went to an apartment and joined eight other...

February 2014 issue | Appears on page 12

The Corinth Canal

By Carol L. Bowman

The dinner bell rang early for the evening meal aboard the small ship Athena, owned and operated by Grand Circle Cruise Lines (Boston, MA; 800/221-2610). The captain requested that the gourmet repast be served in time to give all 48 passengers the opportunity to go to the top deck by sundown to witness the ship’s passage through 2,300 years of history.

“Grand Circle’s “Hidden Gems of the Dalmatian Coast” cruise-tour (with air from Houston to Zagreb and...

February 2014 issue | Appears on page 15

Map-printing challenge

By Chuck Lynn

For every place my wife and I plan to visit, I always want a printed map, and I want to get that map months ahead to help me plan.

Most tourist bureaus offer PDF maps to download, but I find they are not of much use because my printer prints only sheets measuring 8½"x11" or 8½"x14", and I don’t want to tape a bunch of sheets together.

I’ve discussed this problem with my local FedEx print shop. They can print a large PDF map, but the cost for such a map for Cˇeský Krumlov in...

February 2014 issue | Appears on page 27

Noise complaint on Celebrity Silhouette

By Romayne Hertweck

With our Adriatic cruise on the Celebrity Silhouette, May 20-June 3, 2013, sailing from Venice to Rome, with port calls in other cities in Italy as well as in Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Malta, my wife, Alma, and I completed our 64th cruise. The itinerary was great.

However, during the first evening on board, we walked down to the atrium and found a live band playing at maximum amplification. The sound was so loud, it was almost at the pain threshold.

It was impossible...

February 2014 issue | Appears on page 28

Holy Land and Mediterranean with Princess

By Anita Maendl

My husband, Mike, and I took a 27-day segment of a ’round-the-world cruise with Princess Cruises (Santa Clarita, CA; 800/774-6237).

We embarked on April 19, 2013, in Port Rashid, Dubai, and, after stops at Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, Istanbul and Montenegro, disembarked in Venice on May 15. The cruise fare for the two of us was about $15,000; we had a cabin on level 7, midships. This was our third time taking a segment of a Princess world trip.

We...