International Travel News

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January 2011 issue | Appears on page 12

Base outside London (insider’s tips)

A suggestion for those of you coming to London for a repeat visit — why not stay just outside of central London (viz., outside of the West End), where there is good train service into the city centre?

Staying outside of the shopping and entertainment areas (Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea, etc.), you are much more likely to meet local people if you head back there from central London for dinner or even spend some time in your chosen location. As locals, my wife, Vivien, and I always...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 13

Driving in Switzerland?

There are two things travelers planning to drive in Switzerland need to be warned about.

1) In Switzerland, the road-tax sticker, called a vignette, is mandatory if you travel on the Autobahn or on equivalent roads (those signed in white and green). It must be displayed on the windshield and stays with the car. It is not transferable.

The price is 40 Swiss francs (near $40), and it can be purchased, before you enter Switzerland, at gas stations, convenience stores, post offices...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 14

Slovenia road tax

My wife, Sigrid, and I took an extended road trip in Europe in August-November 2010. While in Germany, we were warned about driving on the toll roads in Austria without first purchasing a vignette.* We were not alerted about needing a vignette in Slovenia, however, and it never crossed our minds.

Entering Slovenia at Trieste on Oct. 25, on the toll road we stopped at the tollgate to pick up a toll ticket. In our experience on toll roads, you get an entry billet that is to be turned in...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 14

Travels with a netbook

My wife, Vera, and I were in France, Sept. 27-Oct. 13, 2010. We had a week in Paris, a leisurely drive south to tour medieval towns and a few days with friends in Nimes. We had intended to take the high-speed TGV train back to Paris, but our return date coincided with the second day of what became a crippling nationwide strike over pension reform.

Because we were traveling with our netbook computer, we were able to access the SNCF website and learned that our train was canceled. We...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 16

Passport pages

I renewed a passport in September 2010 through the mailing process established by the Department of State. I received a 10-year passport with a meager 17 pages available for visas or stamps.

I called the National Passport Information Center at 877/487-2778 and was told that I should have made a request for more pages at the time I mailed in form DS-82 along with my old passport and a check.

I pointed out that on the website, www.travel.state.gov, I found nothing about that...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 17

Lufthansa’s speedy payment

My wife, Judy, and I flew on Lufthansa from Detroit to Budapest via Frankfurt on Aug. 28, 2010. When we picked up our luggage in Budapest, Hungary, one of our suitcases had been damaged. A wheel was missing and the bag had been ripped.

We immediately went to the Lufthansa service desk, just a few feet from the baggage-claim area.

The desk clerk spoke enough English for us to communicate. I told her my problem. She looked at the damage and asked the value of the suitcase. I told...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 27

Paid for a nonallowed upgrade

My husband, Tom, and I flew to Amsterdam on our way to board a ship on Aug. 2, 2010, out of Rotterdam. I had purchased our air tickets through our travel agent the previous February. In her office, we had talked about buying them through the cruise company or independently. Because the flight booked through the cruise line might not be direct, we decided to go directly from Seattle to Amsterdam with Delta.

Both Tom and I have Delta SkyMiles accounts, his with a lot of points. We first...

January 2011 issue | Appears on page 28

STA Travel came through

I normally do not purchase travel insurance, choosing instead to self-insure. However, in April 2010, when I booked and paid for the two trips my wife and I planned to take in 2011 with Cruise West aboard the Spirit of Oceanus (Muscat, Oman, to Alexandria, Egypt, April 4-11, and Reykjavik, Iceland, to Halifax, Canada, Sept. 1-11), something (a little birdie?) kept telling me, ‘Buy travel insurance.’

Perhaps it was the fact that the first cruise was a year away, or maybe it was the...