International Travel News

Travelers' Intercom

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 31

Wished private meeting space

On two sailings of Oceania Cruises’ Nautica — to Thailand, Viet Nam and China, Jan. 19-March 5, 2007, and to Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan, March 16-31 — I have run into the same problem.

The meetings for 12-step recovery groups were held on the starboard side of the Horizon Lounge, a very large meeting, coffee, etc., area at the top front of the ship. The meetings were usually at 5 p.m., the same time high tea tended to be going in that location.

There was no privacy and,...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 31

Impressed with Australia arrangements

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

We are experienced travelers, both at home and abroad, and our preference and most common approach is to travel independently. For our trip, I planned the itinerary as usual, but when I attempted to implement it, I was repeatedly stymied by the logistics and complexity of travel arrangements in Australia, a problem I had never faced on previous trips. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it; it was that the...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 32

Planning a Cyprus trip

A friend and I took a 10-day “Discovery of Cyprus” trip with Homeric Tours (55 E. 59th St., 17th Fl., New York, NY 10022; 800/223-5570, www.homerictours.com) in October ’07.

The cost was around $2,800 per person and included airfare from New York (JFK), transfers, eight nights in a 4-star hotel, buffet breakfasts (but no main meals) and three full-day tours. The dollar was dropping like a rock when we were there, so a simple meal of an entrée and a soda cost about $20.

Few...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 32

Gorilla trekking in Uganda and Rwanda plus Tanzania

Gorilla trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda and the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda was an adventure, an adrenaline rush and the thrill of my life.

The tour that two friends and I took to Uganda and Rwanda started and ended in Entebbe, Uganda, after which we continued on to Arusha, Tanzania, for a day in the city plus a 7-day safari. We arranged our trip through Good Earth Tours (8223 Dunham Station Dr., Tampa, FL 33647; 877/265-9003, www.goodearthtours.com). Their trips...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 42

Best airline to/from the U.S.

Of all the airlines you’ve flown between the U.S. and a foreign country in the last three years, which airline’s flight(s) did you most appreciate? That’s what we asked readers to write about, using the following parameters.

Compare only the airlines’ flights on which you traveled in the same class of service. Rate only the in-flight experience. Do not consider ground personnel or processes, the on-time record, delays due to mechanical problems, etc. Name the airline(s) and where (...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 64

Miho Museum near Kyoto

What to do on a free day in Kyoto? On our trip “Japan’s Cultural Treasures” with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/221-0814, www.oattravel.com), Oct. 10-25, 2007, we decided to try something other than temples, which certainly are abundant in the area.

So my wife, Anne, and I headed for the Miho Museum, which was designed by I.M. Pei and is tucked into a mountain slope in Shiga Prefecture, about a one-hour trip from the city.

The front desk folks at our Hearton...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 66

Surin’s elephant roundup

It was not easy to make the arrangements in advance to attend the Elephant Roundup in Surin, Thailand, but it was well worth the effort. The Elephant Roundup, a “rodeo” in which elephants participate in events, is held each year during the third week of November.

The morning we attended the show, we took a tuk-tuk to the elephant arena at 6:45 a.m. The elephants were assembling and being fed just outside. The show began at about 8 o’clock. We were glad we had had friends reserve...

March 2008 issue | Appears on page 68

Is your prescription the right one?

As usual, two weeks before embarking on my upcoming trip, I collected and counted all my medications, throwing in a few extra pills of each kind, just to be safe.

As had been my custom for years, I had checked out each prescription on the Internet before filling it at the pharmacy.

Although the medical sites I was using provided excellent information, they never indicated a medication’s maximum and recommended dosages, stating instead that it was up to the physician to order...