While my wife, Joan, and I were in Thailand in February ’05, our guide told us that as of that month, all Thai banks charge a fee of 33 baht (near 87¢ U.S.) for each travelers’ check cashed, so it’s cheaper to carry 100-dollar checks than 20-dollar checks.

For example, one bank with an exchange rate of 38.29 baht per dollar charged us a fee of 5 x 33 = 165 baht when we cashed five 20-dollar travelers’ checks. That’s a fee of 4.31%. If I had cashed one 100-dollar check instead, the 33-...

1. On Feb. 17, ’05, we went to Gare de Lyon in Paris to activate our multi-country saverpass (seven days, four countries, two people, good for two months) and make seat reservations for travel starting on Feb. 21 to/within/from Italy and Belgium.

FrenchRail (SNCF) said they will not validate passes until the actual day of travel for trains that do not need a seat reservation or until the day you are ready to make a seat reservation for future travel. I told them that we were going to...

Early last spring I discovered the company French Country Waterways (Box 2195, Duxbury, MA 02331; phone 800/222-1236 or, in MA, 781/934-2454 or visit www.fcwl.com) while reading the New York Times travel section. Not only did their 6-day canal wine trips sound very appealing but the company was offering a special. It was a discount equal to the number of years of marriage for couples celebrating anniversaries divisible by five. Since my husband, John, and I like wine, were celebrating our...