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December 2007 issue

CDG musical chairs

We have never been enthusiastic fans of Charles de Gaulle International Airport (Roissy CDG) in Paris. In the past, our complaints — which were mainly about the lack of or inoperable ATMs and poor signage to car rental offices — while adding up to considerable dissatisfaction, could have been taken individually as a bit of nitpicking, but observations have compelled me to write.

We took an American Airlines flight homeward from CDG on May 30, 2007. The airline advised us to check in three hours ahead of time, which we did. We actually arrived in time to have a nice lunch...

April 2007 issue

St. Petersburg sight

CORRECTION — In the February ’07 “The Cruising World” column is a photo captioned “The famous armored cruiser Potemkin, moored at St. Petersburg.”

I’ve visited St. Petersburg twice and have seen the venerable warship moored on the Nevka, near the Peter and Paul Fortress, but the ship’s name is Aurora. I checked the Lonely Planet City Guide “St. Petersburg,” first edition, by Nick Selby, which I took with me on my first trip, and on page 211 it confirms this.

In that same caption, Mr. Toulmin’s piece says, “The mutiny on board this vessel in 1905 was the precursor to the earth...

October 2007 issue

What to do with travel slides

G.F. Mueden of New York City wrote about his boxes of thousands of travel slides — mostly of landscapes, city scenes and architecture, some with handwritten labels — and asked readers for suggestions on good uses for them (July ’07, pg. 16). He said that copying them onto CDs was labor intensive and rather expensive.

Numerous readers wrote letters to Mr. Mueden with ideas (to Good Uses for Travel Slides, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818; e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com), as follows.

We are in our mid-70s and continue to travel extensively. After each trip, we...

May 2008 issue

Found fault with guide in Mongolia

My husband and I took the tour “From Mystical Tibet to Nomadic Mongolia,” May 29-June 13, 2007, with Nomadic Expeditions.

The land cost per person was $4,695. Internal airfare (Beijing-Lhasa-Beijing and Beijing-Ulaanbaatar-Gobi-Ulaanbaatar) was included, and the trip “ended” in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; participants had to additionally buy airfare from Ulaanbaatar back to Beijing.

We and another couple who had signed up with Nomadic Expeditions traveled with five others who had signed up with MIR Corp.; the companies’ brochures for this tour were identical.

The Tibet...

June 2007 issue

India (and Asia) travel tips

• In addition to the various Lonely Planet guides on India, the DK’s “Eyewitness Travel Guide: India” is well worth looking at; the copious illustrations make it very easy to find your way through tourist sites without a guide. If you are heading to the South, George Mitchell’s “Blue Guide: Southern India” is a must. Two other books we never travel without are Lonely Planet’s “Healthy Travel: Asia & India” by Isabelle Young and “The Pocket Doctor, A Passport to Healthy Travel” by Stephen Bezruchka, M.D.

• My husband, Clyde, and I got our visas from the Consulate General of...

September 2007 issue

Medieval churches in Sweden

I love to visit churches when I am abroad. My favorites are in Sweden, where there are small churches in the countryside that still have their wall paintings from the Middle Ages. I went to Sweden ﬁve times from 1996 to 2007.

To ﬁnd these churches, one uses a very good map on which many are marked. In Sweden about ﬁve or six years ago I bought the most expensive selection of maps I could ﬁnd: a bound book titled “Sverige Vägatlas.” With about 275 pages, it measures about 8"x12".

When you ﬁnd a church, look for a brochure that will direct you to other churches in the area (in...

November 2007 issue

Smithsonian Journeys’ Travel Adventures vs. Signature Tours

My husband, George, and I went on a 16-day Smithsonian Journeys tour, “Treasures of Angkor Wat and Vietnam,” March 19-April 3, 2007.

The cost was $1,899 each, excluding airfare. Air travel from Thailand to Cambodia; Cambodia to Vietnam; within Vietnam, and from Vietnam to Hong Kong was billed separately and totaled $850 per person. Entry and departure taxes were not included and were collected during the tour. We arranged our own international air.

We booked through Smithsonian Journeys. We had never heard of Collette Vacations, but, as it turned out, they did all of the...

March 2008 issue

Lighting the way

Great idea to carry lightbulbs for sufficient reading light (Dec. ’07, pg. 88)! We have been doing that for years.

A word of caution, however — while bulbs in the U.S. are 120V, remember that in Europe as well as many other places the voltage is 220, so you should carry the proper bulb for the country you are going to be in. To be sure, you might even buy them when you get there.

SKIP SIEGEL

West Bloomfield, MI