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November 2008 issue

Personalize it

After watching my black Samsonite bag go around for the third time, because my bright green plastic name tag had come off of it, I decided to take some liquid acrylic paint and a small paintbrush and put a distinctive design back and front.

When that bag wore out, I bought a purple bag because I thought it would stand out and decided to decorate that one also. I was glad I did, because one time at Oregon’s Bend-Redmond airport another purple bag showed up on the baggage belt!

In over 15 years of checking my bag, it has always appeared.

NANCY HUETTL

Cupertino, CA...

August 2008 issue

Bargain to Bali and HK

My husband, Fos, and I took a trip to Bali, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, China, April 3-23, 2008. Although we usually travel independently, we chose this package because we were unable to match the prices that Escapes Unlimited (2012 Lerner Ln., Santa Ana, CA 92705; 800/243-7227, www.escapesltd.com) was offering for air travel.

The package included economy airfare from San Francisco to Denpasar, Bali (with a stopover in Hong Kong), on Cathay Pacific (reasonably good food plus free wine); five nights at Sri Bungalows in Ubud, Bali; airport-hotel transfers in Bali, and one night in the...

January 2008 issue

Whither travel slides?

The suggestions provided by the readers for preserving travel slides all were very good (Oct. ’07, pg. 46).

The first priority should be setting them up so you can enjoy them and, after that, your children and perhaps your grandchildren, but after that who knows? Or cares? How many millions of pictures are being passed to posterity? Will posterity have time to look at them?

But, seriously, if you want to preserve them, I think Ronald Ross came closest to defining the real problem. I have been saving electronic data since the 1960s and have witnessed generation after...

March 2007 issue

Australia on a self-drive itinerary

Normally, my wife, Patricia, and I do our own travel planning, relying heavily on the Internet and reading ITN. But a trip to an entire continent was something different, so we looked for ads in ITN for customized itineraries in Australia, reviewed various websites and selected Australia Travel Planning (4428 E. Willow Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85032; 800/830-8999, www.australian.com. The owners, Michael and Gayle, also run Tasmania Travel Planning [same address, phone]; visit www.tasmania.com).

We were attracted by their statement that they personally visited every accommodation and every...

October 2008 issue

Questions State Dept. Travel Warnings

I have concerns as to the value of the State Department warnings for travelers going to certain countries. My case in point is the warning on visiting Syria. Having completed my sixth trip to Syria in March ’08, I question their advice.

The wording of the warning seems to indicate that violence and danger are a constant in Syria. From my experience, nothing could be farther from the truth.

The warning concentrates on potential terrorist activities. As an example, they cite the killing of the notorious Hizbollah leader Imad Moughniyeh in February ’08. He was a man who needed...

July 2008 issue

The sounds of Cairo

You don’t have to be in Cairo very long to realize that the traffic is horrendously congested.

During my trip, Sept. 12-20, 2007, I noticed there seemed to be no rules of the road there. If you want to cross the road, you must be bold and daring, waiting for an eventual opening and darting across the highway holding your arm up high, fingers splayed.

There were several traffic lights in well-off neighborhoods, I was told, but there were none where I was staying.

My room was on the 18th floor, and the noise still could be downright annoying. There were different...

December 2007 issue

Keeping in touch with the folks back home

Bill Steltzer of West Grove, Pennsylvania, lamented that on a May ’07 trip to France he had trouble finding public Web-access points.

“Now that computer ownership is universal, the Internet cafés have vanished,” he wrote. “We used to find public libraries good spots for Internet access but not on this past trip. At the mediatheques (small-town libraries) that we visited, computer use required local residency and membership cards. So let’s update this topic. What is the most convenient and, hopefully, the least expensive way to keep in touch with the folks back home?”

Bill...

April 2007 issue

An altercation escalated

The following letter from an ITN subscriber describes her altercation with an employee at Schiphol Airport and the subsequent occurrences which prompted her to file complaints. ITN is presenting it and the resulting official findings to show the professional manner in which a “he said, she said” situation such as this was dealt with and resolved.

I was at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Nov. 20, 2005, heading home from a riverboat cruise with Grand Circle Travel. My Lufthansa flight was leaving at 2:25 p.m. for Frankfurt and would continue to New York.

Since I...