Travelers' Intercom

Keep in mind that prices quoted in travel guidebooks can quickly become outdated.

On our trip to Chile in April ’07 we took a 2005 edition of “Let’s Go Chile” (St. Martin’s Press) and a 2002 Moon Handbooks’ “Chile” by Wayne Bernhardson, also purchased in 2005 (very good for maps and much information). They showed hotel prices in, for instance, Valparaiso as around $40 a night. We found that hotel rooms actually started at $80 and went up to $175.

We stayed at a recommended bed-and-breakfast instead. It was what it said. The room, about the size of my walk-in closet, had a bed...

A lifelong dream of mine was to see the town where my father was born: the Volga-German colony of Reinhard in Russia.

In November ’06, I attended a meeting of the Sarasota, Florida, ITN travel club, Offbeat Travelers, and one of the members, Pat, said she and her daughter were booked on an April-May ’07 cruise from Rostov-on-Don north on the Volga River to Moscow. I asked Pat if she and Susie would be willing to go with me in a car from Saratov to try to find my father’s birthplace and she replied, “Yes!”

At home, I called Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/959-0405, www....

I traveled to Bali, Indonesia, May 14-26, 2008, and the island of the gods remains one of the cheapest destinations on the planet, just the opposite of my trip to Iceland and Norway last October.

Getting around in Bali is simple and cheap. Taxis are a bargain, and every driver, trying to improve his lot, will inquire about your “program” for the following day. He wants your business.

It is very easy to strike a deal to have him take you anyplace on the island, with unlimited stops, during a period of eight to 10 hours for about $30-$40. Just be sure you get one with a...