Travelers' Intercom

I’d rate the trip from Wellington (North Island), New Zealand, to Picton (South Island) aboard the Interislander ferry a “must” for the scenery, but my wife, Eva, and I did have some problems on our most recent visit, in December ’07-January ’08.

From Route 1, the signs were adequate for finding the ferry terminal in Wellington; we had to backtrack only one time.

Initially, I had reserved a 2 p.m. trip through an Internet travel site. When I went to confirm, less than a week before we were to take the ferry, Interislander couldn’t find our reservation and said it was too late...

A 45-day self-guided trip to southern South America and Antarctica that my wife, Shirley, and I took Dec. 31, 2007-Feb. 14, 2008, took a great deal of planning. I’d like to share some of the valuable lessons learned from this trip.

It all cost us about $36,000, which included about $800 in cold-weather clothes for these two Floridians. I made almost all of the arrangements myself except for the B&B bookings in the Lake District, which were done through Patagonia Holidays (Ramírez 860 Depto. 905, Osorno, Chile; phone +56 64 255350 or cell +56 9 6459983, www.patagonia holidays.com...

On my trip to Paris in October ’06, I didn’t decide which day to go to Mont-Saint-Michel until I got to France. I decided to book my visit at the office of Paris Vision (214 rue de Rivoli; phone +33 1 42 60 30 01, fax +33 1 42 86 95 36 or visit www.parisvision.com).

The itinerary, at 155 (near $200), included a 7:15 a.m. departure, a multilingual guide, lunch on the Mont at one of the La Mère Poulard places, admission to the abbey, and the return to Paris by 8:30-9 p.m. We had heavy traffic on the way back and still made it back to the Paris Vision office by 8:45 p.m.

(The...