Travelers' Intercom | International Travel News

January 2005 issue

Felt like ‘marks’ in Barcelona

We visited Barcelona for four nights in September ’04. We stayed at a delightful, newly renovated apartment near the end of Las Ramblas. We shared with two other guest rooms a self-service breakfast, a well-stocked kitchen, a large sunny dining room and two bathrooms. The cost was €60 ($77) per night for a double room. (I believe a single person paid Ä45.)

The location was ideal for sightseeing. The disadvantages were the three flights of steep stairs leading to the apartment and the noise from Las Ramblas which lasted most of the night. It is possible to request a back room. Call...

April 2010 issue

Working to change a life

In a letter on a Spanish-language school I attended in Antigua, Guatemala, in July ’09, I wrote about meeting Juana, a 12-year-old girl with no hands. Taking an interest in her welfare, I did some Internet investigation and contacted an organization that agreed to help her obtain prostheses (Oct. ’09, pg. 34). Here’s an update.

In late September, a couple of her neighbors and I bundled the girl, whose name is actually Dariana López (my misunderstanding), and her mother into a van and headed to Guatemala City and the office of Wayne Cottle*, a veritable magician who can replace...

May 2010 issue

Using Skype on cell phones

orldI read Ed Graper’s letter “World Cell Phone” (March ’10, pg. 48) and have a few comments.

I currently use an iPhone with AT&T service and my wife, Linda, has a Blackberry (model 9630) with Verizon as her US carrier. Both our cell phones are GSM enabled. Verizon does have at least one model (the 9630) of a Blackberry “world phone” which has a SIM card that can now use the four GSM frequencies commonly used wordwide plus Japan’s. Otherwise, Mr. Graper’s advice is spot on.

When traveling, we each take our own cell phone, and I usually throw in a cheap GSM phone in case I...

July 2005 issue

Riding horses in Bali

I spent three weeks in Bali with my husband in March ’05, and one of my outstanding memories was riding horseback along the coast north of Sanur.

I was picked up at my hotel in Sanur at 8:30 in the morning by a driver and taken to the Saba Bay Stables about 40 minutes north. The horseback ride was approximately three hours long and was along the black-sand Saba Beach, by local temples and through bamboo plantations. It was a ride to see the Bali people at their daily activities.

Near the end of the ride we were met by two people from the stables who had climbed a coconut tree...

April 2004 issue

The haunting loveliness of the Lot Valley

The region of the Quercy in France offers the visitor the experience of waking in another time and place. We have seen this area twice through the sensitive eyes of Claudia de Guère, most recently in June ’03.

Madame de Guère is a highly cultivated American who created a fairy-tale house, Domaine de Castan (46330 Saint-Circ-Lapopie, France; phone, from the U.S., 011.33.5.65.31.23.04), by restoring a 300-year-old stone “bergerie” in the hills overlooking the river Lot near the medieval village of Saint-Circ-Lapopie.

“Six Days in the Quercy” cost $2,400 for two persons, all...

May 2004 issue

Rental car woes re full tank

Have you ever wondered if you really got a full tank of gas when you left the airport rental car parking area? Our recent experience with Avis at Milan, Italy’s, Malpensa airport is a classic case in point.

We rented a Citroen C3 from Aug. 24 to Sept. 16, ’03. When we picked up the car, the dashboard had six illuminated lights to indicate a full tank, but the first light to go dark did so after only about 20 kilometers. When our first fill-up resulted in gas mileage of only 12.6 kilometers per liter (that’s about 30 mpg), I thought that we were stuck with a gas-hungry monster in the...

February 2004 issue

Village Vacations in England

My wife and I and our daughter and son-in-law spent a week in May ’02 in southwest England with David and Christine Hale, who have a B&B and a tour service called Village Vacations (Brookmead, Rimpton, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 8AQ England; phone/fax [UK] 011-44-1935-850241, e-mail villagevac@aol.com or visit www.villagevacations.co.uk).

We are retired antique dealers who have spent two to three weeks buying antiques in England twice a year every year for the last 30 years. On those buying trips, we went where the antiques were.

The trips always included the weekly and...

March 2011 issue

Driving in Europe

I just read S. Ryan Edgar’s article “Pulling Out All the Stops on a Self-Drive Tour of Europe” (Jan. ’11, pg. 35) and would like to add some comments on driving that his article didn’t include. I rented a car and drove from Paris to San Marino to Andorra and back to Paris over five days, Nov. 13-18, 2010.

Roads in France are smoother than those in the US. The reason is the government leases out sections of the road to contractors to maintain and profit from the tolls they collect.

The major highways are toll roads and very expensive. Few toll plazas I came to had toll takers...