Travelers' Intercom

I noticed in the Travelers’ Intercom section a couple of rather negative reports of Russian riverboat experiences (March ’04, pg. 32 & April ’04, pg. 82). Having enjoyed three such trips over the past six or seven years, I would like to reassure other travelers that these trips can be exceedingly enjoyable and interesting.

Our travels to Russia were with GT Cruises (which now promotes these cruises under the name Peter the Great Cruises), and as to the ships and crews I can speak only of theirs. My wife and I always traveled on our own, but often there were tour groups aboard...

Both my wife, JoAnn, and I are World War II history buffs, primarily because family members were in uniform during that period. Beside the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944, probably the best known and most ferocious battle was the Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg and Belgium.

Dec. 16, ’04, marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, a last-ditch German offensive aimed at capturing the Belgian port of Antwerp and changing the course of WWII. Though we knew we’d miss many of the ceremonies, JoAnn and I thought we’d get a jump on it through a trip to...

During three wonderful weeks that my wife and I spent in Bali in September-October ’11, our vacation was made easy and enjoyable thanks, in large part, to our driver, Billy Dewa (e-mail billybaliman0908@yahoo.com), whose services we used on six occasions. For $40 per day, Billy — in his clean, air-conditioned SUV — would meet us promptly at our hotel in whatever part of the island we were staying. We would tell him where we wanted to go and he would take us there using routes that afforded us opportunities to stop at scenic vistas, sacred temples and luxurious waterfalls as well as places...