December 2006

Last January’s railpass price increases were very friendly. We won’t know most of the 2007 prices until the first of next year, but you can insure that you won’t have any unpleasant surprises by locking in 2006 prices before year-end.

FIRST, FAST & FURIOUS — The following is a sampling of reports received from ITN readers around the globe. ITN invites you to join our corps of reporters — just drop a card in the mail while the travel impressions are fresh in your mind. To obtain your ITN Report Cards, send a self-addressed, stamped, business-size envelope to ITN Report Cards, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818. You will receive eight cards.

Readers who are computer savvy can click here to access access the online form. Pass along your hot travel tips!

(Fourth of four parts, jump to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4).

Just prior to the conclusion of my two weeks in Panama as a guest of tour operator Panama Jones, I had the opportunity to fly to the San Blas Islands and overnight at Dolphin Island Lodge.

(Second of two parts, click here for part 1)

(Second of three parts)

DEAR READER, I’d like to share an incident with you that I had on a recent trip to France.

While on a tour in France in the fall of 2005, my husband and I feared that we were going to run out of toothpaste before we got home, so we went to a pharmacy and bought a tube of toothpaste called Elmex. Even though we couldn’t read French, we could see that it had fluoride in it. The price was a little over $6. We brought it home with us.

I enjoyed the article in the September ’06 “Mideast and Mediterranean” column regarding the Bardo museum in Tunis. I’ve been there and it just keeps getting better.

A reader recently “fumed” about speed traps in New Zealand after receiving a $25 fine for exceeding the posted 100 km/h speed limit by 10 km/h (Oct. ’06, pg. 79).