Tours in Review

October 2005 issue

Tanzania & Kenya with 2Afrika, Inc.

If you would like to go to Africa, go with 2Afrika, Inc. (444 Washington Blvd., Ste. 2526, Jersey City, NJ 07310; phone 866/462-2374 or visit www.2afrika.com). Our 13-day trip to Tanzania was $2,595 with air from San Francisco, and the Kenya trip was $895. We left on our safari Jan. 29, ’05, and returned on Feb. 16.

What an amazing trip it was. The lodges were beautiful, clean and comfortable and the food was delicious and safe. The amount of wildlife we saw was amazing. We traveled in pop-up vans with four to six in a van, giving us lots of room to jump about taking pictures. The...

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February 2006 issue

Malaysia with Eldertreks

Eldertreks (597 Markham St., Toronto, ON M6G 2L7, Canada; phone 800/741-7956 or visit www.eldertreks.com) hosted my 20-day trip to BORNEO, Malaysia. It cost $2,195, not including international air; my total airfare from Denver was $1,461.

I traveled in October ’04, which was in the dry season, so it rained only in the mornings (in monsoon season it rains all day).

Our group of 11 was quite compatible and indefatigable; not one soul missed anything.

The hotels were comfortable and well located, although the Lemanak River Longhouse and the Turtle Island lodgings were...

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April 2006 issue

Honduras with Maya Temple Tours

My husband, Maurice, and I had a remarkable trip to Honduras, Dec. 31, ’05-Jan. 10, ’06, thanks to Maya Temple Tours (Lobby Hotel & Suites Copantl, Residential Los Arcos, San Pedro Sula, Honduras; phone [504] 509 0555 or visit www.mayatempletours.com).

We dealt with Maya Temple Tours’ Dilcia Arriaga, explaining our interests: outdoor activities, cultural events, archaeological sights and so on. She arranged a full timetable for the two of us for a final cost of $4,100, land only, which included a full-time bilingual guide (Luis Cruz, the best we have ever had) and transportation...

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August 2006 issue

China with Access China Tours

My wife, Shirley, and I wanted to revisit southwest China and try some new places, too. After consulting guidebooks, especially Lonely Planet, we drew up a list of places we thought we could fit into a trip of two weeks or so.

Then we contacted Access China Tours (522 Seventh St., Ste. 380, New Westminster, B.C., V3M 5T5, Canada; 800/788-1399 or www. accesschinatours.com), which we’d seen recommended by readers in ITN. In a short time, they responded with an itinerary that they adapted to our requests. For example, instead of planned meals at hotels, we preferred to venture out to...

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December 2006 issue

Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia tour

Twelve of us from across the U.S. met tour organizers Judy Slattum and Made Surya of Danu Enterprises (Box 156, Capitola, CA 95010; 888/476-0543, www.danutours.com) at the Zephyr Hotel in downtown Hanoi. Our group started together, then split into two smaller groups, one focusing on arts and culture (that was my group) and the other taking treks to visit hill tribes. We joined up again in Hoi An, Vietnam, and also in Laos at the end of the tour.

Our 21-day tour, departing on Jan. 4, 2006, from San Francisco, cost $3,300 apiece. This price included international and internal...

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May 2005 issue

Bhutan with Lingkor Tours & Treks

We took a most memorable 8-day tour of Bhutan in September ’04, thanks to the efforts of Lingkor Tours & Treks (P.O. Box 202, Thimphu, Bhutan; phone 975-2-323417, fax 975-2-323402, e-mail trepatsang@aol.com or visit www.lingkor.com). A Buddhist monk referred us to Lingkor and through e-mail we set up a customized itinerary with Tenga at Lingkor before leaving the U.S.

We elected to do a tour for two persons, even though the government-set cost ($230 per person per day) would be more than the cost of joining a larger group. One of our priorities was to learn more of Bhutan’s...

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October 2005 issue

China with Grand Circle Travel

I had not been on an organized tour for over 30 years, preferring cruising and my own disorganized independent travel, but I decided that China was a place where I would be more comfortable relying on the expertise of a company like Grand Circle Travel (347 Congress St., Boston, MA 02210; phone 800/837-4735 or visit www.gct.com). Our 21-day trip, March 4-25, ’04, was the first “China and the Yangtze River Tour” conducted by GCT in almost a year after the outbreak of SARS.

For being the first group of the season, we went for the low price of $2,685, including air from most major...

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February 2006 issue

Lebanon, Syria and Jordan with Explore Worldwide

The tour was labeled “Grand Tour of the Middle East” and that it was. Offered by the British company Explore Worldwide (in the U.S., book through Adventure Center,1311 63rd St., Ste. 200, Emeryville, CA 94608; phone 800/227-8747 or visit www.adventurecenter.com), it also was offered as three separate one-week tours in each country, but I took the 3-week combined package. October 2005 turned out to be a good month in terms of weather — not too hot and not terribly cold.

This was the third Explore trip I had taken, so I knew what to expect: 3-star (give or take) hotels, interesting...

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