International Travel News articles from November 2002

International Travel News archives from November 2002

Boarding pass.
November 1, 2002... Dear Globetrotter: Welcome to the 321st issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine. "Here's my pre-trip travel tip," writes Lorraine Banfi of Whitehouse Station, NJ. "Depending on the length of the trip, I take $25 to $50 in...

Report cards: on-the-spot reports from around the globe.
November 1, 2002... 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 your travel impressions are fresh in your mind. To obtain your ITN Report...

Under sail--crossing the Atlantic.
November 1, 2002... My flight to Malaga, Spain, went smoothly and I boarded the Royal Clipper in the late afternoon for an evening departure on Oct. 18, 2001. The largest sailing ship in the world, the Clipper is 439 feet long, with five masts and 42 sails. Over...

ATMs in Korea.
November 1, 2002... Korea Post, the national postal service, has installed automatic teller machines (ATMs) at post offices and unmanned windows in Korea from which Korean won may be withdrawn using overseas-issued Visa cards. Balance check and credit card cash...

Travelers' intercom: readers' opinions, tips & recommendations.
November 1, 2002... Phone card in the UK In July '02 I took a 3-week course in London conducted by Oxford and Florida State University at Christ Church (the literary home of "Alice in Wonderland"). While there, I stumbled onto what I believe is the best deal on...

Funniest thing.
November 1, 2002... Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. There are no restrictions on length. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the US., Canada or Mexico.) The ITN staff will choose each month's....

Cote d'lvoire warning. (News Watch).
November 1, 2002... The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer travel to Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) at this time and recommends that Americans in the country depart. On Sept. 26 the Department authorized the departure of family members of Embassy staff...

Safety concern in Turkmenistan. (News Watch).
November 1, 2002... The State Department has issued a public announcement to remind U.S. citizens of the continuing concerns about the safety and security of Americans in Turkmenistan raised by ongoing military operations in neighboring Afghanistan. U.S....

Malaysia caution. (News Watch).
November 1, 2002... A public announcement has been issued by the State Department to reflect continuing concern about the possible heightened risks to American citizens and American interests in Malaysia, especially in the state of Sabah, from attacks by the Abu...

Kids free with BritRail's Family Pass. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Purchase any adult or senior BritRail Pass and receive the same pass for a child (aged five through 15) at no charge (one child per full-fare-paying adult). Normally, children pay 50% of the adult fare. The new 4-day BritRail Classic Family...

'British Excellence' limited offer. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Through 2002, special one-time-only offers for Americans traveling to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are featured in a free booklet called "Best of British Excellence" from the British Tourist Authority. These deals, available...

Paris, Rome packages. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... France Vacations has reduced rates on their 5-night and 7-night Paris packages from Los Angeles on Air Tahiti Nui. Both packages feature nonstop service on new Airbus 340-300 aircraft, five or seven nights' hotel, daily breakfast, airport/hotel...

Hotel de Crillon plus boutiques, museums. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Guests participating in the 4-night "Fashion Long Sejour" package at Paris' 5-star palace hotel Hotel de Crillon are being offered savings at some of Paris' finest clothiers and admission to many of the city's best museums. These include...

Putting a new twist on Finnish food along the historic King's Road.
November 1, 2002... When you think of the best of European food, you may immediately focus on France, Belgium or Italy. Think again. We found the finest of the "new cuisine" in Finland in May as we retraced the footsteps of royalty on the historic King's Road. ...

Viewfinders: Indochina.
November 1, 2002... In February/March 2000 I joined 11 other people on a fascinating 21-day "Indochina Discovery" tour of Cambodia, Viet-Nam and Laos offered by TBI Tours (53 Summer Street, Keene, NH 03431; phone 800/221-2216 or visit www.generaltours. com). ...

What about the pets?
November 1, 2002... What arrangements do you make for our pets while you're traveling? That's what we asked ITN readers recently. Curiously, there seems to be a consensus in the answers -- and it does not involve leaving the pets in a kennel. If any of you would...

Accommodations worldwide: Hotels / B&Bs / Homestays / Apartments.
November 1, 2002... The following is a listing of some of the hotels, B&Bs, etc., in which ITN readers have stayed over the past year or so plus restaurants or sights nearby. Prices are those paid at the time of the visit and conversion rates are approximate. ...

Exploring the Venice that the Venetians love: we have visited Venice, Italy, four times and each time have come away convinced that it is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
November 1, 2002... With its vast Piazza San Marco, the triple-domed Basilica, the Campanile tower, the Palazzo Ducale, the nearby Rialto Bridge and market, the Accademia and other museums -- plus the canals (small and grand) crowded with gondolas and power taxis...

ATMs at Japan's post offices. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Visitors to Japan with automatic teller machine (ATM) cards on the Cirrus, Plus, Maestro and Visa Electron networks now can get cash at many of the 21,000 post offices in Japan nationwide. Look for display stickers indicating which cards are...

Cycle tours of Singapore. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... The first guided bicycle tours of Singapore are being offered at the Singapore Visitors Centre on Bencoolen Street. The center, which also provides tourist information, air ticketings and sightseeing tours, now rents bicycles and offers two...

Berlin Wall Cycle Path. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Despite being a metropolis of about 3.4 million residents, Berlin can very easily and safely be explored by bicycle. Nearly all major streets have designated bicycle routes, with parks and promenades along the city's waterways offering a...

Candid appraisals of group tours. (Tours in Review).
November 1, 2002... The following are candid appraisals of some of the tours ITN readers have taken in the last year or so. Where possible, for comparison's sake, different readers' appraisals of a particular tour company are presented in tandem. When writing...

Botswana -- the right choice.
November 1, 2002... As advanced seniors, we reasoned that future, major trips are realistically limited. So we asked friends who travel extensively, "What is the best trip you've ever taken?" Surprisingly, a majority of responses favored Africa. Research of our...

New ICE T Munich to Berlin. (All Aboard!).
November 1, 2002... From its turnaround at Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, GermanRail's (DB) tilting. ICE T train Helene Weigel blazes over the plains of eastern Germany at 100 mph, judging from the LCD speedometers in the vestibules. You reach Berlin's East train station...

A treasure trove for cruising in Alaska. (Cruises).
November 1, 2002... There is a plethora of books which are filled with details and guidance covering generalized knowledge of the many ways of touring our great 49th state, whether it's travelers using a car or truck on the AlCan Highway, flying in by air,...

Tours: a selection of escorted tours.
November 1, 2002... Highlights: Scottish Highlands, Wester Ross, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Culloden battlefield, Inverewe Garden, Corrieshalloch Gorge, historic Glencoe, Loch Lomond/walk among the high Cairngorm Mountains and around lovely Loch An Eilean/take a...

Unearthing Evora's charms. (Rick Steves' Europe).
November 1, 2002... Deep in the heart of Portugal, in the arid plains of the southern province of Alentejo, historic Evora (pronounced EH-voh-rah) has been a cultural oasis for 2,000 years. With an untouched provincial atmosphere, fascinating whitewashed old...

Antigua -- more hotels, plus the scoop on dining and shopping. (Latin America).
November 1, 2002... (Part 4 of 5 on Guatemala) (All hotel rates given below are for standard rooms and include taxes. Breakfast is not included unless so specified.) FIRST-CLASS ACCOMMODATIONS After visiting several of Antigua's first-class hotels,...

Al-Khargah and al-Dakhlah oases in Egypt. (Timeless Roads of the Mideast & Mediterranean).
November 1, 2002... Travelers seldom venture west of Egypt's Nile River due to its desolate vastness -- the western desert is an area two-thirds the size of Texas and New Mexico combined -- yet this area awaits the adventuresome who seek the rugged beauty and...

Voyage into the heart of Mother Russia. (Focus on Archaeology).
November 1, 2002... This is the tale of a voyage into Old Russia, Russia before the 1917 Revolution. It is the Russia of golden, bulbous-domed churches, of wooden houses with intricate exterior carvings, of farms reflecting a slower-paced time geared toward the...

Galapagos preparations. (Far Horizons).
November 1, 2002... (Second of two parts) While our group found the pretour advisories of our tour operator, INCA, to be quite thorough, such is not necessarily the case with all companies offering Galapagos adventures. The following advisories are...

Wrapping it up in Amsterdam. (Kilroy was Here!).
November 1, 2002... I arrived in Northern Europe on a wet summer day. Raindrops pelted the crooked canals of Amsterdam. A town where residents complain of seaweed in the cellar doesn't need more water. As warm weather dwindles down, a big flea market blossoms...

Accu-Weather.com. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... To help travelers prepare for trips to any location around the world, Accu-Weather.com's Travel Weather Center offers forecasts for up to 15 days plus weather maps, interactive planning tools and various other resources. The departure and...

Keep ID at your finger-tips. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Travelon has designed a 3-compartment Identification and Boarding Pass Holder that will keep your driver's license, passport and boarding pass organized, visible, secure and within easy reach to present at various checkpoints while traveling....

'Travel Tips You Can Trust'. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... A new book in the AAA Ready, Set, Travel! series offers hundreds of travel tips that will provide even the most experienced globetrotters with fresh insight into how to make their next trip safe fun and strees-free. "Travel Tips You Can...

Junior as a royal gate guard. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Families visiting palaces in Seoul, Korea, now may royal borrow a "chief royal gate guard" costume and make memorable guard photographs of their children wearing it. In tandem with the changing-of-the-guard ceremony, "royal guard photo zones"...

112 hotline in Seoul. (Travel Briefs).
November 1, 2002... Visitors to Seoul, Korea, now may dial 11-2 in the event of an accident or emergency. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has implemented a special 7-language interpretation service for foreign visitors, recently adding German, French, Spanish...

Person to Person: reader-to-reader info exchange.
November 1, 2002... Planning a trip overseas and need specific info? Let your fellow ITN readers provide the answers. Send your question to Person to Person, do ITN, 2120 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818 or e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com. Please indicate if...