Q&A

SO WHERE IN EUROPE ARE TOURISTS STILL GOING?

Q – With all the terrorism over there, I am wondering where the Europeans themselves are now going on vacation. I know a lot of them used to go to Egypt but I imagine that has dried up. Are they now avoiding travel and staying home on vacation.  A –  The Europeans tend to be…

AIR FRANCE STRIKE; HOW DO WE AVOID IT NEXT TIME?

Q –  In June we got caught up in the middle of the Air France pilot strike making it impossible for us to get home on time. It was an absolute mess but I won’t bore your readers with details, except to say that we had to triple connect from Paris to get back to…

YOUR WEATHER CONCERNS SEEM A BIT ALARMING

Q –  Your travel advice is spot on with one rather glaring exception. We don’t subscribe to your theory that the earth is getting hotter and that travel to places like Europe should be reconsidered in the summer months. We just returned from a ten-day package in Germany and we found the July temperatures to…

HOW DO YOU SPOT A FAKE HOTEL REVIEW?

Q –  Most of my  friends use and depend on TripAdvisor to develop their travel “expertise”. They mostly use it to justify the hotel they selected based on price. But I have learned, partly from this informative site, that these online reviews are often fake. So I wonder if you might share some ways that…

CAN I SELL MY BOOKED HOTEL ROOM TO SOMEONE ELSE?

Q – We’ve booked a hotel in London  for five nights and are currently in penalty. There is no agent involved and I did not take out insurance for this trip. We’re due to leave in 11 days. Is there any way to sell the room in London or to re-sell it in the States…

HOW DO MY HUSBAND AND I GET UPGRADED?

Q –  You probably get this question quite often but we’re rather new to the idea of international travel as my husband is about to take a comfortable retirement next month. Although we live outside of Charleston and could just enjoy the city we love so much, the world seems to be calling. At your…

CAN YOU SOLVE A TWENTY YEAR MYSTERY?

Q – I lived in San Francisco for may years where I was a modest collector of watercolors I would buy at street fairs. I was particularly struck by these incredible mountain scenes, always covered by fog in the paintings and seeming quite mystical. Now, my wife and I are in a financial position where…

ANYTHING YOU CAN RECOMMEND CLEANING ON MY NEXT FLIGHT?

Q – I am a frequent flyer in the front of the plane who loves your site(s). The problem is I read traveltruth whenever I fly and sometimes the conversation about cleanliness makes me itchy. I know I’m a germaphobe and I don’t have any problem coming out of the closet. So I would ask…

REALLY GETTING FRUSTRATED BY AIRFARE SEARCH ENGINES

Q –  I’ve been keeping track – in the last three months, I’ve found four low airfares, tried to sell it to my husband, and each time when I got back the price was gone. Do these fares really change like that every  fifteen or twenty minutes? A – We are thinking that you have…

ANY HINTS FOR POTENTIAL CARIBBEAN RETIREES?

Q – We have been once – 25 years ago – to the Caribbean (friends house on Antigua) and fell totally in love with the island’s quietness, the vibrant and friendly people, the sound of the sea, and especially the steel drum music. We are now approaching retirement age (58 and 53) and we want…

SHOULD WE FEED THE ANIMALS IN THIS ZOO?

Q – I received an e-mail from Travel Zoo. I have never traveled with them. There were two bargains that would enable me to take my three daughters with me: 01 – Portugal, which includes airfare, well under #1,000 per person. 02 – Tuscany, about the same as above. How do I get an answer on…

HOW CAN A READER TELL IF AN ONLINE REVIEW IS HONEST?

Q –  As an early adapter and technical Millennial, I like to think of myself as tuned in. But travel on the internet seems to be a blur of contradictory advice and I keep getting the feeling that I am being set up and fed large amounts of really crappy, biased information. This seems particularly…

ANY WAY TO COMBINE A TRAIN TRIP OF QUALITY WITH MACHU PICCHU ?

Q – This is a lovely web sight and we’d love to know who sponsors it. Is it the tourist boards or the hotels? Our question concerns a desire to see Machu Picchu but to combine it with train travel which my husband just loves. He has a magnificent train set up in our basement…

WHO REALLY HAS THE BEST AIRLINE FOOD IN FIRST CLASS?

Q – We’ve started enjoying our retirement and flying to points around the world on our bucket list. We had owned fractional ownership in our own jet but going forward we’re feeling that flying commercially in First makes more sense. Obviously, we fly the airline and the route that works best for us but my…

DO THE EUROPEANS REQUIRE PIN NUMBERS WITH THOSE CHIP CARDS?

Q –   We will be leaving for Europe in three months  and we’re concerned about whether or not our credit cards will be accepted or do we need a chip? Also wondering about a pin number. It seems we’re  quite a bit ahead of the Euros on this issue as we don’t need the…

IS OUR TRAVEL AGENT NUTS?

Q – We are winos, in the best sense of the word, and all of our recent forays have been to wine destinations like Bordeaux, Tuscany, and a great week in Napa. Our travel agent has planned these well and knows we’re adventurous (early forties and financially comfortable).  But now she is recommending we go…

LOOKING FOR ADVICE ABOUT INTERNATIONAL PHONES

Q –  This is written out of frustration. I’ve been on tech boards, researched on my own, and talked to my best high-tech buddies, and no one seems to have a solution to a simple question. I travel internationally all the time and I need to use my phone in the most effective manner. Some…

DO WE REALLY HATE HIGH-DENSITY VACATIONS?

Q – Don’t wish to slow down the pace of your wonderfully engaging travel Q&A, but, as an architect, the question of density and travel is something I find intriguing. I work on high-rise design. If you think of places like Monte Carlo, the Indian slum Dharvari, and, perhaps, Hong Kong, we would have several…

WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT WHEN THEY CLEAN MY ROOM?

Q – As a frequent traveler within the USA,  I find my printing business takes me away about three weeks a month. I stay in lots of hotels, never, if I can help it, less than four stars, as five-star hotels always have excellent ac system installation that would make you feel relaxed and comfortable….

WHY DOESN’T LOWER FUEL COSTS EQUAL LOWER AIR FARES?

Q – I just paid $2.10 a gallon to fill my Lexus with premium gas. I imagine the airlines are seeing similar huge reductions in the price of fuel. So why did I just pay $120 more for a round-trip ticket on Delta to London than I did the same time a year ago.? Is…

OK – SAUSAGE IS NICE BUT WON’T WE FREEZE IN GERMANY IN DECEMBER?

Q –  My wife and I are contemplating a river cruise in  November/December 2017 and have a questions: Does it make sense to be on a river cruise for these Christmas markets considering that the outside temperature is going to be lower and might prevent you from fully enjoying the aspects of a river cruise…

SHOULD WE PUT OFF OUR TRIP TO EUROPE?

Q –  Is this really the right time to be thinking about traveling to Europe? We have some concerns about traveling this summer but we really want to go on our planned cruise. What are you advising and how do you handle this question with your clients? A – For most travelers, whether or not…