Q&A

HEADED TO PRAGUE – BUT NOT TO SEE THE SITES

Q – We are people travelers – we could care less about sterile historical buildings and silly church buildings with their excessive costs. For us, we like to be around locals where they gather – seeing neighborhoods that are developing but are off the beaten tourist track. It seems that we invariably stumble into some…

HAVE AN IDEA TO DO A TOUR TO EGYPT TWO YEARS FROM NOW

Q – 5.14.21  Thank you for all of this – extraordinary info. We are planning a tour to Egypt that will include a cruise along the Nile for four nights. This is a bucket list item and I am an advance planner. The dates and pricing for our planned travel about two years from today…

HEADED TO COPENHAGEN ON VEGAN WINGS

Q – Thanks to your efforts, we are looking forward to a cruise from Copenhagen to Stockholm next summer. We have decided to arrive in Copenhagen two nights prior to our sailing on the Regent Splendor. We would love to stay at a well-located, reasonably-priced hotel and go out to a nice dinner before boarding…

IS IT SAFE TO GIVE A HOTEL SITE MY CREDIT CARD?

Q – As we start planning our travels again, and I don’t want to bother you with long weekends and domestic hotel stays, I wonder if you are feeling that handing over credit card info to a hotel website or online booker is reliable these days? In the past, I’ve done it without thinking, but…

COULD USE A LITTLE ‘SHEET’ CONFIDENCE WHEN WE NEXT CHECK IN

Q – We are restarting our travel buttons with planned stays at hotels in LA as well as Manhattan for Fashion Week events. As we emerge from this Covid crisis, cleanliness is even more important than godliness. To be specific, how do we choose a hotel that will not be reusing the same sheets from…

WILL OUR AIRPORT CHECK-IN BE AS ‘DELIGHTFUL’ AS IT HAS BEEN PRE-COVID?

Q – Any thoughts on how things might change in terms of the check-in process, rules aboard aircraft etc? What can we expect? A – Airlines have discovered major software deficiencies system-wide making the cancellation and transfer of credits extremely challenging. Automation challenges are being addressed now and should be in place when full-scale international…

WE WANT TO TRAVEL BUT WE HAVE FINANCIAL AIRLINE ANGST

Q – We keep hearing references on the news to how hard the airline industry has been hit hard around the world. How bad has it been and will they recover? A – There was one day in March where it was calculated that 61% of the US Airline fleet was in lockdown somewhere at…

WE ARE GOING TO AFRICA IN TWO YEARS AND NEED ADVICE

Q – You go all over the internet and find all kinds of advice about travel to Africa and it all sounds like so much noise. Yesterday, my therapist, yes I am being serious, told me about your site. I hope you will answer just a few questions. My wife and I are in our…

WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN I HAVE A “Q” ON MY TICKET?

Q – I recently returned from a trip to London where I noticed that instead of saying I was flying in economy it said I was flying in Q Class. Then I looked carefully, and my connecting ticket home had an N instead of a Q. Anyway you can explain these letters the airlines use…

WHY DOES DELTA DO SUCH SHARP LANDINGS WHEN ALL I WANT TO DO IS FLOAT BACK DOWN?

Q –  I have been flying for the past two decades, mostly to larger metropolitan areas. I have noticed that some pilots, particularly those with Delta, seem to make harsher landings while American pilots seem to glide in more softly. I wonder why this is and also wonder about any of the larger airports where…

DID WE MAKE A MISTAKE? BOOKED TWO NIGHTS AT VICTORIA FALLS

Q – Set with a two-week tour of southern Africa that begins in Cape Town and ends in Johannesburg. This mid-August vacation includes two nights in Victoria Falls where I am reading the water has completely dried up and the Falls are no more. We are working with a local safari operator based in Johannesburg…

WHICH MEDIA OUTLETS REFUSE TO ACCEPT FREE TRIPS FOR THEIR TRAVEL WRITERS?

Q – We are fascinated by your point about the relationship about travel articles and the fact that the vast majority of writers are describing their own “free or nearly free” trips. No wonder we can’t really depend on travel reporting any more than we can believe what is written on a number of other…

DO YOU HAVE A SECOND FOR A “BIG” QUESTION?

Q – Have spent portions of the last three nights reading your Q&A. Really enjoyable and love the information. Here is our brief story: I am retiring in six months and, with the death of my folks earlier this year, have come into enough money that will enable us to do some serious traveling in…

CAN I EASILY BRING MY PRESCRIPTION DRUGS IN AND OUT OF SOUTH AFRICA?

Q –  We will be going on the south africa safari next year a and I would like to know the strategy for bringing drugs like Zyrtac, for allergies, into the country. I have read that they are very strict about drugs.  A – South Africa, along with many other nations in Africa are extremely…

HEADED TO PARIS NEXT MAY AND WORRIED ABOUT CROWDS

Q – We have taken your advice and are thinking about scheduling our trip to France, our first trip to Europe, next May so we can avoid the crowds. My wife has dreamed about visiting the Louvre since she was an art student at NYU. Is this a good time to go to on a…

THIS MAY SEEM STRANGE OR CHEESY

Q – This may qualify as the weirdest request of the week. I love fondue. I love cheese. But I am a connoisseur, as snobby as my wine drinking friends up here in Seattle. For my 60th, my wonderful wife bought us two tickets to Zurich on SAS. The purpose of the trip is visiting…

IS THERE A GREAT FOODIE ADD-ON TO THAILAND?

Q – We have two weeks scheduled in early November in Thailand. We will be joined by our friends, our podiatrist and his wife. (We advise all of your readers to make friends with their podiatrist – it makes walking around overseas so much easier). We are from LA and we are, could you guess,…

IS ‘VIEW FROM THE WING” A RECOMMENDED SITE?

  Q – We discovered an interesting web site that has a lot of information about earning miles and using the best credit cards for travel and earning miles. We are wondering if you would recommend “View from the Wing” as a reliable source? A – Yes, the site’s editor, Gary Leff, is highly respected…

ARE THEY BEING SERIOUS: WE CAN’T EAT A PANINI IN FLORENCE?

Q – We are planning on spending a fair amount of money, staying at The Savoy, in Florence this coming summer. We’ll be there for six days and are looking forward to walking around on one big self-designed foodie tour. We love street food. click here you will get too many types of food. But…

YOU ARE GOING TO THINK MY HUSBAND IS A SAINT

Q – I think I am married to a “saint”. So do my friends. I’ve been working in the Publishing field for the past fourteen years and I have found myself working more and more on health-related publications. I did have a bout with Cancer a few years back and my husband has made up…

YES ON TRAVEL INSURANCE – BUT WHICH COMPANY?

Q – I am coming to traveltruth because I would love to get the bottom line on insurance. I’m a reader, and I organize every aspect of my trip. I’ve been traveling since my wife and I retired eight years ago and it seems that all my plans fall into place until it comes to…

ARE THERE MONTHS WHEN AMSTERDAM SHOULD BE AVOIDED?

Q – We have read your warnings about travel to southern European countries like Italy and Spain during the summer months. You have pointed out the issues with heat and over-crowding. But what of Northern Europe. We are considering a museum-oriented trip to Amsterdam in August and we were wondering what months to avoid in…