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IS COLOMBIA A DESTINATON WE SHOULD CONSIDER AT THIS TIME?
Q — We are in our early and mid-seventies, in great health, and we love adventure. We don’t mind camping out to see great sites but we do have some qualms about safety as we consider a trip to Colombia, every time we decide to camp over there we find ourselves in the need to…
DO WE GET BETTER AIRFARES SEARCHING A SITE ONLINE LIKE SKYSCANNER OR KAYAK?
Q – We are in our mid-forties and, being self-employed, I’ve worked things out so I can get away up to four weeks a year on various vacations. Most last a week but sometimes we do a longer trip. I don’t use an agent because all we are booking are flights and hotels and, quite…
WE ARE CONSIDERING A ONE WEEK TOUR TO THE CANADIAN ARCTIC WITH AN OUTFIT CALLED NATURAL HABITAT ADVENTURES. ARE THEY RECOMMENDED?
Q – We are seriously interested in doing all possible to preserve our fragile environment when we travel. We are interested in spending just over a week touring portions of the Arctic out of Churchill, Manitoba. We are quite serious about not wanting to leave a carbon footprint when we travel, although our aircraft will…
WHAT SHOULD A TRAVEL AGENT CHARGE FOR A HOTEL RESERVATION?
Vacations are supposed to be a wonderful yet relaxing experience to unwind and chill out. A great hotel management company like Prospera Hospitality is, in big part, responsible of such an amazing experience. However, any vacations wouldn’t be complete without experiencing a stay in the right hotel for your needs. That’s when a travel agent…
HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF MY MILES WITH SEVERAL AIRLINES?
Q – This airline business is uniquely frustrating and I am wondering if they make it intentionally tough to cash in miles? I currently have miles and elite status with American, Alaska, and United Airlines. I get e-mails and notifications but it is all very confusing and I tend t just give up and pay…
A QUESTION MANY OF YOUR READERS MUST BE CONSIDERING
Q – We came to your site purely by accident, or shall we say luck. We were searching Bing for some information that might help us plan our first cruise and we happened to insert the word “truth” into our search, since so much of what we had been reading was marketing manure. So here…
WHAT IS A LNG SHIP AND DO I WANT TO SAIL ONE?
Q – I am a financial analyst and I just saw a column indicating that Disney Cruise Line will be adding three-new 2,500 ships tot heir fleet. This could give the company more than a million guests annually according to the report. The ships are all going to be LNG types and I am wondering…
SAILING INTO BANGKOK BUT DOCKING HOURS AWAY – SCAM?
Q – We will be departing for Asia in two weeks. We’ve just received our final documents and we spent the weekend reviewing them carefully. Everything checks out but we are really upset to see that our overnight call in Bangkok on the Regent Mariner puts us almost two hours away from the city. No…
PREPARING FOR ITALY AND NOTICING THEY HAVE DELIS – ARE THEY REALLY DELIS?
Q – We are off on our second trip to Europe, following London last year. We’ve arranged a Italy tour and we are trying to do some homework. We love Deli food in the US, being New Yorkers I suppose that is not surprising, and we are wondering if the Delis we see listed in…
MY WIFE IS A CLEANLINESS NUT AND WE’RE READY TO RETIRE
Q – This is only marginally a travel question. My wife is extremely concerned about the environment and the lack of cleanliness in American cities compared to what we have seen in our travels. America really is a garbage dump in a high percentage of our cities with litter and filth everywhere. We’ve about had…
LOOKING SERIOUSLY AT VIKING CRUISES BUT WILL MY FELLOW GUESTS BE FROM MARS?
Q – We are seriously thinking about taking our first cruise to Europe to see the Fjords on a Viking Cruise. Their ads look great but the one thing we can’t quite determine is who actually sails the line. They are rather new so we can’t quite determine if we will be sharing the ship…
BOOKED ON-BOARD AND SAVED $400 -IS THIS A GOOD STRATEGY
Q – We have just returned from a Crystal cruise in the Caribbean. It was our first experience with Crystal and we loved the experience – feeling they offer more in the way of entertainment, food, and shore excursion options than the smaller ships they compete with. Our only other experiences have been aboard Windstar…
WE ARE TRAVELING ABROAD AND GOING TO USE OUR AMEX CARD FOR EVERYTHING?
Q – We are kind of newbies to the idea of travel out of the country. We will be taking our first trip to Europe aboard a Celebrity cruise in July sailing the lower Med to Spain, Italy, and Greece. We couldn’t be more excited. One bit of advice we need concerns credit cards. We…
SHOULD I LET THEM KNOW THAT I POST FREQUENTLY ON TRIPADVISOR?
Q – We recently checked in to a Hilton at the airport in Rome. I was really disappointed with my room and I went to the front desk and reminded them that I had made my reservation with one of the largest online agencies and that I personally post frequently on Facebook, Instagram, and TripAdvisor…
IS THERE A LEGAL WAY TO BRING LIQUOR ON-BOARD A FLIGHT?
Q – I fear I may be ridiculed in your pages, but let me explain that there are certain liquors and tequila that I really prefer to what is offered in Business Class on the airlines I fly. The flight attendants tell me there is no way to legally bring my own liquor on the…
IS THIS THE BEST WAY TO CRUISE THIS CHRISTMAS?
Q – We are planning early for a Christmas Cruise for about ten days. Our agent has highly recommended the Oceania Serena 10-Night Holiday cruise which includes Cuba. The ship seems smaller than what we’ve sailed, which is what we want, and the fact that we can easily drive to Miami for the round-trip sailing…
DO YOU RECOMMEND THE PAUL GAUGUIN AND WHICH ITINERARY?
Q – Having sailed once on NCL with almost five thousand new friends sporting tee-shirts and tats (and that could be for dinner), we had decided that mega-ship vacations, how great their value, are not for us. But now, we have our hearts set on the South Pacific. We are looking at your reviews of…
LOOKING AT TAUCK USING SHIP LE BOREAL. IS PONANT RECOMMENDED?
Q – Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question involving our 40th Wedding Anniversary and, potentially, our first cruise. We have twice traveled with Tauck Tours and everything folks say about them seems to be true. But now, we are looking at several programs Tauck is doing in Europe that are using Ponant…
PLEASE HELP THIS CRUISE GUNSLINGER: WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO PULL THE TRIGGER?
Q – We have taken more than a dozen lines, including the ones you might rate the worst to the best. As we get older we are leaning far more to the best because, when all is said and done, what no one ever says in a brochure is “the passengers on a five-star line…
CONSIDERING SILVER MUSE – WILL WE GET TIRED OF “CONTINENTAL CUISINE”
Q – It has been about ten years since we’ve sailed the Cunard Line in Queen’s Grill accommodations. Now, dear friends are wondering if we might join them in Europe on the Silversea Muse. It appears to be a nice ship but we are concerned about continental cuisine overload. It seems like a lovely line…
ALL WE REALLY CARE ABOUT ARE THE QUALITY OF THE SHORE EXCURSIONS
Q – I suppose you might say we are a bit different than some of your blog followers. We are well-educated, comfortable financially, and actually interested in learning as much as possible about the places we will be visiting (Likely a two-week European Waterways itinerary). So we are prepared to choose a river cruise line…
CAN WE GET ANY SORT OF REFUND ON A VIKING RIVER DRUISE IN BORDEAUX IF WE DECIDE NOT TO USE THEIR SHORE EXCURSIONS?
A – In preliminary stages of research regarding a likely river cruise with Viking in the south of France. All of these programs on Viking seem to include shore excursions and are, therefore, really not right for us as we consider ourselves independent travelers. We like to just get out and explore on our own…
SAFETY ISSUES ON EUROPE’S RIVERS: SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED?
Q – A friend, who happens to be joining us on a river cruise next July, has sent us an article that raises questions about the safety aboard river boats in Europe. I’ve called the line and they assure me that they have all sorts of security measures in place and that they are always…
LOOKING AT MEKONG RIVER CRUISE ON VIKING RIVER: WILL IT BE ENJOYABLE?
Q – We are wondering if you might help us decide if we wish to go ahead with a seven-night cruise on the Viking Mekong in early June. We are thinking that this will remove all of the water issues we’ve been reading about in Europe and there could be a lot of culture and…
CAN YOU GET US IN TO KELLER’S?
Q – We are, I would say, professional foodies who read restaurant reviews from all over the world in bed each evening. We’ve been to just about half of the Michelin multi-starred restaurants in the United States and we are “Top Chef” addicts. So, imagine our delight to find that Thomas Keller is now affiliated…
CAN YOU CHOOSE THE KIND OF BATHROOM YOU WANT ON A GOOD CRUISE SHIP?
Q – We are starting our search for a long-delayed cruise in the area of the Adriatic. I have some concerns about choosing a stateroom with a bathtub. I really dislike the entire concept of showering, sticking my hair under the nozzle just doesn’t suit me. Will I be able to request or even confirm…
LAST-MINUTE CABIN SPECIALS: WHERE SHOULD WE GO?
Q – Like everyone else, I love the better things in life but I also like to feel that I am getting the best deal. Yesterday, I called Silversea and they said that they had 14 cabins still available ion the three categories we would want with a veranda. But we did not commit because…
PLANNING ON SAILING NEW RITZ CARLTON LINE
Q – The news that Ritz Carlton is launching a lux cruise line is leading us toward the conclusion that we will wait a year or two to take our first cruise. The preliminary information has been helpful bur we are concerned about the A-La-Carte restaurant on-board, the likely venue where we would dine most…
