Q – We are thinking of joining two friends from Columbus on a Viking River Cruise along the Danube next July. As we were getting ready to call in our reservation, we came across this site and were wondering if you were aware that yours is one of the only sites to downgrade Viking. One…
Q – My next-door neighbor and his wife, who are far better traveled than we are, just returned from a river cruise where they said they got a great deal of knocking about as the ship progressed with the ship rising and falling and shuddering. They were on a longer Rhine/Danube cruise, something we are…
Q – We were referred to this site by our travel agent and were surprised at your placement of Viking River Cruises below many of the smaller, lesser-known lines. The Conde Nast Ratings apparently rate Viking River near the top. No offense intended, but why should we believe a web site versus a respected publication…
Q – It took my husband and I about five minutes on riverboatratings to figure out that river boating is really not for us. It all sounds a bit more mass market and regimented than we had hoped. But we did see that the very top-rated river boats are not necessarily Europe-based boats. Our profile…
Q – We have cruised Europe with Vantage and we recently returned from China where we sailed with Viking River on their Emerald. The Cruise tour did not really give us enough time in Beijing and Shanghai and we would advise traveltruth readers to try to add days in both cities. The cruise, however, seemed…
By Richard Bruce Turen The news was starting to get to me. Too much negativity. The world seems to be in a knot, a twisted, convoluted series of pressure points, any one of which can explode at any moment. My clients have concerns. I have concerns for them as they travel the globe. I needed…
Q – My wife and I have been following traveltruth for the past eight years. And we always thought we could take anything you said to the bank. But this last story about flying monkeys, horses, and pigs is stretching our credulity. I just can’t believe that any airline is going to let any of these animals…
We get a fair number of e-mails from civilians complaining that air travel is not as elegant as it once was. OK, that’s a given. Perhaps we ought to have some minimum dress rules aboard aircraft. Perhaps we ought to close down bars at airports. Perhaps we ought to have odor detection machines and available…
Given the importance of tourism in the underdeveloped world, accurate news of diseases that can affect visitors is often under-reported. Here is a list of some important worldwide health advisories that may be of interest to travelers in the months to come. Some of them have occurred in developed nations including portions of Europe. The…
Q – We are about to book a two-week river cruise on AMA, one of your top-rated lines. We will be traveling with good friends for two weeks on the Magnificent Europe Program. In evaluating costs we were wondering how the top three lines vary in terms of what they do and do not include…
Q – We will be leaving for London next week flying on United, with a United connecting flight to Lisbon. We just noticed we have four and a half hours between flights. Any suggestions as to where we should eat or shop in the Terminal would be appreciated. A – You need to get specifics…
Q – My wife and I have just spent several hours on the phone trying to actually book seats using miles, miles we’ve earned by being loyal customers. I used to fly for my work so I am in a position to see how the damn airlines have cut and cut the seats they allocate…
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, which now owns the Oceania and Regent Seven Seas brands, has announced that it has purchased the former 604 guest Ocean Princess, a vessel originally launched in 1999 as an R-class ship with now defunct Renaissance Cruises. The Ocean Princess, once named the Tahitian Princess, will undergo a 35-day, $40 million…
Q – Do you happen to know which country has the most travelers, meaning residents who travel abroad. The question came up over dinner last night and the answers ranged from the United States, France, and England. Also wondering why you no lo longer answer questions about restaurants. We used to find that part of…
When your local guide bursts into laughter as he begins to attempt to describe his city, you know you are in for an experience, of sorts. “In Naples, you know,” the guide begins, “they say all of the crazy people in Italy, the really crazy ones who are not politicians, live in Naples….
It is not longer a matter of debate. This April, May, June, August and September saw Europe experience its hottest temperatures since weather records began being recorded in the 1890’s. The rise in daily temps is in keeping with the rise across Europe of greenhouse gas levels. This is leading many of the best travel…
Q – After only a decade of talking about it, my procrastinating husband has finally agreed to take me on a crossing to or from Europe next year. Wait until he finds out he won’t be able to get ESPN on the ship. We want the best itinerary and ship and we’d love to have…
Part Two of a Three-Part Series By Managing Editor Richard Bruce Turen After beginning our culinary march through southern Italy in Rome, we landed in Catania, the tip of the Italian boot, with views of Mt. Etna in the background the Mediterranean and the Ionian Sea forming suitable backdrops to a seemingly endless collection…
Q – We were directed to your site by another site. Looking for a ship or a company that supposedly will take you to Antarctica on an actual sailing boat. We can’t seem to find any information on this program and wondering if you could point us in the right direction. My wife and I are…
Q – We’ve got a situation where I have over a million miles on United and I will lose some of them if I don’t use them. My wife and I are sushi-lovers so we thought we’d do a fast round-trip from LAX for about a week of doing for lunch and dinner. We hope…
Q – We’ve been covering your site for some time and readily subscribe to most of your views. But you have been extremely cautious about even mentioning Ebola even though you must know it is on everyone’s mind. The reaction of our hospitals and our government’s confusion about how to protect us at home, must have…
A new report from Credit Suisse detailing global wealth indicates that the US leads the world with 62,800 residents whose wealth exceeds $50 million. This compares to 7,600 Chinese, 5,500 Germans, and 4,700 residents of the UK. Gaining fast is India with 1,800 uber-millionaires. At long last, we now have a working definition of “Super…
By Managing Editor Richard Bruce Turen There is a light breeze coming off the water and I sit at an outdoor table at Fish Frenzy, alongside the Elizabeth Street pier in Hobart, Tasmania. Elizabeth Street pier has a beautiful waterfront. I see boats, yachts, ships, and a fisherman fishing with a fly reel under $100….
Q – What a neat site. It’s like talking with a friend, perhaps a friend in the business. We’ve done some nice cruising but we’ve left our 17 year-old daughter and 14 year-old son back home with relatives. We are looking at a Seabourn European cruise to Greece next summer and wondering if we should…
Q – If I might put forward a question: when staying in a hotel arranged by the tour operator as part of the itinerary, are personal gratuities to hotel staff employees redundant? We realize that one can never give too much & have been generous, but remain uncertain as to proper & expected protocol. This…
Q – We are booked on a tour that will concentrate on the history of Persia (Iran). Yesterday, my local newspaper announced that several women have been attached by having acid thrown in their face for not dressing in the proper Islamic fundamentalist manner. The trip is in three weeks and we are seriously thinking…
By Traveltruth Managing Editor Richard Bruce Turen For the past twenty-three years, my family and I have taken our annual vacation accompanied by a few dozen of our favorite clients. Insane, perhaps, but shared experiences are always the best. But unlike the tours, culinary and otherwise, that I’ve put together for our clients, this…
Q – We are looking for advice concerning reports of neighboring stateroom’s disturbing noise volume in Tauck’s MS Inspire Loft stateroom # 104. The noise comes from other cabins vacuum toilet-flushing. (We are currently booked in that cabin for next summer). On the one hand, we read that Tauck and Scylla would address the problem…
TITANIC CRUISE LINES REVEALS PLANS By Richard Bruce Turen – Managing Editor Traveltruth.com Last week, I was able to snag an exclusive interview with one of the most innovative cruise line CEO’s in the business. I sat down with Dave Weidenaar of the new Titanic Cruise Lines at his headquarters in Burlington, Vermont for a…
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