HEADED FOR LISBON AND NEED ADVICE

Q – My 18 year-old son and I will be spending a week in Lisbon as part of his graduation present. We’re pretty much set but were wondering if you had sources that could direct us toward a shop that sells the best hand-painted tiles in the city. We hear they are beautiful. My son…

USING OUR 4G PHONE IN GERMANY

Q – I wonder if you can advise me if I can be assured that my new Verizon 4G LTE phone will work on an upcoming trip to Germany and Austria. The salesman in the Verizon store said it would but he was all of eighteen and told me he had never been to Europe….

SEA DREAM VERSUS REGENT SEVEN SEAS – AND THE WINNER IS …

Q – I just happened upon your site and am so happy that I did …what a concept, telling the truth! My husband and I love to travel and will be taking a first cruise on Sea Dream 1 in November. The reviews I have read on those “other” sites (before I found yours, of…

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THE CONCORDIA DISASTER STILL A BURIED MYSTERY

THE CONCORDIA This Article Originally Appeared in Travel Weekly  – By Richard Bruce Turen How do you check the reality of the nightmare that occurred off the shores of Isola del Giglio, a quiet island that, it is said, dips its small feet into the Tyrrhenian Sea The diving is so good off the shores…

WHY YOUR AIRLINE TICKET SEEMS MORE EXPENSIVE

The airlines and many online ticket agencies are livid over new U.S. Transportation Department rules that went into effect in January that require airlines to advertise and quote the full price of an airline ticket inclusive of required taxes and all fees. This new regulation has the effect of making it appear that the price…

SEEING AUTHENTIC AFRICA WITH A CAMERA

Q – We’re in our late fifties, still quite active, and we travel from our home in Southern California about three times a year. We’ll spend somewhere between $15,000 – $20,000 on average per trip. Our problem is that we’ve done most of the destinations that our travel agent has been to and we are…

IS THIS AIR DEAL FOR REAL?

Q – Wow, fascinating site with great information. Yesterday, we received a mailer from Tauck Tours, a firm that does quite well in your ratings, that was announcing a new air deal to Europe. If we are reading it right, and my bifocals are not failing me, Tauck will fly us up and back to…

FINALLY THE SECRET IS OUT: THE BEST TIME TO BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS

The Airline Ticketing Corporation, the company that handles ticket purchases between airlines and travel agents, has just completed the largest survey of international airline ticket trends ever undertaken. They looked at literally millions of actual transactions over the last four years. The conclusion: The very best time to purchase an airline ticket is six weeks…

WORTH KNOWING: THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD CHANGE

What would happen if you took a simple survey of ten of the leading American university nutrition scientists and physicians and asked them one simple question: If the American people could change one specific item in their diet – what should it be? What was amazing about this poll, conducted by Prevention Magazine, was that…

NOTES FROM THE REAL FOOD FRONT

Things are not always what they seem. Tropicana Orange Juice contains oranges from Brazil. Only certain brands actually use Florida oranges. But, virtually all Grapefruit juice is home grown in the USA. The presence of fungicides in orange juice from Brazil caused some folks to actually read food labels. But food labels are deceiving. In…

IS THE TITANIC CRUISE LEGIT?

Q – After spending two weekends reading everything on this site, (it goes nicely with Red Bull), we thought we would ask about the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic Cruise sailing out of New York on April 10th. Is this thing legitimate? Do we have to worry about the Captain. I’ve never heard of Azamara…

WHOLE FOODS AT SEA

Q – Do you know of any cruise line that  likes to cook and serve organic food.? A – Well we can’t imagine any cruise line would actually “enjoy” serving organic food given the cost. But cruise line marketing people understand that this segment of the market is growing and virtually every upscale cruise line now…

CONGRATULATIONS: WE’RE GETTING CLOSER

The Doomsday clock has been moved forward – again. It may be time to travel since the clock is now set to five minutes before midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists carried this cheerful news effective on January 11th – and that was before Newt Gingrich won South Carolina. The group of scientists who…

WORTH KNOWING: WE ARE THE WORLD’S 1%

The latest figures from the United Nations indicate that any American with an annual income above $24,801 is, quite literally, among the 1% wealthiest inhabitants of our planet. 99% of the world’s people earn less than that per year. It is sometimes worthwhile to consider that fact during our travels and during our moments of…

MORE ON BIG SHIPS AND SAFETY

Q – We had dinner with friends last night from St. Louis who have joined us on a number of cruises. The entire evening was spent discussing the Costa Concordia situation. We were somewhat surprised by the advice you have offered to some folks who expressed concern about sailing a mega-ship in the future. We…

CRUISE PRICES AND THE COSTA TRAGEDY?

Q – We are seriously considering a cruise for our family sometime this year. We read what you had to say about school vacation time and the impact on cruise pricing so we were wondering when might be the best time to cruise in 2012. Simply put, when are the best prices? We’re not cheap…

SHOULD WE CANCEL OUR PLANNED CRUISE?

Q – We are just so upset about the tragedy in Italy and the way the Captain of a luuxury cruise ship would just walk away. My husband and I are taking our two daughters on a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Caribbean on Norwegian Cruise Line and we are seriously thinking of…

WHICH ONE IS THE AIR MARSHALL?

As it turns out, not one of the gentleman in our photo is a Federal Air Marshal. In fact, trying to pick out the air marshal on transcontinental and overseas flights has become a sort of game for travelers, something to do while the seatbelt lamp is lit. It is usually assumed that the muscular guy in…

DOES ANYONE OUT THERE CARE ABOUT OUR LUNGS?

Q – I am writing on behalf of my parents who, in their early seventies, are going to be visiting Europe for the first time. My brother and I want to send them on a nice seven-to-ten day cruise in Europe. They have never been, so we were thinking of a cruise that does the…

2012 BERTH ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cruise lines are generally bullish when it comes to potential berth capacity going into the 20 teens. Or at least they were three or four years ago, when cruise line execs signed on to launch six new ships this year One of the primary reasons that seasoned cruise line execs and their investors are mildly…

WILL SOMEONE GET AMERICAN AIRLINES FOR CHRISTMAS 2012?

You can call them vultures or you can call them smart corporate investors, but something in the air is circling American Airlines parent company, AMR Corp in Dallas. In fact, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that just as American is going through the kind of financial reorganization that will allow it to emerge from…

IMPLICATIONS OF COSTA CATASTROPHE

Q – We are scheduled to take a cruise on a line called Azamara this coming August. It was to do the coastline of Italy near the area where the Luxury Liner went down. My husband wants to just cancel, saying the port pilots obviously do not know what they were doing. What is your…

THE ULTIMATE WALL STREET BLACKBERRY BREAK

Q – OK, here’s the deal. My boyfriend is head of research at a Wall Street hedge fund. We’re both in our thirties and we both work long hours. I want to surprise him with a vacation he’ll never forget, taking him to a place where his Blackberry won’t function. We’re both into climbing and…

WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER AIRLINE REALITY SHOW?

Q – Since traveltruth is a not-so-guilty pleasure and you don’t list names, I can ask a couch potato question. We loved that reality show that took you behind the scenes at Southwest. Are any other airlines going to do a reality series? A – No, but the good news is that there will be…

CROSSING THE POND THIS CHRISTMAS

Q – Hope this gets answered on traveltruth or via e-mail. We’re in our early fifties and both my wife and I work long hours as programmers and data consultants. In the last ten years of our marriage, we’ve gone away for the Holidays to the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico seven time over Christmas….

WHY DO CRUISE LINES HATE SINGLES?

Q – I am an attractive guy in his late sixties, ok, early seventies, and, believe it or not, I’ve never been married. I like to play the field and I like to meet and dance with all the widows on cruises. But I am on a fixed income and I wonder why single supplements…

SOUTHWEST STUNS INDUSTRY WITH NEW BOEING ORDER

Everyone in aviation knew Southwest was going to place a serious new order with Boeing for the new, “Max” version of the 737, but the size of the order, 208 new aircraft valued at $19 Billion was still a shocker. The more fuel-efficient Max engines are new and Southwest will be Boeing’s first Max operator. Southwest…

AN EXPENSIVE POSTCARD FROM ROME

The cost of a hotel night in Rome went up another $8.00 or so on January 1st. As one of the city’s new breed of public servants put it, “In order not to tax Romans we have decided to tax the tourists.” All Rome Hotel guests in four and five star properties will now be…

BARCELONA’S MOST DESIRABLE RESERVATION

Q – We are heading out to Barcelona in June for a long-delayed second honeymoon. We’ll be staying at the Hotel Arts, which we hope you will agree is the best hotel in the city. Our question has to do with one memorable meal. We have established a relationship with a member of the Concierge…