The rest of Q&A

Q – I am sorry – but your industry seems to lack any ethical foundations when it comes to marketing cruises and other types of vacation offerings. We are AARP Members, belong to one of the nicer golf clubs in Ohio, and we donate our time to numerous charities. As a result, we are inundated with mail and e-mails offers the vast majority of which really insult our intelligence. Sometimes I wonder if it is deliberate. But the one that brings about my question is the offer received from two different cruise lines that indicated that if I would only call them, I could get two-for-one pricing – meaning my wife can join me for free. As a former CFO, I smell a rat. What should I be thinking when I receive a two-for-one cruise offer? 

A – You should be thinking that your intelligence is being insulted. The assumption of most travel advertising is that the travel consumer is a dimwit who can be told virtually anything about pricing. The industry is built on a foundation of misinformation and manipulation. You are not supposed to understand cruise pricing. 

Before a pricing brochure is finalized, cruise executives determine the actual price they need to put on each stateroom category to realize the kinds of profits they need to generate. They take that price and double it. They then advertise 2-1 pricing.  The Top Ten Cruise lines, the real ones, tend to raise their pricing every 90 days while creating new offers designed to make the consumer feel good about paying more – they may raise prices and then throw in one or two free shore excursions or gratuities.

The secret for the consumer is to fully understand the real price formula every potential cruiser needs to know. We have mentioned this before in one of our responses – but here is the secret to understanding cruise pricing:

Use the same mathematical formula each time you consider a cruise: Take the minimum unobstructed outside stateroom and remove the port charges and the air from the total cost. Then, take the total cost and divide it by the number of nights you will spend on the ship.

This will give you a per diem price with the “applesauce” removed. Use this formula each time you look at a cruise to determine the real cost of your cruise. You can decide if the air is a good deal separately. We actually have a client who has used this formula for years and, based on the outcome,  he decided to book  a 72-Day Grand Voyage based on the low per diem costs. 

Q – We have some wonderful friends who have indicated they will join us on something like a ten-day Nile cruise/tour in Egypt. We are well-traveled, as our friends, but they like to travel independently and a group tour may be a tough sell. I have heard from returning friends that Cairo and the Pyramids, along with Luxor were packed with tourist buses. We will want to avoid some of that by going in the off-season. Is there a time when tourism in Egypt really slows down? Do you recommend we try to convince our friends not to do Egypt on our own? 

A – The “off-season” in Egypt is May-September, their summer. Summer in Egypt is no picnic and we do not suggest you visit during days of physically challenging  heat. Prime Season is November through March. A good compromise might be shoulder months of April, September, or October. 

Since there will be four of you, we would normally urge you to consider a private journey. The price when you are joined by one or two additional couples makes private travel somewhat more affordable. But in this case, you will want to be on a Nile River Cruise with other people and you will want to go to the most popular tourist sites. So “getting away from the crowds” is far more challenging. 

It seems to us that your best option is going to be a small group journey with fewer than 20 fellow guests. We think that Abercrombie & Kent, a company with a strong presence in Egypt, is the first company to consider. But there are several other good Egypt operators including Tauck and National Geographic. 

Egypt is one of the “UIP” countries (Upgrade If Possible). You really want to avoid three and four-star hotels. Egypt is also known for having a surplus of non-certified guides. 

Finally, we would suggest that your friends try to understand that independent touring is not what it once was – independent travelers often believe what they are being told on internet travel sites and apps. The fact is that the independent traveler receives few of the price breaks enjoyed by upscale travelers on group programs. “Independent Travel” now carries a real additional cost on virtually every component of a trip. Given security issues, we think that you need to travel with a company that has on-the-ground staff in-country when traveling to Egypt. 

NEWARK AIRPORT

Q – So pleased that our pediatrician told us about this site. But the lack of ads is scaring us. Won’t you go broke soon? 

So here is my question: We are going on a wonderful Explora 1 Cruise  next summer that begins in Athens and ends in Barcelona. I don’t worry about the return but my schedule is such that I will only have one day in Athens before we board. I don’t want anything to go wrong. Should we connect through Newark, JFK, or Boston Logan? Do you feel strongly that our chances for a hassle-free flight connection over are going to be better from one or the other? We would be looking at American or United most likely. 

A – In this case, don’t worry about the airport. Ideally, we want you to have a two and a half hour connection and we would prefer if you left before midnight. You might also consider the type of aircraft on the East Coast to Athens segment. If you are flying Business you will want lie-flat seats. If possible, avoid flying the 767 as there are now roomier options. Consider adding Philadelphia to your list of options as American is turning it into a major international hub. If you want to go crazy, you might want to look up back-up flights – as in what can you fly if you miss your connection. 

There is also arrival time. If you arrive in Athens at 7:00 am and get to your hotel by, say, 9:30, it is highly unlikely that your room will be ready.

As to our consumer-oriented, ad-free approach: No worries. We all have day jobs.  We do this work out of a sincere desire to provide at least one source of truthful information for the intelligent traveler. It helps us sleep at night.

Just to cross our t’s on our response: Do consider shipping your luggage from home to your hotel. And please seriously consider using a reputable flight monitoring service so if there is a hiccup they will be by your side via app. to re-book you on the best available option. These are two specific things savvy travelers do when there are questionable connections on the horizon. 

Please let us know how this all turns out including your time aboard Explora, the new, upscale division of MSC Cruises. 

Q – We have been going up and back with two travel agents, one online, to plan a one week stay somewhere in France in a wonderful village setting. There are some great hotels but then we would need to drive or be driven to the local village. We are both educators, I am a High School Principal. Our time is somewhat limited as we plan for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We’ve been saving for this trip and price is not a huge consideration. If possible we want to avoid Paris and other cities and just stay in a great hotel smack in the middle of a lovely village. But we also want great service and food that we will never forget. 

So far, we are being given names in Provence and along the French Riviera. We just started reading this web site and we feel that your backgrounds may point us in the right direction. We do have a relationship with one of the agents who we have met with twice but you can convince us to work with you on this truly important trip. Thank you in advance and know that we appreciate the total lack of insulting travel drivel.

A – This is, of course, an opinion question and we are at a disadvantage as we have never spoken and we would want to know more about you before making a final recommendation. But, based on what you have told us, we strongly urge you to consider the Hotel Bastide de Gordes. Gordes is a commune in the Vaucluse département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France. The residents are known as Gordiens. The nearest big city is Avignon; smaller cities nearby include Cavaillon, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Apt . 

The hotel is among the finest we have ever experienced and the village has been named France’s “Prettiest”. The hotel is on the main street with terraces out back that overlook a magnificent scene of hills and old stone villages. The extraordinary staff all speak English and the food is Michelin + quality. 

We appreciate your kind offer of possibly working with us but we would urge you to be loyal to the agent who you met with two times. We have been in business for 38 years with a following in 46 states and 6 countries – there is no need for us to use this consumer site to solicit or even seek new business. 

Whatever you do in France, thank you both for your service to our kids and have a memorable second honeymoon. 

Q – Love that you are including some food and restaurant information on traveltruth. We hope you will feature more.  My wife and I are head off to London in mid-August. We will be staying at the Lanesborough, a hotel I would think you would recommend. We have booked it directly with the hotel and so we will be expecting the refund for booking direct when we check out. 

But our questions concerns sushi. My wife and I love sushi restaurants – I would say that Nobu is our favorite restaurant group in all our travels and, of course, they have one and many like them in London. But here in Boca, most of us are smart enough to stay away from raw fish in mid-summer when the temperatures are so high and food handling of fresh fish becomes problematical. Would you be afraid to order sushi at Nobu in August in London or any other high quality restaurant in London? We are recommending this site to all our friends. Keep it up – but more food Q&A.

A – Interesting question. We feel that you can trust the food handling at Nobu worldwide. When it comes to other London sushi restaurants we would urge caution about dining on raw fish mid-summer when real temps may be above 100 degrees. That requires a lot of faith not only in the sushi chef but in the the system of receiving and storing newly arrived fresh fish supplies during a heat wave. Sushi is a gastronomic leap of faith at the best of times. We think your question is relevant and we would urge some level of caution. One rule of thumb recommended by some experts is always avoid eating raw fish between May and September while traveling in a heat zone. 

But allow us to also suggest that you should also consider that fresh fish standards in Great Britain, are  higher than they are in the United States as a result of stricter government regulation and, of course, proximity to the sea. We would not, personally, hesitate to order sushi at a top-grade Japanese restaurant in London mid-summer. You might want to request a selection from “your last fresh fish delivery”. 

Q – My friend and I have decided to take our three weeks off each year and do some traveling together within the United States. We are both in our forties – my friend is divorced and I am single. Unfortunately, we’re both OK looking so there are some concerns about traveling independently. Having spent some time on this site, we think you’re the right folks to ask although we understand this is out of your wheelhouse. 

As we start our long-range planning, we are wondering if there is any research that might indicate which State in the country, or area, is going to be the safest for two women traveling together?  For our first trip or two we would like to head to an area of the country where we feel secure and then we’ll ease into other trips as we gain confidence.

A –  There is some research that measures the major factors you would want to consider. But we think that any conclusion is really stretching it. For the record, Vermont is considered the safest state for women traveling on their own. We would put little faith in that conclusion but we do think that New England generally may be a good place to start your journeys. We would offer one caution – in your situation, there might be a tendency to avoid big cities and to consider rural drives and sightseeing well off the beaten path. That is fine, but do also look for places that have a well-educated demographic, higher income, and a well-regarded police force. You might also want to be unusually cautious about your accommodations.  As you have concerns, we would suggest going up a “star” and try to stay in hotels that have evening security. The vast majority of hotels in the United States have absolutely no on-duty security during evening hours. In fact, the vast majority of hotels in the United States operate with only one staff member on the late-night shift. 

We do want to end by suggesting that you not read our comments as serious concern. Doing a driving trip within the United States with a friend is a relatively safe pursuit by any standard. 

Q – (9.14.23)  Would like to see if you can address a preference I am sure many people share. We just can’t seem to pinpoint specifics and we are getting frustrated. We are frequent, and growing more frequent, cruisers. My wife and I  are not easy sleepers and we find that we sleep much better when we are facing the bow of the ship. In other words, we want a bed that allows our legs to face forward toward the front of the ship. 

We sail Oceania often and Regent sometimes. We have had our vacations severely disrupted more than once when the cabin layout was not as promised. Our Travel Agent was told that the staterooms were forward facing and , when we arrived, we discovered they weren’t. In one case, the ship was sold out so no changes were possible. Our agent knows what she is doing but I still called reservations directly and quickly realized that they don’t really have a clue as to how beds are aligned in each cabin. The company deck plan is worthless on this issue. All of this boils down to one simple question I am sure would interest many of your followers: How exactly do we ascertain the direction faced of the bed in our stateroom? 

A – You have put your toes on a real issue at most of the lines. When researching this for you, one of our editors was told “we will have to try to get in touch with the yard that built the ship to find out”. Deck plans are useless in terms of finding forward facing bedding in specific stateroom numbers. The information is not readily available because many ships make layout changes to ships when they are in their annual drydock. The real thing that is going on here is that, from a sellers point of view, the cruise lines do not want to offer still another choice in cabin selection that could eliminate 50% of the available staterooms.

The best tactic at this point is to have your agent speak to Special Services or a Reservations supervisor. Ask that the fact that yours is a forward-facing stateroom be put in writing by Oceania. That way, if you booked a forward facing stateroom and it turns out not to be on arrival, you would find onboard management sympathetic to a complimentary upgrade. 

Finally, a more extreme approach would  be to secure a note from your physician explaining that you require a forward-facing bed. That note can be presented to the cruise line’s Medical Officer at the timer of booking and that may help you achieve what you want. 

It is interesting that flyers raise hell when they find themselves in rear-facing  seats on an aircraft but cruisers who may be spending more than a week in their stateroom are expected to never question the direction of the bedding. British Airways, for one, has installed rotating front and rear facing seats in the Business Class sections on some of their long distance aircraft. The rear-facing seats are less popular than Mike Pence. 

Q –  Really enjoying this new site and the opportunity to ask honest questions without pop-up ads and someone trying to sell me something. We travel for pleasure several times a year now, after retiring two years ago. We’ve done a tour program with National Geographic and we’ve cruised with the French line Ponant (loved it). We have a dedicated  travel advisor and I think we are getting some good advice. But her agency only sells one insurance company and I just don’t know if something as important as insurance coverage should just be automatic.

We are staying away, largely based on your advice, from the supplier travel insurance policies. But how does the consumer pick the best vacation option for their specific trip? Can you please boil it down to the bottom line – what should we be looking for in a travel insurance policy. I am also curious about commission. If I buy a policy from ABC Tours who is taking me to Peru, does that mean that my travel agent is not getting a commission? Do travel agents earn anything when they sell you a travel policy. Love to know how that works and how it influences which policy is being recommended. I don’t  know why you would spend the time maintaining this site – but please don’t stop until we have completed our RTC (retirement travel cycle)

A – Thank you. This is our 38th year. We will be here for your entire RTC! 

There are three things you need to look for when selecting travel insurance. The first two three obvious – the third is not:

Choose an insurance provider that:

01 – Has the strongest demonstrated financial strength. The firm that we recommend most often is owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. No “going out of business” concerns.

02 – Never choose a policy that provides less than $500,000 in medical evacuation. Given costs associated with medical evacuations abroad, we consider this the minimum coverage required.

03 – Ask your agent to demonstrate their ability to offer insurance “advocacy”. Can they intervene with the insurer on your behalf if needed? (This tends to eliminate all online sellers) This is the tie-breaker because in the insurance industry, as you may have heard, the inclination is to encourage adjusters to turn down claims whenever they can. You should only purchase insurance from a seller who can demonstrate the ability to be your advocate with the insurance company to request that they re-examine your claim when it is appropriate. 

Anyone, from the cruise line, to the insurance agent, to the travel agent, to the tour operator who ever sells you travel insurance is earning a commission. Be sure of it. That is why the three requirements above are critical in the selection process. If you purchase your travel insurance directly from the insurance provider it works exactly the same as it does when you book a hotel directly, or a cruise etc. They simply charge you the commission anyway and simply pocket it as extra income. 

We hope this helps. Enjoy that RTC!

Q – (9.9.23) We have been taking European vacations on and off for the past ten years after we retired in our early and late sixties. I really want to return this coming summer to do one of those Globus Tours that allows you to see five or six European capitals in about two weeks. But my husband is now adamant that he will not get into any political discussions about our American way of life while traveling overseas. He is a Trump Republican, more than I am, and  he feels that at this stage of his life he doesn’t want a bunch of Europeans in his face firing questions at him about our politics in the States. Is that a realistic view in any way? I mean we have traveled to Europe four times and I can only recall one political discussion with a front desk clerk in our Budapest hotel. 

A – There is little evidence, at this point on the indictment scale, that Europeans are starting to pepper American tourists with questions about their politics. You know this from your past visits. In fact, based on our experiences in this area, there is a greater likelihood that one or two fellow tour members from the States could be a greater irritant on your husband’s tender feelings than the locals. We sometimes forget that the European have their own issues.

Italy has a Far Right Prime Minister who has expressed complimentary words for Mussolini, the Far Right has made some impressive gains in France’s government, an area of Spain, including Barcelona, has been trying to secede from the rest of the country, and Great Britain and London are experiencing waves of gang-related store looting that rivals anything we have here in the States. They also had Boris Johnson. Europeans are not really in a position, for the most part, to lecture us about the imperfections of our Democracy. Not yet.

But this is a a seven-continent kind of place. Your husband is in his seventies and, it is our opinion, that he should avoid any destination he can’t visit with full measures of joy and anticipation. Take him to Japan. They are too polite to ever discuss American politics with a guest in their country. 

We are seeing your question being raised in one form or another fairly often. But we are not hearing anything to indicate that concerns about political confrontation abroad between locals and American visitors are justified.

Q – We have decided, based largely on your advice, to do our first trip to East Africa through Micato Safaris. We are leaning heavily toward trying to see the mountain Gorillas at the end of our safari. Is it worth it and is it more than a “chance encounter”? Don’t want to spend the extra nights and travel time, as well as cost, if actually seeing the Gorillas and knowing them on a first-name basis is not going to happen.

A – This will, almost always, work. You will start out in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. You will then head northwest into Volcanoes National Park . The park lodgings are quite luxurious and by day you should encounter one of the park’s current ten families of mountain gorillas. This kind of touring is carefully controlled to avoid crowds and to avoid interaction with the gorillas while they are watching Fox news.