Q – We are going to be in Istanbul for eight days this Fall, visiting friends and spendings several days on our own exploring. One of the things we are wondering about is whether or not it is recommended to cross over the Bosporus for the day? Is it safe? Worthwhile? 

A – It is a wonderful idea for one or two days. There was historical animosity that lasted for centuries between the European and Asian sides of this important river. But now, with prices skyrocketing in metropolitan Istanbul, many artists and university graduates prefer to live on the Asian side in Kadikoy. The short ferry ride is fun and on arrival you will be seeing an area that has been compared to Brooklyn vs. Manhattan. You will find colorful streets, markets, and lots of coffee bars. Really worth strolling without the tourist crunch sometimes evident in the big city just across the sea. 

Q – Is there one best place to check online when seeking the lowest price for a domestic air ticket?

A – We hear a great deal about this subject and, were we to believe the ads, online travel agencies are each given their own, private airfares on every worldwide flight. Of course this is not true. Fares can change on a minute-by-minute basis as they are not created by humans. In fact, we now have a process that allows computer programs to personalize air quotes based on each consumer’s personal online profile consisting of an average of more than 2,000 specific data points. So your purchase habits at Walmart or on Amazon can help determine the airfare you will quoted by an online source. 

We do think that a good start is one of Google’s latest features, the “Aggregation” of fares from third parties. Google now has a new tag identified as “Cheapest”. But be aware that the cheapest airfares may well involve routing and/or airport changes that are less than desirable. As a general rule, non-stop airfares are normally higher, often by a significant amount, than more “creative routing” that dramatically increases your risks of missed connections or lost baggage. 

There are, so-called, “Air Consolidators”, online vendors who claim to have lower fares often involving contracts with specific carriers. This makes sense until you realize that other airlines will generally not recognize these tickets. That means that if your flight is canceled, other airlines flying the route you need will not accept the ticket you are holding. 

As your question relates solely to domestic flights, we recommend that you personally call the airlines that fly the route you will want. Ask for the lowest current fare. Explain that you work for Elon Musk and you don’t earn much. 

Q – Greatly enjoying this site – even if it is not written by a Canadian. We are anticipating our first European River Cruise next year. I know that my friends in the lower 50 are greatly concerned about too much sunshine and the fact that other tourists may be present in “alarming” numbers. Not my concern. I just want/need sunshine. As much of it as I can get. I will deal with your warnings of horrible heat by simply purchasing a cup of Tim Horton’s, or some locally awful substitute, and enjoying the warmth that surrounds me.  

So, given that, which month has the warmest temperatures in Budapest, Prague, and Vienna?

A – You will want to do the Danube in July when you should average 7.9 hours of sunshine per day. That compares to 4.1 in London in July. But it strikes us that your smartest move might be to simply move to Los Angeles where you can enjoy 8.9 hours of sunshine per day in July.   

We value our Canadian clients and readers and we wish you a memorable Danube experience. And do remember a phrase that many of us feel is the ultimate truth – “If your donut is fresh and your coffee is hot – then you’ve got more than any man’s got”.

Q – I have, lovingly supported United Airlines for the past fourteen years in my work which requires frequent cross-country travel. I am not a “points geek” and I don’t waste my time using points to fly for business domestically. I just gather those points like a squirrel hoarding nuts with the idea that in one year and three months, when I retire, my wife and I can use my current 1.3 million United Miles to enjoy many years of retirement travel abroad. I suppose my question is, “If I were a Points Geek – would I be doing anything different – would I use any specific strategy to stay ahead of the game”? Enjoy your approach – keep it up. 

A – As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, we are going through a process called “Pointsflation”. The fact is that saving mileage award points is not at all like investing in a money market fund – your points are actually losing value the longer you fail to use them. One example in the WSJ concerned a Delta non-stop from JFK to London Heathrow. It was 86,000 points on 2019- it will now cost you over 150,000 points. Just last year on United, you could use points to fly to Paris CDG using 60,000 points – that flight is now hovering close to 100,000 points. This is all deliberate. It is an easy way for the airlines to enhance profits by increasing the cost to use miles on any popular route. 

If you were investing cash in an interest bearing account we would recommend sticking with your plan. By given that this is “Airline World” and “Airline Ethics”, we would suggest that you figure out a way to use your miles for business travel as soon as possible and save the money you are saving your company by investing it for your retirement travel. 

Q – We are booked on our second AMA sailing on the Rhine River in May of 2026. We were able to receive a nice discount of about 20% when we originally booked this several months ago. Yesterday, we received an AMA e-mail notifying us that they are now offering complimentary three-night land packages to guests booked on Rhine sailings, including our specific itinerary. When our trusted agent called to get us set up with the comp land program we were told that it does not apply to our sailing but we can buy it for an additional $2500. This seems like misleading advertising. What are my options?

A – Welcome to the wonderful world of consumer travel advertising. Your sailing is heavily booked. Prices have gone up twice since you originally made your booking. Because prices have gone up, you will need to pay more should you cancel and re-book with the current offer. On the other hand, on your sailing, AMA will “allow” you to purchase the land offer for only $2500.

On escorted tours, pricing is more heavily regulated because no one wants to spend ten nights touring on a motorcoach with riders comparing notes on what they paid. And think of the poor tour guide who has to deal with price allegations.

But the cruise and riverboat firms worry less about passengers talking to one another. The major mass market lines discount at will and they often discount as sailings with empty cabins approach sailing date. The major four and five star lines, however, generally reward guests who book the earliest – the rule of thumb is the first “20%” always get the very best pricing. The prices, as we have indicated, start rising on an average three-month cycle. 

The “tricky part” comes when it is decided to match a price increase with a “special booking incentive offer” while trying to never mention the fact that the cruise or riverboat price has gone up. 

We checked, and in your specific case, you can get the free land offer on some of the potentially poor weather spring and fall dates. But riverboat guests planning to travel next summer should be aware that inventory on Europe’s major rivers for prime season already has already fallen to just below 30%. If you booked one of the “weather and water level” riskier dates, you will also find that cabin selection is quite minimal.

There are always exceptions, a part of what makes our work so fascinating, but you are most often going to be best served by booking early and taking advantage of early booking discounts without the tainted applesauce in the form of “special deals at a higher cost. 

Q  – I keep seeing these rather charming, British voice-over ads for Viking Cruises. It seems like they are among the largest lines but I am wondering who owns them and are they really that successful? The ads keep talking to me and inviting me to sail – but who is really doing the inviting?

A –  There really is no such thing as “Viking Cruises”, There are three brands of cruises, Viking River Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, and Viking Expeditions which, together, form a single company “Viking” that is owned by the Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen. The company is privately-owned, an anomaly among mega-lines and Hagen owns 77% of the company.

It is quite a success story. Tor had been CEO of Royal Viking Line in the early eighties. In 1997, serving as a consultant, he helped a group of Russian oligarchs buy a shipping company. Out of gratitude, they sold him four river boats to launch his own company at a sharply discounted rate. In 2000, Hagen was able to quickly expand and his purchased KD River Cruises of Europe and their fleet of 22 vessels. KD also owned several advantageous anchorages which Viking still uses to its advantage.

Viking does its Marketing out of a headquarters in Los Angeles but the real company headquarters is in Basel, Switzerland. This is where crew hiring, training, and marine operations is centered.   

With more than 90 ships sailing on rivers, lakes and oceans around the world, Viking is one of cruising’s major players. Its European river fleet is the largest in Europe and Viking has river ships on the Mekong, the Nile and the Mississippi. The fleet continues to expand. Ten more Viking Longships will join the river fleet by the end of 2026 and a new Mekong ship, Viking Tonle, launches in October 2025.

The ocean fleet includes two luxury expedition ships and 10 new-build ocean ships (all identical). Viking Vela  launched in December this year and Viking Vesta in 2025.

Of course, with more than 90 ships in its fleet, and a massive new-ship building program underway, Viking is no stranger to debt.

Entering 2023 it had  about 4.7 billion in debt. Viking’s interest expenses ballooned 41% between 2020 and 2022, and cruise operators have generally been looking to cut funding costs by selling new notes.

Viking, the only pure-play luxury cruise line, has reported its first quarterly earnings since going public. The company is targeting English-speakers over the age of 55, a demographic with most of the wealth and a broad eagerness to travel. The cruise line generated 4.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023, compared to 3.18 billion in 2022 and 625.1 million in 2021. Like most of the cruise lines operating in North America, Viking profit patterns are extremely positive and debt is being paid down. 

Q – (12.9/24) – No one would deny that this is an unusually honest and helpful site, but I do have one criticism I hope you will consider. Whatever destination or mode of exploration you are discussing, the fact is that we need to fly there. So I think it would be extremely helpful to include more insider air advice whenever it relates to any of the questions posed. Just a suggestion. You seem to avoid air advice rather than take a deep dive into it. 

A –  Fair enough – we are not air experts and, in fact, we do not believe that our business should be processing air arrangements. Our strengths lie in worldwide vacation planning. Air is a much more specialized field than many in the industry would acknowledge. Our approach is to outsource air for our clients to the very best air experts in the nation. We think that air has become a more complex component of the vacation planning matrix. Dynamic pricing and shortages of aircraft, pilots, and air traffic controllers is causing an increasing number of cancellations. So we want everyone we work with to have their own Concierge monitoring their flights for any changes or cancellations. We do not advise purchasing any airline ticket from any online firm that does not provide personalized flight monitoring services. 

If you want to hear airline insider buzz from experts you may want to start following the following sites:

• View from The Wing
• The Cranky Flier
• The Points Guy
• The New York Times Travel Newsletter
• Travel Weekly Magazine
• Travel Pulse

All of that said – we will leave you with just a little bit of gossip/valuable air information that we hope may be useful: 

• When the Chinese tourism market opens up to its full potential, many airline executives expect to see pricing come down on international flights. This is particularly true of some of the better government-owned and controlled carriers.
• US major airlines need to turn a profit – that is not a major issue for several of the world’s leading international carriers based in Asia and particularly the Middle East. Plane for plane – the Middle East currently provides the highest levels of service and dependability in the air. They also have the best record when it comes tot he number of flight cancellations.
• International carriers vary in  terms of how they handle refunds to consumers. Currently, TAP, the airline of Portugal, and Air Canada have the poorest reputation when it comes to refunds related to issues of guest satisfaction.
• Some international frequent fliers will tell you they try to connect overseas through Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. (Although the airport is technically in Virginia) This is particularly true when the flights are headed to the Gulf Region. It is thought that there are “Diplomatic” reasons for favorable pricing.
• It is not a bad idea to do your flight searching with Google flights. They have a feature that allows you to request updates when the price of the flights you are interested in are heading south.

Q – Thanks for this really uniquely honest site. I keep looking for the ads! So nice to see a site where no PR crapola is tolerated. 

My wife and I like to stay in four and five-star hotels when we travel regularly throughout Europe. We are wondering, under normal circumstances, who and how much should we be tipping non-food related staff?

A – This is, of course, a personal question which we will answer – but please do what is most comfortable for you:

Valet/Baggage Handling – 1-2 Euros per bag based on service

Concierge Desk – 5 – 10 Euros for services including dinner reservations or private touring (Dinner reservations should not be more than 5 Euro as the Concierge may well be receiving a kick-back from  the restaurant)

Housekeeping Maids – In the vast majority of hotel properties worldwide, these are the hardest working and most poorly compensated service providers. An envelope with a brief note and a gratuity of 5-10 Euros per night would be truly appreciated and may well help out a family that needs some help. 

Q – We will want to be booking a nice, very nice, Alaska Cruise next summer. We will be joined by four friends and we will want to sail out of Vancouver B.C. or Juneau on a cruise that is somewhere between ten and twelve nights. How do I do my research before taking it to a travel agent?

A – Well, first of all, you don’t need to do your own research. For the commission they will earn, a travel advisor should be willing to get to know you a bit followed by some specific recommendations designed to meet your specific needs. But that said, you may want to start by clicking on the link to www.cruisetruth.com on the bottom of this page. Once on cruise truth (there is no registration required) just go to the cruise database section. There, using a simple drop down menu, you can search for cruises that are ranked among the Top Ten lines by company, date, number of nights, and destination. All of your options will pop up. There are no ads and there is no sales hype. It is a great way to search independently. 

There are no prices. Consumers need to understand that the entire purpose of a travel website is to get you to click and to fall into the waiting arms of a crowded call enter where you will meet someone speaking to you from a small cubicle. They are paid a small commission to get you to book directly because it saves the company a much larger commission built into your quoted fare. No cruise line, or tour operator for that matter, keeps real time availability information on their website. For that, your agent needs to look closely at the real time computer statistics – and they can change by the minute. 

As to pricing – cruises are sold much like hotel rooms. As hotels book up for certain dates, the price of their rooms are raised by complicated algorithms. You would need to work with a qualified advisor or call the cruise line directly to get accurate pricing. Several cruise lines are canceling scheduled sailings in the Orient and Europe and placing additional tonnage in Alaska in anticipation of strong sales next summer. Do try to book your Alaska cruise 14-12 Months in advance. 

Here is a rule of thumb that will help you choose the best overall strategy and time to book:

The “Cruise lines” (3,00-6,000 passenger Floating Walmarts) are not concerned that some of their guests will pay more than others. This is not a major discussion topic in the buffet line. They do last-minute deals, early booking deals, and deals associated with nearly every Holiday you can imagine. 

The inclusive, “TrueLux” top-tier lines cater to a much more sophisticated clientele. They feel they could lose the loyalty of their valued guests if folks who waited until the last minute scored a better price than those who booked early. The norm for the TrueLux Lines (The Top Ten Lines in the World as reported on Cruisetruth.com) is that they raise their pricing every 90-120 days. There may be offers but they always refer to current price levels that can often be significantly higher than the pricing paid by those who booked early.

Q – (12.3.24) – Given all that is involved in traveling overseas on vacation about twice a year, and as a former engineer with a wife who is a CPA, we like to plan our travels almost two years out. As we look at 2026 and beyond, we are struck that neither traveltruth or any of the other major travel sites that we follow seems to have any concerns, as we do, that a Trump presidency, given his criminality and tendency to pull away from support of Europe and Ukraine, will result in waves of anti-tourist and anti-American feelings of a level that could make it really uncomfortable for Americans traveling abroad. You seem unafraid about taking on tough travel industry issues but we wonder why you have been so silent on this one? How do you see Americans being greeted in Spain and Italy, for instance, during the next four years?

A –  You are projecting something that might happen. There is no solid evidence that we have seen that indicates that Europe, or any other part of the world for that matter, will turn its back and put up the “Unwelcome” signs for American tourists spending American dollars in their countries, because we have just elected a government that is to the “right” of what we had. Our clients traveling within Europe since the election are not experiencing any anti-American manifestations.

Yes, there are over-tourism demonstrations in major Italian cities. There were some American tourists who were sprayed with water pistols as they sat in cafes along Laa Ramblas in Barcelona. But the kind of anti-American political rallies you suggest have just not happened. Not yet. That is probably why travel writers, most of whom are rewarded with free trips for every story they publish, have not tried to look ahead to judge what might happen under the Trump second reign.

But you need to also put this into some kind of perspective. As American drifts toward the right so has large sections of Europe. Italy now has a right-wing government, Hungary has a very right-wing government, and the “Right” has made steady progress where their cooperation is now required to form any kind of viable coalition, in France.  So are the Europeans in any position to rally against our domestic politics?

From our research, you may have a point. And that is the other side of the coin. Off the record, we know that two major tour operators are increasing the number of domestic tour programs they will be offering in 2026 while reducing some international destination departures. In  other words, although it has not yet been reported in the travel press, there are some interesting assumptions being made at the highest industry levels that international travel for Americans may well decrease under Trump. 

Our Senior Editor, Richard Turen, reports that several industry leaders are concerned about the way American tourists may be greeted abroad in the near-future. The specifics cited in private, off-the-record interviews, involve the likelihood that before too long video of illegal immigrants being rounded up, placed in detention camps, and forcibly sent back to their country of origin, may dominate news coverage in major European capitals. The widespread video leading newscasts and major news apps may, it is thought, trigger a level of anti-American feelings we have not seen before. This will start in universities and then spread is the dominant theory. But this is just theoretical at this point. 

If the United States does, indeed, as threatened, pull out of the NATO Alliance, that could also create high levels of anti-American feelings in Europe. We have, after all, for better or worse, established ourselves as Europe’s defender. 

You ask why we have been “silent” on this issue. Traveltruth is a consumer-based Q&A site with no ads or PR phony hype. We try to respond to all questions asked. Ours is not a “political” site. There are more than enough of those. But the real reason we have been quiet on this issue is that, thus far, there is little evidence of the kind of anti-American behavior you are suggesting. It is interesting to note that some major travel firms seem to be planning for the eventuality of increasing anti -American tourist sentiment. But even there – let’s be careful about drawing assumptions. We know that a strong anti-tourist movement already exists in many major tourist centers abroad. But anti-tourist or anti-cruise sentiment is not necessarily directed at American citizens or a particular brand of politics. 

AND – there are a number of destinations within the United States where locals are unhappy with the spending habits ashore of mass market cruise tourism. When your meals, entertainment, and credits in the onboard gift shops is included in your fare, the average mass market cruiser is not really motivated to shop and dine to the degree that it really has a positive impact on the local economy.