The rest of Q&A

Q – We were at a friends house last night doing some Pinot Noir blind tastings accompanied by s’mores when the subject of credit ratings for countries came up. A Wall Street player in our group said that he believed that credit agencies that rate businesses also rate countries. I’d really be interested in which countries get the highest ratings if you could chase that down. If you do, we’ll invite you to our next party, “Chardonnay and Cannolis.” We’re up in Westport.

A – We really like your themes. Well done. It sounds like no one in the neighborhood appreciate a fine cheese selection.

Your friend is correct. Several major ratings agencies have identified a select group of nations that have achieved the highest financial health ratings form the three major agencies. They are: Canada, Finland, Germany, Luxemburg, Australia, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark.

These countries could, in our view, form the basis for a travel bucket list of countries you need to get to know better. Each has excellent healthcare, low or non-existent poverty, and high level accommodations and cuisine. It is also interesting to note that none of these countries has a serious pollution or crime  problems so travel is intrinsically safer than staying at home.

Q – As frequent cruisers, we have to make our minds up quickly about a 16-Day voyage on Regent Seven Seas between Oslo and Copenhagen. This is a cruise pretty much limited to the coast of Norway and St. Petersburg, which we’ve previously visited, is not  on the itinerary. Wondering of you would recommend this specific itinerary?

A – In fact, you’ve picked one of our favorites all-time cruise experiences. The North Cape cruises are only offered once or twice each summer by a few of the top lines. It is an ideal itinerary but rather expensive for the lines to operate since Norway is not particularly interested in attracting day visitors and port charges and docking fees are unusually high.

This particular itinerary is outstanding and we highly recommend it. Here are a few specific reasons why:

01 – Absolutely beautiful  small towns and villages. The fjords form a magnificent backdrop.

02 – The days at sea sometimes feature views of land.

03– There is no crime or poverty. It is really uplifting in many ways.

04 – It is a great way to beat the summer heat.

05 – There are not many  ships doing this route. Towns are not crowded.

06 – Most North Cape Cruises are 10-12 days. The length of this cruise seems to us to be ideal.

Q – We have a rather large, tightly-knit Greek family (so what else is new) and we’re planning to go to the islands in 2016 for a two-week spectacular trip. We thought it best to start now. Of course we’ll have all age groups and some will want to do their own thing. We have some decent financial reserves for this trip and were wondering if you could provide a few ideas we may not have thought of that we could bring to our travel agent.? We will likely number 23.

A – Sure. We’ve planned numerous family gatherings of this kind and we have some specific suggestions: Start with these  and have your agent think about including them in your itinerary:

Rent a yacht, preferably in the Cyclades island group, and spend six nights touring the best islands. Nothing will bring the family closer together, the per person cost will be manageable, and the crew will do all the work.

Try to get the family to an authentic wine village where they can join the locals in the harvest celebration while stopping their bare feet to crush grapes for next years wine.

Have the younger folks hike the Samaria Gorge on Crete. The hiking is memorable and the scenery is fantastic.

As a great finish, before flying home from Athens, charter a few helicopters and fly the family above the suspended in air” monasteries in the rock pinnacles of Meteora. Four of these impossible to get to structures still house small, monastic communities.

Do remember that you will want to carefully consider taking over entire restaurants for a party each night of your trip. That will involve a good deal of planning but the results will be well worth it.

You should start planning this trip fourteen months prior to departure.

Q – We have three BMW’s in the garage. For our next trip to Europe, we’d love to have a custom trip arranged where we might drive a Beemer on some of Germany’s best roads, with frequent stops for beer and Brotzeit. We know what we want – we just don’t know how to begin. Awesome site unlike anything we’ve seen on the internet before.

A – Start your vacation in Munich. We would suggest that you, first, fortify yourself at the Hofbrauhaus with a private insider’s tour, then rent a late-model, high-performance BMW and drive some of the great back roads of Bavaria and then head up into the foothills of the Swiss Alps. The scenery will blow you away. And please drive responsibly, which, in Germany,  means keep it under 90 on the straightaways.

In terms of beginning, find a travel consultant, not a travel agent, you can trust and inquire about their affiliated offices in Germany. If they don’t have one – move on. 

Q – Please don’t use my name but you can say that I am a fairly well-known amateur photographer whose work has appeared in several major publications including AFAR and National Geographic. But I have a day job that finances our photographic journeys. My dream is to take some great photos of Japan’s Mt. Fuji for the gerber competition. It seems there are some wonderful lights in the distance if you choose the right spot. Is there any way you might advise us as to where we might go to get the best shot and who we ought to be booking this with to go exactly where we need to go?

A – Nice to meet you. We’ve got several photographers on staff whose work appears on Instagram and Pinterest. We did not know the answer to your question but we have contacts with the best travel specialists in Japan. They recommend that you try to take your pictures from Lake Ashi in Hakone. They promise amazing views with the lighting background we think you are seeking. We would suggest that you plan the trip with someone who is part of one of the best consortium groups such as Virtuoso, Signature, or Ensemble. Inquire about their offices in Japan. If you want photography historical blog then do visit to Endurance Obituaries site.

Apart from this you can focus more on instagram growth for sharing your photography skills. Instagram has such a huge user base that can grow you quickly. You can get instagram followers fast with the help of nitreo. At Upleap you can buy instagram follower for your instagram growth.

Q – We’re really into traveltruth but we feel you seriously shortchange the Caribbean. There isn’t much objective information about the islands online – they all use the term “paradise” interchangeably.  In three months, we’re off to Jamaica on a corporate reward trip including accommodations at Rose Hall. But we keep hearing negatives about the island. How we  spin this trip so it is awesome?

A – You could go out to Bob Marley’s house and just inhale for a half hour. But better to play one of Jamaica’s excellent golf courses, go horseback riding on the beach, get set up for a few hours with a picnic lunch on a deserted beach, and definitely go for a ride on the “Country Bus” to meet the real Jamaica. Stay away from anything touristic and make contact with a great travel specialist or the Head Concierge at Rose Hall. Watch yourself at night if going “off-campus” but do dine-around. Here are some recommendations for dinner:

• Sugar Mill Restaurant (Montego Bay; tel. 876/953-2314):

• Norma’s on the Beach at Sea Splash (Negril; tel. 876/957-4041):

• Rockhouse Restaurant (Negril; tel. 876/957-4373

• Bloomfield Great House (Mandeville; tel. 876/962-7130):

Q – Thank you for the information you give about some of the things you need to be careful about on some of these cruise ships. My 17 year-old daughter has asked me to let her go with a friend on a three-night Royal Caribbean Bahamas cruise. Her friends mother will be going, but she has three other children and is traveling with other family members, so I just don’t see how she would have time to watch out for my daughter. She really wants to go and I am leaning toward letting her. Can I assume the crew will keep an eye on any young people who seem unsupervised? No one in our family has cruised.  Please respond as soon as possible.

A – The cruise industry has not, for rather obvious reasons, been interested in discussing crime, particularly crimes of a sexual nature, that take place on the high seas. Crimes aboard cruise ships include rapes of passengers by crew members. An attorney who represents many of the victims of on-board crime, reports that there were 959 crimes at sea reported to the FBI during one 18-month period in 2011 and 2012. Specific allegations regarding NCL, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean and others can be examined on the web site www.cruiselawnews.com.

We urge you, in the strongest terms, not to allow your daughter to travel on a mass market mega-ship unless you, or a member of your immediate family you can trust, accompanies her and provides full-time supervision. Ships with thousands of guests, none of whom has to go through any background screening, serviced by a largely transient crew that is denied basic rights under US labor laws, is a recipe for disaster. The fact that these ships operate in international waters under phony out-of-country registrations of convenience, is even more cause for concern.

It is true that the vast majority of cruises are incident-free. But it is also true that the industry has done everything possible to hide the facts of on-board crime from the public. We just don’t see any travel agent or cruise sites discussing these issues in-depth. Somehow, consumers feel that “you get what you pay for” does not apply to cruise vacations. It does, particularly as concerns crew background, training, and crimes against passengers.

Q – We have always had a desire to sail the world’s largest ship for a week or so. I’ve heard Royal Caribbean and Carnival ships are huge but we literally want to sail the biggest next summer. Can you tell us which ship that would be?

A – The Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas is, by two inches, the largest vessel currently afloat. She is 225,000 gross tons.

In a rather surprising announcement, Royal Caribbean announced that it is taking the Allure out of the Caribbean next summer and basing the ship in Europe in 2015. This is a hedge bet that they can fill the ship with a mix of guests from the US and Europe. You will be able to do a seven-night itinerary between Civitavecchia (Rome) and Barcelona.

It will be an intimate experience you will share with 5,398 fellow guests. But we suggest you do not  walk into a bar and shout “drinks for everyone.”

Q – With all the problems we’ve been reading about involving American Airline’s bankruptcy and this pending deal with US Airways, we are wondering if keeping miles in our Advantage account for a planned major Christmas trip in 2017 is a good idea?

A – The merger with US Air went through last year and American Airlines profits are soaring based on higher ticket prices and relatively low fuel costs. The new AA made profits of $436 million in the 4th quarter of 2013 compared to a loss of $42 million a year earlier. So don’t bet against American.

As to your mileage bank. We recommend storing your miles in one of the better credit card depositories, preferably one that give you a bonus when miles are cashed in. Choose a credit card that allows you to accumulate miles and then, whenever you choose, to have them applied to any major airline. In other words, you only tap into your mileage and transfer miles to the airline when you are about to purchase a mileage ticket. Never let miles languish in an airline frequent flyer account.

By the way, it is highly unlikely you will be able to purchase mileage awards on American for travel over the Christmas Holiday in 2017 or any other year.

Q – I know the airlines can notify you of an assigned gate or change, but is there any single source I can use all of the time to get information without having to trust my airline to update me?

A – There are two apps that are quite good and both have a basic version  free. Try  Iflyairportguide or gateguru. They will give you security checkpoint times as well as gate assignment at  all major domestic and hundreds of airports around the world. If you fly frequently, we would recommend the “Pro” version.