Each and every week Traveller publishes a collection of rants, raves and commute pointers from our readers. See under on how you’ll give a contribution.
Seating plan
Why can’t airways allocate positive seats as “reclining” and others as “non-reclining” (this is, starboard facet reclining and port facet non-reclining)? That method it will be the shopper’s selection when reserving a seat as to which segment they want to be seated in. The seats might be colour-coded at the reserving web sites and this polarising factor can be decreased considerably. As a brief particular person, I don’t typically recline that a lot and would like the individual in entrance of me doesn’t recline both, however I recognize their proper to take action. As for the ones tall individuals who say they will have to recline, whilst you stand on the rear at live shows so us quick folks can see, you are going to have my sympathy.
Matt Peacock, Turramurra, NSW
EDITOR’S NOTE In a now not universally applauded transfer, WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, previous this yr reconfigured its fleet of airplane with financial system seats that may’t recline. Passengers who want to recline pays to improve to the airline’s top rate or prolonged convenience categories.
Letter of the week: Additional you move
As a substitute of simply being a box-ticking vacationer (Traveller, September 25), commute a couple of kilometres west previous the French fortified metropolis of Carcassonne to Mirepoix, a operating bastide village with its stunning sq. of half-timbered properties. Within sight, to find the intriguing and historical Foix, seat of the as soon as tough counts of Foix. Then enjoy the serious drama and pathos of the close by ruined Cathar castles of Roquefixade and Rocamadour within the foothills of the Pyrenees. And if that’s now not sufficient, consult with Limoux, the place glowing wine used to be invented and the place you’ll additionally to find pleasant and historical villages. All this in a area generating a variety of crimson wines that gave the impression best possible for Australian palates.
Tony Miller, Surrey Hills, Vic
Loading zones
I’ve to trust Michael McKenna (Traveller Letters, November 29) about what a multitude boarding and disembarking have transform. With it sounds as if such a lot analysis and trials through airways with other group-boarding procedures, it nonetheless turns out that the best and least aggravating association for loading the financial system categories can be to begin with the ones seated on the again and transfer ahead. No doubt, that may negate some main bottlenecks. And, sure, I’m speaking about you too, you who take in everybody else’s overhead garage.
Susanne Brown, Maddington, WA
Measurement issues
The issue of folks lining up too early to board has been led to through airways permitting passengers to tackle ridiculous amounts of carry-on baggage. Passengers short of to avoid wasting time at airports and steer clear of baggage getting misplaced have come to grasp that in the event that they wait till their later seat vary is known as, they’ll fight to search out room within the overhead lockers. I’m now not certain what can also be completed, however airways want to discover a resolution.
David Parker, Geelong West, Vic
Forestall proper there
Certainly a cruise thru Germany’s Rhine Gorge, as in line with your “Seven Wonders” function (Traveller, November 29) on how you can in different places is worth it, however staying alongside the river and going up and down it through educate and ferry may be a great way to enjoy it. Doing simply that, we stayed on the Resort Sankt Goar, and it used to be pretty with perspectives of the river and superb breakfasts. The lodge proprietor organised a consult with as much as Rheinfels Fort above the river one afternoon after which, inland, up and down woodland paths and out to a vineyard and cafe. We even discovered an underground wine bar in Sankt Goar that the lodge proprietor by no means knew existed. So, don’t simply sail in the course of the Rhine Gorge, move there and discover it with simple trains to Frankfurt a method and all of the method to Cologne the opposite.
Tony Sullivan, Islington, NSW
Gratuities recommendation
I experience conversing with and getting to understand eating place body of workers and one doesn’t want a lot nous to understand they’re a long way from well-off. Tipping, I’ve discovered, has had many certain penalties. Not too long ago in London, staying on the Shangri-Los angeles at The Shard and visiting the Gong Bar with its shocking perspectives I tipped the waiter and requested for a reserving there day after today. We have been just about an hour past due, however there have been no issues, and there used to be our highest desk. Different consumers cringed, clearly seeing that desk vacant whilst they have been seated on the rear – invaluable. The price for this provider? Nigh on incidental.
Stewart Johnston Mount Eliza, Vic
Allotting
Relating to Mark Perry’s letter “Case brushed aside” (Traveller Letters, November 29) and the loss of an excellent and affordable Qantas reaction to a damaged suitcase, all I will be able to say is “snap”. My small hard-shell suitcase seemed at the carousel on the Gold Coast Airport on a Thursday morning, break up, contents striking out and with a damaged maintain. No giant drama. I spoke to a Qantas body of workers member on the help table, and she or he supplied me with a information to reporting this and accommodation it on-line. The following day, for $50, I bought the most cost effective substitute imaginable and once I returned house 3 days later I attempted to hotel a declare.
First drawback: I didn’t have an incident quantity as I used to be now not issued one. Then I used to be knowledgeable I used to be outdoor the 48-hour time period to make a declare. Then I used to be requested for an unique receipt for the damaged suitcase (in fact, that used to be by no means saved). I if truth be told forwarded a photograph of the damaged case subsequent to the Qantas lend a hand table and a replica of the $50 receipt for the desired substitute. Qantas flatly refused to pay, even, extremely, for the paltry $50 substitute. After per week buying and selling emails, I made up our minds to inform them I couldn’t be stricken losing any longer effort and time. I’m nonetheless stunned on the lengths they went to, simply to steer clear of reimbursing a measly $50 on a real grievance.
Rob Murray, Thurgoona, NSW
Slowly however undoubtedly
Overdue to profiting from complimentary credit-card commute insurance coverage, I used it for the primary time on a commute to Canada this yr and, as destiny would have it, broke my ankle a couple of days earlier than the top of my vacation. I will be able to’t discuss extremely sufficient of my enjoy with Westpac’s insurer, Allianz World Help, which supplied phone recommendation in Canada and, on my go back, impulsively reimbursed my incurred bills, together with a business-class improve accredited for my flight house. A few months later I won a past due further price for X-rays from the Canadian scientific supplier which used to be additionally briefly reimbursed.
Joan Phillips, Thornbury, Vic
Hydra and search
I used to be overjoyed to learn Lee Tulloch’s column (Traveller, December 2) on Hydra, Greece. My very own consult with there in Might this yr fulfilled an extended held want to consult with the island and where the place the Australian authors Charmian Clift and George Johnson had lived. Arriving through ferry on the idyllic port, my place to begin used to be Katsikas’s, the waterfront grocery retailer and bar, which Charmian described as “our comfortable clubhouse.” Now renamed Rolo’s Cafe, its inside of partitions are dotted with sepia-coloured footage of well-known previous citizens, reminiscent of Leonard Cohen whose friendship circle incorporated Charmian and George. The cafe proprietor gave me instructions to the couple’s former place of dwelling between 1955 and 1964 and after a brief uphill stroll, I emerged into the small, cobblestoned sq. with a properly at its centre; a powerful scarlet bougainvillea cascaded down the wall of the home reverse, a scene which Charmian herself had described. Not like Leonard Cohen’s area at the island, no plaque rests close to the huge blue entrance doorways. My hope is this omission can be rectified, in particular as Charmian’s two books, Mermaid Making a song and Peel Me a Lotus mirror the circle of relatives’s time on Kalymnos and Hydra.
Susan Lenne, Randwick, NSW
Salad daze
I’ve spotted that the standard of fruit salad on the Qantas lounges gives a competent indicator of the airline’s total high quality and perspective to customer support. From the great ol’ days the place you’d get strawberries, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries and an occasional bite of mango, relying on season, garnished with sprigs of mint, nowadays’s inedible choices is composed of mini-bricks of semi-ripe rockmelon and honeydew. How the mighty have fallen.
Louise Ryan, Erskineville, NSW
Make that 5
What a fuss a couple of cup of tea – one article and 4 letters in the previous few weeks. I drink tea and now not espresso so each time I commute, I take a provide of fine high quality tea baggage. I’ve at all times been in a position to procure boiling water. I drink tea with milk at house but if I’m away, I’m glad to drink black tea. If you wish to have loose-leaf tea, you’ll use an infuser.
Patricia Harrington, Kerang, Vic
Reader tip of the week: Flower energy
Even though Singapore’s Gardens through the Bay are magnificent, its UNESCO International Heritage-listed Botanic Gardens will at all times be my go-to. The Botanic Gardens supply a calm wreck to the enterprise of the thriving metropolis. Simple to get to on an area bus with a faucet of your bank card, the gardens are unfastened, with the exception of for front to their Nationwide Orchid Lawn. Tranquil spaces containing waterfalls, wetlands, lakes, sculptures, interpretative signage and galleries imply you are going to want a complete day to research totally. The therapeutic, ginger and sundial gardens are pretty, with some of the attention-grabbing puts being the flight of brick steps constructed when Singapore used to be below profession right through International Struggle II. Australian POWs home made those bricks, inscribing arrows on each and every of them in defiance of the Jap.
Jenny Macaffer, Essendon, Vic
Summit particular
On the best of Mount Ulriken in Bergen, Norway (Traveller, November 23), is every other “don’t leave out” facet of town, specifically the Skyskraperen eating place. With a good looking cable-car adventure prelude, superlative meals and repair, plus a view to die for (climate allowing) this distinctive venue additionally gives superb price. The price of the cable-car journey is incorporated within the pre-booked lunch/dinner package deal, and it used to be outranked most effective through two, three-star Michelin eating places in our “Scandi sojourn” scores. In the case of the most efficient of Bergen, Skyskraperen’s the restrict.
Chris Roylance, Paddington, Qld
Shut stumble upon
The solution through the Tripologist relating to pre- and post-cruise lodging in Tokyo when flying out and in of Haneda Airport (Traveller, November 14) assumes that the cruise terminal is the brand new Tokyo World Cruise Terminal, close to town. If truth be told, lots of the cruises nonetheless perform from the Osanbashi Cruise Terminal at Yokohama. If truth be told, we simply had a very good pre-cruise keep on the ancient New Grand Resort in Yokohama, in a nice location with regards to Haneda, and just a five-minute taxi to the terminal.
Ken Henderson, Glen Waverley, Vic
Himalaya layover
For your “Friday flashback” merchandise on Gough and Margaret Whitlam’s reliable consult with to Japan (Traveller publication, November 14), it used to be attention-grabbing to learn the collection of guests to that country in 1973 used to be fewer than 800,000 foreigners with the forecast for 2025 being 40 million. In 1965, and turning 19 that yr, my female friend and I cruised for a month to Asian ports at the send Himalaya. Within the Jap towns of Yokohama and Kobe we got a notice written in Jap on the way to get again to the Himalaya, as little English used to be spoken in the ones days. I’m certain there have been so much much less guests to Japan again then. It’s a rustic I cherished and feature sought after to go back to since.
Frances Levings, Illawong, NSW
Saving grace
I’ve simply returned from an improbable three-week vacation in Vietnam. The folks, tradition, surroundings, meals and total glad vibe have been superb, however the standout used to be our wonderful commute agent. We arrived in Hoi An after heavy rains and partial flooding, and Hue, our subsequent forestall, used to be totally underwater, with Hurricane Kalmaegi coming near. Inside two hours, our agent had reorganised our whole commute, cancelling bookings, improving prices and arranging new lodging and actions. She rerouted us to stunning Tam Coc, which turned into a spotlight. Because of her, we additionally ended up in Hanoi on a weekend when the Previous Quarter is in large part car-free. I extremely suggest the usage of a commute agent.
Tmne Blair, Randwick, NSW
Location, location
All the way through our contemporary consult with to Taiwan, we used our Android telephones’ “Location tags” (activate in settings) to document the place we took our footage and movies. Google Maps then mechanically produced an in depth map appearing precisely the place we were, with each and every image having its GPS location and side road cope with recorded for long run reference. Our iPad did the similar, when we had grew to become on location services and products (move to settings/privateness and safety) and, within the digicam app, we decided on “whilst the usage of the app”. WhatsApp too can ship house your location together with your footage (click on “location” by way of the paperclip icon within the message bar) for those who fail to remember to activate location recording. Our pals at the moment are making plans their very own Taiwan journey, the usage of our picture location data for the most efficient points of interest, sights and puts to devour.
Tony Danino, Wheelers Hill, Vic
The Letter of the Week creator wins 3 Hardie Grant commute books. See hardiegrant.com
The Tip of the Week creator wins a suite of 3 Lonely Planet commute books. See store.lonelyplanet.com
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