Arthur's Blog: A Variety of Readers' Questions About Travel Get Answered

Every week on The Travel Show, my daughter and I receive dozens of letters and e-mails from listeners posing travel questions for which they need answers. What's asked is remarkable proof of the complexity of travel, and of the differing opinions that can be voiced in response to difficult questions. I thought you might be interested in a small sampling of such questions and answers, all received within the past week. How would you have answered them?   

Q. We are planning to travel to Alaska in the spring of 2013 to enjoy a 10-day tour of that state. Can you recommend a good travel agent for assistance? 

A. though lots of mainland-based travel agents have sent clients to Alaska, and have a smattering of knowledge about it, I'd suggest you use an agent actually located in Alaska who enjoys intimate, daily knowledge of travel opportunities. Alaska Travel and Tours (www.alaskatravel.com) is headquartered in Anchorage, has been in business since 1995, and has a toll-free, 800 telephone number enabling you to discuss your options at length.  

Q. On next summer's cruise of the Mediterranean, we'll be stopping in Messina, Sicily, from about 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. We'd love to visit Taormina, and also go to the top of nearby Mt. Etna, before returning to a Sicilian restaurant in Messina for dinner. Are those visits possible?  

A. Not really. It will take you about an hour to go from Messina to Taormina, and another hour to reach the funicular for an expensive (about $40 per person) trip up the side of Mt. Etna. And then to manage dinner back in Messina at a good restaurant is simply attempting too much. Cruises are not the way to enjoy land tours of Europe; the time ashore on their daily port stops is so short that you really have only enough time to stroll around a bit and then enjoy a good restaurant meal. And most port stops are for a shorter amount of time than your cruiseship is allowing you in Messina: they generally let you off the ship around 9 a.m., and you must then be back aboard by 4 p.m.  

Q. My daughter is a softball coach who will need to fly from Newark Airport to Orlando, Florida, on March 21, 2012, returning five days later, with the 20 girls of her team. They are getting quotes of $985 per person, round-trip. Is this reasonable? 

A. $985 for a round-trip ticket between Newark and Orlando?! From whom are you getting advice?! $352 is more like it, on American Airlines or Delta, making one stop en route. And you can pay as little as $418 round-trip on a non-stop flight of JetBlue.

Since your daughter is undoubtedly adept at using the internet, ask her to open her computer and go to any of the airfare search engines--Kayak, Hipmunk, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Momodo, Do-Hop. And once she's found the right flight and price, have her go directly to the airline's website for making actual reservations.  

Q. My son lives in Pattaya, Thailand, and I have planned to visit him by a flight that goes through Tokyo. But he claims there are high levels of radiation at Tokyo Airport. Is it safe to fly via Tokyo? 

A. If there were unsafe levels of radiation in Tokyo, then tens of thousands of rich Japanese would have fled that city long since, in an evacuation that would have been heavily publicized. Tokyo is a long distance from where the nuclear accident in Japan took place, and there is no reason to avoid an airport stopover in Tokyo. 

Q. I live in Minneapolis, where no station carries your program. How can I listen to it? 

A. Go to www.wor710.com, which streams the program live from noon to two EST on Sundays. Or go on your computer to Apple Computer's iTunes, insert the words "The Travel Show", and you'll hear it exactly as it sounds on the radio. I'm told by a friend that you can also listen to the show on your smartphone, if you have downloaded such apps as iHeart Radio and Tune In Radio. 

Q. I've always wanted to vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Money is no object, and I want to stay and eat at the best beachside hotel.  

A. The Sanderling is probably the area's best hotel, and directly across the street from it is an affiliated dining location called The Left Bank, which is undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in America. We dined there to celebrate my wife's recent birthday, and the meal was memorable. 

Q. Where can we stay cheaply on Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands? 

A. You can't. Virgin Gorda is a sparsely-populated island whose business interests have decided to cater to an upscale audience, for whom the small and exquisite resorts charge wads of cash. If you can share expenses with another couple, try renting a villa for four, which brings per person prices down. 

Q. On your last travel show, you discussed re-conditioned cruiseships. Where can I get more information about them? 

A. What we were discussing was re-positioning cruiseships, not re-conditioned ones. Each year in early autumn, cruiselines "re-position" the ships that have earlier been sailing in European waters, where they are no longer needed, and send them to the Caribbean, where the winter high season is about to begin. Then, at the end of spring, they send ("re-position") these ships from the Caribbean back to the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Because "re-positionings" in both directions require lengthy crossings of the Atlantic, which are not popular with the public, the re-positioning cruises are priced at bargain levels, sometimes for as little as $50 a day. You might consider such a cruise.