I cancelled my previous booking through a major website and saved $600 on my stay

Unreal estate

I recently used a major global booking website to find accommodation in a small northern NSW coastal town (with a population of 200) for Christmas as I had no idea how else to book accommodation, it being such a small place. Once the seven nights were confirmed by the booking site, I then received a subsequent email from a real estate/holiday lettings agent that I had never heard of, in a neighbouring larger town five kilometres away, to say they would be managing the booking. I contacted them and asked if I should have booked directly through them in the first place. Sure thing, they said, and you would have saved some money. Fortunately, I was able to cancel the booking without penalty, rebook directly, and save a massive $600 for my trouble. It pays to go local, and I will try harder next time.
Christopher Andreas, Red Hill, Qld

Letter of the week: Missing Mumbai

I agree with your list of amazing cities to visit in Asia, except that Mumbai, India, is missing from it. From Dharavi to Privthi Theatre (connected to Felicity and Shashi Kapoor) to a stroll along Marine Drive Promenade flanked by the Arabian Sea, nothing can beat the scale and contrasts of Mumbai. The Gateway to India is also a must. In addition, visit the historic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel for tea or a cocktail and dine at the historic Britannia restaurant. If you want a glimpse of celebrities, head to the coastal suburb of Bandra. All in all, this city has a pulse like no other.
Deborah Nixon, Waterloo, NSW

Baghdad or bust

What a terribly unimaginative list of Asia’s greatest. It is really nothing more than a list of major cities in well-travelled parts of Asia. Where are Kathmandu, Nepal, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? Or Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Almaty, Kazakhstan? Or Muscat, Oman, and Baghdad, Iraq? There is so much more greatness to Asia than this uninspiring list.
Stuart O’Brien, St Kilda, Vic

EDITOR’S NOTE The federal government’s Smart Traveller website has issued a “do not travel” alert for Iraq and a “reconsider your need to travel” warning for Oman.

Dynamic duo

I dislike the current trend of “dynamic seating” that I recently experienced with Virgin Australia and AirAsia. Despite my wife and I being on the same booking, we were allocated middle seats several rows apart. This is forced upon us in seat selection when making the booking. Despite making the bookings several months in advance, only middle-row seats were offered. Of course, we could have upgraded, at a cost, to sit next to each other, but this is a most cynical form of price gouging. For us, it’s not about the money but the principle of offering good service. It was comical on the AirAsia flight where, due to the flight having empty seats, passengers were changing and swapping seats to sit next to partners while the airline staff were rudely telling them not to change seats unless they wanted to pay an extra $11.
Paul Seno, Karrinyup, WA

Long way round

Air Canada seems to get a bad rap in Traveller’s letters. Having had their flights cancelled by Qatar Airways because of the conflict in Iran, my daughter and her partner recently travelled with Air Canada from Sydney to London via Vancouver and Toronto. The flights left and arrived on time, transfers worked well, the meals and entertainment on board were fine, and no luggage went astray. A positive experience and no complaints.
Jane Jilek, Castlecrag, NSW

Cash and carry

Your columnist Lee Tulloch is right in commenting on the vast amounts of carry-on luggage carted by passengers onto planes operated by US airlines. The problem is entirely of the airlines’ own making as they continue to charge anything from $US35 ($48) and upwards for the first checked bag, with the price increasing for subsequent items. The only way around it seems to be if you are a member of the airline’s loyalty program, or an associated one, at the appropriate level. Otherwise, people will continue to carry half their house with them when boarding.
Ross MacPherson, Seaforth, NSW

Hold everything

There is another more pressing reason to check in a case when flying. If you don’t have checked baggage in the hold and the flight is overbooked, you will be the first ones offloaded. That’s because it takes so much time for the airline to retrieve checked baggage from the hold (they can’t fly with unaccompanied bags).
Jennifer Giles, Elizabeth Bay, NSW

Essential reading

Lee Tulloch’s column on Paris should be read by the widest possible audience. Her conclusion about the harm inflicted by mobile-phone addiction needs to be acknowledged and discussed. Alain de Botton’s book, The Art of Travel, argues that it is curiosity that transforms a checklist of foreign landmarks into a lifelong experiment in paying attention. Today, as Tulloch’s dispirited friend observed, too many people lack curiosity and are “glued to their phones, uninterested”. Is it too late to start living our lives being more interested in our surroundings, and not flocking to trampled places to “boast about it to thousands of strangers”?
Lesley Walker, Northcote, Vic

No compo

As an update to our Singapore Airlines “bump” saga involving the airline charging us $110 each for the seats we were allocated on an eight-hour later flight, after much correspondence, this charge was refunded, but compensation has been refused. That’s despite our requests for access at the time to the business lounge to wait out the delay. We are still astonished at the lack of transparency and total disregard of fair play in the airline industry.
Adrian Neath, Richmond, Vic

Where did the months go?

Michael Gebicki is right to highlight the unreasonable cost of our passports, but he misses another frustrating aspect. They generally require at least six months’ currency so need to be renewed well before expiry. They aren’t, in fact, “renewed” from expiry date but reissued from application date, meaning that at least, and usually longer, six months use is lost. Why can’t they simply be reissued for a further 10-year period beyond the expiry date of the old one?
Ken Ryan, Clovelly, NSW

Tip of the week: Back from the brink

We have just returned from South Australia’s Monarto Safari Park (an hour south-east of Adelaide and which includes 78 guest rooms and 20 new luxury safari tents) following a three-night, four day visit. Considered the largest safari park outside of Africa, the 550-hectare precinct called Wild Africa is run in partnership with the Cheetah Conservation Fund, a non-profit enterprise whose breeding program has restored the population of cheetahs in the nation of Chad to 8000, changing their status from “nearly extinct” to “endangered”. For those who are unable to travel to Africa, Monarto is the next best thing. It’s possibly the best holiday I have had, and I have travelled extensively in Australia and overseas.
Sandra Miles, Bellevue Hill, NSW

Zoned in

In his recent story Michael Gebicki commented about the management of boarding zones for aircraft. I recently travelled from Frankfurt to Copenhagen with Lufthansa. It called all those with window seats first. You needed to scan your boarding pass at a gate, and if you didn’t have the relevant seat, the gate didn’t open. It worked incredibly well.
Rod Andrews, Bayview, NSW

Free plug

Michael Gebicki mentions the problem with the lack of plugs in many hotel hand basins. I use a few tissues or pieces of toilet paper, wet and squeeze them into a ball. Push this into the drain hole and it forms an excellent plug.
Anthony Hercus, Cremorne, NSW

User pays

Automatic tipping is my bugbear, and it is becoming a rort in restaurants and on tours. One tour company in Europe wanted to charge a gratuity of more than $300 on its European tour when we checked the price. On our last cruise, guest services tried to charge us a $420 gratuity on the last day of the cruise, just as we were disembarking. Luckily, I checked our account. Others who were being caught in the last hours of the cruise were as irate as we were. If people have a problem with their salary they should consult their employer, after all we are just tourists. That said, we always tip for wonderful service but at our discretion, not someone else’s.
Ray and Maz Armstrong, Tweed Heads South, NSW

Tread carefully

We have leased French cars in Europe since 2008 and agree that there are great savings to be made compared with rental cars. However, there is a downside if planning a holiday outside warm months: French lease cars typically don’t come with winter tyres which are legally required during the colder months from November until April. In 2023, we had to replan our holiday to make sure we were not driving into Germany, Austria, or Switzerland during colder weather. As an example, it seems absurd when collecting a lease car from Basel/Mulhouse Airport (on French soil but right by Swiss and German borders) that it is illegal to immediately cross a border to a neighbouring country and be wearing the wrong tyres.
Chris Clarke, Taringa, Qld

Cable guys

We have just returned from a one-week driving holiday in Victoria and South Australia in our EV, travelling from Melbourne to Robe, Robe to Mount Gambier, via Naracoorte Caves and Coonawarra, and then home. We identified charging stations at Ballarat, Dunkeld, Robe, Mount Gambier and Warrnambool at comfortable charging distances. Unfortunately, the chargers in Robe, South Australia, are not fitted with cables so we couldn’t use them. We solved the issue by hiring a powered site at a caravan park and plugging in our car using our home charging kit for a long slow charge. EV drivers be warned: just because a charger exists, doesn’t mean you can use it.
Kristine Holden, Albert Park, Vic

Shout out

Thanks to readers and contributors to Traveller for their tips on places to visit in Spain and Portugal. These tips formed the basis of our holiday planning and made for an exceptional holiday. A particular shout out to Michael “The Tripologist” Gebicki for recommending Coimbra and Obidos in Portugal, places we would never have visited without these mentions. Then there was writer Alison Stewart’s article on Coimbra (published January, 2018). Like her, we enjoyed a delicious meal at Tapas nas Costas. The owner was surprised and delighted to learn that his venue had been favourably mentioned in an Australian newspaper.
Glenys Fisher, Auchenflower, Qld

Gauging interest

Having spent a holiday in Taiwan recently, your photo of the Hanoi train street reminded me of a similar street in Shifen, Taiwan. There, the single-track train line runs through the town to the railway station beyond. The train then travels back over the same line. In Taiwan, there is much to see, including museums, mountain and lake scenery, religious and historical buildings, and cultural performances. On the way, there is interesting food, excellent accommodation and efficient transport. Above all, the Taiwanese people are welcoming and friendly, especially when they discover that you are from Australia.
Vincent Crow, Haberfield, NSW

Happy places

Editor’s note: In our series, My Happy Place, where Traveller’s writers reflect on the holiday destinations in Australia and around the world that they cherish the most. We also invite you to submit your happy places. Here’s a selection of your contributions.

The Letter of the Week writer wins three Hardie Grant travel books. See hardiegrant.com

The Tip of the Week writer wins a set of three Lonely Planet travel books. See shop.lonelyplanet.com