✉ In May I travelled to Puglia with One Traveller (which runs escorted tours for the mature solo traveller) and at 73 I was one of the youngest in the group. On day two, our Italian guide came on to our air-conditioned coach coughing and sneezing, apologising for being ill and saying he had to work or he wouldn’t get paid. By day four, one of the group had caught his “cold” and felt quite poorly. By day six I and a few others were feeling unwell. When I returned home I tested positive for Covid and felt very ill. I phoned the company but it said legally the guide was allowed to continue and was under no obligation to get tested, although it did express sympathy and said the issue would be discussed at a debriefing. What’s the position these days if a clearly ill and infectious guide joins a group? Do I have any reason to be angry with One Traveller?
Jackie Aldridge
One Traveller insists it took your complaint seriously and explained that although there are no longer any legal requirements around testing or self-isolating in Italy or the UK, and that its guide “felt fit and healthy enough” to conduct the tour as planned, “a self-test was administered for Covid-19”. After receiving a negative result, the tour was allowed to go ahead (apparently it would have been extremely difficult to find another qualified guide at such short notice) and the guide was eventually diagnosed with bronchitis. You may not recall the guide being tested, but the fact remains that all restrictions have long been lifted and, when you travel, you’re on your own when it comes to protecting yourself from Covid — or any other respiratory illness.
✉ I’m hoping to travel the length of Vietnam and visit Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, with a friend in February. We don’t want the trip to be overly energetic or testing and would prefer a group tour, staying in comfortable, not luxury, hotels. Is that a good month to travel and can you recommend any tour operators?
Derek O’Callaghan
February is one of the best months to explore Vietnam and you can expect dry, bright weather along the entire length of the country. There are plenty of “full-on” tours with overnight train travel but Exodus has an 11-night “leisurely/moderate” Vietnam and Cambodia Highlights small group tour staying in comfortable mid-range hotels. It includes three flights and will take you from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City via the Unesco-listed port town of Hoi An, then on to Siem Riep for sunrise and a day exploring Angkor Wat, followed by a road trip to Phnom Penh. It costs £4,049pp in February including flights, and the single supplement is £320 (exodus.co.uk).
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✉ In February we booked a holiday in Oman including flights with Etihad from Heathrow. We booked extra legroom for £59 each and when we checked in online our seats were confirmed. But at the airport we were issued with new boarding passes with new seat numbers because the plane was changed at the last moment. Having boarded, we were told seats with extra legroom weren’t available. On our return, I complained to the airline through the “guest portal” on its website but despite numerous emails and telephone calls, it has failed to tell me whether it proposes to refund the extra cost. Etihad is not signed up to any dispute resolution service so I can’t try that. Despite the low value of the claim I’m frustrated and annoyed by its failure to even respond. Presumably it hopes I will go away. Can you help?
John Bevan
I’ve lost count of the number of readers’ complaints about this issue: seats carefully chosen and paid for but then not delivered, with all the discomfort and disappointment that ensues, because of an aircraft change. As you say, the money involved is not huge but, spread across the airline industry, it’s a hefty sum for nothing and trying to claw back your share is invariably far more difficult than it should be (of course airlines hope you will give up). After I waded in, however, you were quickly refunded and Etihad wrote to you to apologise for the delay in responding to your complaint.
✉ I want to take my husband on a week’s trip to Tromso in northern Norway now that easyJet has started flying there from Bristol and am planning to go in January. Can you suggest an itinerary that doesn’t require using a hire car?
Angela Lidiard
Ditching the hire car is a great idea because driving in Tromso, deep in the Arctic Circle, in January is not for the faint-hearted: it’s almost permanently dark and very icy, so you’ll still need spikes for your walking boots to avoid taking a tumble. If you can, plan your trip for the end of the month when polar night is over (officially it lasts from November 27 to January 15) and the sun reappears.
Stay at Clarion Hotel the Edge, overlooking the harbour, and you’ll be within walking distance of many of the city’s attractions and also near the pick-up point for boat trips. I’d recommend starting off with a guided walk to get your bearings and some useful Tromso tips. Oda Kvaal-Tanguay has a choice of themes, including her Polar Bear Discovery itinerary, which will take you to the excellent Polar Museum as well as the Arctic experience centre Polaria, and explain how the bear has become a symbol of climate change (£60pp, oktromso.no). Dog sledding, skiing, snowshoeing, whale-watching and Rib safaris could also be on your itinerary, along with a day spent with the Sami and their reindeer (visittromso.no). You’ll undoubtedly want to see the northern lights and the great news is that if there’s a clear sky you’ll have a very good chance of spotting them in or around Tromso because it’s in the centre of the “auroral oval”. A comfortable way to search for them is on a dinner cruise (brimexplorer.com) or by taking a trip up to the Fjellheisen cable car station on the Storsteinen ridge.
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✉ Many years ago we used to go to Shrubland Hall in Suffolk. It was a rather old-fashioned health clinic but the emphasis was on peace, relaxation and healthy eating. I’d like to find somewhere similar in the UK, and want to avoid the mass-market spa resorts, which from my experience can be full of hen parties. Are you able to recommend anywhere?
Marian Wax
There’s nowhere like Shrubland Hall in the UK now but if you’re looking for peace and relaxation I think you’d enjoy the Scarlet, the adults only “eco-sanctuary” on a clifftop in Mawgan Porth on the north Cornish coast, which doesn’t encourage hen parties. Each of its 37 rooms has a sea view, there’s a reed-filtered swimming pool and holistic spa, plus excellent food. Rooms start at £335 B&B including access to daily wellbeing classes and the clifftop sauna and steam room (scarlethotel.co.uk).
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