My family and I were left on the street with nowhere to stay after using booking.com

Letter of the week: Luckless in Luxor

During a family trip to Luxor, Egypt last December, my pre-paid Booking.com accommodation collapsed into a complete failure of service. Despite confirming our arrival 24 hours prior, the host became unreachable, the listed phone number was blocked, and we found the property inaccessible. On arrival day, the host texted me proposing I cancel and they would refund. But to cancel at short notice carries financial penalties. My family was left on the street with luggage, forcing us to secure emergency accommodation. Booking.com ignored multiple messages and no refund was ever processed. Having paid through Westpac, I asked them to reverse the payment, but they failed to do so.
Tim Norman, Port Melbourne, Vic

Valid concern

In response to Michael Gebicki’s column on Australian passports, I’m travelling on September 9 this year to Indonesia with a requirement that a passport has six months’ validity beyond the arrival date. Of course, my passport expires on March 8, 2027. A day short. So my 10-year passport has had two years when lockdowns prevented its use, and now I have to renew it seven to eight months early.
Jen Lawson, Glen Iris, Vic

Local heroes

Further to your reader Joseph Ting’s letter (Traveller Letters, April 18), during a visit to Bali I spent some of my time with Trash Heroes, an organisation that invites tourists and locals to spend an hour collecting rubbish from the island’s beaches It was also interesting to observe that there were far fewer single-use plastic bags than expected, with many vendors now using paper alternatives or encouraging customers to BYO. However, I was struck by the large number of polystyrene takeaway containers from multinational chains. If these companies can serve food in cardboard packaging in Australia, they should be able to do the same in Asia. The Balinese also make daily offerings to the gods in small, handwoven trays placed at shrines. These naturally biodegrade but many include individually wrapped Mentos lollies, hundreds of which I and others collected from the sand. The shiny plastic wrappers can resemble small fish when washed into the sea, where they end up in the stomachs of all sorts of marine creatures. If only the wrappers were removed before being offered to the gods, or better still, the manufacturers switched to biodegradable alternatives.
Helen Edwards-Davis, Kingscliff, NSW

Happiest birthday

Luang Prabang in Laos is my favourite Asian city and I have been to most in your story list of the continent’s top 25. In fact, I told my husband that I did not want a party for my 80th birthday. Instead, I wanted to go to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a delightful town founded in 698. There are Buddhist temples, river trips to nearby villages easily arranged by local travel agents, delicious cheap restaurant meals and a night market all nearby.
Ainslie Morris, South Durras, NSW

American depress

Your article on the Chile taxi scam reminded me of an embarrassing encounter in my innocent youth. Backpacking around Asia I was in Bombay (now Mumbai) and decided I would have a look around the luxurious five-star Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which was well beyond the budget of a struggling university student. I was approached by a young man about my own age in the foyer who offered to give me a tour of the hotel, which, I thought, was very kind of him. After showing me around the hotel he told me his uncle was the manager, and he could get me the best exchange rate for my traveller’s cheques. I naively handed over all my traveller’s cheques, and he said to wait in the foyer, and he would be right back with my money. Sure. Half-an-hour later it finally dawned on me that he wasn’t coming back, and I had been scammed. An obliging receptionist in the hotel allowed me to make a phone call home to Mum who, after commiserating with me, wired me enough money to continue my travels. What would we do without our mothers?|
Geoff Turnbull, Ashfield, NSW

Share and share alike

Tim Richards has it so right in his piece about travelling solo. I circumnavigated the world alone for a year. During my travels I met Karen, a New Zealand nurse, with whom I shared a London bed – that is, me at night, she during the day. I trekked Nepal with Peter, who in Denmark, lent me his car. In India, I met Wolfgang who cared for a very sick me and hosted me in Austria; a Frenchman, Christophe, led me to a princess’s flat in Paris; a Brit, a stay in Berlin; and an American in Afghani attire (spy?) in Amritsar, India, was just creepy. Eurail provided conversations with a Dutch novelist, a film director and many more.
Ron Thomas, Kalorama, Vic

Silent treatment

I was amused by the letter from Sam Ross about Air Canada (Traveller Letters, May 2). Several years ago, while on our Qantas flight from Sydney to Los Angeles (LAX), there was a one-in-100-year flood in Calgary, Canada, our destination. There was no information at LAX (Canada? Where’s that). Air Canada flew us to Calgary without providing any information about the situation, nor was there any on arrival. The centre of the city was closed, including our hotel. Fortunately, a contact found us a motel in the suburbs and we were evacuated the next day. Our contact said never fly Air Canada, try WestJet.
Jane Howland, Cammeray, NSW

Waiting game

We had an experience with checked luggage recently coming back from Norfolk Island. Due to an electrical storm, our luggage stayed on the aircraft for over an hour. Initially, there was no explanation from Qantas, but eventually a very polite representative said we could go and they would forward our luggage. However, we live hours from Sydney so we waited for two hours to collect our luggage from baggage services which is hidden away in the corner of the terminal. And of course, our AirTags had gone flat. Carry-on only would have been wonderful.
John Brown, Kianga, NSW

Tip of the week: Pisa offering

Ben Groundwater’s story on accidental tourist attractions reminded me of our stay in Pisa, Italy, in 2024. We bought tickets onsite for the Tower of Pisa (timed for sunset) and also visited the cathedral, baptistery, the Camposanto Monumentale, Sinopie Museum and Opera del Duomo Museum – all highly recommended. Walking up the tower steps was fantastico, with Pisa overall having a lot to offer. It’s like a small Florence, from where it’s an easy train ride, but without that city’s crowds. We also caught an early morning train to La Spezia for a day of hiking at Cinque Terre. Returning to our Pisa base was always a pleasure.
Jennie Della, Crace, ACT

Watt gives

Beware of Sixt rental cars in Europe which advertise petrol-based vehicles but only seem to allocate electric ones. We booked and paid extra for a petrol car only to be allocated an electric car. I checked the Sixt website on the day we rented, and they were still advertising petrol cars available for that time. Our first stop in a mid-size town had eight charging points; however, there was only one charger working, which took over 90 minutes to get 15 per cent charge. This is not how we planned to spend our holiday, searching towns for chargers that do not work, and then spend hours waiting for them to charge.
Graham Watkins, Main Beach, Qld

We were Robed

We have just returned from a one-week driving holiday in our EV – Melbourne to Robe, Robe to Mount Gambier via Naracoorte Caves and Coonawarra, then home. We identified charging stations at Ballarat, Dunkeld, Robe, Mount Gambier and Warrnambool at comfortable charging distances. Unfortunately, the chargers in Robe are not fitted with cables and we could not use them. With lateral thinking, we solved the issue by hiring a powered site at a caravan park and plugged 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

Accidental millionaire

A cautionary tale for travellers in high-denomination currencies: in Vietnam, where the local currency, the dong, runs to tens of thousands per dollar, a simple ATM slip can be costly. Intending to withdraw 1.2 million dong, I added an extra zero — ending up with 12 million. The shock of becoming an accidental “millionaire” was matched only by the inconvenience of reversing it at a bank. In such currencies, vigilance is essential: one misplaced zero can turn a routine withdrawal into an expensive misadventure.
Joseph Ting, Carina, Qld

Bad Joker

Ben Groundwater’s column on tour guides brought back memories of a stop in Vukovar, Croatia, on a cruise last year. We were bussed in small groups to villages where we had lunch home-cooked by the hostess. A wonderful 12-year-old boy interpreted (all kids learn English at school in Croatia). He took us through daily life and the history of the village, including photographs of war damage, and how the house we were in had been badly damaged and rebuilt – an absolute highlight of the cruise. But some people don’t learn. One older man asked if the boy followed tennis, specifically Novak Djokovic, and the answer was “no”. When I mentioned that Djokovic was Serbian, not Croatian, the man, looking straight at the photos of war damage, said, “but it’s the country next door”.
Louise Kloot, Doncaster, Vic

Surprise, surprise

Tunisia was one of our favourite surprises on our trip — effortlessly charming, incredibly historic and bursting with warmth. Experiencing everything from the whitewashed hills of Sidi Bou Said to the sun-kissed coastline and twisting, maze-like medinas, it felt like a one-stop shop for North Africa and the Mediterranean. We stayed at La Villa Bleue, which looked out over the sea with peaceful, elegant views. Colourful spices and goods filled the souks with energy, while dining at Le Golfe in La Goulette really blew us away with the freshness of the fish and the local atmosphere. Quirky but accessible, Tunisia became one of our favourite travel memories.
Gary Levine, North Bondi, NSW

Village people

Like your writer, Sue Williams, we had a great local lunch in a small village called Demicidir, Turkey, organised by Trafalgar Tours. The women were in traditional dress and explained the village bread oven with tastings. They then led us off to their homes and husbands for a traditional lunch of seasonal food. Their life revolved around farming. There were a few things to buy, including headscarves, which many purchased and wore traditionally. It was a great and enjoyable experience.
Denise Jensen, Mitcham, Vic

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