Tuesday, Jul 8, 2008
Our travel expert offers advice for immigrants heading home, tips for finding lodging in Guatemala and discouragement on the Madrid-Bilbao drive.
Feb 17, 2000 | I am looking for a travel agent who specializes in arranging travel for immigrants who regularly return home. Is there anyone in that category on the East Coast or nationally? The nationalities I have in mind are British, Irish and Dutch.
Yes -- with a little digging you should be able to find travel agencies or tour companies that specialize in a destination for nationals or immigrants who want to return to the old country for a visit or longer stay. I don't know of any ImmigrantTravel.com site, but there are several ways to go about finding agencies to help you.
Sometimes the companies are large, well-established and cater to the general public. Other times they are small and devoted to a tiny niche market. For instance, Chinatowns around the country often have neighborhood travel agencies whose business focuses on Chinese-Americans who return occasionally to Hong Kong or China or Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia.
There's usually no special fare for immigrants, mind you, but agents with expatriate or immigrant customers know how to find the best deals and consolidator fares for their clientele.
For many European destinations, the fastest route is to contact the U.S. branch of the national tourism offices and ask if they have a list of travel agencies. Another approach is to pinpoint a city with a large number of immigrants and check out travel agencies there.
The Netherlands Board of Tourism site has a link for Holland travel professionals that can help you pin down an agency for making travel plans. Click on the state you plan to travel from, and the site presents a list of knowledgeable agencies. The Holland site also has a back to your Dutch roots page.
The Irish Tourist Board site has a How to Get Here link through which you can find tour operators. It also has a Shamrock Club link, where you can find agents who have completed special training in booking trips to Ireland.
The British Tourist Authority is developing a BritAgent Program that is testing and registering travel agents and is expected to be in place for public use this spring. In the meantime, you might contact an agent that is part of the Scottish Tourist Board program called SCOTS -- Specialist Counselor on Travel to Scotland. Trained agents are listed in a free guide available from the BTA, phone (800) 462-2748. The Scottish Tourist Board site may also help.
A note of caution: The California Attorney General's Office has investigated some travel agencies that have not registered as required by state law. For your own protection, deal with registered agencies in states that have such a requirement, or those that belong to a trade group such as the American Society of Travel Agents.
I will be in Madrid for one day in early June and I want to visit the new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. I don't want to fly because I will have just finished a transatlantic flight. How can I get a driver to take us there, and how long a drive is it?
You might want to reconsider your plan -- Rocky Balboa himself would have a grueling time doing Bilbao by car from Madrid in one day. Even if the driver were waiting right outside customs and there were no complications, the Madrid-Bilbao drive would take about five hours.
A spokesman at the Tourist Office of Spain strongly recommended flying as the better course -- 45 or 50 minutes each way.
However you go, contact the Guggenheim Bilbao to check on ticket availability, hours and closings. With your narrow timeframe, you wouldn't want to show up and find yourself unable to gain admission.
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