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Phyllis Stoller has a BA from Tufts University, an MA from New York University and a Finance Degree from the University of the South Bank, London England. Phyllis Stoller founded and managed for 16 years, the largest tour operator for women in North America. She was voted top in women’s travel by Travel & Leisure Magazine,the first to receive this honor. Phyllis has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, Lifetime TV for Women and others. She is a consultant on marketing to women.
Phyllis now resides in New York City and London, England and is affiliated with ECPS Consulting Corporation in New York. She prides herself on her family: husband, Eric, a ‘keeper’, sons Nick (comedy writer and director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Matt , a progressive political strategist who works with liberal Democratic candidates. Phyllis can be reached at Phyllisnycity@gmail.com.
Past Articles
TRAVEL TIPS FOR TOMATOES
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Volcanic ash and other Summer BBQ’s
Yes, I was in Europe when this ash plumed from the Icelandic volcano with that xxxxxxxxxxxxx name. Heard various stories from friends of what they did to kill the time without killing the budget. One group of 4 women was in Berlin when they heard their flights were indefinitely delayed. Three hired a car and driver and $10,000 later landed in Barcelona. They then bought one-way last minute tickets to JFK. Ouch ouch. The 4th went to the hotel manager, pled her case and struck a deal for delay days at her hotel at a large discount. She then flew back but not on her appointed ticket. Delta offered her a flight much later in the month, so she crunched numbers and bought a one way ticket to JFK at great expense rather than linger in Berlin indefinitely. Needless to say the two groups are no longer on speaking terms!
I was on a British riverboat when the ash billowed. UK law requires tours to return you to where you started. So we had no extra expense and no worries.
So what do you do in unforeseen cases? First you call your travel insurer (yes take it out please) and ask them to tell you what to do, get the name of the agent you speak with and a correct email and put in writing what they agreed to pay for. Or, no insurance, go to the hotel and look pathetic. Ask for the assistant manager if a large hotel (the manager will sluff you off), and negotiate, accepting even a staff room if you are really in trouble. Third start checking alternative flight sites to see if there is availability and see if your airline will agree to endorse your ticket to another company. (My flight home had plenty of empty seats despite the news!). Stay near the airport or within a cheap transfer distance, like the Roissy bus from the Opera area to Paris-CDG (less than $10) or the Underground to Healthrow-London (same), Check flights online, and stand by. You might consider shipping luggage home Fedex, beforehand to make stand by more efficient.
Best of all book with a good agent or tour company and keep in touch with them. Tour companies in particular can have close relationships with airlines and can grab cancelled seats as they open. In the good old days, we tour operators used to put ‘mystery names’ in the record to hold seats; alas no more. So when booking a tour, try to go with a company that can also book your airfare and who have pals in the industry. You will know if the agency does not ticket but farms it out, by looking at the ticket when it arrives by email. All tickets say which company booked and paid for the seat. Then ask the operator if that is a subsidiary or an outside company.
So enough of travel school.
My trip was to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria with a couple days in Serbia. Favorite areas were Budapest (like Paris with newly rehabilitated streets, the best stews and pastries, wonderful modern art museum, un-missable art deco central market full of great crafts and safe and easily mapped streets. Budapest belies a most horrific history of oppression, invasions, and imperial tyranny. One owes it themselves to visit The House of Terror Museum. The latter is a must as it tracks the awful Nazi-occupied then Soviet-controlled Hungary. Your belly will not be able to reconcile the beauty of the town, the friendliness of the people and the apparent freedom with what you witness here.
Next on my favorite list were the painted wooden churches of Bulgaria, medieval in feel and exotic with Eastern rites and incense smells. I must say that I am also partial to Bulgaria, as it most resembles a 19th c. country and its former King Carol was responsible for saving Bulgaria’s 25,000 Jews during WWII. Abutting the Ottoman Empire and the last part of Europe to remain in it, Bulgaria has a distinctly Eastern feel mixed with Bulgarian Orthodox people.
Third I would have to say was the shock of what is modern Romania: a painful, poor, sad country with magnificent vistas, castles, the highest mountains in this area and a language that sounds and spells like French. Black sea resorts formerly for Russians display uber-ostentatious hotels- empty of course. WW11 left many ruined art deco synagogues behind geometric artistic fences. Not be outdone were the Baroque churches pastel painted and gold leafed, where we heard classical concerts and had a chance to sit down-travel makes churches important for tired feet. Hungary, Romania and Bulgartia are in the EU tough economically for the EU to support along with Greece. Serbia and Croatia,(one of the richer countries in this area), are not!
And a final note about Serbia where Milosovic ruled cruelly for years. The main city square is still destroyed with blackened office buildings teetering over pedestrians, left from the NATO bombing about ten years ago. Other villages are left semi destroyed as local populations do not know who owns the property and will not invest without clear titles. Serbia and Croatia are not in the EU and will not be allowed in until all issues are resolved on all borders. Croatians who lost everything in the way with Serbia are rebuilding at record pace, but again buildings are left with huge cannon holes as a reminder of the post Tito wars.
I have attached some photos of my trip, anyone considering going should read Rebecca West’s Black Lamb, Grey Falcon all 1100 pages of it written just before WWII erupted. Also The Historian, a fictionalized account of modern day Dracula (Romanian), and do buy detailed guidebooks as tourist guides in these countries still do not tell the full story you need to hear. And anyone who wants to take photos on a Canon, do not push Select All---- I deleted most of my photos this way.
Phyllis and her husband Eric in Bulgaria.
Embroidery in Romania
Handpainted wallpaper in Hungary
Peppers hanging in Hungary
Synagogue gates in Romania
