News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 90

2G NEWS-PRESS, SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 1993 TRAVEL Hotel phone charges may someday surpass room rates become the mother of invention. As a result of consumer outrage, a number of new alternative long distance phone services have entered the market. Calling collect Both MCI and have started new, lower-cost collect-calling systems. MCI started (800) COLLECT in May as a cheaper option to standard collect call rates. The MCI service offers rates up to 40 percent less than Neither the caller nor the receiver has to be an MCI customer the call can be charged to any receiving party's phone bill.

On July 4, responded to MCI's (800) COLLECT with a service called (800) OPERATOR, and claimed to match or better MCI's rates. Both services, MCI's (800) COLLECT and (800) OPERATOR, can be used from any phone, regardless of the long-distance carrier. And, give or take a few cents per call, the rates are basically the same. Both of fer considerable savings compared with direct-dialed or operator-assisted collect calls. For example: A five-minute collect call from a guest room at the Sheraton New York to Los Angeles at 5:30 p.m.

on a weekday: first, a $1 surcharge plus prevailing rates, $3.79 (if dialed direct), $4.79 (if the operator dialed). With (800) OPERATOR: $2.29. The same call, using MCI's (800) COLLECT: $2.30. An eight-minute collect call from a guest room at the Washington, D.C., Hilton and Towers to Dallas at 10 a.m. on a weekday: no access charge, but prevailing rates $4.02 for direct dial and $5.02, operator assisted.

Using (800) OPERATOR: $3.41. Or (800) COLLECT: $3.42. If you need to make calls from a pay phone while on the road, and you don't want to bother with coins or you don't have a phone credit card, you can use a new kind of pre-paid phone card. Western Union and Amerivox both make cards similar to the cards used in the United Kingdom, France and Japan for pay phones. Western Union sells cards in $5, $10, $20 and $50 amounts.

The card can be used for domestic and international calls without any surcharges for the calls. The card balance is given at the end of each call, and the caller is also told when there's one minute of calling time left. The card is valid for six months and available at participating Western Union agents call (800) 374-0909 to find out where to buy one in your area. Kallback Direct Then, there's another service that's even better. It's called Kallback Direct, and it beats the hotels at their phone surcharge game.

Kallback is the brainchild of Joel Eisen-berg, a Seattle businessman, who got the idea for the system in June 1992, when he was on a business trip to London. "When I went to check out of the Hilton," he reports, "my phone bill was more than my room Kallback started last January, and here's how it works. Once you sign up, you're given a "kallback" number in Seattle, a 206 area code, followed by 270 and four digits. And you give the service the number at which you wish to be called back. (You need to be using a touch-tone phone.) Then, to access the system, you dial your "kallback" number.

As soon as you hear the phone ring, hang up. (The phone records as busy, so you're not charged.) In less than 60 seconds, your phone rings and a computerized voice asks for you by name (and by extension or room number if needed). You can also change your location number at any time. In the United States, you are billed at the flat rate of 20 cents per minute, less than the average 27 cents per minute charged by other services. Overseas, it's 50 percent below U.S.

direct. If you are staying at a hotel outside of the United States, Kallback represents an even bigger savings. You call a personal "kallback" number in the United States from your hotel room, let the phone ring once, and hang up. You are then immediately called back with a U.S. dial tone.

There is no charge to your room because the number you called never answered (you hung up) and even though you now have a U.S. dial tone, the call was incoming. In just eight months, word of mouth has made the service a success, with nearly 10,000 subscribers. For more info, call (800) 959-5255. Peter S.Greenberg is a syndicated columnist.

Address comments and questions to him at P.O. Box 1377, Studio City, Calif. 91604. IF YOU TRAVEL, I don't have to tell you how expensive it can be to make phone calls from your hotel room. And, with few excep-; tions, it's gotten worse.

In many cases, hotel phone ac- cess charges have risen, and trying I to beat hotels both in the United States and abroad at their own game has gotten tougher. Some hotels have programmed their phones to block the use of touch-tor buttons after a call Is connected, which effectively eliminates many credit card callers from making repeat calls using the pound-sign key. Overseas, many hotels block toll-free numbers entirely, forcing you to go through the operator (and the hotel will add up to $3 per call as a handling fee). But there is some good news to report. On July 1, Hilton Hotels removed all telephone access fees for credit card and collect calls.

"The credit card surcharge was our No. 1 complaint, so we decided to get rid of it," says John Brinker, corporate director of communications for Hilton. Stouffer has eliminated the access charge for toll-free calls. Motel Adventurous tourists visit outback on tailor-made camel treks By ANDY PARK Universal Press Syndicate Camel trekking is part of the growing adventure industry in Australia's Outback State, the Northern Territory. Around the town of Alice Springs, in the geographical center of the continent, adventurous tourists can choose the camel trip they want, be it an hour on camelback just for the experience or a weeklong Safari into bushland rarely visited by any but the most experienced Outback travelers.

At present, there are three established camel tour operators in the territory, and all of them provide bedding, food and drink as part of their overnight fees. But potential camel trekkers should carry their own flashlight, hat, towel, toiletries and sunscreen. Camel riding-apparel is also important; jeans are OK, but sturdy tracksuits and jogging shoes day, visit the magnificent Red Bank Gorge and camp that night under the stars. Next day they ride along the Western MacDonnell Range, arriving at Glen Helen Lodge by evening where they have dinner and spend the night in Outback luxury. The round-trip coach ride from Alice is included in the per person safari package.

Ross River Homestead (telephone 089-56-9711) has two camel ROYAL CARIBBEAN SONG OF NORWAYSONG OF AMERICA Acapulco, Panama Canal, Casta Rica, Aruba, Curacao, St. Thomas and San Juan, or San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Moartin, Martinique, Trinidad, St. Kith, St.

Goix, Coco Cay $999 From i tijsrrToitfiw iNiqnr i yji mmn 1 central America mw 1 Departs Tampa I CENTRAL AMERICA Departs Tampa days all year, and it's an hour on camel back to Chateau Hornsby, a gourmet dinner and wine tasting, then a bus ride back to Alice. Each of these outings cost per person. For the slightly more adventurous, Frontier has a 2'2-day camping safari departing every Wednesday (March to November) from Glen Helen, 90 miles west of Alice at the base of the rugged MacDonnell Ranges. Cameleers ride half the first s319419 lijirwwvH iatwumi BEST AVAILABLE CABIN BIG RED BOAT ATLANTIC OR OCEANIC 3 OR 4 NIGHT BAHAMAS 2 for! fiEH (SOGO TOUK ft msmt i carnival I mimsm I fantasy Fwftittttti 3 NIGHTS 4 NIGHTS iiSf safaris aimed at visitors who want to learn more about the Australian bush. The first, an overnight trip, leaves every Wednesday afternoon.

It's about a two-hour ride to the camping area, then another two hours the next day to complete the circle route. The all-inclusive cost: per person. The second trip is three days (two nights) and has no specific departure day, just a minimum of four people. GRUZIKA faa Beginning Oct. '93.

Jutsiae Looms $595 REGENCY ALASKA 12 Day Cruise Air, Tour, Denali, Fairbanks, Anchorage fJ 1895 DAYS.Va M. '649 '799 3 DAYS Palace Station '299 $50 gaming bonus per room '209 '385 PUERTO RICO '269 ST. THOMAS '375 ft mm TRAVELERS: Flexibility A 1 t) SAVVY TRAVELER PETER S. GREENBERG 6 uses its no-phone-charge philosophy as a marketing tool. Local calls are free, and there is no access charge for collect, third-party or credit card calls, according to Dan Gilligan, manager of utilities for Motel 6.

"We don't believe in charging guests surcharges. We don't restrict any calls it's really an amenity," Gilligan says. And, says one Sheraton spokeswoman, "because of changes in the industry, our whole phone policy is now under review." In the meantime, necessity has once again are ideal, and a thick sweater or down jacket is vital as desert temperatures can sometimes plunge to freezingonmidwinternights. Camel Outback Safaris (telephone: 089-56-0925) offers a seven-day camel trek for $699 (in Australian dollars) per person. Trekkers fly into Alice Springs and stay their first night in town.

At 7:30 the next morning, the Outback Safari bus picks them up at their hotel for the hour's drive south to Orange Creek. From here, after coffee and "camel familiarization," the group sets off on its Outback adventure. After six nights camping in picturesque Rainbow Valley and day-tripping to explore aboriginal caves, "galleries" of rock art, giant sand dunes and mulga scrub, the group returns to Orange Creek for a shower and a change of clothes. Then the trekkers bus back to Alice where another night in a hotel may be required depending on formed sun worshiper, may not have threatened divorce upon discovering on her Caribbean honeymoon that the sun turned her groom's skin an unflattering shade of scarlet and made him so nauseated that he lost his lunch. But she admits to being rather disappointed.

"I wanted to be in the sun all the time," she says. "Joe had never been on a vacation where thesun was so intense. He didn't even know that he couldn't sit out in the sun." As with just about everything in life, give-and-take seems to be the key to avoiding trouble while traveling. "Each person's needs must be met to some degree," says Wish, who directs the New England Institute of Family Relations in Framingham, Mass. "Often, what you have is a situation where he wants to sightsee and she wants to shop or he wants to lie on the beach and she wants to socialize." Such was the scene during the Preuningers' Parisian honeymoon two years ago.

"We had vacationed together before, but it was in Bonaire, and all you can do there is says Fletcher. "I had been to Paris a few times before, and he had never been, so I wanted to show him everything. All he wanted to do was AUSTRALIA SUPER SAVER Sydney Cairns Great Barrier Reef 10 Days $1794 Fort Myers Travel 334-1276 997-8747 iiaspiai pUiuiiwvur i i A- "17 Aug. 25th, Sept. 11th 26th $29.

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luxurious pools), island's 0 Fort Travel 28441 Bonita ikiwm: lips, ironstin, ntry MM and mm soon, wniti und leoxlws, bmhlront room suites, 2s vitro gograwl tisloworm, onytimo modes, unlimited pumium biond drinks. Plus our 'Sloy Al iHotion it All Program' ot ol lt Jomoion rssorts. tm SJOiyhaWnlKMatjrmtaa 629-1429 connecting flights. These tours operate twice a month from March to September, and the tour group is limited to 16 people. If a shorter or longer trip is required, these can be arranged at per day.

Frontier Camel Tours (telephone 089-53-0444) is only a few miles outside Alice Springs and caters to visitors who have their doubts about spending endless days aboard a camel. At 9 a.m. every day, anxious tourists can try a one-hour camel ride along the Todd River for $27. If this proves enjoyable, they can "Take a Camel to Lunch" or "Take a Camel to Dinner." The former runs Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from April to October and involves a one-hour ride to Chateau Hornsby (the Territory's only vineyard), a BBQ lunch and wine tasting, then a return ride. The latter runs Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sun a must sit in cafes and watch the world go by or go to restaurants and eat all this really fine food.

Every day, I was dragging him to the Left Bank, to antique shops, to museums. He said I was driving him insane. I said he was boring me to death. I'm sure we both thought, 'God, are we The Preuningers may be well-suited, but they definitely need a suit with some elbow room. Finding space Whenever couples spend concentrated time together, problems are bound to arise, says Wish.

"Unfortunately, people on vacation suppress their desire for personal space. They live with the misconception that their mate will think this is a form of rejection. They don't realize they can have a thriving relationship and do their own thing." Gradually, the Preuningers have learned to accommodate their divergent travel needs. When they spend a holiday near a golf course, Fletcher preps herself for vacation widowhood. IN KING'S MOTEL 10 MINUTES TO WALT DISNEY WORLD SEA WORLD UNIVERSAL ROOMS SUITES S30-J6(L dbl.

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Springs 495-0515 From Page 1G jbur weeklong holiday, and it rains. do you do? Take it out on your partner, of course. You should try not io, Wish says, and the best way to do jiat is to make alternative plans fljiead of time. Speaking of indoor activities, fsome lovers think they're going to on vacation and have sex three or tour times a day," Canter says. The other person may not think that 'includes morning, noon and nighttime assignations.

Keep goals reasonable and remember that a vacation is not a cure for all that ails a relationship. Longtime marrieds may have an trip than couples who have not icohabited, the experts say. Indeed, graveling a deux can be a real eye-opener for new couples or those who lhave married without living together first. All too often, partners do not ilike what they see. "If you're in a new environment for the first time, you may discover that your spouse is an awful swimmer or that he doesn't know how to tip," Canter says.

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