Wikivoyage:Tourist office/Archives/2014/April

Birmingham, England

What is the correct way to address a letter going from USA to Birmingham, England. Could you provide an example please? Asked by: ~~

Street addresses and overall order are similar to US. For the country, use either Birmingham, England or Birmingham, UK.

Some British cities have district numbers in addresses, e.g. London SW1, but I don't know about Birmingham. There are postal codes, same function as US ZIP codes but in a different format. Ask your correspondent about these or do some web searching with strings like "Birmingham districts" or "British postal code". Pashley (talk) 21:53, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

The London districts like SW1 were simply incorporated into the postcode system when it was established. London addresses now have postcodes like "NW1 1AB" (some place in the old NW1 zone) or "SW1A 2BC". --50.100.193.30 06:28, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

The USPS website has examples of how to address international mail. If you need to find the postcode, the Royal Mail website has a postcode finder. You need to input more than just the city to get the postcode.--Dreamahighway (talk) 22:00, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

As above, letters to British destinations are addressed in pretty much the same way as American letters, e.g.

Mr J Smith

123 Example Rd

BIRMINGHAM

B12 3AA

United Kingdom

The postcodes in use in the UK (the penultimate line above) are very similar in function to American ZIP codes. If you do not have the postcode, it's not the end of the world, but its presence will expedite your letter's delivery.

Hope this helps! --Nick ^talk 23:34, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Note that the country should always be last on the envelope; the postal code is country-specific, so it goes before the country. Powers ^(talk) 14:30, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Is it ok to discuss the Vikings with the Danish people?

When I think of the Vikings, what brings to mind is those nasty, dirty people that loot foreign villages. Is this a sensitive topic for the Danes? How might a foreigner approach Danish history?

Asked by: 140.254.227.73 14:30, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't think Danes (and other Scandinavians) feel uncomfortable if someone associates them with the Vikings. After all it's about 1000 years since they were around. If it'd be, say, 20 years, I'd be more careful. ϒpsilon (talk) 14:52, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

I think many Scandinavians indeed are quite proud of that ancestry (their achievements were quite remarkable, weren't they?), even if the Vikings hardly match today's Nordic ideals. The devil is in the details, of course; if you use the connection to offend people, they may very well be offended. If you want to discuss early Danish history you should perhaps read enough about the Vikings to have also other associations than dirtiness. --LPfi (talk) 13:00, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

70 yr old Mother/Grandmother - too see her family

My mother has been the best mother in the world. She has always been there for my or my older, younger sister and myself. I think that it would be a wonderful think for southwest airlinesa to get all her family and friends to get them to come to Tulsa, Oklahoma to celebrate her 70 birthday party. She would love it and it would would be a wonderful surprise for her. my mother (redacted) has a wonderful heart, She has a lot friend that love her, Whatever she has to give, she give it is out. No one can do for her she live she those does for other family. My mother decieves this. Our family files southwestern all the tim. The funny this is that my husband and have known other for 12 years and we have been married for 10 minutes. Neither side of the family have ever met to face it IT would be nice you could something like this up in the future from July 16-23, 2014, and possible go a cruise or fly to Tulsa, oklalhoma and have a nice reception, i think it tt would really make our family excited to have family paid and fly in from Dever Colorado, Floriday, Americus, Georgia, St Stephen, SC, Richmonda, VA., Houston, tx. MY mom has diabsete and other hail ailments. It would be benefit if southwest would find it in their air to takr on this procject for my mother. I hope someone whould like like to do this special project for (redacted). I would love for her to enjoy a special party. and I would like to talk to with someone about this. Thank you for you time.

Asked by: 173.16.156.70 04:10, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

We can answer your question, but please do not post contact information on this page, as it is a public forum. --Rschen7754 08:54, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Actually, this inquiry appears to be well outside the scope of Wikivoyage. I'm having a hard time deciphering exactly what is being asked here, but as near as I can tell she wants Southwest Airlines to cover the cost of flights for her family to Tulsa, Oklahoma from various other destinations in the US. The user needs to contact Southwest directly about that (and, to be blunt, is unlikely to get a favorable answer). -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 09:13, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

It appears to be a request for assistance in how best to transport an elderly relative to a family event.Sfan00 IMG (talk) 18:22, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Cancelling / dropping / skipping part of a multi-stop round-trip airline ticket

I'm going on a boat cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. A round-trip ticket from Portland Oregon to Budapest is the simplest and most economical ticket to buy. Of course, on the return trip, I will be skipping the Budapest to Amsterdam leg of the trip. Is this some kind of ticket violation? Will the airlines honor my ticket if I knowing skip the first leg of the trip? Is / are there special check-in or confirmation rules I have to follow? Thank-you for any help - can't get a straight answer from the target airline reservations people: Delta/KLM. Asked by: LudwigHW (talk) 22:26, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't see how you can buy a ticket from Budapest to Portland and expect to get on the plane at Amsterdam. Powers ^(talk) 23:57, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

There is a non-stop flight from PDX to AMS with a connection to BUD. On the return trip I would board the plane at AMS and take the return non-stop from AMS to PDX, skipping the BUD to AMS portion. Hope that explains better. LudwigHW (talk) 9:45, 8 April 2014 (PDT)

Why not just buy a round trip ticket from Portland to Amsterdam and a single ticket to Budapest? On the other hand, when I look at KLM's home page those seem to be on the expensive side. If you want to add some train travel to your European trip the Polish-Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air seems to fly from Eindhoven (a hour and a half by train from Amsterdam) to Budapest. ϒpsilon (talk) 17:23, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have solid information but I've often seen it said that airlines will cancel your ticket if you skip any leg. If you want solid information, ask the airline. They made the rules and they know them.

And while you have them on the phone, ask about an open-jaw return ticket, which means you buy a ticket that omits one leg: in your case, PDX-AMS-BUD plus AMS-PDX. (Or for that matter PDX-BUD direct plus AMS-PDX would be an open-jaw return as well, if only those flights both existed.) Starting from here in Canada, open-jaws often cost about the same as a regular round-trip ticket, although they may not be available at the very cheapest fares, Ask and see what you find. --50.100.193.30 09:02, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I know for a fact that some (maybe all) US airlines will not honor your ticket unless you board at your scheduled point of departure. I knew somebody who was flying from North Carolina to Sweden. He decided that he wanted to visit Boston for a week before he left. Because he had already purchased his tickets, he had to fly back from Boston to Raleigh so that he could fly from Raleigh to Boston to Sweden the next day (the return trip was cheaper than the change fees). Falconus^{p t c} 19:26, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Booking a Coach load of people's

Asked by: 184.58.152.42 14:49, 15 April 2014 (UTC) How to book a coach load of 67 people's for one night and will the casino cover the hotel and how much will they pay for bring each person?

I have heard of casinos providing free snacks or sandwiches to encourage people to continue gambling (the Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich so he could eat without leaving the gaming table) and free drinks because people are likely to lose more when impaired. Paying for a hotel seems unlikely to me, but it may be worth asking.

In my experience, businesses in Asia quite often pay guides or touts to bring in customers. In North America, this is not at all common. For other areas, I do not know. You really need to talk to casino management, but you might get better comments here if you specified where the casinos you are concerned about are located. Pashley (talk) 15:34, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Paphos, Cyprus

We're planning a trip to Paphos, Cyprus next October-November and we'll stay there two weeks. Our 87-year-old mother is coming too. And I would like to ask you that is Paphos good choice for elderly people? And I'd also like to hear some other things about Paphos and its amenities, beaches, culture, cityscape, people, climate on that time, restaurants etc. We'll stay in the neighbourhood of Paphos Airport. Many thanks for your answers! Asked by: 91.152.122.103 15:20, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

The Paphos page on Wikipedia (different from the link above) has climate data and some other information about buses, hospitals, and main attractions.--146.163.159.12 22:04, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

And here is a link to the official Pafos/Paphos tourist information website by the Pafos Regional Board of Tourism. It includes information about beaches.--146.163.159.12 22:10, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

find the hotels in Mashhad Iran

• . 

Asked by: 37.106.113.82 14:33, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

We have an article at Mashhad with some hotel info. Pashley (talk) 14:45, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Egypt

is egypt safe70.49.151.54 19:01, 21 April 2014 (UTC) Asked by: 70.49.151.54 19:01, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

See Egypt#Stay safe for useful info. -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:14, 21 April 2014 (UTC)