News, Tips & Bargains : Tourist Slaying in Caribbean Port

A popular hotel in the U.S. Virgin Islands is re-emphasizing its warning that guests not leave the grounds on foot in the wake of last week’s shooting death of a California tourist on St. Thomas.

The slaying of Murray Callan of San Diego took place in Charlotte Amalie, one of the Caribbean’s busiest cruise ship ports, and was the latest of several recent attacks on visitors to these tourism-dependent islands.

Associated Press reported that Callan and two friends were taking a shortcut through a Charlotte Amalie housing project to return a tape to a nearby video store last Sunday night when they were jumped by two masked men demanding money, police said.

When Callan, 69, said he had none, the men shot him and fled. Police said the victim’s two friends were not injured.

Callan was a guest at Bluebeard’s Castle, a hotel that sits on a mountaintop overlooking the port city. “We have always instructed our guests not to walk, especially in evenings, off the hill,” a hotel spokesman said last week. “We always advise them to take a taxi.”

Rafael Jackson, assistant director of tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands, said last week “there are no problems of security or safety at the hotels.” However, on March 29, a German tourist was grazed by a bullet while riding in an open tour bus and an Italian traveler was shot to death in downtown Christiansted, St. Croix, during a robbery attempt in December.

Hotel Floats on the Thames

There are many hotels overlooking London’s Thames River, but you can also stay on the famous waterway instead of beside it.

“Le Sans Egal,” (which means “without equal”) is a barge hotel built in 1985 to accommodate eight guests while it floats between Windsor and Oxford.

Six- and three-night cruises are offered aboard Le Sans Egal, which sticks to the Thames, being too large to ply England’s canal system. Prices are $605 per person for a three-night trip and $1,077 for six nights and include all meals, transfers, side trips and British Value Added Tax. The season runs from May 1 through Oct. 16.

Le Sans Egal is represented by Wilson & Lake International in Ashland, Ore. (800) 227-5550.

Deadline for Data in Colorado

The Colorado Tourism Board’s state funding was wiped out by voters last November, which means that if you’re looking for maps and brochures for Rocky Mountain summer pursuits--rafting, fishing, hunting, hiking come to mind--you may be up the river without a guide.

The agency is already out of maps. A run of 350,000 advertiser-funded ’94 planners is coming off the presses now, but they won’t last long. And come June 30, money for the tourism board’s toll-free number runs out. Call (800) COLORADO--soon. Elsewhere around the state, 1994 vacation guides are available for the Grand Junction area (800-962-2547) and the Mesa Verde-Cortez region (800-253- 1616). For the Colorado Dude & Guest Ranch Assn.’s newest brochure, call (303) 724-3653 and for the 1994 edition of “The Colorado Directory--Camping, Cabins, Lodges and Fun Things to Do,” call the Assn. of Campgrounds, Cabins and Lodges, (303) 499-9343 or fax (303) 499-9333).