Letters: ‘Christmas City’ a.k.a. Bethlehem, Pa.; traveling around the world; frequent-flier frustration

A great city for any season

I enjoyed the story about Bethlehem, Pa. [“ ‘ Christmas City’ Filled With Holiday Tradition,” by Karl Zimmermann, Dec. 25]. It’s an amazing place any time, and especially at this time of year.

I live near there and know the Historic Bethlehem area well both at Christmas and at other seasons of the year. The Moravians have a marvelous, continuing tradition.

Donald S. Heintzelman

Zionsville, Pa.

His own trip globetrotting

I howled with glee when I read David Lamb’s Dec. 18 story, “A Gift of the World.” What fun. That was a classy circumnavigation.

I also did a circumnavigation on a professor’s salary, took longer than 23 days, and had some memorable experiences.

On a yearlong sabbatical from my university in 1989, I expanded on a weeklong sailing charter of Tonga into a two-month air circumnavigation, integrating the sailing charter into a study of foreign healthcare systems.

My first stop was Tahiti, then Fiji, then Tonga to begin our charter. Then it was on to the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Next were Tokyo and Taipei, Taiwan, then Singapore. On the last leg, I changed planes in Egypt and went on to the Netherlands. I then took the overnight ferry to England, where I spent a few days in London. I had left LAX in July and reappeared in Los Angeles two months to the day later.

Robert E. Tumelty

Seal Beach

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It’s always a pleasure to find an article by Lamb, whom I’ve admired since reading his book “The Africans,” from the ‘80s. Since then I’ve enjoyed his book on returning to Vietnam, and I still recall his wonderful baseball article in National Geographic.

His article in the Travel section was interesting. While my wife and I have been to every one of the “Gift of the World” places except for Marrakech, Morocco, it was fun reading a remarkable adventure even for him.

I would like to have heard his lectures along the way. And, by the way, I’ve almost finished rereading “The Africans.” I just wish he had the time and inclination to update it!

Bob Fairbanks

Dana Point

The Dec. 25 On the Spot column [“Not Feeling the Reward of Frequent-Flier Miles,” by Catharine Hamm] reminded me of a disappointment with JetBlue with respect to initial fares and points. I’ve been a loyal JetBlue customer from its early days.

In early November, I planned to book a trip for September to visit my sister in New York. I thought I might get a low fare, but I was surprised to see that the ticket would be $309 each way. JetBlue often discounts seats to New York for as low as $129 to $149, so I don’t understand why fares this far in advance are so high, especially in these economic times. Even worse, if I were to use my points, the fare would cost me 56,600 points round trip. I’ve decided to give up my JetBlue American Express card because what’s the point of earning points if you get so little when you redeem them?

Rick Kaye

Long Beach

Tips on navigating European roads

Recent letters about misunderstandings on European roadways prompts me to suggest checking out the two main British motoring organizations (the AA and the RAC). Both have information online available in English about road tolls and other driving laws. Try https://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/index.html and https://www.rac.co.uk/driving-abroad.

Mark Westerdale

Los Angeles