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Book Bag
The art of survival and other stories
Two new books offer tips and tales from the wild wide world.
By Don George
[07/14/99]

Out of the Blue
Sex and the thin-walled room
When you spend half your life in hotels, you learn a lot about your neighbors.
By Elliott Neal Hester
[07/13/99]

Vagabonding
Rapids, ruins and the end of the river
In which our correspondent wanders the tranquil streets of Thakaek and weathers a dangerous descent.
By Rolf Potts
[07/10/99]

Wanderlust
The perils of the harem
Beguiled by beauties in negligees, a Peace Corps volunteer stumbles into a romantic misadventure in Marrakech.
By Jeffrey Tayler
[07/09/99]

Vagabonding
In Vientiane, a lull before the storm
Our correspondent enjoys a drowsy detour in the Lao capital before preparing to take over as second mate on the Mik Sip.
By Rolf Potts
[07/09/99]

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By Donald D. Groff

July 15, 1999 | Returning to New York from Paris, we ended up having to pay duty on anything above $400. Somehow I thought the amount you could bring into the country before you paid duty was higher than that. How can we look into this?

Sorry to say, the $400 threshold is standard for purchases made by U.S. residents returning from Europe and, indeed, from most destinations around the world. The limit on duty-free goods rises to $600 if you're returning from various Caribbean and Central American nations, including Antigua, El Salvador, the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Grenada, Nicaragua, Bahamas, Guatemala, Panama, Barbados, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Belize, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat (and that's a lot of souvenir volcanic ash).

There's a $1,200 exemption if you're returning from American Samoa, Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

There also are numerous other twists and turns on the exemption road, including limits on cigarettes and alcohol and exceptions for crafts and gifts.

But better not take my word for it. "Don't rely on advice given by persons outside the Customs Service," says the service's booklet "Know Before You Go." "It may be misleading. You could violate Customs laws and incur costly penalties. Any questions should be directed to the nearest Customs office before you leave or upon entry into the United States."

Or you could visit the Customs Service site, which goes into great detail.

Customs also notes: "If you understate the value of an article you declare, or if you otherwise misrepresent an article in your declaration, you may have to pay a penalty in addition to payment of duty. Under certain circumstances, the article could be seized and retained by Customs if the penalty is not paid."

If only Columba Bush, wife of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, had visited that site before she returned from a Paris shopping spree in June. She declared only $500 in purchases after landing at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. As it was, she ended up paying the Customs Service a $4,100 fine for not declaring $19,000 in clothing and jewelry.

I booked a sale fare to London, and the cheapest motel/hotel I could find was the New Atlantic at 1 Queens Garden. I booked it over the Internet and even though I specified a nonsmoking room, I see no mention of my preference in the receipt I was e-mailed. What can I expect? Should I assume I may or may not end up in a nonsmoking room? I tend to get headaches if I inhale too much cigarette smoke.

That the hotel didn't specify a nonsmoking room on your return receipt may or may not be ominous, but since a nonsmoking room is important to you I suggest you clarify the matter with an e-mail follow-up and consider canceling the reservation if the hotel doesn't respond to your satisfaction.

Many hotels would rather dangle the possibility that you'll get what you want than to flat out tell you they can't guarantee the nonsmoking room. The New Atlantic shows up on several Internet booking engines, and none that I viewed mentioned nonsmoking rooms under the amenities section. That does not bode well, methinks.

In most other countries, public sensitivity to smoking isn't as great as in the United States. International business hotels may be familiar with the concept of no-smoking rooms, but you may find them scarcer at the lower end of the budget scale. Make sure you understand the hotel's cancellation policy; "tourist class" hotels usually will let you cancel without penalty as long as you don't wait until the last minute. The New Atlantic's phone number (dialed from the U.S.) is 011-44-171-262-4471. That would leave you with the task of finding another, similarly priced hotel that can guarantee nonsmoking rooms.

A book with good advice for scrutinizing and selecting budget and moderate hotels is Cheap Sleeps in London by Sandra Gustafson (Chronicle Books, third edition, 1997).

England's crown system for grading hotels is described at the British Tourist Authority site.

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