Wrong Turn on Tours

A [Travel Insider] column by James T. Yenckel (“A Little Friendly Advice Won’t Help If It’s Wrong,” July 21) collected what he considered examples of ill-conceived travel recommendations.

One was to take a city tour in a strange city. Yenckel states that this advice is “hooey--if the tour is one of those half-day bus rides past major tourist attractions, where the driver is cracking awful jokes and spreading misinformation.”

I have taken many city bus tours, the most memorable being Rome, Vienna, Paris, Florence, Salzburg and Oxford.

If there was misinformation spread by these guides, my history books are also spreading this false information. Not one tour that I have taken has been wasteful in time and money. To the contrary, it would have taken much more time and effort to have covered the same ground by public transport, walking or driving.

NORMAN F. BATES

Dana Point