Word: intourist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Beating the Queue. The Russia that Intourist offers, according to recent visitors, is long on art, buildings and the accomplishments of the Soviet Union (see color), but short on contact with the people. Still, as Mrs. A. Barnett Blakemore, wife of the dean of the Chicago Theological Seminary, found, "there's hardly a place where you can get more for your travel dollar...
Congresses. Though the Russians themselves silently queue up for Lenin's tomb outside the Kremlin in a permanent line stretching halfway across Red Square, Intourist guides slip foreign tourists in near the front, and waiting time rarely exceeds 20 minutes. Due decorum is advised: one U.S. tourist was asked by the guards to take his hands out of his pockets to show respect...
...Intourist has a near-monopoly on tourist bookings, having contracts with some 80 North American travel agencies. At least a month should be allowed for confirmation of bookings, and the whole trip must be paid for in advance. The deluxe plan of travel is the only way that individuals and couples may go during July and August, and it is a bargain. For $35 a day ($50 for couples) the deluxe tourist receives coupons providing for lodging, meals (breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner), three hours' use of car and driver and Intourist guide-in practice, the guide will work...
...Many words, especially on signs, are really French or English; pecTopaH simply spells "restaurant," Tede^OH spells "telephone." It also helps to memorize about a dozen words or phrases such as "please" (pronounced puzhzal'sta), "thank you" (spaseeba), "now" (saychas), and "then" (patom), for restaurant ordering. The larger Intourist restaurants have menus in four languages including English, and it is a good idea to liberate one-preferably with permission-as soon as possible. Thus armed, the visitor finds it easy to order meals in out-of-the-way restaurants where only Russians...
...provide any), a small short-wave radio for picking up the BBC or Radio Free Europe (the only English-language sources of non-Party-lining news) and an assortment of gifts. Tipping is officially not allowed, and many Russians are insulted by the offer of money. But Intourist guides gratefully accept paperback editions of Hemingway, Faulkner and Salinger, jazz records, makeup, ballpoint pens and chewing...