In the course of some 35 years, obtaining short-term apartment stays in Europe for tens of thousands of Americans, the company known as Untours (888-868-6871; www.untours.com) has amassed a list of trusted, English-speaking, European associates who serve as troubleshooters for Untours' clients. You travel to an Alpine town, or to a major city, and Untours puts you in touch with its local representative, who has the job of rescuing you from all sorts of troublesome situations.

It recently occurred to Untours that these same individuals could be helpful to Americans in advance of their trips to Europe. So it has now created a program known as ``Call the Local Expert'' that enables you, on the eve of your trip, to place a phone call to the appropriate European and put all manners of questions to them about aspects of your forthcoming trip.

For their time over the phone, you pay:

• $20 for 15 minutes

• $35 for half an hour

• $60 for one hour of conversation

The full details are set forth at www.untours.com, which answers every question you may have about the service, and which also claims that Untours pays for the toll charges of the call you make.

Although I initially expressed surprise at that announcement, I have since spoken with Marilee Taussig of Untours, who has confirmed that, yes, Untours pays for it. The call actually is made from Europe (or three U.S. cities) to you. Through an exchange of e-mails you arrange the time when the ``Local European Expert'' will place a call to you. At that time, the local expert uses a low-cost telephone program such as Skype or Vonage to place the call, at no cost to you, and at a cost of only about 2 cents a minute to Untours.

It makes sense, of course, that the expert should be phoning you. Otherwise, that expert could be made the prisoner of a need to handle dozens of calls throughout the day to all the clients of Untours wanting to speak with them. By arranging for the expert to place the calls, the work of doing so can be concentrated in a short period.

For more information about the ``Local Expert'' program designed for travel, either visit www.untours.com, or phone 888-868-6871.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@