The Truth About Press Trips

Yes, we travel writers get FREE trips, stay in luxury hotels, dine on gourmet fare and swim in champagne without ever seeing the tab. But we do all this with a group of strangers whose charming (or alarming) company we are in from morning to night. If the group is congenial, as were the 25 journalists with whom I toured Prague and Southern Moravia, it's party time. Although I have a hunch that the reason we got along so well was that none of us spoke the other's language and they kept us very well lubricated.

The day this photo was taken, we were drinking champagne on an antique trolley in Prague. Once we were totally sloshed, they then put us on a boat in the Charles River and gave us enough Czech beer to launch a thousand frat houses. www.czechtourism.com