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Travel: Travel Tips Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring |
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Travel: Travel Tips Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring |
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Travel Page We've started a list of good advice for travelers. Check out our tips before your next trip.
Always, PS
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Part of the pleasure of travel is anticipation. Planning lets you enjoy your vacation before you leave home. And it helps the actual trip go more smoothly.
AIR TRAVEL Travel agents in ethnic communities sometimes know of better deals to their country of origin. Can't hurt to check. If you're online at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, you may be hitting the peak time for airline price wars. Bargains can quickly drop away so set your alarm. PS Exact price change posting time varies between carriers. London is an international bargain center. Score a cheap flight to London and then scout for a low cost fare to your final destination. To score an upgrade, ask the gate agent, "What's the load?" Then volunteer to fill empty first class seating. But dress like you belong there.
BOOKS/GUIDES This section was getting unwieldy so I've divided it into two pages:
HEALTH Find out if your health insurance plan will cover you outside the US. Are there any restrictions? Will your platinum card step in? Call the company for their latest policy on overseas health benefits. You may want to consider a comprehensive travel medical insurance policy. Be sure to read the disclaimers. And get the advice of an insurance agent you trust. Make sure the seal on your bottled water is unbroken. Otherwise you might be drinking local tap water.
HOTELS Management offices are closed on Sundays in many parts of the world. If you're looking for a room on a late Sunday afternoon, you might find a desk clerk who is willing to fill one at a discount. Another Greenburg idea: some high rise hotels are built with booster pumps for greater water pressure. Ask to be on a floor with a booster.
MONEY While it's convenient to change money at home, you'll generally save quite a bit by using an ATM debit card at the airport when you arrive. Credit card withdrawals include more fees and immediate interest charges. Don't forget to check that you have a four-digit PIN before you go and even with ATM charges, you'll come out ahead. I use ATMs in quality hotels. You'll feel much safer pocketing your cash than if you find a machine on the street. Changing money on the street can be dangerous, but also skip exchange kiosks because the rates will be terrible. Take cash and traveler's checks to a bank for a little better deal. Wherever you change cash, be aware that buy and sell rates should be posted. If you end your trip with lots of foreign currency, apply some to your hotel bill - keep out just enough for the fare to the airport and last minute snacks. Check out the currency market at http://www.x-rates.com/. Their charges for purchasing money seem to be very high, but you'll get an idea of the exchange rate there. Make sure you get your change in the correct currency. The old (no value) 500 lira coin is the same size as a €2 coin and could wind up in your pocket if you don't pay attention to the coins you receive from an unscrupulous vendor.
PACKING
"I knew my bag was a few pounds over the limit, so when I lifted it for the agent to tag I pretended it was really light (that always works). The agent never weighed it, and I escaped without a fee." Johnny Jet The old advice is to take half the clothes and twice the money. It stands. Lately, I've been coming across versions of this tip everywhere: pack it all up, absolutely everything you plan to take, and take a bus downtown. Then walk around for a hour and go home to reconsider what's in your suitcase (s). Keep in mind that the the huge, wheeled suitcase you're eyeing in the luggage store may not be such a bargain if you have to haul it up five flights of stairs in some gem of a hotel that doesn't have an elevator. You don't want to put your home address on your luggage tag - it could alert the bad guys that no one is home. Slide in your business card or just write a phone number on a piece of heavy paper. Mark your suitcase with a ribbon or some duct tape so it stands out on the conveyor belt. Our UTD sprayed some paint on the bag he always checks. Clean out your purse. Don't take your library card and the receipts from your last six shopping trips to Paris. And shouldn't you be taking a big purse that doubles as a shopping bag and picnic supply hold all? Don't forget to tuck a roll of toilet tissue into your carryon. It's multi-purpose. When you find a restroom attendant, don't begrudge the tip. These people provide a VERY valuable service and they need the coins you give them. Bottled water is expensive and can be hard to find when you're thirsty. Before I leave home, I buy a six pack of small juice bottles. I drink one and run the empty through the dish washer. This goes into a pocket in my travel purse to be filled at my hotel before I leave each morning. It's lightweight, refillable where local water is drinkable, cheaper and convenient. Just before you close the suitcase that will be checked on baggage, take a picture or two of its contents with the empty memory card on your digital camera. Carry the camera (and other valuables) in your carry on and upload the photo(s) to your home computer. Send that photo, along with copies of your passport, extra passport photos, credit cards and other valuable documents to yourself at an e-mail address you can access from anywhere such as a freebie from Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com. That way you'll not only have easy access to a record of the contents of your suitcase, but can quickly locate backups of any lost document while on the road.
Passport Woes (scroll down to the July 18th entry) The same common sense rules you follow at home should go double in a strange place with different customs and laws. When in doubt, watch the locals. Keep your money on your body - there are all kinds of money belts [article in right column of this page] available. Wear two so your funds are in different locations and your ticket home won't get stolen if your purse does . Don't take expensive jewelry. I lost the beautiful pearl earrings my husband had given me when I set them aside in Rio to try on some newly purchased amethyst earrings. Count the total number of bags your entire party is lugging around. A quick count at reasonable intervals gives you peace of mind. Some cities are infested with gangs of children and/or women with babies who specialize in distracting tourists long enough to pick pockets. If they start to get too close, scream, "Police," and hold on tight to your possessions. Use the strap on your carryon to fasten your bag(s) to luggage racks in trains and to the leg of your chair in restaurants. Don't put anything in your purse you can't afford to lose. Someone slit my mother-in-law's purse on the London underground and removed cash, passports and tickets. If you are robbed, your insurance company will need a police report so contact the local authorities as soon as possible. Order unopened soft drinks on the plane. They make great weapons. You want to meet locals, but be very careful about romantic hookups. Moral laws, disease and robbery are real possibilities to factor into your decisions. Be aware that luggage storage may not be available on the weekends in Europe. We arrived at the train station in Caserta, Italy to see the royal palace. Since we couldn't check our bags - no attendant on Sundays - and we had overpacked, we got to sit in the station and gaze across the road at a sight we couldn't see.
Wallet Safety - more good advice from Jane Marie
TIPPING Look at your restaurant and room service bills to see if a tip has already been added in. Gratuities are a necessary reward for good service, but unless you're legally bound to throw money away so you don't lose an inheritance (I know I saw a movie about this), make sure you're only tipping once per bill. But check local customs on tipping. In some places, double tipping may be the norm!
Travel smart. Travel safe. Have a wonderful time - and tell us all about it. We'll be adding more advice to this article, and we want to use your tips. Send them to: nancy@greenlightwrite.com. |
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