Travel Tips (Monday)

Category Archives for Travel Tips (Monday).

Considering JetBlue’s ‎Etiquette Tips

JetBlue have launched a series of Flight Etiquette tips for passengers. They are in the indomitable Jetblue style quite fun. But which of the miscreants of the air will actually watch them though? Episode one deals with Mr Sprawler. This episode I understand! (Although why the woman trapped in the middle could not move to the window seat, I do not know?) Episode Two deals with needing to go to the lavatory from the window seat. I found that one less useful. It starts with the woman drinking lots of fluids (which every airline recommends)…

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93 Free Travel Tips

One of the things I most enjoy doing is sharing my travel tips for better,  less stressful travel. Over the last four years I have shared almost 100 tips for better travel.  Here are 93 of my travel tips grouped into eight categories: Planning Booking Travel Accommodation & Food Trip Preparation Packing Travelling Travel Problems  In Location Any suggestions or requests welcomed. 1. Planning Stop Wishing and Do it- Life’s Bucket List Greener Travel Tips 20 Top Travel Tools My Essential Travel Apps for 2014 Woofound Explore Where is this? Cool Tool Medical Tourism How far is it from?…

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My Top Travel Tips of 2014

I love sharing things that I find make my travel faster, easier, more enjoyable, safer and cheaper. My ultimate aim is to let my travel serve me not the other way around! In 2014, readers liked the following Travel Tips posts the most: Travel insurance Rocks! The Man in Seat 61 – the best guide to riding trains across the globe -ever Seven Things not to pack – which generated some controversy with heaps of comments! What to do with left over foreign coins? Some very helpful comments here Don’t carry a Money Belt-my other controversial…

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My Essential Travel Apps for 2014

Twenty five years ago, I travelled with paper tickets, travellers cheques/checks and lots of real cash. We organised to meet people by letter and I sent postcards home. Now, a credit card and a smartphone are all I really need to organise my travel world. As I approach the end of the year, I am reflecting on what have been my essential travel tools. These are the ones I could not live without: Kayak and Skyscanner – Nothing beats these two fare and accommodation finding tools for getting the best deals.  Their interfaces give me flexibility…

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Pin Trips

I often search in multiple websites for a fare or series of fares. When I am disciplined, I create a nice spreadsheet in which I enter airline, origin and destination cities, fares etc This seems to take effort and is frustrating. When I am not disciplined I write fares on post it notes which pile up next to me. After a while, I cannot read my scrawls or remember my abbreviations and get frustrated! Enter Pintrips. It only works in Google Chrome though as a free web app extension.  Signing up was easy. Once set…

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Conde Nast Traveller Top 100 places to stay

77 000 readers provided one million votes in the Conde  2014 Readers’ Choice Awards to identify the top 100 places to stay in the world. Reflecting the readership, the top 100 list includes a diverse range properties from across the globe. Is this the time to confess I have not stayed at any of the Top 100? Number one was Londolozi, Sabi Sands,  in the Kruger National Park, South Africa which consists of five lodges located on 35,000 acres of protected bushland populated with wild animals: Rates start at $US1200 per person per night. Condé Nast Traveler magazine was…

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When to use City and Museum passes

The Paris Musee Pass is one of the best kept secrets of the city. At most Museums in Paris, the pass allows me to skip the lines. I most relish, being able to avoid the ghastly long Louvre queue and pop through a mysterious back entrance and into the centre of the gallery. Tres bien! Most cities have some sort of pass that covers the main attractions.  In some cities I will grab one and in others I spurn the option.           Whether I buy a pass or not buy a pass depends on…

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Walking Tours are the best

I am not an organised tour type of person. After being encouraged to do a walking tour by my sister, on my first trip to Berlin, however, I now believe that walking tours are the best way to see a city. I have now done that Berlin walking tour five times now! Walking tours are the best way to be introduced to a city. It allows me to see and feel the city  while learning about its history, architecture and culture while getting exercise! I am not trapped! If you do not like the tour, I can wander…

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I do not carry my passport

Passports are such a crucial tool. It seems crazy to me in this modern world that I still need to show a physical bundle of papers to cross a border (or in the USA fly on a plane domestically). On a visit of mine to Zimbabwe, I met an Irish guy was staying in my hotel. While sitting in Harare‘s Africa Unity square, he had put down next to him, his moneybag. It contained his cash, passport, credit cards, driver’s licence and even a copy of his birth certificate.  After some minutes, he realised that…

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Giving money to beggars

One of the biggest dilemmas in travel is whether to give money to beggars or not. Whether I meet one on the streets of Baltimore, Bangkok, Brisbane, Budapest or Bulawayo, I am faced with a myriad of thoughts and questions. For me, when accosted by a child or a mother and child or a disabled person, I have to work through what my position is afresh.  Other colleagues I travel with have no such qualms. They calmly step over beggars as if they were invisible. On some occasions, I have seen it lead to tension…

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