Travel Tips (Monday)

Category Archives for Travel Tips (Monday).

Tips for not spoiling places for others

I suggested last week that it is bad luck to ruin a place for fellow tourists. Here are some tips for avoiding spoiling places you visit. Please share widely and add yours: Build greener travel into your program Follow rules in ancient sites, cities or sacred spaces. The time to assert your freedom from rules is at a nudist beach not at a 500 year old site like Machu Pichu Do not collect or take away biological or geological specimens or man-made artifacts as a souvenir, including rocks, bones, eggs, fossils, and parts or contents of…

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Avoiding damaging the sights/sites

On a visit to Australia‘s Gloucester Tree, two tourists jumped as I barked at them. 350 plus years old and standing at 72 metres tall, this Karris is the second tallest fire lookout tree in the world. Over one million tourists have climbed the tree in Pemberton, Western Australia since 1947. These two tourists had decided that the tree needed their names carved into the tree and were engrossed in the task with a knife when chewed out by me . Furious at this intrusion into one of my favourite spots, I was determined to make…

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Get your Rent a Car Costs down

I was talking to a friend yesterday who paid more to rent a car for three days than I would pay for a week! When I asked him why he had spent so much money, he told me he booked it from the airport counter and he always rented from the same rental company. I have written in detail about car rentals but some tips for saving money: Book in advance Use a comparison website eg Priceline, Vroomvroomvroom or expedia.com.au/Car-Hire‎ Ditch loyalty – other companies have the same cars so I have joined more than one…

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Travelling with Others (without tears)

As a people watcher, I am sometimes morbidly fascinated by what can be very public fights by fellow travellers. You have probably spotted couples not talking for days or having screaming fights in the middle of airports, hotels and train stations. I know friends who have vowed never to travel with each other again. Here are some thoughts on avoiding frustrations with your travel mates: 1. Choose Your Travel Companion(s) Carefully Be aware that if you find someone’s behaviours irritating on a day to day basis, then on a trip any irritation will be magnified…

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Seven things not to pack

After two million+ kilometres (1.4 million miles) of flying, I have developed a list of what not to pack. Not being a fan of checking in a suitcase, I have refined my list again and again. Now, I check a suitcase once every 30 flights. These are invariably flights home to Australia with items bought as holiday gifts!   1. Every Electronic Gizmo I don’t really need a camera, two phones, an ipad, a kindle and a laptop. Travelling with multiple gadgets creates more possibilities to lose or forget things and increases the possibility of target…

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The Man in Seat 61

  As someone who is wild about travel, I love the opportunity I get to ride trains. I have now ridden the rails in four continents from the high speed TGVs to the outback trains of Queensland, Australia! For me, the Bible of train travel is a website called the Man in Seat 61. The site is run by Englishman: Mark Smith and is named after his favourite seat in the first class carriage of the Eurostar. Mark and his seat are pictured below. Mark has three ams for the site and the site performs…

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Where is this? Cool Tool

Where is this?   or this place? Ever seen a picture on the net or uploaded an old pic from your collection and wondered: “Where is this? Website: Where is this? allows people to upload a picture and then gives others the opportunity to suggest where it might be! Its free. The site owners prefer people did not add photos of places if they know where they have been taken: “ This site is not for riddles!” The first location is unknown but the second one is at the University of Bremen in Germany. Know where these ones are?…

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Replacing the Concierge?

  “A hotel employee whose job is to assist guests by booking tours, making theatre and restaurant reservations, etc.” While some people swear by them,  I rarely utilise concierges. If I am going back to the same hotel time after time, then I may build a relationship with the concierge. Over time, they can do my work for me. Stories abound about concierges who can get guests into “that restaurant” or a “seat at the sell out show”.  But I am often only in a place for one or two nights or I visit a city once.…

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Fixing the Tricky Visa issues

Sometimes our business or personal travel takes us to places which are technically at war with each other or have no diplomatic relations e.g. Iran and Israel (see below). This means if you visit one and have visa stamps in your passport, you may not be allowed to visit the other. Or face some very awkwardly questioning. Options: 1. Ask the agent to not stamp your passport Cuba and Israeli immigration agents will hand you a separate piece of paper with the visa stamp which sits in your passport. 2. Find your Dual Nationality Some…

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No Visa? No Entry?

For some people, the first they think of a visa is when they arrive at the airline check in and are asked if they have a visa for their destination. That’s the last place you want to be working that out because in many cases: no visa, no arrival. I was on a bus in South America when one passenger, found to his horror he would need a visa to enter the next country. He protested: I am a US citizen -why do I need a visa? A visa is a document or mark showing…

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