TRAVEL TIPS
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Home > Travel Tips Hints and ideas to make your vacation more pleasant and make your next business trip less stressful. We do not reproduce here all the travel advice you can find elsewhere. Links to other web sites with travel tips are provided. Carry Two Watches Two is enough for most folks, three is enough for the most paranoic.. So long as both/all watches are running and show the same time you can be assured that you are not going to miss something because a watch stopped or was inaccurate. It is very very unlikely for two watches to stop at or about the same time. Your friend's or spouse's watch can be the second watch so long as s/he is not offended by your asking for the time while wearing your own watch. Hotel Room Too Dark? Take the lampshade off. Many lampshades absorb a lot of the light. One other travel tip web site recommends carrying your own 100 to 150 watt lamp (light bulb). There are some disadvantages: 1. If your suitcase is really tightly packed or is treated roughly by baggage handlers, the lamp might be crushed, leaving broken glass all around inside your suitcase. 2. If you forget to take out your lamp and put back the one the hotel provided, the maid might pilfer (or confiscate) it. Also if the smoke detector beeps because of a nearly dead battery I ask the front desk clerk for a new battery. Meanwhile I take a chance on fire safety and throw the old battery away immediately. I cannot stand the periodic beeping which is a form of Chinese water torture. Extra Large Carryon Baggage? "Fly American Airlines, official airline of the Boston Pops." In September and October of 1998 American Airlines prepared a number of radio and TV commercials featuring the Boston Pops orchestra. In one scene the flight attendant was helping one of the musicians strap a cello into a seat. There is a catch. You must buy a ticket for the large object since it must occupy a seat, not the overhead bin.. In one Internet travel forum a reader reported doing just that. One time the flight was overbooked and the airline personnel still insisted that the large carryon (a cello) be removed to the luggage compartment. It was also reported that tickets bought for objects would not earn frequent flyer miles. Now American Airlines has a new reputation to uphold. From now on they are going to have a hard time telling you to check luggage that sits in a seat for which you bought a ticket. Otherwise they could be subjected to false advertising claims. By the way, I suspect that extra insurance to cover checked baggage can be bought for far less than a ticket to fly the object sitting in a seat. Always pack items sturdily and ruggedly as if they will be checked into the baggage hold. Failure to do this has lead to lots of arguments with flight attendants. Musical instruments need to be put in hard cases. These tips are for short vacations. Closing down your summer home for winter requires more complex preparation, descriptions under construction on this web site. Also be careful not to choose the tips that conflict with other plans, for example if someone is going to come and house sit, you of course don't want to turn off the water. o Turn off water heater. Caution: On some gas water heaters you turn the knob all the way to the right to turn it off (unlike a radio or TV). Better yet, turn off the circuit breaker or gas cock. o Turn off wall faucets that feed the washing machine hoses. o If no one is coming to water the lawn, turn off garden hose faucets using the inside shut off valves provided. This prevents vandals from running up your water bill or causing other water related problems. o Unplug appliances except refrigerators and freezers. Also unplug lamps not part of a timer system. But is OK to leave plugged in answering machine, clocks, and devices containing clocks such as VCR's. o If you don't have an answering machine or don't want to leave one running, unplug all telephones. o Turn off garage door opener and lock all garage doors. o Try to give away perishable foods. o You can go to the post office and arrange to have mail held or forwarded. But it is still desirable to have someone check the mailbox for items that persons other than the postman stuffed in. o In winter open cabinet doors under sinks and washbasins, so warmer air in the middle of the room will flow around pipes better. o Send in at least a minimum payment for every bill, especially credit card bills, that have arrived. Some mortgage companies and finance companies treat early payments as principal which does not relieve you of the obligation to send a payment closer to the due date, but they may on request mark your file to take an early payment as a payment. But try to avoid calling anyone to whom you send monthly payments unless they have a toll free number. o Also the usual, stop newspaper and milk deliveries, etc., have someone come and walk around the yard, pick up mail, mow the lawn or plow the driveway, have a few lights operated by timer switches. Optional Advanced Items: o In spring, summer, and fall, turn main water valve almost off. (Don't turn it completely off unless water heater is turned off. Test it by running an upstairs (top floor) faucet for two or three minutes, it should take that long to fill a drinking glass. o In winter, drain plumbing and hot water tank. Do this after all family members have used the bathroom for the last time. (Be absolutely sure water heater fuel or power is turned off before starting this task.) Leave a faucet on the lowest level (such as in a basement laundry sink) open so just in case the main shutoff should be leaky the system won't fill up again. If a friend or relative will visit the house to inspect it, let him know the water is off. o Pour a cupful of undiluted car antifreeze in each toilet and bathtub, half a cupful in each sink drain. If your home has master traps further on down the drain line, pour about a quart of extra antifreeze down one washbasin (not a toilet) to make sure some antifreeze reaches these traps. o If your basement does not reach freezing temperature in winter, take all canned and bottled unrefrigerated foods down to the basement. This prevents freezing if the heating system fails. Non-dry goods will be ruined if they freeze and then thaw. (Swollen cans may spring tiny leaks that admit bacteria even if they aren't burst or leaking out.) You can save freeze burst cans for a little while if you get home before they warm up and you keep them in the 'fridge for a few weeks. o Bring along checks and addresses and toll free information numbers of credit card companies, electric company, etc. so you can pay bills closer to the due dates and keep the money earning interest in your bank account a bit longer. New Airport Bomb Detectors Spoil Your Vacation Pictures! Before reaching the security check in: 1. Take all metal objects, coins, jackknife, etc. out of your pockets and put them into your carry on suitcase. Put camera accessories, empty cameras, flash units, light meters in the suitcase also. 2. Take the film cassettes or spools out of the boxes, plastic cans, and wrappers and put just the bare cassetes and spools in a plastic bag, preferably transparent. The cans can be put in your suitcase, you may as well throw away the boxes except maybe keep one box of each film speed if there are instructions inside. 3. Tape the cameras so they can't be opened accidentally. Carry the loaded camera(s) separately or hang their straps around your neck. 4. At the security checkpoint "empty your pockets" by pulling out the plastic bags with the film and putting these in the basket they provide. Don't pull out your wallet. A long neck strap can come in handy. The security person can examine the camera while the strap is still around your neck. There is no danger of the camera falling on the floor if it is accidentally dropped. After going through security, open the suitcase and take your keys, loose change, etc. and put that back into your pockets. Put the cameras and film back into the suitcase. So the airline officials say the older style X-rays won't damage your film? Well they are both right and wrong. A suitcase passing normally through the older machine (not the newer bomb detector) probably won't get enough X-rays to damage the film. But the operator may stop the conveyor belt to take a closer look and even discuss things with the supervisor. All the while the suitcase sits under the X-rays for ten, twenty times the X-ray dosage. This is certainly going to spoil the film. Don't take out your wallet and put it in the basket they use to hold loose objects. After showing it to the security officer if s/he asks, put it back into your pocket. Want the lowest airfare? Yes you should wait until a sale (fare war). A long time ago, airlines would refund to you the difference if they offered a lower fare for the same trip after you bought your ticket. You did have to go back to the travel agency or ticket counter and ask. Nowadays you are charged a fee for making a change to your super saver reservation and that usually wiped out your savings. Also, they only give gift certificates, not cash refunds. (A few airlines, I don't know which, will give you the benefit of the lower fare without the change penalty if everything else on your trip stays the same.) Renting a Car -- In a nutshell Renting a car is not easy, even the experts get stung. There are too many cases when you arrive at your destination and the car rental agent is unable or unwilling to give you the car for the price and terms you thought you had arranged. Here are some hints. 1. Use a nationwide
well known company. 2. Reserve in advance, preferably
at least a week. 3. Learn the rules and policies before
renting. 3.
Confirm the price for the entire rental. 4. Allow for late
airplane arrival. 5. Use a credit card with collision coverage, if possible. 6.
Don't buy an entire tankful of gas. 7. Inspect the car before leaving the rental lot. 8.
Fill up the gas tank the night before you return the car. 9. Allow time
to get back to the airport and return the car.
Rental Cars - Name Brand Rentals
Rental Cars - Pick up time should allow for delayed flight
Rental Cars - Reserving in advance
Rental Cars - Learn the policies and rules Some companies require you to buy their collision insurance if you don't have collision coverage on your own car back at home. This part of their rules can be complicated, for example apply only to non-US citizens or persons under 25. Some companies do not allow you to drive the car on certain roads, including for example a popular dirt road up to a volcano scenic point in Hawaii. Sometimes you are advised to contact the office of the location where you will be renting. This may be enough hassle for you to select a different company. Rental Cars - Allow time to return to airport
Avoiding Telephone Ripoffs In Hotels Highlights:
Sometimes the hotel surcharge it is a percentage of what the phone company charged you. Sometimes it is a flat fee per call. There is no charge for receiving calls. Some hotels give you the first 20 minutes or so for a flat rate (or free) and add a per minute surcharge after that. Surcharge Methods 1. A flat fee for each time you pick up the phone handset until you hang up. (We won't elaborate on details how calling within the hotel is not charged.) 2. A per minute charge while you are making calls, sometimes including 800/888 toll free calls (Calls within the hotel are free, and the outside call surcharge rate may vary for local versus long distance.) 3. A percentage surcharge of what the phone company charged the hotel when you bill the call to your room. 4. Some hotels' systems block calls to selected numbers notably those of popular competing long distance carriers such as 1-800-CALL-ATT. 5. For the convenience of persons making short voice calls but to combat tying up lines for long periods with personal computers, some hotels offer the first 20 minutes or so at a flat rate or free and add a per minute surcharge for longer calls. Strategies 1. If you go down to the lobby and use the pay phones there, you escape all of the hotel surcharges. (Unless method #4 is in place.) 2. If you use a telephone credit card or prepaid calling card, you escape surcharge method #3. Method #4 may prevent you from doing this. 3. If your calling card or long distance carrier lets you press the pound key to let you make another call without hanging up, you can make several calls and pay only one method #1 surcharge if it applies. You also escape method #3 surcharges but not method #2 surcharges. 4. If your long distance carrier has a "call me and I'll call you right back" option, you can escape almost all of the method #2 and method #3 surcharges and pay just one method #1 surcharge for a batch of calls. However certain hotel phone systems might be technologically unable to route the call coming back to your room. Highlights:
Personal Experiences: The first time I saw a mini-vacation certificate was when I was in college and someone advertised it on a bulletin board.
I went to see what he had to offer and he showed me this cheap looking card with fine print on it. What caught my eye were the words "meals and transportation not included". They made it sound nice, something like: "Since this package does not include meals or transportation, you are free to come and go as you please and enjoy the many and varied restaurants in the area" So I was thinking, what was included? Seems like only a hotel room, and probably from a limited selection of second rate hotels. You had to reserve in advance and put down a deposit, too. I didn't buy it. Also you don't get the three days they advertise. You can't check in before 3 PM and you must check out by 11 AM, giving you just one and two thirds days and two nights. Then a few years later I joined a half price hotel club and they threw in one of those certificates at no extra charge. I never used it. I belong to a frequent flyer club (United Mileage Plus) and when I earned an award, they included a certificate for half off a hotel room for two nights and half off a weekend day car rental. I never used these either. Whenever I wanted to stay where a participating hotel was, there were other hotels nearby whose everyday low rate was less than the participating hotel's rate after 50% discount. Once a convention I was attending was held in one of the participating hotels but that time my desired nights were blacked out. The 50% discount is off the full weekday rate, called the rack rate. Most of the participating hotels offer substantial discounts on weekends without the certificates. The car rental certificate was useless too. If I were to use it, my credit card, which offers collision insurance for rental cars, would not cover that day. So I would have to pay an additional $15.00 for insurance and that was nearly the entire savings the certificate offered. Several years earlier the same airline offered a completely free car rental day with their frequent flyer award. I received and used that certificate where the final cost including collision insurance came out to about half the normal cost of renting the car. I have been to many conventions over the years and each one advertises a special room rate at the hosting hotel. Once I helped plan a convention and I found out that if a banquet is held and enough attendees stay at the hotel, the ballrooms and meeting rooms are provided at no extra charge. If conventioneers get a special room rate, then does that mean the casual vacationing traveler staying at the hotel helps subsidize all this? Carry On Baggage Alert Highlights:
On many flights, passengers are not able to carry on as much baggage as they planned to. Choose a seat behind the wings. People sitting at the back of the plane board first and therefore have more space available for carry on baggage. Don't choose a bulkhead seat. Then you are at least guaranteed space under the next seat for one carry-on. Get to the airport early. If you don't, everybody else will have boarded first and taken up all of the carry on baggage space. You may even lose your seat selection. If you want to board before your row is called, get behind someone who is obviously carrying more baggage than allowed. The gate agent will find it mighty difficult to let him board and refuse your boarding. Consider extra insurance coverage. Arrange for its use and cost before departure. On business trips prior to departure, the manager should specify the precise procedure in case there is no carry on space on the plane and material has to become checked baggage. Arrangements for contingent costs, such as changing to a different flight or staying an extra night, should also be made before departure. If you are not comfortable about the baggage arrangements for your trip, don't take all of it. Let your manager choose what you take. Have the folks at the other end prepare a laptop or other PC and you just bring the diskettes. Government classified material cannot become checked baggage. Courier services are a viable alternative to handle baggage. Contrary to popular belief, custody of a parcel and responsibility for it are separable. Nothing forbids a manager, even if not traveling, from accepting the responsibility, accountability, and liability in absentia for the safe and secure transport of company materials (except government classified materials). Travelers should get this in writing. After you have wheel or brake work done, try to undo all of the wheel lug nuts before leaving the service center. If any are too tight, have the mechanics help you right away. You should be able to undo all of the lug nuts without kicking or jumping hard on the wrench although it is OK to stand on the wrench. I used to find once in awhile, months later the wheel lug nuts are so tight I cannot get them off to change a flat tire. This leads to trip delay and inconvenience at best, or damage to the wheel or injury to a person struggling with the lug wrench. The lug nut can get deformed to the point that a welding torch is needed to get the wheel off. Auto clubs like AAA get a lot of unnecessary service calls because service stations, even those they give their stamp of approval to, put the lug nuts on too tight. When you change a tire yourself, use only your arms, not your feet, to tighten the lug nuts. In fact, if you are a strong person, don't hold the lug wrench at the extreme end when tightening. This leaves more leverage the next time you must take the wheel off. In one of the TV episodes of The Incredible Hulk, David (played by the late Bill Bixby) was injured trying to take off a flat tire and he changed into the hulk and pushed the car down a ravine. A few other web sites with travel tips (Subject to availability and non-obsolescence)
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