Seven Travel Resolutions for 2012
1) Travel
Make travel a priority in 2012. Stop waiting until you feel like you can afford it. Stop waiting until you lose that last 10 (20..30…) pounds. There isn’t a better time in your life to travel than right now. You’re not getting any younger and your kids aren’t either.
2) Don’t Cut Corners
Don’t pick a hotel or resort because it’s the cheapest. Work with an agent who really knows the ends and outs of where you want to go. Tell them what is actually important to you along with the budget you’d really like to stay within. Get the travel insurance. Consider nonstop transfers if they’re available in your destination.
3) Use an agent
An agent can make the difference between an uninformed choice and a perfect match.
4) Book Early
Waiting to book your trip is unlikely to make it better or more affordable. If you wait until the last minute it’s like trying to find your wedding dress on a clearance rack. You just have other people’s leftovers to choose from. Also, with travel, the best deals are usually had by booking early. Once in a blue moon there is a great last minute deal. It happens just often enough to keep the urban legend alive. Don’t count on it.
5) Pack Mindfully
Think about what you really need to bring and what you don’t. Find out what is available at your resort so that you don’t duplicate. Think about each item you bring rather than just throwing a few things in a suitcase.
6) Pick Travel Dates Mindfully
People are always asking how to get a good deal with travel. We always tell them, “It’s simple. Just do what others don’t do.” That’s the truth. Travel when others don’t want to (or be prepared to pay the cost and give up the convenience of traveling during peak time).
7) Get to the airport early
Getting to the airport at the last minute, being stressed in the check-in line and the security line and running to the gate are all horrible ways to start your vacation. Get to the airport early and give yourself the gift of a relaxing start to your trip.
What else? Let us know in the comments.
Travel Tips for Europe
Tips for Traveling to Europe
Recently I wrote a handout to give to people for whom we arrange trips to Europe. I thought I’d share it with you here!
As you prepare for your trip to Europe, please allow us to share with you some tips that we’ve learned from prior trips. These are all just suggestions. You might not find each of these items or suggestions useful, and there may be something else that you find to be vital. We’d love to hear your feedback.
Health:
Basic medicines – In a foreign country your familiar brand of cold medicine won’t be available. Even if something similar is available, you may not know it because the label may not be in English.
Travel Insurance - Your health insurance may or may not cover you overseas. Even if it does, you will have to pay out of pocket for anything that happens and hope to be reimbursed (at the out of network rate) upon your return.
Safety / Security:
Make color copies of your passport prior to your departure. Put a set in your suitcase and leave another set with a trusted friend at home. (Having these copies will speed the process of replacing your passport in the event you lose yours.)
European touring doesn’t lend itself to carrying a purse. Instead, bring a daypack or travel bag of some kind. When choosing this bag, keep in mind body mechanics and security. You can find bags that are reinforced with metal cables so that they can’t be quickly cut from your body by a thief on the move. I’ve never had anyone even try to cut a purse off my body..but you never know.
Consider a money belt. Wearing your extra credit card, your big money and your passport in a money belt under your clothes. It will be with you at all times and protected from pick pocketers.
Cost Savings:
You may save some dollars if you bring a water bottle with you and refill it along the way.
Beware when you rent a car. Only take additional coverages if you actually intend to. Car rental counter people tend to rush through the rental process and have been known to trick you into buying coverages that you don’t need. Find out what your own car insurance covers before you leave and make yourself familiar with the laws of the country to which you are traveling.
Get your cash from ATMs rather than “Cambio” booths. (Talk to your bank to find out what they charge for international transactions. Also, warn them and your credit card companies that you’re going to be out of town so they don’t fraud alert your card.
Comfort:
We’ve tried to arrange for perfect weather during your trip, but you might want to pack an umbrella or a rain poncho.
Depending on the type of place you’re staying, don’t count on the little travel sized toiletries that you find at the hotels here. Take a small bottle of shampoo, lotion, etc to make sure you’re covered.
Wash cloths are primarily an American phenomenon. You won’t find them even at very nice hotels in Europe.
Remember sunscreen and sunglasses.
In cool weather, dress in layers. Layers are easier to pack, and easier to take off and put on as your comfort requires.
Pack Ziploc bags of varying sizes. You will find them handy for all sorts of things.
Be sure the shoes you take to wear while touring are nice and broken in. New shoes may cause blisters.
Speaking of blisters, pack a supply of band-aids. We especially like the band-aid brand blister bandages. They are magical when you have a fresh blister and are looking at getting up and doing it all over again tomorrow.
Communication:
Call your cell provider before you go. Find out what your particular situation is with regard to voice calls and data. Add an international data plan if you need / want to. Turn off data roaming if you don’t want to use it.
If you don’t want to use your cell phone at all, http://www.lonelyplanet.ekit.com/ekit/home is a good way to keep in touch with home.
Energy:
Your camera and cell phone will continue to need power (probably more than usual!) while you’re on the road. Look at the power supply and see if it will accept European voltage. If you’re unsure, ask the manufacturer. If it will accept European voltage, you’ll only need an adapter to physically make the cord fit into the power outlet. If it does not, you’ll also need a converter to convert European voltage to US voltage.
Be especially careful with hair appliances. More than one client has burned hair from an overheated hair appliance, even one plugged into a converter. I’m not saying that every hotel room will have a hair dryer, but every hotel room in Europe I’ve ever been with has had a hair dryer. If you absolutely must use a straightener, I would recommend investing in one with dual voltage.
Logistics:
Bring a journal. You’d be amazed out how quickly you can forget the details! Writing down the name of the hotels where you stayed, the restaurants you enjoyed or the name of your gondolier, as well as other details, can help you recollect your trip more completely later. It also helps when you’re documenting your pictures later.
A laminated foldable city map is great to have. Most of them have a map of the subway system as well.
Finally, a small compass (even a small cheap one) can be a lifesaver when navigating around a city where you’re not sure which way is north.
Dealing With After Travel Issues
A big part of my duties include following up on issues that happen during people’s vacations. Most vacations come off without a hitch, but things do happen.
Some issues are unique. For instance today I talked to the mother of a bride where her only complaint about the resort where her daughter’s destination wedding was held that they couldn’t smoke the cigars that the cigar roller rolled because the tobacco leaves weren’t dry. I’ve never heard that before. I’ll probably never hear it again.
Most complaints, though, fit into one of several categories. Here are the most common after travel complaints I deal with.
Didn’t Receive Added Values: A popular sort of promotion is where you get something additional thrown in when you book a room. Maybe a resort credit, maybe a tour, maybe an upgrade to nonstoptransfers. A very regular complaint is that those added values weren’t received. Just today I am working on a $250 resort credit that didn’t materialize.
Didn’t Receive Room as Booked: Another common complaint is that the resort didn’t give them the room that they paid for. For instance, if you paid for a water view and didn’t get it. Or, for instance, that you wanted a king bed and got two doubles. Or vice versa.
Another common complaint that has to do with room assignment has to do with the difference between Oceanview vs Oceanfront rooms. You can read about that here.
Maybe the biggest complaint having to do with rooms concerns upgrades. A very common feature of promotions is a “upgrade – based on availability”. People don’t tend to hear the “based on availability” part. They only hear that they’re getting an upgrade.
Transfer Issues: On packages where transfers are included, sometimes the transfers are the issue. Sometimes customers don’t catch their transfers. Sometimes the transfer operator doesn’t have the passenger on the manifest. Many times, customers don’t appear in the lobby for their return transfer until after the appointed time and the drive has to leave them.
How can you avoid having an after travel issue?
If you’re expecting an added value of any kind, be sure you have documentation reflecting that added value. Be sure to clarify the conditions surrounding any upgrades you’re expecting. Be very clear about the procedure surrounding catching your transfer. (It is probably outlined in your documents. Ask your agent about anything that isn’t clear.)
If you’re on vacation and start to face something unexpected, there are things you can do to make sure you have the best outcome possible.
1) Be nice. Your mother was right. You do catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I like to visualize “velvet over steel”. I want to be very nice, yet very strong.
2) Utilize your resources. If you bought a package from us, you probably have a representative at the hotel. Contact them and ask for help resolving whatever the issue is. Also, many times we are able to resolve issues from here if you call us and tell us what’s going on. It’s much easier to fix something while it’s happening than when it’s ancient history.
3) Keep records. As you’re going through the situation, keep track of the names of who you talk to and any money you spent to rectify the situation. This will also help with resolution.
Lessons Learned in France
Eiffel Tower at Night
We’re back from France. It was an amazing trip, and I’m sure I’ll write about it more in another blog post.. What I want to write about today are the lessons we learned along the way. Before the trip I wrote about the process of packing, and I’ll also write about how that all worked out. Today, though, it’s all about lessons. Maybe some of them can translate to every day life lessons too.
Here they are, in no particular order.
1) Learn the basics of the native language. We didn’t do this. I wish we had. If you learn the niceties of the language as well as a few useful things (perhaps having to do with food and things like the bathroom) people will perceive you less as an intruder and more as a guest. Go ahead, make some flash cards. You can do it.
2) Eat when you can. One day we were in a beautiful small town, but only for three hours. Because we wanted to digest all of our surroundings and record them in photographs, we elected to skip eating in the dining room on board and head straight for town. Our thought was that we would pick up one of the wonderful sandwiches that are at little shops everywhere and maybe a diet coke, and eat them while walking around. Sadly, the three hours we were there were the three hours in the middle of the day that everyone in small town France takes off in the middle of the day to go home and eat with their families. This means that every single thing is closed with the exception of the sit down cafes where you can expect it to take 90 minutes to eat.
Nice tradition, but it sure didn’t fit our schedule that day. We were starving. We did, however, find the worlds most legendary cream puff that day. There was one solitary bakery that was open straight through instead of closing. Probably not very popular with the locals to be open straight through, but were we ever thankful for those cream puffs.
3) Pee when you can. I always made sure I went right before leaving the ship. Even so, sometimes we were caught having to locate acceptable facilities. We usually found them, but even so, it took away from touring time and interuupted the enjoyment of the amazing beauty we were there to see. I will admit it was an interesting cultural experience to stand in line for the potty, pay a Euro and get a receipt indicating that we’d paid to go to the bathroom. It was also fun to put the Euro coin in the other bathroom later in the trip to gain access to the stall. Multicultural lessons abound.
This also leads to a related lesson which is, Have Change for the Bathroom.
4) Be aware of national holidays. The day we took the train from Paris to Arles (pronounced “Ar-La”) was All Saints Day. This meant that the tourist information desk at the train station was closed which meant we couldn’t ask about how to get from the train station to the ship. This also meant that everything was closed. When I say every thing I mean every.single.thing. Even the supermarkets and the pharmacies. Fortunately for us on this trip we overnighted in Arles so we got to fully enjoy the town the next day.
5) Be careful of standing in the street. We primarily visited small towns where the roads were so narrow that to most Americans it looks more like a pedestrian district than an actually street where automobiles would dare to roam. With fair regularity, cars would come by and the drivers would be quite frustrated that the tourists were standing in the street. This isn’t a problem in a major city. I don’t think anyone would make a mistake in thinking a Paris street was anything but a busy major metropolitan throughfare.
6) A photo will look better back at the hotel than it does while you’re standing in front of the actual object. My traveling companion and I both have intimidating cameras with which we digest our surroundings. (She is a much much more skilled photographer than I am. I just have the big camera and try hard.) One thing I noticed is that I would be standing in near this impossibly beautiful thing and would take the best picture I could frame up. I would look at the screen on the back of the camera at the picture I’d taken and see a poor represenation of the magnificience before which I was standing. Many times I hit the delete key on the camera. (Thank goodness for digital photography.)
Then I noticed that when I got back to the hotel and uploaded the pictures to my iPad with a bigger screen, and I was away from the actual object of the picture, I was much more impressed with the picture. So, save those pictures and delete them later while looking at a bigger screen. (Now this doesn’t apply if it’s clearly a picture of the back of the person who stepped into your shot, or if it’s blurry, or something obvious like that.)
7) Remember rush hour. Even though you are on vacation, there are many people around you who are simply moving through their normal lives. People around you are going to work, getting groceries for their familes and trying to survive.
At the end of our trip we had to get clear through Paris on the RER train and it happened to be at 5:30pm. We endured a crush of people surrounding us on the train for the two hour journey. Between really popular stops I had to close my eyes, breathe, and try not to have a panic attack. (I don’t have panic attacks, but I was seriously considering an exception.) If I’d been thinking, I would have stowed our luggage and had dinner in Paris and had a much more enjoyable trip later in the evening.
Remember electricity. I always travel with a power strip. This keeps me from having to crawl around a night stand to switch out my cell phone charger to my iPad charger, to my laptop cord. I have plenty of accessible places in which to plug things. My favorite purchase on this trip was a European power strip. I plugged it in and stuck my US adapters in the slots. This essentially gave me my normal power strip (at least for those things that didn’t need a converter – refer to my blog post about Electricity while traveling for more details.)
What lessons did you learn last time you took a trip? Share them in the comments.
Reducing Baggage Charges – Hotel Laundry
My family and I were in Mexico last week on family vacation. We spent a total of $160.00 on baggage charges. Believe me when I tell you that I searched my mind for ways to reduce that amount.
One of the things I considered was packing less things and having things washed mid way through the trip. I had already checked to see if our resort had a washer and dryer for guest use. They did not.
While we were on the trip I pulled out the laundry list located next to the plastic bag hanging on one of the hangers in the closet. As I surveyed the list, I quickly saw that I did the right thing by going ahead and bringing enough clothes not to require laundry.
Here are a few examples of the prices:
T-Shirt: $4.00
Shorts: $5.50
Pants: $7.50
Underwear: $3.00
Dress: $8.50
I believe that these prices are pretty typical of a nice resort.
As you can see, it wouldn’t take very many pieces of clothing to pay for the cost of checking another bag. Now, if the issue isn’t just about expense but rather the convenience of either not checking a bag or lugging around less luggage, then isn’t isn’t purely a mathematical question.
As with many choices in vacation travel….it’s all up to you!
The 8 Most Difficult Things to me About Going on Vacation:
This is not the difficult part.
Not in order of priority:
1. Pet Care: Anyone who knows me knows that I am crazy about my Golden Retriever, Lacy. My care for her includes daily teeth brushing as well as bathing every other day to alleviate skin allergies. She also eats a completely homemade diet. Arranging for her care while I am gone is difficult, to say the least.
2. Child Care: In the early days of being a parent, my mother was a reliable stand in for when my husband and I both needed to be gone on a trip. Since she passed away 7 years ago, though, it has become difficult for the two of us to travel together. For most things these days only one of us will go. If it is important enough that both of us need to be there we have a very nice lady who we hire to come stay with the kids. Each trip requires that I assemble all of the information about the kids schedules and obligations. I also always sign a medical authorization form. Sadly, on our last trip, she had to use that when my son decided to play with my swiss army knife.
3. Laundry: At our house, laundry is an unrelenting tide that requires daily attention in order not to carry me away. When I am gone, even for a few days, I am left dangerously over my head in threat of drowning. It can take a week or so to catch up and get back on top.
4. Remembering to Take Vitamins: I try to be diligent about taking vitamins and various supplements (not to mention a couple of prescription medications). When I am out of my normal routine I almost always miss my doses at least a couple of times.
5. Emails: I keep up on my emails via my iPhone pretty much no matter where I am. Some emails can’t be actioned until I am back at my desk and able to retrieve or research information. So, even though I normally live an “Inbox Zero” lifestyle, on vacation, some emails sit there until I return. That makes me crazy.
6. Voicemail: When I Get Back: My voicemail at work is always a thorn in my side. Even when I am at work, I have to force myself to check my messages and get rid of that annoying red light on my phone. I guess it’s because it’s hard to do something else at the same time I’m listening to voicemail so I have to completely stop everything else I’m doing. I can answer emails while listening to someone on the phone or while sitting on hold, but when checking voicemail I am ONLY checking voicemail. Anyway, voicemail messages from a whole week of being gone can be intimidating.
7. Getting Out of Routine: I am a very goal oriented person. There are a variety of tasks that I engage in every day that help my life move forward in the way I would like it to go. When I am out of town, I am unable to do those things. If I am disconnected for very long, I feel like I am sliding backwards in my life and I don’t like that feeling. As an example, I enter all of our spending in Quicken every morning. I look at budget reports and see where we’re overspending so I can try to get us back on target. (Yeah, right.) Anyway, when I am unable to do that for several days I start to feel out of control. (Uh huh…like I’m in control anyway.)
8. Weekend Activities: Every weekend is an important time of getting ready for the week ahead so that my life doesn’t get out of control. Grocery shopping, cooking for the week, making Lacy’s food, catching up on any laundry, gardening tasks and a million other things fill every weekend. If I am out of town over a weekend and those things slide, our lives get a little messy for a while until I get caught up.
Reading over this list, it seems I have a few control issues to deal with…but there you have it. What are the most difficult things to you about going on vacation? What do you do to overcome the difficulties?
The Curse of the Ocean View Room
Last week it happened again. I got an email from someone in destination who had booked an ocean view room. They were dismayed because they couldn’t see the ocean from their room. It seems logical, doesn’t it? You pay for an ocean view room, you should be able to view the ocean from that room.
Right?
Well, like many things with planning vacations, what is logical isn’t necessarily the case.
The fact is, if a resort sells an ocean view category and an oceanfront category, and you care about seeing the water, book the oceanfront. Some resorts are especially liberal in deeming the ocean view designation to a room.
Is My Flight a Codeshare?
What?!? My ticket says UNITED!
Somewhere, in what I’m sure is a smoky boardroom, some airline executive decided it would be a great idea if two airlines could both sell seats on the same flight. This is called a CODESHARE FLIGHT. This can be quite confusing if your itinerary says you are on “Airline A flight 1234″ and you go to the ticket counter of “Airline A” and they tell you that you’re actually traveling on “Airline B”. All of the sudden you’re running late (because “Airline B” operates from a different terminal completely), you’re confused and you’re upset.
There’s a whole long story about why codeshares exist and why. At the point you’re running breathlessly between terminals though, the long story doesn’t matter. The part that matters to you, and to me, is how to make your flight and get where you’re going.
How can you know in advance if yours is a codeshare flight? How can you tell which counter at which to show up to check in for your flight? Generally, you do need to check in at the counter of the airline who is actually operating the flight.
How do you figure that out?
Well, it is supposed to be on the itinerary. In my experience, it generally does appear on the itinerary but to someone who doesn’t travel often it isn’t obvious why the other airline name is there. I think it should appear in bold letters “THIS FLIGHT IS OPERATED BY CONTINENTAL AIRLINES”. So far no one has asked me to come run an airline though, so that usually doesn’t happen.
As a travel professional I can generally spot a codeshare flight because of the flight number. Usually, but not always, if the flight number is a four digit number starting with a number higher than one. (like…3200 – 4799 for instance) that is a pretty good tip off that that might be a codeshare flight.
A more reliable idea is to, when you call the airline the night before the flight to reconfirm everything (you do call the airline the night before your flight…right?) Just ask. Ask the airline agent, “Is this a codeshare flight?” “At which counter do I need to check in for this flight?”
Have you ever traveled on a codeshare flight? Was it clear at which counter you were to check in? What do you think should be done to make the situation more transparent?
Are You Beach Centric, or Pool Centric?
I am writing this post from the balcony of my oceanfront room at Iberostar Grand Paraiso in the beautiful Riviera Maya, Mexico. I have stayed at this resort two other times but this is the only time I’ve had an oceanfront room. (When traveling as an agent as a guest of the resort, one happily accepts the room one is assigned.)
I have spent many hours on this trip parked out under a palapa on a lounge chair having my hours of leisure reading interrupted by an occasional dip in the Caribbean Sea. The beach butler also intruded from time to time.
As I walk through the resort to find wireless signal to check on the office I have to walk past the main pool. There are many more people at the pool than at the beach. There are also countless more people actually in the pool than there are actually in the ocean. I would wager, however, that almost every person in and around the pool asked about the beach quality when choosing this resort.
Almost 100% of people we talk to ask about the beach itself when choosing a resort. Many of those same people barely spend any time there.
What makes so many more people spend their time at the pool when they’re in a beach destination? I would guess it has to do with proximity to the pool bar, lack of wildlife in the pool, and the fact that walking to and from the pool doesn’t involve getting all sandy. (Which is also ironic because getting ones toes in the sand is one of the thing people fantasize about when anticipating a vacation.)
Part of choosing the right vacation is knowing what kind of vacation you actually want. Are you pool centric or are you beach centric? Which is actually more important to you? Do you know?
If you’re one of the many many people who spend their vacation days at the pool rather than the beach, then stop agonizing over how long the beach is and how soft the sand it. Concentrate on the pool.
Where do you stand on the pool / beach issue? Tell me in the comments.
What People Complain About on Vacation
Many people we work with on vacations don’t complain about anything. The complaints we do get, however, seem to usually be one of the following.
Changing Prices: Prices change. It’s a fact of life. If your friend booked a month ago and you want to book today, you’re probably paying a different price. If you called for a quote a week ago and were just waiting to get your paycheck before you made deposit, the price you were quoted may very well have changed. How to avoid it: Book as early as possible.
Airline Schedule Changes: Sadly, schedule changes are also a fact of life. Charter flights seem subject to more dramatic schedule changes than scheduled carriers. How to avoid it: I’m not sure there is a way to avoid an airline schedule change short of buying or leasing a private jet.
Cancellation Fees: Fortunately, most people don’t cancel, so this isn’t an issue for most people. Depending on how close to your departure date you cancel, the cancellation penalties could be as high as 100%. How to avoid it: Purchase travel insurance (or don’t cancel).
Luggage Fees: Luggage fees are an unfortunate sign of our times. I don’t think they’re going anywhere either. Depending on the airlines and your luggage, fees can add a sunstantial amount to the cost of your trip. How to avoid it: Pack judiciously and be very clear on the baggage policy of the airline in question before booking your trip. One airline might appear cheaper, but once you factor in the luggage fees, it may not be the case.
Assigned Seats on the Plane: Right after you book, your reservation goes to one staff member whose job it is to look at it and figure out what needs to happen with regard to your assigned seats. If it is a land only reservation..easy enough. If the flights are on a carrier where you must go online and pay a fee for the seats, the booking agent is instructed to call and let you know. If it is a charter flight where there are not preassigned seats, that gets closed out too. If it is on a scheduled carrier, we look at the seating chart and assign the best possible seats. If no preassigned seating is available, the booking agent is instructed to let you know and we look at the flight day after day up until the day of the flight to see if we are able to improve your seat situation. Sometimes it just comes down to assigning the seat at the airport on the day of departure. We do our very best, but we don’t have the ability to throw passengers out of a seat. As much as we’d like to, the airline doesn’t give us that right. How to avoid it: Book early.
Room Requests: Frequently people have a request regarding their room assignments. Groups like their rooms to be assigned together. Some people want to be in a certain building or near a certain restaurant or pool. Sometimes people want a higher floor or a specific floor. We do make our room requests directly to the mangement of the hotel. Room requests are, however, requests. Sometimes the hotel is able to fulfill them and sometimes circumstances dictate that they cannot. How to avoid it: Be really clear on the room type you have booked. Know what is confirmed and what is just on request. How to avoid it: Understand the difference between what is confirmed, and what is on request.
Oceanview Rooms: Many resorts offer an oceanview room category as well as an oceanfront or maybe a beachfront room category. In this scenario, oceanview would be less expensive. It also offers the least view of the water. Some resorts are very liberal with how they define which rooms are oceanview. If you can see the slightest sliver of water in the distance while standing on your tippy toes on the balcony..BINGO! it’s an oceanview room. How to avoid it: Be clear what your expectations are for your view. Book accordingly.
Mattress Comfort: Just like Goldilocks, some people find their mattress too hard, some find them too soft. Others find them just right. How to avoid it: Generally speaking, at lower end resorts you’re going to find harder beds. (They last longer and need replacing less frequently.) At higher end resorts you’ll find pillow tops and high thread count sheets.
Knowing what past guests were most likely to complain about might help you know what to do to avoid being similarly unhappy.
