Archive for Tips and Tricks
Budget Travel Highlights: Emergency Contacts and Hotel Sites
Posted by: | CommentsI always enjoy reading my Budget Travel magazine and often find helpful hints and money saving tricks to pass on. February’s magazine is no exception.
In this month’s Reader Tips, Anita from Washington suggests exchanging emergency information with your travel partners. She suggests that everyone in the group enter the full name, date of birth and emergency contacts of every member into their cell phones. A good tip.
There’s also a helpful little article highlighting three hotel comparison sites.
Budget Travel – Smartphone Travel Apps
Posted by: | CommentsMy wife loves her iPhone. I, on the other hand, am a recent convert. I still don’t have one, but I readily admit that her little handheld-super-computer phone did prove useful on a recent travel trip. I am amazed by all the travel-related applications she can download, in most cases free of charge, that come in handy when we travel to a new city.
The Dec/Jan issue of Budget Travel magazine has an interesting article about the next generation of smartphone travel apps that use augmented reality technology (whatever that is) to turn the phone’s camera viewfinder into an interactive travel guide. Check it out at the magazine’s website.
Spread It, Spray It, Spill It – Airline Travel Liquid Rules
Posted by: | CommentsI’m always amazed at the number of people at the airport security line who can’t seem to understand the TSA rule for liquids in their carry-on bags. 3-1-1 seems like a simple way to remember three ounce container, one quart-size bag, one bag per flier. But some folks just don’t get it.
I grinned when I read the following quote in the Saturday edition of The Oklahoman newspaper.
“If you can pour it, pump it, squeeze it, spread it, smear it, spray it or spill it, then it’s a liquid, gel or aerosol,” TSA customer service representative Kim Wagner told The Oklahoman in a Nov. 21 article.
Good advice to keep in mind before you travel to the airport.
Con “Artist” + Cocky Traveler = Embarrassing Lesson
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t fall for travel scams because I’m too smart for that rubbish. When I travel to a foreign city, I don’t need a travel agent or travel guide because I’m a smart guy, a world traveler if you will.
Or so I thought.
My lovely wife and I like cheap travel, so we usually go it alone. When we arrived in Beijing, our first time to travel to Asia, we promptly became super lost looking for the Forbidden City. I, of course, deal with the process of getting lost in a new travel city by getting mad. Thankfully, cooler heads (hers) prevailed and we kinda figured out where we were going and stumbled on down the road.
Soon after, a polite young Asian man on a bicycle asked if we were looking for the Forbidden City. When we replied affirmatively, he generously offered to show us the way. (You can see this coming now, can’t you?) A chatty Cathy, the young man took us down a side street talking all the while about how he was an artist, and wouldn’t you know it, we just happened to be passing right by his studio. Then he invited us in for a look.
Like a sheep to the slaughter, I headed for the door.
My wife, wise to the scheme the entire time, let me get to the middle of the street before she called out that I was being duped. That polite young man was an artist alright – a scam artist. Shaking his head at the one that got away, our young guide headed back to the main road in search of his next mark while I hung my head in shame.
The moral of the story, aw crap, there’s no moral only embarrassment.
Tips for Better Travel Photos
Posted by: | CommentsI’m not much of a photographer (look no further than the photos in other posts for proof), so I’m always on the lookout for tricks to make my travel photos a bit better.
This month’s Travel and Leisure has some simple photo tips that should prove helpful on my next travel trip.
Best of Budget Travel: October 2009
Posted by: | CommentsI always enjoy reading my Budget Travel magazine and perusing the travel deals and travel tips the writers and editors put together each month. I finally sat down with the October 2009 issue of Budget Travel at lunch today and two items caught my eye.
First was a tiny article about a menu decoder that the magazine has posted on its website. I usually don’t have any trouble finding something to eat when I’m traveling but I have on several occasions resorted to pointing at dishes on other tables or simply guessing at what’s on the menu. This decoder should come in handy on my next travel trip.
The second article “Trips Gone Bad” was a helpful tutorial about dealing with damaged or lost luggage, health insurance concerns, canceled flight strategies and the pros and cons of travel insurance.
