Travel Tips & Tricks
In some recent searches and online reading I have compiled a list of some of the best ideas for traveling without spending as much money as you might think you have to in order to enjoy a trip. So here are the 7 tips I have to offer that I think make a lot of sense (all compiled from various sources):
- You need a Passport! (for US citizens, go to that State Department's passport website and use their online Passport wizard) This tip comes from someone (me) who doesn't even have a Passport yet, and has never been out of the country... AND I'M THE WORSE FOR IT!!! I should have done this long ago, and if you haven't yet either, just do it. Cancun, the Bahamas, Europe, and a myriad other destinations await - and I've never enjoyed any of them, in part because I've been too lazy to get a Passport.
- Subscribe to deal feeds - Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and Priceline.com are your friends. Well, you can at least use them effectively to search for travel deals, tons of information about possible travel destinations, and watch them for the best times of year for deals.Yes, you'll get bombarded with emails by signing up to their "deal feeds", BUT I recommend using Gmail to manage this overload of info because their filtering rules are pretty easy to use, it's easy to use Gmail to automatically tag emails as 'travel', and easy to search your emails from these services from time to time to locate particular flights or vacation packages that you are interested in to get an idea of what prices you can expect to pay.
- Expedia - I don't recommend their iGoogle or RSS feed applications unless you live in one of the 15 largest US cities, because they limit your departure city to just those top 15 cities. Personally, this site looks pretty to begin with, but I quickly have found it to be rather quirky and harder to use than other similar sites.
- Travelocity - Totally annoying in that it doesn't work with Firefox 3.5 with the NoScript addon, even IF you whitelist their site, but they are my wife's favorite site of the three I mentioned. The travelocity gnome is of course freaky cool, and the site is actually quite a bit easier and more functional to use than Expedia.
- Priceline - They allow you to name a price and then get alerted if your price is matched by a merchant. A nice feature, although I've personally not had the chance to use it yet. Still, it's best to stay informed in this information economy, and this site is one great way to do it for travel.
- Book last minute - if the airline doesn't fill all their seats by flight time they will only be losing money by not selling those last few seats for dirt cheap. Take them up on these deals.
- Don't fly round trip - Particularly if you are traveling abroad you can get better deals on one-way tickets often-times, and give yourself more travel destinations during your trip in the process, by doing what is called "open jaw." (fly into one city, and out of another) I picked this tip up from the excellent Rick Steves' travel site, which is a must-visit for anyone who needs travel tips, tricks, and advice, really.
- Consider swapping homes - Seriously, I know it sounds a bit crazy, and it is, which is why I'm totally trying it soon. There are a lot of really excellent homes for "swapping" in Europe (primarily) where you use a site like HomeLink to connect with other families who have homes that they are willing to let you live in for a week or two while they live in yours. You can literally save thousands of dollars on a two week vacation to Europe this way, which obviously increases your opportunities and travel frequency likelihood. I haven't convinced my wife to do this yet, but I think she'll go along with it sooner or later. (Love you, honey!!)
- Minimize jet lag to maximize travel - There are a lot of theories out there, but I think fasting (yes, abstaining from food) for 12-16 hours before a long flight is probably the best bet. I can tell you that when I have eaten less food before flying a long distance east or west, I have been much better off physically and mentally when I landed, than having eaten a big, heavy meal and then flying for hours through time zone changes. And the worst possible idea is skipping sleep entirely before a long plane ride. (Did that once in college on the way back from Seattle, WA to Columbus, OH - I was a WRECK for days afterwords. I also slept for about 12 hours straight when I got home. THAT will mess with your biological clock!)
- Lastly, SeatGuru.com. Yep, it's that simple. This site can save you a ton of annoyance on the airplane by giving you an idea of where the best seats are on a particular aircraft, for a particular airline. Air travel is where you want to absolutely minimize hassle because air travel is 80% of the difficulty of long trips, and yet only accounts for 20% or less of your time traveling! Also, my personal views of US-based airlines: Northwest - pretty good before they got bought out by Delta. Don't know what they're like now, although I've heard their service has gone downhill a little bit. Delta - not the worst, but not too far behind the worst. Their planes have the tightest economy/coach seating I've ever experienced - my shoulders don't even fit, and I'm not a big guy or too fat! Their regional carriers that they contract out to are more enjoyable flights for Pete's sake! Southwest - cattle call seating, which so many people seem to abhor, but who cares about that when you know you're going to be pulling away from the terminal within 20 minutes of your plane arriving?!?!! (I certainly don't care where I sit when I know I'll be in the air longer than I will be sitting on the tarmac.) Besides, their staff is professional and friendly. So yeah, I love flying Southwest. No frills, no fuss. US Airways, Continental, and American Airlines also all suck like Delta, only supposedly worse according to many online review websites and forums, which is why I do my best to avoid flying with them.