Posts Tagged ‘Travel Planning’
It sounds like a country-western song, but you need money to make it on the road. Food, lodging, transportation, activities, each require you to pay and pay alike. Unfortunately, to best know how to spend your money practically requires a degree in economics. With fees, limits, percentages and acres of fine print it’s extremely difficult to avoid being nickled and dimed.
Here’s your how-to for avoiding the dreaded “fee fatigue”:
Dream...
The travel consultants currently employed at AirTreks have a vast pool of travel experience. Today we start a new series entitled “Your Agent’s Dream Trip” conceived to bring the readers of this blog planning suggestions and possibly some dreams of their own.
The question was put to the travel consultants, “without having to state your reasons, and if cost was of no importance, what would be your dream around-the-world trip in 10 stops or less.”
Image credit: Ghost of Kuji
Working with travelers over the years helping set up their trips-of-a-lifetime, I’ve managed to pinpoint some of the more problematic issues they subject themselves to before they come to us. Most of the time their research is been spot on and the trip looks wonderful – they have realistic goals and are honest about their expectations. Other times a little work is needed to get a solid, cost-effective itinerary, one that won’t end up driving them crazy in the long run.
In order to avoid itinerary problems before they come to the fore, here are a few of common mistakes people make during their trip planning stages and how to see yourself out of them:
Image credit: mason bryant
Ah, the 21st century. It doesn’t seem possible we made it through the stone ages of the nineties without the online conveniences we currently have. But we did, and now here’s a list of great travel tools for the modern international traveler.
Make your traveling life a little easier and bookmark these 10 essential websites:
A handful of optimists out there are saying the Great Recession is winding down. But for many of the penny-pinching masses life still isn’t all caviar and yachting. Quite the contrary—budgets are still very much in fashion. But since travel never seems to be far off the lifestyle radar, how people 
travel has been angling more toward the new era. To help those who are augmenting their travel funds with ramen-noodle and tap-water dinners, I’ve put together a list of top places where the US dollar will make the most noise, the ones with the highest bang-for-buck quotient.
Generally speaking, your first-world money tends to deliver best results in developing nations, places like Central America, South East Asia and destinations such as Eastern Europe and India, where the local economy must support people who make less money. Of course some will argue that traveling to these places creates an ethical disparity since you may be contributing to the economy only to take advantage of it. I tend to disagree – most of these places are downright stunning. But even with the uneasy philosophical arguments echoing, in terms of traveling experiences, they really can’t be beat.
Image by d'n'c's
In his Jan 14 post, travel blogger Keith Jenkins from Velvet Escape listed a series of “10 Incredible Bridge Walks” around the world. Since I’m an admitted RTW-ophile, I couldn’t help but envision the bridges as a theme trip. These beautiful open-to-pedestrians bridges, when assembled in a series, would make one amazing round the world trip, and not necessarily just for bridge enthusiasts.
For continuity, I took the liberty of adding in a crazy bridge in Singapore that would fill in the South East Asia gap nicely.
So, starting in New York City here is Keith’s bridge-lover’s around the world trip. Check out his original post for lovely pictures of these bridges.
There’s a lot to be said for Number 2. It can even outshine Number 1 simply because it’s passed over by those looking for “the best”. Number 2 is your own private experience, the choice without the noise and chaos that comes from being on top.
Okay, the title of this post may be a little misleading. I certainly don’t mean to say that the common stops should be omitted because they’re popular. The reasons for going there leap out at you in full color from brochures and posters everywhere. But while the Number 1s may have time-tested reasons to visit, those looking for authenticity may end up disappointed. Expectations are tough to live up to when cutting through the masses of other travelers—the mobs and the industry built to accommodate them can taint your experience pretty quickly.
I’ve put together a list of commonly requested cities in RTW itineraries, followed by those you should visit as an alternative (or even an addition).
While these recommendations may be more expensive to have in your itinerary (major cities tend to have least impact on price) the experiences gained by visiting these alternatives can be priceless and should make any added expense completely worthwhile.
India, land of Bollywood, divine curry, divine cows and scents you will never ever forget, no matter how hard you try.
It’s also a huge draw for those that love to broaden themselves with new and unique experiences.
India does however absolutely require a visa to enter its borders. Passport control will send you back to your point of origin to get one (as opposed to giving you one upon arrival) if it doesn’t exist in your passport, creating a hassle and expense that can be easily avoided.
Our recommendation is this: make sure you have an Indian visa before going there.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been hell-bent on compiling lists of webpages and sites to help my readers sort out the dearth of travel info on the “Internets”. I do it because I’m aware of the heart palpitations that random online travel searches can cause. The goal was to reduce their 
frequency and to help you see the trees for the forest. Anyone who’s been planning their around the world adventure probably knows exactly what I’m talking about.
Anyone using the Web to plan a big trip is probably well-acquainted with the onslaught of information there. Sites can range anywhere from expert to asinine to downright sleazy and will quickly emerge in any random web search. For the most part it’s tricky to tell which are road-tested true and which simply unworthy of your time. 
Because the information deluge is rapid and inescapable, I’ve put together a list of good reads that can help. Below is a grab-bag of articles for desktop travelers suffering from clicker’s fatigue. As a follow-up to my Online Minefield post of a couple months ago, here’s another list of 10 helpful and/or interesting reads for people departing, planning, or simply daydreaming about travel over this holiday season.
Forage on, Internet faithful…
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