Watching You
08-09-2008, 15:54
Yes, I know it’s a bit late in the holiday season to be discussing travelling in September, but I though its never to late to share great useful information.
My top seven tips are:
Insurance: always buy adequate travel insurance, insurance ranges in price from £15 - £80 pounds annually, but rather than relying on the basic travel companies policies that cover (sweet FA) its best to buy your own. Insurance are easily available to purchase from airports, Post Office, supermarkets, banks and on-line. Insurance is a must especially if travelling to the US.
Suggest you check WHICH (http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/travel-insurance/index.jsp) for the best policy for where you are travelling available from most libraries or online
Tickets: Never and I stress never buy your airline ticket by cash, always use a credit, not a debit card. The reason is if your airline folds, just think recently of Maxjet, EOS, Silverjet & Zoom, at least you are guaranteed your money back, whereas if you had paid by cash or debit card you will get maybe 1p in the pound, in eighteen months if you are lucky, which on a £470 pound ticket would be £4.70 – not even a fiver but remember all the other creditors are before you. Again Never buy a airline ticket for cash or with debit card!!
Cash: Sell - don’t buy currency, I can never understand why people have to buy foreign currency before leaving the UK when they can purchase it at their destination for a slightly better exchange rate. Most overseas airports now have an ATM and money changers so to obtain a better rate for your hard earned money I would suggest that you wait until you reach your travel destination before buying foreign currency. Unless you are travelling to some remote destination like Ulaanbaatar, in which case some US dollars in your pocket are sufficient. Only once in my travels have I been to a destination where I arrived at 10pm and the ATM network was down, I always carry US dollars as a back up and used them instead as an emergency.
Here is an ATM locator (http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/global/)– also check with your bank which machines you can use your debit card with.
Planning: Always check and plan where you are going, much of this information is already freely available on the net, in libraries and from some countries tourist offices. I am amazed by the numbers of people who do not understand that anything below the southern hemisphere is the reverse of us. Which mean when we have summer then they are having their winter; having just been to Australia in August and previously Brazil in July and both times people travelling from the UK were dressed to expect summer. Please also note that during our summer, if it sill exists, are the worst times to travel to the Caribbean its hurricane season, and parts of Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan) are having typhoon / rain season. The best time to travel to these exotic locations is during our winter.
Travel comfortably: I appreciate that you should always dress to impress but when travelling especially with long haul travel always wear practical clothing. So if your flight is delayed you can doss down comfortable and relax. I can understand why some people dress in suits and ties because they want to show their families they there are doing well here in the UK. However, where possible it’s always best to dress practical.
Telephone- Buy local Phone Sims – when you arrive at your destination take out your UK card and buy a local one instead. It seems the poorer the country the cheaper the telephony services. I have brought cards for £5 that have given me 20 minutes of calls back to the UK, plus all my locals calls and I still had credit on the card when I departed. Ideally use Skype if you take your lap top but definitely not your UK based mobile with international roaming. Local calling cards are also worth buying if you have to make many calls back to the UK. A couple of years ago overseas a colleague with his internationally roaming phone was charged £45- for receiving a call for less than one minute. After this he promptly took out the sim and brought a local one for about £10.
Travel essentials:
A couple of things you should always travel with,
A bottle of water, an essential for travellers
A travel first aid kit
MULTI TOOL (http://www.johnlewis.com/Sport+and+Leisure+/Camping+and+Outdoor+Activity/Camping+and+Outdoor+Activity/Multi-Tools+and+Knives/1652/ProductType.aspx)/Gerber style gadget, the amount of times I have been stuck in hotels where a loose screw, needs tightening you call maintenance and they take three hours to arrive, if they are still on duty. I have used mine to tighten shower heads, remove irritating nails/ screws and once fix the phone socket that were hanging off the wall.
Small pack of washing powder/liquid and suction hook (http://www.twenga.co.uk/dir-Homewares,Household-organisation,Suction-hook) There is always something that needs be washed overnight, without paying $4.60 just to wash a t-shirt, through the hotel; as most hotels over blast the AC. You put anything to dry in the bathroom (where the clothes line is located) and its takes for ever to dry whereas you can hang it on the window in the sunshine and it will dry in an hour.
Multi plug adaptor Your average hotel has but a handful of sockets all used for bed side lights and lamps and what with travelling with a mobile, laptop, MP3 player, Digital Camera, Nintendo DC Lite, Sony PSP and PDA means there is a juggle of what are you going to charge up today. With a multi plug adaptor you only require one socket adaptor and then use your normal 3 pin plugs in this. Where possible buy one with surge protection as some countries suffer from brown-outs (intermittent power cuts)
Anybody else have anything to add here or are there anything that I have missed?
My top seven tips are:
Insurance: always buy adequate travel insurance, insurance ranges in price from £15 - £80 pounds annually, but rather than relying on the basic travel companies policies that cover (sweet FA) its best to buy your own. Insurance are easily available to purchase from airports, Post Office, supermarkets, banks and on-line. Insurance is a must especially if travelling to the US.
Suggest you check WHICH (http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/travel-insurance/index.jsp) for the best policy for where you are travelling available from most libraries or online
Tickets: Never and I stress never buy your airline ticket by cash, always use a credit, not a debit card. The reason is if your airline folds, just think recently of Maxjet, EOS, Silverjet & Zoom, at least you are guaranteed your money back, whereas if you had paid by cash or debit card you will get maybe 1p in the pound, in eighteen months if you are lucky, which on a £470 pound ticket would be £4.70 – not even a fiver but remember all the other creditors are before you. Again Never buy a airline ticket for cash or with debit card!!
Cash: Sell - don’t buy currency, I can never understand why people have to buy foreign currency before leaving the UK when they can purchase it at their destination for a slightly better exchange rate. Most overseas airports now have an ATM and money changers so to obtain a better rate for your hard earned money I would suggest that you wait until you reach your travel destination before buying foreign currency. Unless you are travelling to some remote destination like Ulaanbaatar, in which case some US dollars in your pocket are sufficient. Only once in my travels have I been to a destination where I arrived at 10pm and the ATM network was down, I always carry US dollars as a back up and used them instead as an emergency.
Here is an ATM locator (http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/global/)– also check with your bank which machines you can use your debit card with.
Planning: Always check and plan where you are going, much of this information is already freely available on the net, in libraries and from some countries tourist offices. I am amazed by the numbers of people who do not understand that anything below the southern hemisphere is the reverse of us. Which mean when we have summer then they are having their winter; having just been to Australia in August and previously Brazil in July and both times people travelling from the UK were dressed to expect summer. Please also note that during our summer, if it sill exists, are the worst times to travel to the Caribbean its hurricane season, and parts of Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan) are having typhoon / rain season. The best time to travel to these exotic locations is during our winter.
Travel comfortably: I appreciate that you should always dress to impress but when travelling especially with long haul travel always wear practical clothing. So if your flight is delayed you can doss down comfortable and relax. I can understand why some people dress in suits and ties because they want to show their families they there are doing well here in the UK. However, where possible it’s always best to dress practical.
Telephone- Buy local Phone Sims – when you arrive at your destination take out your UK card and buy a local one instead. It seems the poorer the country the cheaper the telephony services. I have brought cards for £5 that have given me 20 minutes of calls back to the UK, plus all my locals calls and I still had credit on the card when I departed. Ideally use Skype if you take your lap top but definitely not your UK based mobile with international roaming. Local calling cards are also worth buying if you have to make many calls back to the UK. A couple of years ago overseas a colleague with his internationally roaming phone was charged £45- for receiving a call for less than one minute. After this he promptly took out the sim and brought a local one for about £10.
Travel essentials:
A couple of things you should always travel with,
A bottle of water, an essential for travellers
A travel first aid kit
MULTI TOOL (http://www.johnlewis.com/Sport+and+Leisure+/Camping+and+Outdoor+Activity/Camping+and+Outdoor+Activity/Multi-Tools+and+Knives/1652/ProductType.aspx)/Gerber style gadget, the amount of times I have been stuck in hotels where a loose screw, needs tightening you call maintenance and they take three hours to arrive, if they are still on duty. I have used mine to tighten shower heads, remove irritating nails/ screws and once fix the phone socket that were hanging off the wall.
Small pack of washing powder/liquid and suction hook (http://www.twenga.co.uk/dir-Homewares,Household-organisation,Suction-hook) There is always something that needs be washed overnight, without paying $4.60 just to wash a t-shirt, through the hotel; as most hotels over blast the AC. You put anything to dry in the bathroom (where the clothes line is located) and its takes for ever to dry whereas you can hang it on the window in the sunshine and it will dry in an hour.
Multi plug adaptor Your average hotel has but a handful of sockets all used for bed side lights and lamps and what with travelling with a mobile, laptop, MP3 player, Digital Camera, Nintendo DC Lite, Sony PSP and PDA means there is a juggle of what are you going to charge up today. With a multi plug adaptor you only require one socket adaptor and then use your normal 3 pin plugs in this. Where possible buy one with surge protection as some countries suffer from brown-outs (intermittent power cuts)
Anybody else have anything to add here or are there anything that I have missed?