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Tags: Free Stuff / Travel Tips / Guidebooks / Women / Travel Books / Retirement Travel / → All Tags
Free Book For Women Travelers Teaches 25 Bandana Tips
Ladies will want to order a free copy of the conveniently purse-sized book 101 Tips for Women Travelers. The tips were compiled by Harriet Lewis, the vice chair of Overseas Adventure Travel, a company that caters to Americans 50 and older. Despite the company's audience, the tips don't target seniors. For that matter, most of the tips aren't even gender-specific.
Disclaimer for the guys: You'll find tons of good suggestions in the book that you can use, but you'll also encounter a few girly tips, like using panty liners to extend the use of your lady drawers and help you feel oh so fresh while you're on the go. But overall, the advice is good for all travelers. For example, fabric softener sheets pull triple duty by making the ripe clothes in your luggage smell good, repelling mosquitoes and warding off bedbugs. Then there are some super-specific recommendations that won't be applicable to most people, like be sure to sit sidesaddle on a camel to avoid getting a urinary tract infection.
Tags: Travel Tips / Bus Travel / Megabus / Boltbus / Greyhound / Lists / → All Tags
The Top Five Tips For Surviving Budget Bus Travel
It's okay to admit that you travel by bus, or even better—by $1 bus specials. The era of cool bus travel has arrived, when it just no longer makes sense to fly between New York and Philadelphia when the bus costs under $20 and usually takes under 2 hours, and it has free WiFi and power outlets. Take that, regional jets!
Not only are there new bus lines springing up every so often, like Megabus, Boltbus, TripperBus, and NeOn Bus, but even Greyhound is getting a makeover with the WiFi and outlet additions on select routes. With stops in 13 states and one Canadian province, Megabus is moving right along as the pioneer of cool bus travel. And with more people opting to take the bus, we feel the need to remind you of the bus code....
After the jump, our Top Five Tips For Surviving Budget Bus Travel
Tags: Travel Tips / Italy Travel / Rome Travel / Venice Travel / Florence Travel / Milan Travel / Sicily Travel / → All Tags
Indispensable Italy Tips: Beware Bread Baskets And Bare Shoulders
Italy's ancient sites are beautiful but not always handicapped-accessible.
If you're heading to Italy soon, we're totally jealous. We can't get enough of its wonderful cities: Bologna, Venice, Rome, Florence—we just want to move there already. Before you go, here are some tips we've gleaned during our own Italy travels:
· Beware of petty crimes. According to the U.S. Department of State, crimes such as pick-pocketing, theft from parked cars and purse snatching are serious problems, especially in large cities. Be on guard at crowded places like Milan's Central Station and the Trevi Fountain. And thieves in Italy often work in groups or pairs to divert your attention.
· Italy isn't handicapped-accessible. Italy's beauty lies in its ancient buildings, but most aren't equipped with wheelchair ramps and elevators. Buses aren't generally wheelchair-accessible, either.
Tags: How To Get Tickets To... / Television Travel / New York City / SNL / Travel Tips / → All Tags
Think Its Impossible to Get SNL Tickets? Think Again
Getting tickets to Saturday Night Live has notoriously been thought to be like getting into Mob; you can't get in without connections and a willingness to do whatever it takes. But that isn't necessarily the case.
Saturday Night Live gives out tickets for the entire season in August via an online lottery, which you just missed. To enter the lotto (try again next August), just send all of your contact information to snltickets@ncbuni.com. You can not select a specific date and can only send one email per household. There are also a few tickets reserved each show for "people in the know", like Guy Fieri and the cast of Gossip Girl. But, just because it's now September and you have yet to be cast in a CW teen soap, doesn't mean you're out of luck, there are still a few stand-by tickets available for each show.
Tags: Tipping / Travel Tips / Conde Nast Traveler / → All Tags
Conde Nast Traveler Teaches Us To Tip Like A Local
We always end up feeling kind of superior when we write up intercultural tipping posts. If there's one thing in the entire breadth and depth of international travel that Americans do more politely than Europeans, it's that we tip instinctively and we tip well.
The inverse also tends to be true. More than once we've had a dinner where a European friend magnanimously insisted on paying the bill, only to dramatically undertip the server. Awkward!
But it's a wide world out there, with subtle customs and complex rules. Tipping practices can vary by country and sometimes even by region. Violating local etiquette can range from the merely de classe to the positively dangerous.
To help you avoid mistakes, Conde Nast Traveler (a relation to the Jaunted/HotelChatter/VegasChatter family) just published a huge guide to global tipping practices. Covering more than 35 major countries across every inhabited continent, it describes in detail who, when, and how much you should be tipping.
Tags: Fees / Airport Telephones / Travel Tips / International Phone Calls / → All Tags
When A Two-Minute Phone Call at The Airport Costs $50
When we got our June credit card statement the other day, we discovered a mysterious charge for about $52. Upon further investigation with the help of the credit card company, we learned that the charge was for a phone call we’d made from a pay phone at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris…in April. Thanks to some wonky phone battery issues, we’d had to use one of those phones that accepts credit cards in order to leave a friend a voicemail that we’d arrived. The call lasted under two minutes, and cost more than a good meal out.
Tags: Rental Cars / Hidden Charges / Fees / Travel Tips / → All Tags
Les 'Hidden Charges' With International Car Rentals
Renting a car in a foreign country can be a wonderful way to see a lot of off-the-beaten path places you could not otherwise reach. It can also be an expensive, dangerous, and fraudulent experience. Chances are it won’t be, but just in case, here are a few extra charges to look out for next time you rent a car abroad.
A Little Insurance Policy
Many credit cards offer rental car insurance that extends to international rentals. Often, this insurance is better than what the rental agencies offer, and covers medical care as well. Educate yourself on your cards’ policies, then choose the best one for coverage of your rental. Just be sure to opt out of the rental agency’s (usually expensive) insurance program or your own will be void. For more about rental insurance and what to do if something goes wrong, check out last month’s article, “What Happens When You And The Rental Car Agency Don’t Speak The Same Language.”
Tags: Road Trips / Las Vegas Travel / Drives / Travel Tips / → All Tags
Pick Your Departure Time Carefully When Driving To and From Vegas
Last week we drove out to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and boy, was it a doozy. While we were happy to save on airfare (weekend tickets to Vegas start at around $150 round-trip; gas was about $75), we just happened to choose the worst times to leave Los Angeles on the way out there and to leave Las Vegas coming home.
We left on Thursday at 4:25pm from Santa Monica which is prime traffic time in L.A. but we couldn't skip out of work any earlier. This was also the day that Michael Jackson died and everyone was flooding the Westside to camp out at the UCLA Medical Center. So try to avoid departing on a day that a major pop icon dies in Los Angeles. For instance, when Britney kicks the can in Malibu, put off your trip for another few hours or possibly a day, if her death was "too soon."
Tags: Seats / Seating / Travel Tips / Delta / Preferred Seating / → All Tags
There's Not Much Of A Selection In Coach Thanks to Those 'Preferred Seats'
Yesterday, we told you about our ordeal trying to get out of a middle seat assignment on a long flight to Paris thanks to Orbitz’s out-of-sync seat maps, but the real culprit is the slew of new coach class “preferred,” “choice,” and “select” seats that are blocked off from assignments until the day before travel.
The airline industry is forecasting losses of about $9 billion by a recent estimate in the New York Times. As a way to squeeze every last penny out of travelers already stretched thin by a la carte (so to speak) meals, fuel surcharges, and additional baggage and airport fees, airlines have started charging for certain coach seats they have labeled as “preferred” to get travelers to think they are somehow worth paying an extra fee to reserve. The question is: are they? The short answer is no.
Tags: Seats / Seating / Booking Sites / Travel Tips / Orbitz / → All Tags
Stuck in the Middle: Booking Engine and Airline Seat Maps Out Of Sync
You’re a savvy traveler, and you know that when trying to book the best deal on a flight, you should check all the aggregator search engines (Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, etc.) before deciding which airline and fare to go with.
The discount you get may be worth it, but we’re here to warn you about one of the perils of booking on a discount sites based on a recent experience we had with Orbitz. We were looking for a flight from Los Angeles to Paris, and we found a great deal on Northwest Airlines. Great route, quick stopovers, and plenty of empty seats to choose from. Or so we thought as we booked the seat through Orbitz and entered our seat selections.
Tags: Passports / Lists / Pickpockets / Crime / Travel Tips / Flickr / Twitter / → All Tags
Jaunted's Top Five Passport Safety Tips
Last week, a friend of ours was pickpocketed in Israel, losing a passport as well as cards and cash. And before that, in April, another one of our friends was pickpocketed outside a bar in Rome. The thief made off with his wallet but fortunately, his passport was back at the hotel.
Aside from an incident of a missing 50 Euro after a visit to the Vatican, we've luckily managed to avoid the serious pickers, but that doesn't mean we're immune. And because nothing is so stressful as having to prove your identity, navigate a foreign city with limited funds, and possibly rebook your flights, we're going to try to save a few souls by presenting our Top 5 Passport Safety Tips.
5. Have paper copies of your passport and travel documents.
Time to prepare: 20 minutes
This is the most basic form of passport backup, something which has doubtless gone on since the invention of copying machines. Before departing, take paper copies of your passport, credit cards (front and back for customer service numbers), and itinerary information with confirmation numbers.
We recommend three copies of your passport and two of the others; leave one of each copy in a same and easily-found spot at home, leave another with your family back at home or at your office, and take the third copy of your passport along with you, but stored in another non-checked bag.
This way, should your passport or credit cards get stolen, you already have a backup passport copy for heading to the consulate and can make a single call home to get all of your credit card information.
Tags: Travel Tips / Jaunted / Shira Lazar / The Early Show / → All Tags
Jaunted Featured on The Early Show
Jaunted's own Shira Lazar was featured on the The Early Show's travel segment this morning. Shira expertly walked Harry Smith through how social media travel is changing travel experiences -- from real time advice to new channels of customer service.
As with most stories involving travel deals these days, Twitter was the first thing Harry and Shira talked about. While Harry was a little skeptical about tweeting for real time travel info, Shira assured him that on a recent trip to Hawaii, local Twitterers came through with excellent advice for things to do and places to go. Same thing goes for tweeting about where to stay. Hotels are on Twitter and are reaching out to folks with hotel discounts.
Shira then ran through three Jaunted-approved travel websites--TripIt.com, Dopplr.com and CouchSurfing.com. Not quite sure we can see Harry Smith hitting up someone's couch in the future but at least he knows that's an option out there.
Go here to see more of Shira Lazar's Travel Videos
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Related Stories:
· The Early Show [CBS]
· Jaunted in Hawaii [Jaunted]
