Travel Tips

My wife and I are planning our next great adventure. When we do this we like to do a lot of research on the locations we want to go. This is what most people do. But, it is not the only type of research you should do.

Another type of research you should do is to make sure you know your rights with the airlines. Most people don't know about the airline 240 rule. Check out "10 Useful Secrets the Major Airline Don't Want You to Know". You'll learn about the 240 rule and much much more.

Something a lot of people don't check, especially when going to a more exotic location, is the HealthMap. This site will let you know if there are any disease outbreaks where you are planing to go. This way you can ensure you have any necessary shots, or maybe you might want to avoid it for now.

As to the common types of research on a trip, our favourite site for researching where we are thinking of staying is TripAdvisor. This is a site that has reviews of hotels, reviews of restaurants, and cheap flights by people that have actually been there. Not only have they been there, but they were probably just there yesterday, or last week. Places can change, and that nice review in the magazine may be several months or a year old. You also have no idea if there was any kick backs on the review. The TripAdvisor reviews are by ordinary people like you and I. But, like all sites like this, you should probably toss out the top and bottom results and see what the consensus is.

Plan Your Route

Easter weekend, my wife and I took a trip down to Washington D.C. We had a great time, but it would have helped tremendously if we planned our route there and back a little better.

On the way home we missed a turn and ended up way off track in New York City. All we could do was head north and hope to reconnect with our route. Fortunately just when it was getting really stressful (we ended up under the train tracks here) we managed to hit a main road that helped us get back on track.

Simply remembering our New York City map would have helped a tonne. In the future I think we'll buy a portable GPS system for our road trips. Something with course corrections would be extremely helpful. Since I'm new to GPS, I'm thinking of getting a simple entry level unit. I've been looking at the TomTom ONE 140-S which has alright reviews at CNET. Simply having something that calls out your turns would be awesome. Plus it'd be nice to have something that I can take out of the car, so I don't have to worry about it getting stolen.

Only thing is, if we get this, my wife loses her job as the navigator and I have to do all the work driving down...

Oh well.

There and Back Again

March 31, 2010
Getting ready to fly back to Calgary. This time I got some magnetic travel games for the kids, namely Checkers and Hangman. They were $5 from Target.

I got some new apps installed on my IPhone for the plane, I have a book and earphones for my IPhone ready in a bag. I got some candy treats also!

I have small bags of stuff to keep with me on the plane so I can grab them from my carryon easily.

April 6, 2010

A look back. Having the small bags worked perfectly, it made things quicker and easier. Things definitely improved over the flight to Houston.