This website, I admit, usually covers travel tips most useful to the single traveler. For those of you traveling as a new family, i.e. with a baby, Maggie Mason has great travel advice on keeping organized while maintaining your sanity.
Air Asia (previously reviewed here) is under fire for poor service—indeed, lack of service—offered to disabled travelers. The low-cost airline offers open-air boarding only, requiring passengers to leave the terminal building and climb up a flight of boarding stairs in order to get to their plane. There are no alternatives for those who are infirm, or, as reported in this newspaper article, those who are disabled:
“Passengers are instead required to walk up a flight of boarding stairs – a daunting task when one is disabled from the waist down,” she said.
Lee said that when booking AirAsia tickets online, a separate icon would appear on the website asking if the ticket purchaser would require “special assistance”.
“If you clicked ‘yes’, then you won’t be able to proceed with your booking.
“That’s when I called AirAsia’s call centre, and was told that they were unable to accept passengers who are completely immobile.
“This is even stipulated in AirAsia’s terms and conditions!” she added.
Budget airlines have their drawbacks, true, but disabled passengers have just as much a right to low-cost travel.
A year ago, I ran through some basic methods of surviving Comic-Con. If you’re heading down to San Diego for Comic-Con this July, Tom Spurgeon’s super-comprehensive list of things to do, places to see, and what to do about money is a definite must-read. The tips are wise, the links are handy, and the sense of humor in his list is wonderfully apropros:
“It’s a gathering of tribes. Strange, nerdy tribes.” (from “Five Things to Tell People On the Airplane”
Knowing that somewhere on the floor is a company that’s lost an intern over the weekend. Just lost them somewhere. (from “Six Small Joys to be Had Late in the Weekend”)
Don’t be shy about asking people who are dressed up in costumes to pose for pictures; the attention is frequently what they’re there for. Plus you may get the honor of addressing a grown man as “Lord Vader.” (from “Four Random Tips On Going To The Show”)
Looking for more ways to earn frequent flyer miles? e-Rewards is a great way to do it — there are no obligations involved, and you don’t have to purchase anything. All you have to do is spend perhaps 5-10 minutes taking surveys. You can choose how many or how few surveys you prefer to take, so whether you’re a junkie who likes going through dozens at a time, or you like moseying at your own pace with just one or two a week, it’s flexible enough to fit your schedule.
With each survey, you earn points that you can accumulate and cash into frequent flyer miles. These miles can be credited to your account at airlines such as Northwest, Continental, American, and Delta. I’ve already earned and cashed in at least 1,500 miles on a leisurely basis. Earning miles without having to endure “partner hotels and rentals”? I’m in!
It looks as if Ryanair will be taking it’s low-cost, no-frills, minimal-enjoyment airlines to the transatlantic skies.
On April 12, CEO Michael O’Leary pledged to launch low-cost shuttle service from the UK to six different Stateside destinations. (Read a press release somewhat relating to the announcement here [and please note the missed space in the headline], or go here for a more in-depth overview.)
Hey, I’m all for low fares. But I must wonder … would it be more comfortable for me to grab a seat on Ryanair’s big puddle-jumping sardine can, or should I just sneak into the baggage hold during my next overseas flight?
Want more information about this topic? Visit Buzzfeed’s page about this news flash. While you’re there, take a look at what article tops the list …
I like to eat. A lot.
I consider myself pretty adept at discovering fabulous, off-the-beaten-track places to indulge my inner foodie when I’m traveling overseas. Few things are more enticing than traipsing through picturesque, ancient cities in a gourmet haze of food-induced coma.
When it comes to domestic eating, however, I’m pretty pathetic. It’s just never seemed enjoyable, finding the islands of must-eat-hereness whenever I travel to a new city. Part of that is because I’m cheap: I ain’t gonna be shelling out twenty bucks for a Let’s Go: Chicago! It’s also because I’m lazy: who really wants to go to the tourism bureau? Those are valuable half-hours when I could be shopping! Or taking a nap!
What I should be doing, as it turns out, is hitting the Zagat Survey. Go their site, pick your location, and you’ll instantly have a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips about restaurants, nightlife hot-spots, hotels, and attractions.
You don’t have to register to view the basic information on the site. But becoming a Registered Member is free, which allows you to rate and review establishments. If you want more detailed information, there are two different types of subscriptions that’ll give you everything you want (and probably more than you will ever need): Restaurant Only and Full Access, both of which offer various perks.
I know I’ll be hitting this site the next time I take a domestic trip (or even the next time I paint the town with my friends). After all, according to this article from Slate online,, the patriarch of the Zagat empire is likened “a favorite uncle of one of your friends from college.” How much more of a commendation can you get than that?
As Lynn noted in her article about when to purchase plane tickets, flight comparison sites have certainly helped today’s travelers find the most affordable rates. Everyone’s familiar with the big hitters—Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity. But there are a large number of other, smaller, lesser-known but just-as-good online companies that offer the same services.
Enter Mobissimo Travel, hailed as the “ultimate travel search engine.” The company, barely four years old, scours 173 travel agencies, travel consolidators, major airlines and low-cost carriers to come up with a long, comprehensive list of rates.
It’s not just for airfare—search the lowest prices for hotels, cars, and activities (just type in “beaches” or “museums”). And, if you’ve a devil-may-care attitude and are willing to go wherever the lowest fare may take you, you can do a broad search for airline fares. And by broad, I mean typing “Europe” in the destination search box.
I’ve not used the site myself, but it was recommended to me by a fellow friend and travelista who’s been planning some international travel. The press section of Mobissimo’s site lists some good PR from reliable sources.
So, take a look. At the very least, it saves you the time of opening six different Internet browsers when you’re next comparing ticket prices.
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Owning pets—or, to be more accurate, their owning me—means that while I’m able to enjoy trips and vacations, I will definitely not be taking off to go around the world anytime soon. That doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through The Lost Girls, however!
The Lost Girls are three fresh young ladies from New York who decided to shuck off their business suits, ditch their nine-to-fives, and spend a year going around the world. They began their journey in January 2006, though now it looks like they might end up taking up more than the intended one year. But hey, one can’t live life to a schedule after all, can one?
I haven’t caught up on all their posts yet—there’s such a lot!—but I do enjoy their Trip Planning links, which are available on the sidebar to the right of their website. Among other things, they explain how they paid for their trips and reveal what they packed. Between you and me, I can’t wait for them to update the section that tells how they gave their employers notice!
Another favorite section is the top 20 reasons they took off and embarked on this adventure. Partly funny, partly thoughtful, this list definitely rules, not least because it reasons that “fending off a drunken pervert in Central Park hardly constitutes as communing with the locals.”
If you’re interested in embarking on your own worldwide sojourn, give the Lost Girls a read. As these fine ladies put it, “Sometimes you have to get lost in order to be found.”
I’ll be going to Malaysia in March, though I honestly hadn’t intended the trip to coincide with the Visit Malaysia 2007 tourism campaign. Let’s just say it’s been interesting keeping up with news reports on the country’s efforts to welcome tourists. Taxi drivers especially are getting the business end of things; one day they’re warned by ministers against scamming or overcharging riders, the next day they’re to be given special courses in order to ably answer any questions posed by new visitors.
There are currently special vacation offers partnering with the campaign, so if you’ve always wanted to visit a tropical country, this is a good time to shop for deals. Fly directly into Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), or, if it aids your wallet any, land in Singapore’s Changi Airport, then cross the Straits of Johor into Malaysia via train. Warning: only do the latter if you’re fairly familiar with the area. Otherwise it is just too much hurdle-jumping, and you really don’t want to start your trip on a stressful note.
In the past, I’d always flown into Singapore, as it was easier for my family to cross the border and pick me up rather than to drive four hours to KLIA (they lived in Johor, the southern-most state of Malaysia). However, now that they’re in the process of moving to the big city, KLIA is where I’ll be landing this time.
In the meantime, there are a lot of preparations to make for this next journey. With all the ongoing upheaval in the travel domain, a lot of tried-and-true advice simply don’t apply anymore. Gone are the days when one can hie off to the other end of the world bearing only carry-on luggage! Not only that, double-checking the TSA’s list of permitted and prohibited items must now become a regular venture, as one never knows when so much as a stick of gum may be thrown out at any minute.
One of my favorite quotes on the subject comes from bestselling author Neil Gaiman, who last year expressed his incredulity at the TSA’s allowing personal lubricant onboard but not toothpaste: “For a moment there, I really planned to drive up to a drug store, buy a 4 oz container of personal lubricant, empty it out, wash it and refill it with toothpaste.”
I know the feeling!
So I’ll keep you abreast of my endeavors, including Travel Tips that have certainly saved my neck. Stay tuned, dear readers. The game’s afoot!