Travel Stuff

It's been difficult finding time to get any work done on this blog. We decided to stay home this year and not do any more travel until next year. Apparently it didn't work very well. We're heading to Las Vegas in two weeks for a hair show and a skin care show, then in September we're making about 14 stops in Germany and France and attending Mondial Coiffure in Paris. This is the largest beauty show in France. Then in December we're heading to Florida for a week & a half.

So why can't I not travel? I have no idea. I get an email from a travel site with some amazing special, I get an email or a flyer for some amazing training event and before I know it I'm booking flights to somewhere that I didn't even realize that I MUST travel to.

With that in mind I decided to share a few travel tips that I've learned. #1 United Airlines sucks! We had flights on Continental, which United bought, and everything went down hill from there. We flew to Seattle and when we arrived United didn't even know whether we were going to fly to Denver or Houston for our next flight. We had 16 flights booked between four of us and we didn't make it on one single planned flight. Then, one flight United couldn't even get ice successfully loaded into the plane. ICE!!! So, I'm sat there on the United airplane wondering why United, who can't get ice on one single airplane things that they have so much additional energy, intelligence and experience to run TWO airlines??? I couldn't think of an answer. They don't even run ONE airline well.

So, I've found that booking flights in February and March has been cheaper for me. I've also found that checking flight prices frequently helps find the best fare, and I mean about every couple of days. I've also found that you can save enough money by flying to certain destinations and then continuing on to your real destination. Like if you want to fly to Paris, you can fly to Barcelona, get off the plane, book a hotel for a couple of nights, get back on the plane and fly to Paris. The cost... about the same as simply flying into Paris! If you're interested in flying to Bologna it's cheaper to fly into Venice, spend a couple nights in a hotel and then take a train to Bologna. It's not just cheaper it's a LOT more fun. Milan is another expensive city to fly into to if you get off the plane, but if you transfer planes and fly to another destination and take the train back to Milan you can usually save a bout 25% of the cost of your flight.

Hotels are also interesting. It seems that in almost every city we fly into there is one hotel that really "get's it"! That is, one hotel that has figured everything out, they care about what they do and they do it really, really well. The rest of the hotels are constantly playing catch-up.

There are certain cities that almost everything there is cheap and while you're there you can't figure out why the place isn't swarming with tourists simply because of the great prices! Verona, Dinan, Fougere, Nice all come to mind. The hotels are cheap, the food is cheap, they're fun cities and they're beautiful! I have no idea why these places aren't more popular while places like Bologna, Frankfurt and Lyon are expensive and they're not very fun and the people aren't very nice. Go figure.

I also find that I'm drawn to water. I love staying by a river, the ocean, a lake... I don't really care much which, I just really like looking at water, or at least being near water. I like mountains too.

So, I forgot... I mentioned some travel tips. Tip #1, if you can avoid it, avoid United. They suck. If you think United is bad, try Ryan Air. They're WAY, WAY worse than United. I know, you think I'm kidding but I'm not! When I flew Ryan air I had to get in the ticket line to check in even though I'd had a ticket for months. Then they tell you that you must check your bag. Another line. So you get in the second line and they charge you a REALLY ridiculous price for you bag but when you try to give it to them, they say that they can't take it because you don't have a ticket for your bag and it must be weighed. So, you get into another line to have your bag weighed and to get a ticket. After your bag is weighed and you have your little ticket, when you try and hand your bag to the person who just weighed it, they won't take it. You must turn around and get back into the line where you paid for the bag. I know... sound's like it couldn't possibly be their system, but it IS! Your bag must weight under 22 pounds, but the bag itself weighs between 2 and 5 pounds.

So, what to do? Take your fishing vest, your camera vest... any vest with big bulky pockets. Why? Because even if your wife has a purse... they charge you. If you have a camera... they charge you. If you have a tiny little bag with a sandwich in it... they charge you! NO I'm not kidding! So, stuff your laptop into the big pocket in the back... your camera on the left, your chargers, cables, etc on the right. Sue wore 3 sweaters, 2 skirts, had her socks in one pocket and her underwear in another, etc. We saved about $300 in additional charges just by bringing two fishing vests with us. They tried to rip us off by being creative so we fought back by being creative. It's a battle over OUR money!

Avoid Ryan Air if you can. And Easy Jet... They took off an hour and a half late which means that we missed our train in Venice. When you complain they say that you should talk with a supervisor at the desk in Venice. Very tricky!!! They don't have a desk in Venice, the borrow another airline's desk just long enough to load their passengers and there is NO supervisor there. Avoid Easy Jet.

Taking a train in France... Do NOT buy the travel insurance. IF you did something to miss the train, they won't refund you. If THEY did something to make you miss the train, even if the train breaks down, say... at the foot of the French Alps, they won't refund your money because they won't respond to your emails. Complete waste of money. There are tickets that are not refundable and that you can not change, and there are tickets that you can change, but they don't! Buy your ticket at the window when you're ready to go. I know, there is a line. I know, many of them don't speak English. But, do it the other way like we just did and your ticket from London to Paris for $240 will cost you well over $1,100 by making you buy the same ticket THREE times! You'll see three options to buy tickets online. RailEurope, EuroStar and EuroRailways. They're ALL going to rip you off. Some by having tickets that are 2 or 3 times more than the actual cost of the ticket, or by offering you insurance that they won't honor, or by getting your ticket to you too late to catch the train. Simply walk into the SNCF station and buy your tickets yourself, when you want to take the train. Simple! The trains in Italy are completely simple and cheap and you don't have to mess with any of this.

If you take a flight into London, the security is a complete joke! Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world with a flight landing every 30 seconds. Yes, I'm serious! So how many customs agents should they have on duty? Apparently about 12, but they're all playing grab-ass, drinking coffee or hanging around in the back office leaving only 2, yes TWO customs agents to clear all of the passengers from all of the flights that land every 30 seconds. Do the math. It should take about 10 minutes to clear customs, but they're airport employees, so, maybe about 30 minutes. In London Heathrow it takes about 4 to 5 hours to land, get your bag, clear customs and then get to your train, which will have left about 3 hours before, thus the long train story.

Give yourself 6 hours if you have to do anything with Heathrow Airport! In fact, I've found that just about any business dealing in the UK takes about 5 or 6 times as long as you would think, IF you can find someone to help you in the first place. There are exceptions to this of course, but in most countries, the exception is that there are a few people that don't want to help you. In the UK there are only a few people that DO want to help you.

Hotels in France. Some hotels in France don't put addresses on their web sites, their printed materials or tell you on the phone. They list the highway they're located on. Not much help. We stayed in one hotel near Fontainebleau that we had to find with our GPS by name, not address. When we finally found it we checked in. I asked, what's up with not listing an address but instead using "somewhere on the highway". He answered, "I don't know, maybe it is a 'French Thing' or something". He put us in room 107. I said really? He looked confused. I said I though you'd put us in "a room, somewhere down the hall". I thought it was really funny, but he didn't. So what! After driving around forever looking for the hotel they'd better get used to a little humor at their expense when we finally DO find the hotel!

Hotel rooms. Read the reviews. They say a lot about the room, the hotel, but also about the surrounding areas, good restaurants, etc. Look at other people's travel photos. Check out tripadvisor.com for reviews, but book with hotels.com. When you stay 10 nights you get a free night. Also, they've been really good at fixing things for you when the hotel screws things up.

Flights - farecompare.com is a bood place to look, so is airfarewatchdog.com. The app for farecompare.com will really frustrate you. They send you alerts when the fares you're watching are good, but the fares never exist! They send you an alert for a fare that is only $411 but when you click the book it now button, the fare they found for you is $827 instead of $411. Think I'm kidding? Try it for yourself. The web site works much better. If you fly Alaska Airlines you're going to hear really long commercials announced by the flight attendants for Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit cards. I got suckered into that one time. Then for no reason, other than Bank of America SUCKS, they raised my interest rate to 29.9% with NO late payments, NO over limit charges and NO negative comments in my credit file. I print my own flyers about how nasty Bank of America is now, and carry them with me when I fly Alaska Airlines. When they stand next to your seat and go on and on for HELF AND HOUR handing out applications all around you, your noise-canceling headphones won't block them out, a regular iPad or iPod won't drown them out, nothing works except a "booster". This is a little amplifier that you plug your headphones into and that plugs into your iPod or iPad. That will amplify the music so that it ALMOST drowns out the annoying flight attendants who are prostituting themselves out for Bank of America. Did I mention that Bank of America SUCKS!

Breaking up trips. Sometimes, a lot of the time, it's cheaper to fly from Alaska to another destination with a good priced airfare and then to book a completely separate airfare from that city to your destination. That can save you a lot. Sometimes. Sometimes not, but look at every possible combination and don't just settle for the first thing that pops up.

Bring stuff home. Sometimes you can find items that are in hot demand where you live that are light, small, and fit right in your checked baggage. Don't freak out, but a few well thought out items that you can sell at home can help reduce your total travel costs.

I'll try and write some more later today. See ya.