It seems like I’m always rummaging in my purse or pockets for change. I have lots of it, but somehow I don’t always seem to have the right amount. And who wants to worry about getting change for your change. Whether it’s fare for a local bus, making a small purchase, or tossing a few coins in a fountain, it’s always good to keep a little change handy when you travel. It will save you from pulling out bills for small purchases, and reduces the chance of losing money or having it stolen. All Things Marked came up with a clever way to make sure you always have the right amount of change. Here then is the magic combination of coins: 3 quarters 1 dime 2 nickels 4 pennies This combination of 10 coins, for a total of 99 cents, […]
Read MoreCategory Archive: Tips
10 Tips to Help You Deal with Airport Security
Most days I really love my job. It’s not glamorous, like you see in the movies, but it provides me a great deal of flexibility, variety, and personal enjoyment while meeting my needs to make a living. While I occasionally have a lousy flight (or trip, or sometimes even a month), the good still overwhelmingly outweighs the bad. That’s part of the reason why a day like today is so difficult. I know that all the passengers on the plane have been through hell ““just to get to the plane. It may not make you feel any better, but we had to go through the same thing. We know what it feels like. The security lines are long, and tempers are short, and patience is in short supply. There are a lot of people who didn’t make their flights today, […]
Read MoreMoney Saving Travel Tips
Everybody wants to save a little money these days. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, and pretty soon it is real money! There are a variety of ways to save money when it comes to traveling. The first thing you need to think about, though, is what you have to give up to save the money. If you’re not giving up anything, it’s an easy to choice. But realistically, to save a couple bucks or two, something’s going to have to give. Maybe it’s just a little expenditure of time; maybe it’s some unneeded luxury; maybe it’s something you don’t want in the first place. All those are easy trade-offs to save some money. Just be careful in a trade-off that involves something that you really want. If you really want to stay at a hotel in a […]
Read MoreHow to Cope With Car Sickness
I’m not really a car trip person. I come to this conclusion honestly: As a child, car trips with my father were a marathon drive session, interrupted by a short time spent doing something, and then the marathon drive continued. I get carsick. I don’t remember getting carsick as a child, but then I always remember having lots of things to do in the car. Books, games, paper and pencil, color books, etc. Riding in the car, watching the world go past, engenders first a headache, which, if quick intervention is not provided, soon spreads to a general feeling of lethargy throughout my entire body. This can be after as short a period of time as 10 minutes, or it can take upwards of an hour or so for the onset. Part of me would really like to embrace the […]
Read MoreConverting Celsius to Fahrenheit
I’ve been traveling in Canada the past couple of weeks, and have had to contend with converting to the metric system. In my zeal to warm up my chilly hotel room, I misjudged the Celsius scale, and turned the room into a (pick one): Sauna Inferno Circle of Hell My ignorance apparently knows no limit in this regard, and if you were listening really carefully, you would have heard me mutter: “What’s wrong with Fahrenheit? Why can’t they just do it the way we do?” Fortunately, common sense returned to my addled brain, and relying, once again, on the kindness of others, I finally was able to recall the little formula for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit: Multiply the Celsius temperature by two, and then add 30. (It’s not exact, but it’s close enough for my purposes.) So, when my temperature […]
Read MoreReasons to Travel with Duct Tape
When I was first hired as a Flight Attendant, our trainers preached about the virtues of duct tape. I was religious about packing a roll of it in my bags. Then, one day I couldn’t find my roll at home, so I raided my travel stash. And duct tape has never made its way back into my travel bags. After some events on my last trip, it’s time to go buy a couple more rolls. Here are some reasons why it might be helpful to have duct tape with you when you travel: General uses: Repair a tear in baggage Shoe or clothing repairs Hold a strap in place (luggage, purse, etc.) By car: Provide a temporary fix for a broken hose Hold a mirror in place Patch tents, netting or camping gear In a hotel room: Secure a door […]
Read MoreCheck Your Hotel Bill
If you have extensive charges to your hotel bill, here is a suggestion to help you quickly review the items to make sure that there are no unauthorized charges: When signing for restaurant and room service charges, the most likely category of items to be mistakenly or fraudulently posted to your account, tip in an amount that will result in your bill adding up to a number consistently ending in the same digit. For example, leave a tip that will result in the total bill adding up to a number ending in six: $30.16, $58.46, $71.96. When you find your hotel bill under your door, you can quickly scan the items for those that do not end in a six. According to Travel Secrets, the odds of an accidental, but legitimate, item on your bill ending in six is 9:1 […]
Read MoreWhy am I Writing About Travel?
I have been a Flight Attendant with a U.S. airline for more years than I care to admit. It makes me feel too old to admit that this is the longest I’ve ever held one job. One of the things that happens when you’ve flown for awhile, is people starting asking you for information about traveling. At first, it’s the passengers on your flight asking about where to stay, for restaurant suggestions, maybe a special shopping place, your favorite places to go, or which sights are really worth seeing. Then, your family and non-airline friends start calling. In the beginning they ask about getting the lowest priced airline ticket, although they soon realize that because flight attendants fly for free, we rarely have a clue about what a ticket actually costs. So then they just start asking what you did on your […]
Read More