Travel can be some of the most fun and the best memories of a lifetime, but let’s face it, it can also be a hassle sometimes too. Fortunately, there are a few tips that can make your life easier no matter where you’re going.
The first is to purchase trip insurance at the time you purchase your airline tickets and book your lodging. (Even if you’re driving somewhere, you can still get travel insurance.) Travel insurance will cover you in case of illness, a death in your family or natural disasters, and it is well worth its cost for the peace of mind it will give you. What’s more, some policies will even give you extra coverage in case medical issues occur while you’re on vacation. Check to see if yours will at the time you buy it, because you don’t want to be in the middle of an emergency and spend hours on the phone with an insurance company.
Another tip is to look online at websites like Trip Advisor to get opinions about places you want to stay from real people. A guidebook will go only so far in helping you pick a hotel in a city you’re not familiar with. (I once booked a hotel that was highly recommended by a popular budget travel book series, only to arrive there and find it filthy and have to scramble for an alternative place to stay.)
While websites can have some erroneous information from people who bear grudges or people who are employed by the company being reviewed. With comments from dozens of visitors you can read a comprehensive selection of opinions and form your own. For example, if nineteen out of thirty reviews mention that the water pressure in the bathrooms is terrible, you can be fairly sure that’s true, and if that bothers you, cross the hotel off your list.
Another travel tip that many people don’t think of is that if you’re going to a very popular tourist destination, you may want to make meal reservations ahead of time. People who visit Disney World regularly are well aware of this requirement—dinners at Disney book as far as six months ahead, and if you don’t make reservations you’ll be eating at fast food places all week! However, this is also a good policy for major cities with active restaurant cultures, like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.
The good thing is that many restaurants now offer online booking through Open Table, and they sometimes offer discounts if you make reservations this way. This is an easy way to take care of the problem and it can be fun researching the restaurants ahead of time and making plans for your trip. Similarly, if you want to attend cultural events while you’re away, look online at sites like Stub Hub which offer tickets sold by ordinary people rather than scalpers. There are many great bargains to be had this way.
