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I discuss these topics later on, but one benefit of frequent and
lengthy travel is that you get better with practice, so the stressful
elements are reduced. But that does not answer the basic question
about travel: why bother? That's something you have to answer for
yourself: maybe general curiosity, specific interests, bragging
rights, or a host of other reasons. In my case it started with
business travel to meetings and conferences where I would add a side
trip to some interesting nearby location. Later, I would actively
seek out conferences in interesting locations and, later still, I
would just go. My goal was to see the finest works of man and nature;
local culture was not a major motivation. However, I have always
returned with more favorable impressions of the countries and people
visited than before I went.
Assuming you have your reasons for going, you next need to decide
how much comfort and familiarity you need. Are you OK traveling for
an extended period with whatever group you have in mind, or solo?
How about in places where you do not understand the language? How
about those where you cannot even read the street signs? Or where
the culture is totally...well, foreign? Do you need Western-style
hotels or food? There's no right or wrong answers, but you do need
to know yourself and your comfort levels.
I discuss these topics later on, but first let's deal with
top-level questions of time and money: when to go, for how long, and
how to afford it.
Equatorial countries have intolerable heat and humidity year-round
and should be visited only if there is something very specific you
want to see or do there.
Long thin counties like Chile and Vietnam can span multiple climate
zones: Saigon is darn hot, so you might prefer to go there in
winter, but then it will be freezing in Hanoi and flooding in Hue.
Large countries such as USA, Canada, Russia, China, Australia pose
similar challenges, both North to South and East to West, and so do
remote destinations such as Pacific Islands: you need to look up
very specific weather data.
In addition to temperature and humidity, you should pay attention,
and avoid, major weather threats such as hurricane, tornado, and
typhoon seasons (summer into October in the Northern Hemisphere),
and monsoons.
And beyond climate there are topics like mosquito/gnat/midge
seasons, flu season, school holidays, and major (i.e., week-long)
national holidays such as Golden Week and Obon (Japan), New Year
(both Western and Chinese), Thanksgiving (USA), Christmas (pretty
much everywhere, not just Christian countries), and religious
holidays and observances such as Ramadan (especially its final day,
Eid). Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day is the big event in
many countries (e.g., Germany, Argentina), and England and some
former colonies also observe the day following (Boxing Day). Note
that Christmas occurs on a different date in some Orthodox
countries, as does Easter. And the Chinese New Year is on a lunar
calendar and moves around between 21 January and 20 February.
Look up the holidays and events for the specific places you are
considering to visit but beware that sites like timeanddate.com are
inaccurate. Also beware of significant sporting and other events
(e.g., Olympics, Soccer World Cup. UK Cup Final, Worlds Fair and
Expos). The most miserable day of travel I ever had was Expo 2005
in Nagoya.
Then there's crowds. Popular places are overrun with tourists
nowadays, to the extent that some locals are putting up "unwelcome"
signs and communities are imposing restrictions and fees. In my
experience, the really massive crowding is at the most famous
places; more obscure, but often no less interesting, destinations
are significantly less impacted. It's also worth going early in the
season, when restaurant and hotel workers are less jaded, and the
big masses have not yet arrived. And avoid places and days when
massive cruise ships visit;
check https://www.cruisetimetables.com/#ports.
Be aware that many countries structure their weeks differently than
you may be used to. For example, Friday is the holy day in Muslim
countries and Saturday in Jewish communities and in Israel. And
Sundays are observed differently (particularly shop openings) in
different countries. Museums are closed on Mondays in many countries,
as are restaurants.
Locations that are significantly displaced from their "natural" time
zones (or are at their edges) may structure their days differently than
normal (e.g., things happen earlier than you might expect in Brisbane
Australia).
And, of course, day lengths are dramatically different at high
latitudes, with "midnight sun" beyond the Arctic and Antarctic
Circles during their midsummmers and total darkness during their
midwinters. Some locations are at much higher latitudes than you
might suppose (e.g., London is further north than Calgary) and this
affects their day length and how you should plan your days.
Daylight Saving/Summer Time is observed on different dates, or not at all, in
different countries and parts thereof (e.g., Arizona does not do
Summer Time but its Native Reservations do). And the time shifts are
reversed between Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Airline schedules
are significantly disrupted during periods when the time shifts are
out of sync.
Beware that crossing the date line (roughly mid Pacific) causes you to
lose (westbound) or gain (eastbound) a day. And some neighboring
islands are on opposite sides of the dateline.
Flying eastbound usually leaves you with two problems: lack of
sleep, and jet lag, and you need to deal with them separately. I
talk about lack of sleep below, under
flying, but the telegram version is to avoid
it: either choose daytime flights or, if it must be overnight,
choose long nonstop flights (more than 10 hours) leaving as
late as possible in a lie-flat business or first class seat (you
cannot get enough sleep on short overnight flights, nor those in
coach). If you are exhausted on arrival and it is earlier than about
4pm local time, then take a nap of no longer than 2 hours. Then go
to bed at your usual time.
I find that melatonin helps a lot with jet lag, and also
over-the-counter sleep aids (antihistamines: diphenhydramine
hydrochloride aka Benadryl). You only need very small doses: more
is not better. Take the melatonin on going to bed, and the sleep
aid if you wake up earlier than say 3am (taking it later will leave
you feeling groggy). During the day, get out in the daylight. If
you take care of yourself, and exercise a bit of discipline, you can
deal with about 3 hours of jet lag per day of recovery.
For short trips, you may be able to keep going every day, but for
long trips I consider it essential to schedule a couple of days
downtime each week or so, where you stay in one place and don't plan
to do much.
The 200 dollars a day would be divided approximately into $100 hotel,
$50 food and drink, and $50 travel and incidentals. Those are
averages so a couple of free hotel nights using points might
compensate for a couple of hotels costing $150 a night and similarly a
few days of free car hire courtesy of Hertz points might liberate
money for train fare.
Of course, I could afford some trips at well over $200 a day and
would do so if there was a good reason: the point is not to set a cap
on travel spending, but to define a threshold below which you do not
need to think about it. Your own circumstances will determine your
budget and you will obviously need to adjust it if you are traveling
as a couple or family.
Now that you know you can afford it, you want to get the best deal for
your trip.
In addition to status, you earn points or frequent flier miles that
can be used for free or discounted flights, cars or rooms, or for
upgrades. Points can usually buy you free award flights on "partner"
airlines as well as their own: for example you can use United (or
other Star Alliance) miles to pay for flights on ANA, and OneWorld
miles for JAL. Beware that some "free" flights etc. have copays,
misleadingly called "fuel surcharges," that can amount to many
hundreds of dollars and negate their value. Some redemptions on
British Airways are like this.
Points from banks own credit cards are "transferable" to dozens of
partners. Quite often, there are "bonuses" (e.g., 30% more miles) for
specific transfers: check Google and the travel blogs such as
www.onemileatatime.com.
And some transfers are instantaneous, while others can take a few
days; again, check the blogs. You can also use bank points instead of
(or in addition to) money on travel web sites associated with those
points. You usually get better value by transferring points, but you
need to research it.
You can score some status just by signing up--the car hire companies
are like this--or by holding a suitable credit card, and you can get a
one-time stash of specific points or miles by signing up for certain
credit cards and meeting some minimum spending requirement (typically
a few thousand dollars over a few months). Otherwise you earn points
or miles by patronizing the airline, hotel, or whatever, and/or by
using the right credit card (there are often multiple points for
specific categories of spending, such as 4x for groceries, which vary
according to the card). Many of the most useful cards come with
(sometimes substantial) annual fees, but also offsets (e.g., $300
travel credit); you need to research whether the benefits are worth it
to you. You can also score points by using the "shopping portal" of
the company (e.g., this one
for American
Airlines) to access online retailers. There's no cost or downside
to this and it can also be a good way to generate activity needed to
keep points from expiring.
Loyalty benefits used to be really significant (e.g., I've flown
across the Atlantic more than 150 times and only a handful of those
were in the back of the plane, thanks to frequent-flier upgrades and
free flights), to the extent that it was worth taking "mileage runs":
flights or hotel stays taken solely to earn points or status.
Nowadays, points are much less valuable and harder to use and the cash
price for benefits such as business class has come down so that it can
be best just to pay for what you want. For example, in 2011 Delta
sold just 14% of its first class seats for cash and the other 86% went
to upgrades and frequent flier tickets. Now it sells 74% of those
seats for cash. Nonetheless, there's nothing lost by participating as
long as your expectations are realistic. Whatever you do, don't hoard
your miles and points for retirement: they'll be devalued to nothing
by the time you are ready to cash in: earn and burn is the motto.
Check out blogs such as
www.onemileatatime.com,
, thepointsguy.com,
and those at
www.boardingarea.com
(don't read just the front pages: use the search function as they each
have thousands of articles).
For credit card bonuses etc. applied to travel, check out
10xTravel.com. Note that all these sites
make their money when people use their links to sign up for credit
cards.
One thing to beware of is that the company's idea of an upgrade may
not correspond to yours: for example, a hotel may upgrade you from an
ordinary room to a suite but I prefer the ordinary room (it's usually
a rational design, whereas a suite can be a less comfortable ad-hoc
arrangement); a car rental company may upgrade you from a decently
engineered small car to a waddling SUV; or a cruise line may upgrade
you from an interior room with a walk-in shower to an ocean view that
has a bath, which I for one cannot use safely.
There are philosophically different ways to use points or miles: one
is to use them opportunistically to save money or increase comfort on
a trip you are taking anyway (e.g., to pay for a hotel, flight, or
car, or an upgrade on these); another is as an enabler (e.g., to get a
one-way long haul business class flight to or from a distant
destination--e.g., a flight home from a one-way cruise--that might
otherwise be out of reach); and another is for "aspirational" trips
where you travel first class on a really good airline (e.g.,
with showers or Dom Perignon Champagne on board), or stay in a really
luxurious hotel, or visit a truly exotic location like the Maldives.
The blogs tend to have a lot of coverage on aspirational trips but
beware that it can take normal people (i.e., not bloggers) a long
while to accumulate enough points and there can be program changes and
devaluations along the way, not to mention pandemics, wars, and
personal circumstances that thwart your aspirational trip before you
can execute it. Furthermore, as I hope this web page explains, it
need not be that difficult or expensive to get to exotic locations
(and I doubt that anyone who has traveled in, say, French Polynesia
would consider the Maldives either exotic or attractive) and, beyond a
certain level of comfort and good service, I don't see the value in
ever more luxurious hotels--I'd rather spend the money on a good
restaurant--or another trip. Hence, I tend to advocate the
opportunistic and enabling usages, but the choice obviously is yours.
You may have to override this advice if you need specialist gear
for, say, mountaineering or scuba diving, but I would still advocate
taking no more than a rollaboard's worth of regular stuff, plus
a dedicated bag or backpack for your special gear.
Packing everything into a rollaboard and backpack requires
practice, and ruthless decision making. Some recommend packing cubes,
but I've not found them useful. I do, however, recommend plastic
compression bags for dirty clothes. And nylon bags that fold to
nothing for organizing stuff when you unpack. Many clothing items do
better rolled up than folded, and be sure to cram things inside your
shoes etc. Wear your heaviest shoes and jacket etc. on the plane and,
if necessary, cram the pockets with heavy or bulky items. You can
take it all out/off once you are seated. Take minimal toothpaste
etc. and buy those supplies after you are arrived and settled. Do
note, however, that hotels in many countries do not supply
washcloths/face flannels, so take one with you if that's important to
you (use a handkerchief if you forget). If you end up traveling
extensively, it's worth spending money on small, lightweight versions
of gear like laptops, cameras, etc.
Hotel laundry services vary greatly in price, from tolerable to
outrageous: read the price list. But if you don't mind doing it
yourself, many hotels have washing machines: they are ubiquitous in
Australian and New Zealand motels, and in Japanese "business hotels"
such as Toyoko Inn, and are often found in Europe and USA at
"long-stay" type hotels. In less wealthy countries, there will
always be some way to get a bag of washing done (and collected and
returned) by someone around the corner: just ask your hotel. And if
all else fails, you can wash the odd item in the sink. The best
practice is to use the hotel hair shampoo as the soap, trample on
the items while you are having your shower, finish off and rinse in
the sink, then roll up in a towel and twist to get the water out.
If you need a warm place to dry them and there is nowhere obvious,
investigate the area at the back of the refrigerator. Don't drape
them over a light fixture: you risk a fire if it's an incandescent
light bulb, and other types do not give off heat.
Cruise ships used to have washing machines but most have been
ripping them out to force you to use their expensive laundry service
(though this can be free if you have status: e.g., 4* and above on
Holland America). On cruises longer than a week, there will
generally be some "all you can fit in the bag" type of laundry deal
that is fairly reasonable, or you can buy unlimited laundry for a
few $$ a day.
I prefer not to check bags on flights and generally carry on my
rollaboard and personal item: it avoids the possibility of them
getting lost, and it makes it easier to organize alternative
arrangements if your flight is delayed or canceled. Plus airlines
now generally charge for checked bags unless you have status or an
expensive ticket. In the USA, another reason why people, including
me, carry so much on to the plane is because it typically takes 30
minutes or more for checked bags to be delivered at the destination
(and they seldom pay attention to "priority" tags). Elsewhere, this
is usually handled much better so checking a bag is slightly less of
a burden.
What counts as a carryon bag differs greatly around the world and
between airlines. In the USA anything that fits in the overhead is
OK (e.g., a fairly fat 22 inch rollaboard) and it doesn't matter
much what it weighs (as long as you can lift it yourself), and your
"personal item" can be a fairly big (soft) backpack as long as you
can cram it under the seat in front of you (that's for takeoff and
landing, it's usually more comfortable to put it under your
legs--but still in your own space--in flight).
Elsewhere, there may be limitations on size and, more
obnoxiously, weight of carryons. The size limits are often shorter
and thinner than you would like, but wider than most US carryons.
So it can be worth looking for "international" carryons that
maximize the width. And it's good to have an expandable top: you
can zip this down tight for flying but otherwise open it for less
cramped space. The weight limits are typically 10 or 15kg. An
empty bag can weigh 4 or 6kg so this is very restrictive and you may
be forced to check it. And of course, some airlines charge for
carryons.
At boarding, if your bag is deemed oversized or overweight, or if the
overheads are already full, you may need to gate-check it. So in case
this happens to you, make sure you have all your documents, money,
meds, and other necessities in the "personal item" that you will still
be able to carry on. I prefer to avoid the risk of having to
gate-check a bag if I'm connecting to another flight (I think it
increases the chance of your bag going missing as it will get a
handwritten tag that lacks the barcode used for routing it to the next
flight), so I study the rules beforehand and preemptively hand my bag
over at check in if I may be unable to carry it on. Some people, on
the other hand, volunteer to gate check their bags as it usually
avoids the fee for checked bags. Low cost airlines often have arcane
rules about carryons (e.g., you may be able to reserve space for them
by paying extra) so, again, you should study up beforehand. My own
experience is that although I seldom send my rollaboard as checked
baggage, it has got lost twice (once on Lufthansa and once on Air
Canada). In both cases it arrived the next day and was delivered to
my hotel, but it was a nerve-wracking hassle.
Regional jets (typically 50 seats or less) tend to have small
overheads, so you leave your carryon at the bottom of the jetway
or in a cart beside the plane, and it travels in the luggage
compartment at the back and is returned to you the same way at the
end of the flight. Very convenient. Some propeller planes are
like this, too. Others, you board at the back and your bag goes
in a luggage area right there. Upstairs on 747s there is usually
a big luggage area by the top of the stairs.
Apple AirTags and the
equivalent for Android (e.g., Tile) can help you track down your
luggage if it does go missing.
It is sometimes useful to travel independently of your luggage. In
some countries this is very easy to arrange, and is safe and cheap:
using Swiss Rail, for example, or the service in Japan known as
Takkyubin
(strictly it is takuhaibin and Takkyubin refers to a specific company,
like tissues and Kleenex). For example, in Japan you can send a
rollaboard anywhere in the country for less than $20 and it will
arrive in 1 or 2 days; meanwhile you can go somewhere else with just
your backpack. There will be counters for Takkyubin at the
airport--look for the logo of a black cat with a kitten in its mouth
(or a pelican for one of the other companies)--and any hotel (or 7-11)
can arrange it and fill in the form in Japanese for you, but you must
have the address of the destination in Japanese (you can usually print
this out, or just display it on your phone, from the hotel's website).
The destination hotel will happily look after your bag if it arrives a
few days before you do and it will be in your room when you get there.
Speaking of which, you can usually stash your bag at your hotel a
few hours (maybe even days with some negotiation) before you check in
or after you've checked out so that you can sightsee unencumbered.
There used to be "left luggage" counters at most airports, bus
stations, and train stations, but these are becoming rare in most
countries, although there may be coin operated lockers. In
Japan, there's an app to find
and book luggage storage. And London has
bag storage and transfer companies such as
bagbudy.com (note just one "d")
and transferbags.com.
Google for similar services elsewhere.
A note on medicines: you should keep medicines and other
essentials like passports and papers in your "personal item." Note
that some countries regard medicines as potential drug paraphernalia
and require you to bring the prescriptions with you, or even to file
forms and seek permission ahead of time
(Japan is like this). And some prescription medicines, and even
over-the-counter drugs, are banned in some countries (e.g.,
pseudoephedrine is banned in Japan and some of the Middle
East--e.g., see this
list of 293 drugs banned in the UAE) and can land you in jail.
Best to research the rules beforehand.
Elsewhere (e.g., Japan), cash may be preferred, especially for
small transactions, and it may be required for ticket machines, so
it's best to have some local cash on hand for those circumstances.
In poorer countries, US dollars and Euros (or Australian dollars in
the South Pacific) may be accepted or even preferred, but it is
gauche to expect it: you should research it. .
You want a credit card that does not impose a fee for foreign
transactions and you may need a "chip and pin" or "tap to pay" card
in some countries (especially for unattended locations like gas
stations). Visa and MasterCard are accepted more widely than
American Express. The credit card companies run a scam called
"dynamic currency conversion" where the vendor offers ("for your
convenience") to bill you in your home currency rather than local.
Always decline: they use an exchange rate that will rip you off: if
you are billed in local currency (the default), the credit card
company uses the much more favorable Interbank rate. In Argentina,
foreign credit cards are now charged at the more favorable "blue
rate" rather than the official rate (a factor of about 2:1), but
you'll need to study the latest details.
For small quantities, it's OK to get cash from a hotel or cruise
ship front desk or an airport currency exchange if that's convenient.
But otherwise, and certainly for any sum over about $50, it's almost
always best to get it from an ATM in the country concerned, provided
your bank does not impose fees for foreign withdrawals. The
exception is when there's a black market, where an "informal"
exchange will be a better deal--but may have other downsides. Some
ATMs (particularly at airports or inside hotels) are run by third
parties, not the banks themselves, and these generally impose fees,
but can be worth it for the convenience and safety.
Do be aware of your surroundings when using an ATM and be careful
about your bags and possessions as well as your card and cash. Use
an ATM inside a bank if you can. Some countries have
protected shopfronts shared by many different banks and ATM
companies. And in some countries (e.g., India) there may be a man
or soldier with or without a gun sitting by the ATM. He's there to
protect you, or at least save you from getting hassled. In some
countries, bad guys have tampered with ATMs to steal your card
details. This was said to be true of all the ATMs in the main
airport of Rio de Janeiro (GIG); again it's best to use an ATM
inside a bank.
If I have foreign cash left over, I just donate it (the airlines
usually have a collection for charity on board) or keep it for the
next trip. But beware that many countries periodically renew their
bills and the old ones become worthless or can only be replaced at a
(sometimes special) bank. I've used old bills for tipping in India:
I offer a new 100 rupee bill or an old 500 one and mostly they
choose the 500.
Foreign cards do not work in most Japanese ATMs: the only
Japanese ATMs where they can be used reliably are those at the
airport, at Post Offices (where the ATMs are often outside, so they
can be used when the Post Office is closed), and in 7-11 stores (but
not other konbinis) which are usually open 24 hours.
In some countries, the limit on withdrawals is very low and your
card may be rejected without explanation for exceeding this amount.
If that happens, try requesting the equivalent of $100. Elsewhere,
the machine will explicitly tell you the limit, but get it wrong.
For example, in Chile the machine will reject a request for 250,000
CLP (the equivalent of about $250) and tell you the limit is 200,000
CLP. So you try 200,000 and it rejects that with the same
explanation. In fact, the true limit is (or was) 150,000.
And in some countries, a modest withdrawal will generate a
mountain of cash so be sure to have some kind of secure bag with you.
Pre-ATM days I once changed $300 at an airport in India and ended up
with a stack of bills about 5 inches high. And in Vietnam, $100 will
produce almost 2.5 million Dong.
Banks would rather leave you penniless in a foreign land than
expose themselves to the smallest risk of a fraudulent ATM
withdrawal or credit card transaction. I think this should be
illegal and they should be required to honor a first transaction in
a new location and later ask you to confirm it on their app. As
well as rejecting the withdrawal or transaction, they may invalidate
your card. Make sure you know how to contact your bank if you get
rejected in these circumstances (often their smartphone app is the
best way). And always carry multiple cards (and stash them in
different places in case of loss or robbery). It's worth having a
few hundred dollars or euros in cash for real emergencies.
Some banks and credit card companies want you to notify them of
foreign travel. In my experience, they pay no attention to this
information and will still randomly reject foreign transactions, so I
never bother. Other companies (e.g., AMEX) explicitly tell
you not to notify them. Some banks have no conception that
there is a world outside the USA and will require you to use
dual-factor authentication via cellphone when you are in a location
where you have no cellphone reception. Forwarding texts and voicemail
to email (e.g., with Google Voice) can be useful for seeing what is
going on in these circumstances.
Begging is an even more contentious topic and I leave that decision
to you. You may prefer to donate to a charity instead of individual
beggars. Note that if you buy, say, a postcard from some kid who
is bothering you, that will not be the end of it. Word will get
around: "this person wants postcards" and you will be swamped.
Hiring a guide will usually keep others from bothering you.
But WiFi will not help when you are in the street, on the road, or
otherwise outdoors and out of range, and want to call your hotel, or
summon a taxi or Uber or its local equivalent. Hence, I consider it
useful to have a smartphone that works on the local phone system.
And if you have cellphone data you can access all the usual web
services and you can also use it for translation of both speech and
written text (via Google Translate) when out and about, and you can
navigate by Google Maps--which also provides public transportation
and timetable information. Note however that if you have downloaded
the relevant map or language data, then Google Maps and Translate
will work at a basic level without a data connection.
Note that much phone information on the Web is outdated. In the
past, your phone might not be compatible with the local phone
system--in Japan, for example--so it was worth renting a phone or a
"mobile Hotspot" that connected to the phone system and provided a
WiFi signal. Alternatively, you could get your
own Solis WiFi Hotspot, although
you need to choose carefully among their plans. Nowadays, however,
pretty much the whole world uses similar phone systems: your phone
might miss some radio bands in some countries, but should work at a
basic level.
Also in the past, it was sometimes worth getting a local SIM card
for your phone, but nowadays there are worldwide services, so this
is seldom necessary. Furthermore, buying SIMs locally is a hassle:
I remember once buying a SIM from a streetcart in India that
involved handing over my passport while a cow licked my shoes and
small boys examined my phone. With a modern phone, you can do the
whole thing electronically using eSIMs (see below). Nowadays, the
only reason for getting a local SIM is if you need a phone
number local to that country.
Connecting to the local cellphone system means you need a modern
smartphone with lots of radio bands, and overseas or worldwide
service. Your home provider may have some reasonable deals for
short-term overseas service, particularly T-Mobile. Beware that you
do need to arrange this ahead of time: see this story of a
$143,000 bill.
If you need a dedicated worldwide service provider, I
wouldn't look any further than
Google Fi (you don't need one of
their phones as long as you have one that is "unlocked"); it's $20 a
month for a single user, plus $10 per Gigabyte (capped at $60),
worldwide. I use it as my primary phone at home. You may
alternatively be able to get a "Worldwide travel SIM" (similar to
Google Fi) in your home country. If you do not use these worldwide
providers as your primary phone, you'll need to swap your primary SIM
for the worldwide one (be careful not to lose your primary one) and
your phone number will change until you swap back. This can be a
hassle so one alternative it to have a separate phone for this
purpose.
However, a better alternative, if you have a modern phone, is to use
eSIMs, which are purely digital (like downloading an app): Google for
"Worldwide eSIM." One possibility for single-country, regional, and
global eSIMs is airalo.com, but I
have no experience with them myself. Often, these eSIMs are for data
only, but you can still make voice calls using VOIP apps. It should
be possible to switch between your primary and worldwide services with
just a click. You'll need to do your own research on costs and
quality; in all cases, make sure the deal allows you to use your phone
as a WiFi Hotspot ("tethering") so you can connect your other devices
(and your companions' devices) to its signal. (Google Fi allows
tethering.)
Note that if you do not have international roaming service on your
phone, incoming calls, even those that go to voicemail, will trigger
full international charges. It's best to turn your phone to
airplane mode for the duration of your trip in these circumstances.
You can turn on WiFi and use that for calls via VOIP tools when in
your hotel, and elsewhere you can do the same over your phone's data
connection if you have a suitable SIM.
Cruise ships offer WiFi that connects to the Internet via
satellites, but the service can be expensive (like $20 a day) and low
bandwidth (although performance is improving as many ships switch over
to StarLink service from SpaceX). Read reviews before signing up. If
you can live without Internet for a few hours or days at a time, then
Google Fi will generally work when you are in port or close to
inhabited land, but it won't help when you are out at sea (which
obviously depends on your itinerary). Apart from the oceans, the only
places I've been where Google Fi did not work are Kiritimati, and
Alaska (it does sometimes work there: it depends on the deal they
currently have with the local provider).
Cruise ships also have cell phone covereage via something called
"Wireless Maritime Services" (WMS). Usially, it is ruinously
expensive to let you phone roam onto this service, so you should put
it in airplane mode when on board. However, there's an eSIM
provider called
GigSky that provides a service
that will give you a data connection over WMS that is often cheaper
than the ship's WiFi, and the same eSIM works on land, too. I have no
personal experience with this.
Some hotels have only wired Ethernet and lack WiFi, so it is worth
having a mini travel router, and even better if this can act as a WiFi
repeater (to extend the range of a weak signal, and to overcome
restrictions on having just one connected device). I have a Hootoo
Tripmate Nano that does all this and is smaller than a box of matches
and cost $19 in 2016. It's useful to have a rechargeable battery pack
to power devices like this when a USB port is out of reach. They come
in many shapes and sizes: those like a
lipstick are very convenient.
I used to travel with a Garmin standalone GPS, but Google maps will
work without an internet connection provided you've downloaded the
local maps beforehand, and it can function as a basic GPS even
without maps. You'll need to install some additional apps if you
want to recover the full functionality of a Garmin GPS, such as
recording your tracklog, and guiding you back along it. Tracklogs
are nice mementos of your trips--like photographs. Beware that in
some parts of the world (e.g., Middle East) Google's maps are not
very accurate, and in others they do not discriminate well between
main roads and minor trails.
If you are traveling in really remote regions, consider something
like a Garmin
inReach that can periodically notify friends and relatives of
your whereabouts (and enable you to exchange text messages with
them), and can summon help, anywhere on Earth, using Iridium
satellites (you need a subscription in addition to the device).
Note that iPhone 14 and later can do this also, and T-Mobile plans
to provide a similar service with ordinary phones via Starlink
satellites.
Apple AirTags and the
equivalent for Android (e.g., Tile) can provide something similar
for your luggage (and also you if you have one in your pocket) when
in reach of other people with cellphones, and you can use apps on
your own cellphone to automatically notify others of your
whereabouts when you have a signal.
There are several kinds of electrical plugs used around the world,
so take a universal adapter. Many of these are bulky and massively
over-engineered. Get a minimal one that
folds flat.
It's also worth having a 3-way power strip and
some of these are
flat, too. Make sure the geometry allows you to plug in several
USB or other chargers simultaneously. Note that adapters and power
strips with "surge protection" are banned on cruise ships (they can
catch fire because the neutral wire carries current on
ships), so make sure you get them without. Voltage worldwide varies
from 100 to 240 and frequency may be 50hz or 60hz (Japan has both!)
and it's best if your devices work on any of these (voltage
converters are cumbersome and only for low power).
Many countries impose visa restrictions and costs tit-for-tat relative
to what other countries do to them. So US citizens need an expensive
visa to go to Brazil, and Europeans do not. You need to check what is
required and be aware that some visas take a long while (and they will
be holding on to your passport all that time) and others may require
visiting a consulate in person. Specialist visa companies can really
speed things up, but they cost quite a bit (upwards of $100). Some
countries (e.g., India, Vietnam, Turkey) allow you to apply for
certain visas on the web; you can then travel using the approval email
and get the actual stamp on arrival (which may entail a line). Other
countries (e.g., Cambodia, Oman) do visa on arrival. Western
countries that previously had mutually visa-free travel, like Canada
and Australia, increasingly require some form of pre-travel web-based
registration that is basically a visa.
You generally need some blank pages in your passport for visas. It's
worth getting a passport with extra pages if you plan to travel a lot.
US passports can have extra pages added but for most you have to
specify extra pages when you apply. Entry and exit stamps can use up
pages that you want to keep blank for visas; I use a paperclip to hold
some pages together and hope the immigration officers will follow the
path of least resistance and stamp one of the other pages. It usually
works.
For this reason, I do not recommend scheduling things too tightly.
For example, if it would be a catastrophe to arrive a day late (e.g.,
you'd miss a cruise or safari or multiday tour), then build in a few
day's padding. This can be enjoyable or relaxing if you are able to
take it, and no disaster if you miss it. If you must use a tight
schedule, then it's best to have the flights etc. organized by the
same company as the main event: in that case, it's usually on them to
sort out problems. For example, if your flight is delayed and you
miss the departure of a cruise, the cruise company will arrange for
you to meet up with the ship somewhere along its itinerary, if
the flight was organized by them (but you'll need to study the terms
of the deal).
If you paid for things with a high-end credit card, you may be able
to claim some of the additional costs from the insurance that's
included with the card if things go wrong. Otherwise, your own
travel insurance may compensate you (and you should have insurance
for catastrophic expenses, like hospitalization or repatriation),
and on flights involving Europe, their
EU261 compensation rules may help.
For A to B you obviously want a one-way cruise and these are
generally called repositionings. Cruise ships migrate with the
seasons, like birds. So, for example, in the Northern Hemisphere
summer there will be lots of cruise ships in Alaska, and around
Norway, and in the Mediterranean. In the fall these will move to the
Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere--mainly
Australia and South America. And in the Northern Hemisphere spring
the migration will be reversed. You can often do these trips for well
under $200 a day all in.
Specifically, in September/October you'll find ships repositioning
from the American West Coast to Japan and then Southeast Asia, and
also to Australia and New Zealand, typically via some Pacific Islands;
a few will go to South America. They will be joined by some East
Coast ships that first go through the Panama Canal. From Europe most
will head across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, a few will go to South
America, and a few more will go through the Suez Canal to the Gulf
States and possibly on to India and Asia. The flow reverses in March
and April. Note that repositionings pay no attention to seasonal
weather: those to Japan arrive in typhoon season and those to the
Caribbean in hurricane season.
Be aware that repositioning cruises have lots of sea days, so you
need to be able to entertain yourself. There are usually some
"enrichment" talks, and these can be quite good, plus trivia and other
games. In the evenings there'll be live music and other
entertainment, though all these have diminished in variety and quality
over the years. During the day, I'm usually content to take in the
lectures and to work or read in my room (I'm an academic, so sometimes
I sits and thinks and other times I just sits).
Then there's food. There'll be a buffet that is often very
crowded. Some people hang around the buffet all day, playing card
games or just sitting there, and this can make it hard to find a
table. I find the scene very unattractive, plus it's very difficult
to handle if you are on your own as the staff will clear your food
off your table (if you can find one) while you're fetching something
else. Many buffets do not provide trays (to reduce hoggish behavior
and waste) and that increases the number of trips to
the counter. Buffets are next to impossible if you use a cane and
have only one hand free, but a staff member will generally assist
you if you ask. I visit the buffet only to grab ready made
sandwiches before or after an excursion, and otherwise prefer to
join a shared table in the (waiter served) main dining room (MDR)
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and sometimes for afternoon tea as
well.
Some people eat in the buffet because they are nervous about
sharing a table in the MDR, but I have had many interesting
conversations, and only a few duds, at shared tables. You can also
eat on your own in the MDR, but do be aware that the two-top tables
are often very close together (so almost like sharing) and will
usually be occupied by people who have chosen them because they do
not want to interact with strangers.
Cruise ships will generally have some arrangement for solo
travelers to meet up for meals. These may be well-organized, with a
staff member acting as the host, or they may just be a note in the
daily program stating a bar and a time to meet--and they may well
nominate the same place and time for different groups, such as LGBT,
which can make things a little fraught. Sometimes, there will be a
"solo table" in the MDR that the Maitre D will direct you to. I
occasionally join these gatherings but generally prefer mixed
groups: "solo" is only one aspect of my identity, I also have a
certain nationality, home state, occupation, education level, age,
and I like the opportunity to encounter people who share some of
those aspects, and also people who may have totally different life
experiences.
In addition to the buffet and MDR, there will also usually be casual
hamburger, pizza, and cafe-style places that are included in the basic
fare, plus "specialty restaurants" that usually cost extra (e.g., $20
to $50 per person). You need to decide if the extra-fee specialty
places are worth it for you; it's still mass-produced food and I'd
rather spend the money at a real restaurant on land. The included
casual places vary in organization: some will have pre-made food ready
to go (useful before an excursion) while others make it to order,
which can be either delightful or infuriating, depending on your
circumstance.
There's also room service; the type of
selections vary by cruise line (some let you order from the dining
room menu, others have fixed and limited choices), and some charge
while others don't. There's usually some way to preorder room service
breakfast (a card to hang on the door, or some function on their app
or the TV) and this can be useful if you have an early morning
excursion. It's customary to tip the delivery person a couple of $$
cash.
For dinner in the MDR, cruise ships usually offer a choice between
"assigned seating" or "anytime dining." The former means you dine
at one of two fixed times (typically 5:30pm or 7:30pm on American
ships, later on others) at the same table, with the same people,
every night. The latter means you turn up when you like and get
assigned to whatever table is filling at the moment. Or, in either
case, you can dine alone if you prefer. Some people like the
predictability of assigned seating but I detest it. First of all,
your table companions may not turn up (they eat in the buffet or one
of the specialty restaurants) so there may be just a couple of you
sitting at a table for eight, then you may not get along with them (you
can ask the Maitre D to swap your table if it is really bad), and
finally you are tied to a fixed schedule. With anytime dining you
turn up when you like and tell the Maitre D that you are happy to
share and will get different companions each day, so you only have
to put up with them once if they are duds. If you do have agreeable
companions, thank the Maitre D as you leave and he will look out for
you next time, or you can explicitly arrange to meet up with the
same people. Breakfast and lunch always operate like anytime dining
but have the disadvantage that people do not explicitly volunteer to
share, so you can find yourself sitting with people who wish you
weren't there or have no idea how to hold a conversation with anyone
but a relative. All human life is there, so you need to be
versatile, and a little thick-skinned.
You should be aware that eastbound cruises will give you
several 23 hour days in succession, which can be enervating (they
often try to minimize the effects by putting the clocks forward during
the day (rather than in the night), but this is not good for the crew
as they have an hour less to complete their tasks), whereas westbound
gives you 25 hour days.
Cruises usually board a bit before noon and depart about 5pm. Your
boarding pass may specify a time but nobody pays attention or
checks. Most passengers turn up early but I prefer to arrive later,
when the crowds have subsided. The process is like boarding a
plane: you do bag drop, paperwork, checkin, security (they are
looking for alcohol in your carryon, not guns), and then actually go
on board. You may not be able to get into your room until mid
afternoon, and your bag will arrive a bit later (minus any alcohol
you were trying to sneak aboard). There will be a "muster drill"
before departure. The procedure varies by ship and cruiseline; some
require you to stand by your assigned lifeboat and watch how to put
on a life vest (or even to do it yourself), while others just
require you to watch a video, airline style. You must do whatever
is required and get signed off for doing so or the ship cannot
leave.
Your welcome evaporates on arrival at the destination, when they
have to turn the ship over in readiness for another batch of
passengers. You usually need to be out of your room by 8am (you
leave your big bags outside the room the night before and collect
them on shore). They call you for disembarkation in groups starting
about 7:30 and finishing about 10. You cannot get off earlier than
your assigned group (which is based on a questionnaire about travel
plans sent out a few days prior), but you can be late, so I usually
go and have a leisurely breakfast in the MDR and get off late in the
proceedings.
If you are continuing on the next cruise of the same ship (so-called
back-to-back, or B2B cruises), you may or may not be required/allowed
to get off; the procedure varies by ship and country and port. You'll
be informed about it, and also about the procedure if you need to move
cabins (the crew will do a lot of it).
There are dozens of cruise lines, although many of them are owned
by just a few mega corporations. The cruise lines are stratified by
opulence just like hotels and it's easy to spend $1,000 or $1,500 a
day on the more luxurious lines, but you can also pay less than $100 a
day for one or two people on more modest lines. And on each
individual ship there are different grades of accommodation and
correspondingly different costs: inside cabins (no window), ocean view
(usually a decent sized window that doesn't open, but sometimes just a
porthole), balconies, and suites. And there may be further gradations
corresponding to more private dining or inclusive drink packages. But
even the most basic deal will include accommodation, meals, and
entertainment. Drinks (and that includes soft drinks and decent
coffee, as well as alcohol) will cost extra, with a pretty high markup
(you can drink water from the tap, but it may not taste good). On
top of the basic fare there will be taxes and port fees and what are
called gratuities or appreciation for the crew. The latter are
theoretically optional but you should never remove them as they are
actually their wages, just like tips for waiters in American
restaurants. Port fees are just the cost of parking the ship at the
various ports; if you want to take port excursions, those are a
separate cost.
When you see a price quoted for a cruise you need to check that all
these non-negotiable extras are included. (A recent California law
requires this and most cruiselines are complying nationwide.) There
may also be genuine options that you probably do not want: drink
packages (you need to drink a lot for these to pay off), and special
restaurants (save your money for a good restaurant on land), and some
that maybe you do want, like Internet. Increasingly, cruise lines are
offering all-in packages that bundle several of these and they can be
an OK deal (e.g., one that includes crew gratuities, WiFi, drinks, and
often a few special meals and discounts on excursions, all for about
$65 a day per person). The upmarket cruise lines generally include
all of these (and sometimes flights and excursions) in their (much
higher) basic fare.
A typical cabin has a queen size bed that can be separated into two
twins, a desk or table, a couple of chairs, and a shower and toilet.
Some cabins have additional bunk beds that lower from the ceiling, or
convertible sofas. These cabins can sleep four in total and might be
suitable for families with small children but you have to know each
other really well before you put more than two adults in normal sized
cabins.
Fares are typically quoted per person for two sharing. There are
often deals where third and fourth stay free. If you are traveling
alone you will encounter the solo supplement which is usually 100%
(though occasionally much less, and sometimes even more), so you'll
pay as much as two people, even though you don't eat for two nor
require twice the service. The rationale is that the ships make all
their profit from incidental spending--drinks and so on--and if
there's only one of you then they only get half of what they would
otherwise from that room. It's not worth getting upset about, nor
trying to minimize it: just look at the all-in bottom line price and
decide if that's acceptable to you. Some ships have a few solo
cabins; these are always small and more expensive than paying 100%
supplement on a regular cabin, so never a good deal.
Many people insist on cabins with a balcony, and these can be
attractive in scenic locales (though you will see more from the open
decks) or for lounging in warm ones, but they will usually be a lot
more expensive. Beware that they don't have blackout curtains so
any ocean view or balcony cabin will have light streaming in during
summer nights at high latitudes (e.g., Alaska, Norway, Antarctica).
An inside room is blessedly dark and good for sleeping.
Fortunately for our purposes, repositioning cruises are often among
the cheapest; I've taken many, solo, within my $200 rule, mostly in
inside cabins on the mainstream lines. Those I've used include
Carnival, Princess, Holland America (all owned by Carnival), Royal
Caribbean and Celebrity (owned by Royal Caribbean), and Norwegian.
These are like the airlines: they're all pretty similar but some
people have strong preferences. And there have been some recent
developments that could change assessments: for example, Princess
has removed the armchairs from their cabins, deliberately making
them less comfortable so that you will spend more time out in the
bars, and Holland America has removed almost all its entertainment
and its enrichment talks and dumbed down its food (presumably to
reduce costs). These might have been reactions to Covid, and may be
reversed now that business is booming.
An unfortunate development is that cruise ships are getting bigger:
anything under 2,000 passengers is now considered small, and
mainstream ships may carry 3,000, 4,000, or even more. Also, newer
ships tend to have smaller cabins than older ones, and may lack a
promenade deck (where you can walk all around the ship in the open).
Few ports can handle the big ships so this limits where they can go.
And when they do dock, each one is an instant crowd--and there will
often be more than one in the same port because they have nowhere else
to go. Furthermore, big ships cannot navigate the rivers where many
cities are located (e.g., Saigon, Hanoi, Bangkok, Tokyo) so they park
at an industrial port 50 or more miles away and you have to waste
several hours on buses to get to where you really want to be. If you
actually want to visit the intermediate ports on a cruise, my advice
is to avoid ships bigger than 2,000 passengers, and for small places
and those that require tenders (where there is no dock and the ship's
lifeboats are used to ferry people ashore, such as Pacific Islands)
prefer ships with less than 800 passengers. Also note that tendering
requires calm seas, so these ports are skipped more often than those
where the ship can actually dock. Several ports (e.g., in French
Polynesia) now ban large ships, and some ports (e.g., Venice, Monterey
California) ban cruise ships altogether. Even if you are on a small
ship, your visit may by spoiled by a megaship being there at the same
time. Check out who's in port
here: https://www.cruisetimetables.com/#ports.
Look up Santorini to see what I mean about getting crowded by other
ships.
In addition to the places mentioned above that just do not want
cruise ship crowds, others are placing restrictions due to
pollution, carbon dioxide, or danger. Cruise ships are pretty
significant polluters (most burn "bunker fuel," which is thick
sludge that has to be heated before it can be injected into the
engines) and have about the same consumption per passenger mile as
an airplane. Norway, for example, will ban cruise ships from its
fjords in a couple of years time unless they are "clean."
Antarctica requires fairly clean fuel and all icy latitudes will
soon require some sort of "ice hull" that is likely to restrict
visits to luxury or expedition ships. Best to go to these
destinations fairly soon. I have some notes
on Antarctica below.
To familiarize yourself with cruising, read the messages at
boards.cruisecritic.com
but beware that most of these people are avid
cruisers, whereas I am chiefly advocating it as a pleasant and
inexpensive way to get from A to B.
To search for cruises and prices go to
www.vacationstogo.com;
you'll need to give them your email address but they don't hassle you.
You can search by many criteria and can then get pricing for different
styles of cabin and solo or not, and you can also get the cost per day
and can sort on that by clicking on the column header. Another good
search engine for cruises is
www.cruiseplum.com.
For example, I'm writing this on 22nd of October 2022 and a 13 day
repositioning cruise from Lisbon Portugal to Tampa Florida on the Carnival Pride is
available next week for $29 a day solo (yes, $389 all in). Or, at the
end of November, a 16 day cruise from Lisbon to Rio De Janeiro on the
Azamara Pursuit, a somewhat luxurious line, is available for $124 a
day solo, or 11 days from Lisbon to Miami on the Azamara Onward is
$181 a night solo, or there's 14 days on the Celebrity Infinity from
Fort Lauderdale Florida to Rio De Janeiro for $132 a day solo. Then,
in February 2023, 25 days on the Diamond Princess from San Diego to
Tokyo via Guam and Saipan is $99 a day solo. Or in April 2023, 14
days on the Holland America Westerdam from Tokyo to Seattle is
available for $102 per day solo. And 21 days from Auckland to San
Francisco (or 29 days from Sydney with a circumnavigation of New
Zealand) on the Grand Princess is $168 per day solo. The cost for two
people sharing will typically be about the same (because of the 100%
single supplement). You'll need to add the cost of drinks and port
excursions to these.
Cruise pricing involves quite a lot of rug merchant stuff, with
"today only" sales and special discounts and so on. If you qualify,
the discounts can be substantial, especially for "interline"
(airline crew etc.), with more modest ones for past guests and those
over 55. Check the buttons at bottom left of vacationstogo. If the
discounts are really huge, then it probably means the cruise is not
selling well and this will be reflected in the regular price if you
wait a while. You can often get a good price by waiting until 90 or 60
days before the cruise departs, because this is when people holding
reservations have to pay up or cancel. And you can buy from the
cruise line itself, or from a large specialist travel agency (TA)
like Vacations To Go, or a large general TA such as Expedia, or a
small local one, or from a big box general retailer like Costco.
TAs and big box stores will sometimes give you a discount out of
their commission, but you can't expect much given the bottom-fishing
strategy I'm describing here. I've done okay with
www.cruisecompete.com who
basically broadcast your interest to several big agencies and you'll
typically receive half a dozen competitive offers.
I've advocated cruises as a way of getting from A to B but what if
you first need to get to A or to get home from B? Well, wait, there's
more. The cruise lines have deals with the airlines and you can often
get stunning discounted fares for one-way flights in business class.
Holland America and Princess share a booking system called FlightEase
that you can research on the Princess web site without having to make
a cruise booking first.
There's no need for the flights to connect up to the cruise. So,
for example, I once took a cruise from Florida to Rome, then
independently took some European flights and traveled around the Greek
islands and mainland, and finally used FlightEase to fly home from
Frankfurt to San Francisco nonstop on United in business class for
$1,000. Usually that ticket would be $5-8,000, and unobtainable with
frequent flier miles. Similarly, I've flown San Francisco to
Amsterdam and back on KLM in conjunction with a cruise out of
Rotterdam for $1,120 each way in nonstop business class.
Of course you don't have to fly to A or go home from B: you can
take another cruise, possibly on a different line, or start or
continue with a land trip.
In addition to cruises as a superior way of getting from A to B
than business class airfare, they can be an enjoyable way to visit
certain destinations. A port stopover is typically from 9 to 5 but
there may be immigration or customs hassles beforehand or on
reboarding, and delays in tendering. So cruises make
most sense for ports where a short visit is adequate, or where you can
view the sights from the ship. These are mostly small islands (e.g.,
Polynesia, some Mediterranean islands), isolated coastal towns (e.g.,
Arica, Chile, or Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok, Russia), coastal scenery
(e.g, Alaska, Norwegian and South American fjords), and extreme
latitudes (e.g., the Arctic ice cap and Antarctic Peninsula). A
cruise is not the way to see Paris or Rome--although river cruises
might be an option. I've never taken one of those and there are
persistent problems with low water levels on Europe rivers that can
turn them into a bus tour. They could make good sense on the Nile or Mekong.
When your cruise ship stops over at an intermediate port, you have
to decide what to do: stay onboard, get off and look around on your
own, or take an excursion/tour. You can sometimes pick up a tour at
the dock; these can be very good but you will have no guarantee of
quality or honesty--it's luck of the draw. Alternatively, you can
book one ahead of time, for example by using
www.viator.com or
www.toursbylocals.com or
by joining a group of people who have arranged this (check out the
"roll calls" on
boards.cruisecritic.com).
Or you can sign up with a tour organized by the cruise line.
My experience is that wandering around on your own is always a
mistake unless you have a very explicit plan. Generally it's best to
take a tour and I usually use the cruise line's offerings for
simplicity. These are generally graded easy, medium, or difficult.
Easy will mostly be a drive-by with a few strolls, medium will involve
some more difficult walking (hills, cobbles, or trails), and difficult
can be quite adventurous. These days, I generally opt for easy which
will typically cost somewhere between $40 and $120. If you do want to
explore on your own,
Tom's Port Guides
provides pdf guides to 78 ports, mostly in North America and the Mediterranean.
What's in Port" provides
general information for 1,200 ports. You can also get ideas by
searching on YouTube.
One benefit of the ship's own tours is that they will "guarantee" to
get you back on time (or hold the ship for you or, as a last resort,
get you to its next port of call). In reality, there is little risk
of missing the ship with other activities, but you do need to be aware
of it.
So, never, ever, take a standard flight from the US East Coast to
Europe: it'll take off about 8:00 p.m. and land about 2 or 3:00 a.m.
your time, which is 7 or 8 a.m. local time. Even in business class,
you'll feel terrible from jetlag and lack of sleep (they'll have had
the lights on to serve drinks and meals for the first two hours, and
the final one), and it's too early to get into your hotel (although a
dayroom may be an option--see below). If you have a connecting flight
you'll find it deeply uncomfortable and will have difficulty coping
with any problems. Either way, it'll take you days to get over it.
(An exception may be if you live at the destination and can go
straight home and to bed.) Westbound flights are not a problem
(unless they are exceptionally long) as these are invariably daytime
flights.
If you must fly from the US East Coast to Europe, then the best
approach is to take one of the daytime flights to London: these
depart about 9:00 a.m. and land about 10:00 p.m. local time and are
tolerable in coach class. Typically, they depart from Washington DC,
New York/Newark, Boston, and sometimes Toronto. You can also do this
from Chicago if AA90 is operating and there are sometimes daytime
flights to other European destinations: Iceland, The Azores, and
occasionally Paris, Istanbul, and even Casablanca.
On arrival at London Heathrow, you can check into an airport hotel
(there are dozens of them), have a meal and a drink and a full night's
sleep, and get up at leisure the following morning and proceed to your
actual destination. Hotels are not allowed to run their own shuttle
buses at Heathrow but the red bus routes around the airport are
frequent and free (though you do need an Oyster card) and run all
night, but you must be able to manage your bags without
inconveniencing others (so nothing more than carryons). The free zone
includes most of the hotels along the Bath Road. Aaah, the buses
no longer seem to be free (that's a good site for general
information about Heathrow hotels), due to Covid. Even paying for
them (it's only a couple of pounds), the red buses are always to be
preferred (unless you are burdened with luggage) to the infrequent,
slow, and expensive "Hotel Hoppa" shuttles (which do not run
overnight). Taxis from the airport are not an option for these short
journeys (going back may be ok).
An alternative way to get from the US East Coast to Europe is by
cruise ship as discussed earlier. There are many ships repositioning
in that direction in Spring, and Cunard does New York to Southampton
year-round. The repositioning cruises are dirt cheap and Cunard (in
modest cabins) is cheaper than a business class flight.
If you are starting further west, then one option is to head
East, overnight there, and then take a daytime flight (or a cruise).
When I could not get an affordable business class flight from San
Francisco, I would fly to Chicago in the afternoon, stay overnight at
the Hilton that is attached to the airport by a pedestrian tunnel, and
then take AA90 to London the next morning.
However, the best way to fly from the Western US to Europe is to first
get to a hub airport as far west as you can and then take a business (or
first) class flight with flatbeds that takes off as late as possible
and goes non-stop to your destination or somewhere further east. For
example to get to anywhere in Eastern Europe, consider flying nonstop
to Istanbul in business class on the excellent Turkish Airlines,
optionally spending a night or two there, and then continuing to your
destination. Similarly, the Gulf airlines, with a day or two stopover
in their home bases, can be a good way to get from the USA or Europe
to India. These flights can be 14 or 16 hours long, but that is no
problem on a decent airline with flatbeds and good food and drink.
The considerations above apply to all routes that typically use
short (less than 6-8 hours) redeyes, such as Hawaii to mainland, and
some routes in Asia: it's always better to take daytime flights,
even if that requires an overnight stopover, than take a short
redeye.
There are some routes where it is impossible to find flights at
rational hours; examples are those between North America and the
Southern Hemisphere (where, for example, the airlines will leave a
plane on the ground in Santiago Chile for 12 hours rather than fly
back to the USA during the day). Here, you have to put up with it,
take a cruise, or split the journey into pieces. For example, I've
returned from Santiago to San Francisco on daytime flights via a
few days in Panama City. And I've flown from San Francisco to New
Zealand (where the nonstop flights take off at 10pm and land two! days
later at 6am) by taking a daytime flight to Honolulu, spending the
night there, then a daytime flight to Fiji, spending the night there,
then a daytime flight to Auckland (via Kiritimati--Christmas
Island--seeing this was a real bonus) and arriving in Auckland,
perfectly rested and relaxed, at a civilized hour one day later than
the nonstop.
After a long flight, I will almost always stop over
for a night or two rather than continue directly to a connecting
flight. And also before any long or early flight, I will typically
avoid the anxiety and hassle of a (possibly mis-)connecting flight or
train, or other uncertainty, by getting that out of the way the day
before and spending the night at a hotel by the hub airport.
Apart from comfort, another reason for breaking journeys with an
overnight stopover is to avoid arriving at a strange town in darkness,
as required by many standard schedules. It's one thing to arrive in
London at 10:00 p.m. and quite another to arrive in Kolkata/Calcutta
at 3:00 a.m., particularly if you've not been to India before.
It's worth noting that some airports have hotel rooms actually
inside the airport that you can rent by the hour. Singapore and
Bangkok are examples. And some have more minimal "sleeping cabins":
YotelAir is one
such chain of these. Elsewhere, a nearby hotel may provide "dayrooms"
that you can rent from say 8am to 6pm. There are specialized booking
sites for these (they come and go as none is particularly good, so
Google for them) and Hilton, for example, can do this on their
standard booking site (just use the same date for arrival and
departure). These can all be useful when you can arrange a long
layover but not a full stopover (as noted above, a layover greater
than 24 hours may break the fare).
Some will say these routings waste time, but my experience is the
opposite: they maximize the number of days when you are fully
functional, and are pleasant in their own right. Think it through:
a typical journey is to leave the US East Coast on (say) Friday afternoon/evening,
arrive in Europe feeling dreadful on Saturday morning, where it will
be too early to check in to your hotel, or where you have to cope with
connecting flights; you'll finally collapse in bed, exhausted,
possibly earlier than you should, compromising your jetlag recovery;
then you have Sunday for recovery and you still might not feel good on
Monday. (If you start on Saturday, you won't have a day for recovery
and will feel absolutely dreadful on Monday and most of the week.)
Alternatively, take a daytime flight on Saturday, have a meal and
sleep on arrival, use Sunday to get to your ultimate destination in
comfort and another night's sleep; Monday you are ready to go. The
daytime route has taken less total time, and eliminated the misery.
Coach/economy class has become significantly worse over the years;
in particular they are now cramming more seats per row into
widebodies. 777s were built for nine abreast and they now cram in
ten; 787s were built for eight and they now put in nine; A350s were
designed as extra-widebodies so they would be very comfortable at
eight across and now they cram in nine or even ten. This not only
makes the seats cramped, but it makes the aisles narrow so that you
will get jostled constantly, and it means the overhead bins run out of
space. There are a few airlines that preserve the old spacing--Japan
Airlines, for example. And of course the pitch (distance to the seat
in front) has also got reduced. There will usually be some seats with
larger pitch available to passengers with status or for a fee, and
there will sometimes be seats with a bit more space and comfort called
premium economy or similar that cost quite a lot more. And at the
front there will be business class and/or first class that cost
significantly more. On domestic US flights these seats are called
first class and are substantially bigger and roomier; on flights in
Europe they are just ordinary coach seats with the middle seat blocked
off. Intercontinental business and first class seats are in a
different league and should normally fold down into a (truly
horizontal) flatbed; the state of the art arranges it so that each
seat has aisle access and sometimes a door.
To check the type and configuration of seats on your airplane, use
aerolopa.com.
Do not bother with seatguru: it is no longer maintained and is
full of disinformation.
I can cope with coach class for flights up to about 5 hours, but it's
worth paying or having status for the extra legroom seats and for
early boarding so there will still be room in the overheads. And
better seats are always welcome if you can score them at reasonable
cost. For longer flights, premium economy or better is highly
preferable, and for really long flights or overnights a flatbed is
essential.
Let me stress that red-eyes and flights longer than about 5 hours
are close to intolerable in coach, whereas 12 or more hours in good
business (or first) class can be a pleasure. But do beware that not
all business and first class seats are equal: some international
business class seats go flat but not fully horizontal (so-called
"slantbeds") and these should be avoided as they are little better
than recliners for a decent night's sleep (and there may even be
some previous-generation recliner seats still around). Airlines
typically advertise their best product, irrespective of whether this
is actually delivered on your route: see
this court
case. Read the blogs for informed reviews.
It's important to understand there are two kinds of upgrades: those
that are confirmed at the time of purchase and those that
are waitlisted. You can often tell if confirmed upgrades are
available by looking at arcane details of the available fare
categories for that flight. Certain kinds of upgrades may be
available only if you start from a coach seat in a fairly high price
category. Upgrades are usually by one cabin: coach to premium,
business to first, and so on, but some do go directly from coach to
business. All the details vary by airline, so see the blogs or
FlyerTalk for
current details.
If you really want to travel in a better seat, then you need to
master the tricky details and make sure you can get a confirmed
upgrade. Waitlisted and auctioned seats are handed out very late,
sometimes in the days before travel, but usually at the gate. You can
often see the waitlist displayed on the monitors at the gate. The
ranking order for scoring waitlisted upgrades varies by airline, but
frequent flier status is usually one of the most important
discriminators, so don't expect to get many of these if you are
anything below the highest level. On the other hand, sometimes a
flight is oversold and you may be given a free "operational" upgrade.
You can sometimes get (and can ask for) an upgrade certificate as
compensation if you are severely inconvenienced by the airline
(cancellation etc). Speaking of inconvenienced: your confirmed
upgrade may not survive a service disruption, such as getting assigned
to a different flight.
Confirmed upgrades used to be a very good way to travel
inexpensively in comfort, but the airlines now favor selling the good
seats for a rational (but still high) price, so don't plan on these
unless you really know what you are doing. Waitlisted upgrades are a
pure gamble: no harm in participating, but don't expect to win.
To research routings, flights, and prices use
flights.google.com or
matrix.itasoftware.com;
the latter has an extremely rich routing language that allows very
sophisticated queries (in particular, the extension code "minconnect
12:00" ensures a 12 hour layover and "-redeyes" eliminates red-eyes).
Google it. However, many low-cost airlines do not participate in the
reservation systems that these query.
https://www.dohop.is/ is a search
engine that includes low-cost airlines. To find what airlines serve a
given airport, examine the Wikipedia entry for that airport, and you
can then search the websites of those airlines.
It's worth studying the local geography: for example, Western Japan
is closer to Seoul than to Tokyo and flights to, say, Fukuoka or
Hiroshima are often much cheaper via Seoul than those via Tokyo.
Business class to the US from Auckland, New Zealand is often much
cheaper than from Sydney, Australia, so it can often be worth a cheap
coach-class flight SYD-AKL, optionally spend a few days in New
Zealand, and then fly business class to the US from there.
Sometimes round trip tickets will be best, other times it will be
two one-ways (e.g., on different airlines), or open jaws (that means
A-B-C or B-A/C-B where the "open jaw" distance A-C is less than A-B
or B-C), or any of these combined with domestic flights. One-way
trips are often expensive and this is where frequent flier miles or
points can be useful, as the flights you buy with these are usually
one-way. Sometimes you can reduce the cash price by adding a
throwaway leg to the itinerary, so instead of going A-B, you buy a
ticket A-B-C and do not use the final leg. This makes it look like
an open jaw. Usually C needs to be in the same continent as A, but
need not be close (e.g., A is San Francisco and C is New York). And
A-B could be in business class and B-C in coach.
Note that skipping a flight will automatically invalidate all the
later ones on the same ticket, so don't do it except in circumstances
like those just described. There's one additional exception:
so-called hidden city ticketing, which is a variant on that above.
The idea is that you want to go from A to B but it is expensive. When
B is a hub airport you may be able to find connecting flights A-B-C to
another city C that is much cheaper. So you buy that ticket but get
off at B. Note that these techniques can also work for "free" tickets
paid with miles. For example, Delta sometimes charges 495,000 miles
for a "free" business class flight from Santiago Chile to Atlanta, but
only 65,800 to Mexico City that uses the same plane SCL-ATL.
For these wrinkles to work, C must be the final stop on your ticket
(because the airline will cancel all later flights on the ticket when
you no-show for B-C) and you must have only carry-on bags (because the
airlines will insist on checking bags through to C). An exception is
if A is outside the US and B is a US gateway: it's a peculiarity of
the American system that you must clear immigration and customs at
your point of entry (unless your departure airport has a "preclearance"
facility--see later), so even if your bags are checked through to C,
they will be unloaded at B for you to take them through customs, after
which you just walk away with them. Another possibility is for the
B-C flight to be several days later than A-B, but this usually breaks
the fare. The airlines are wise to hidden city routings and will jump
on you (e.g., cancel your frequent flier account and possibly ban you)
if you do it more than a couple of times (you can say you fell ill the
first time), so it's best to do it on an airline you don't care about,
and possibly use a different frequent flier account (e.g., fly on
United but credit the miles to ANA). It's up to you whether you are
comfortable with the ethics of this. And, of course, it might
actually be interesting to go to C and later return to B or A.
For "avgeek" fun, it's worth knowing about and seeking out oddball
routings. I mentioned the Kiritimati routing above, others include
"milk run" flights in Alaska that visit several small towns on their
way to Anchorage or Juneau, and the United "Island Hopper" that goes
from Honolulu to Guam via Majuro, Kwajalein, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and
Chuuk/Truk. (Kwajalein is the largest atoll in the world, and you are
not supposed to look out of the window on approach or on the ground
as it is a US base with classified installations.) I've taken this as
part of a routing to Japan (San Francisco to Honolulu, stayed there
overnight, Island Hopper to Guam, stayed there overnight, then went
sightseeing the next day and continued to Tokyo in the afternoon) that
cost no more than the standard direct flight. Google for "milk run"
flights.
Sometimes it can be best to buy the tickets from an overseas travel
agent or website: look up the abbreviations SITI/SOTO etc. For
example, domestic flights in Chile (and Easter Island is a domestic
destination) are much cheaper if obtained from a Chilean site (such as
LAN airline's local website, in Spanish) than an overseas one. You
need to experiment and to check whether the warnings that this is
"illegal" are serious or not. Sometimes it will fail if you use an
American credit card, so see if there are alternatives (like Paypal).
Another variant is when you wish to make two trips A-B-A and A-C-A.
It can sometimes be cheaper to buy one open jaw ticket A-B/C-A, and
another B-A-C nested within it (so that you fly A-B on one ticket and
return B-A on the other, then vice-versa for A-C and C-A). This can
be useful for international trips, where business class fares
originating outside the USA are often less expensive than those
originating inside.
The airline alliances (OneWorld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam) have
round-the-world (RTW) fares, and also other special fares, such as
Circle Pacific. These have complex rules and are difficult to book
(you generally need a specialist travel agent) but can provide good
prices, The general restriction is you have to keep going in more or
less the same direction and cannot backtrack (much). A typical RTW
business class fare is about $10k in the USA, but can be as little
as half that if you start somewhere else (typically, Japan or
Norway). Read the discussions under the various alliances on
Flyertalk.
How do you get desirable seats and routings at a reasonable cost
without all these complexities? One way is to use low cost airlines
that fly longhaul and do have true business class or flat beds.
Most of these have gone out of business (after all, selling stuff
for cheap is a difficult business model) but ZipAir is a subsidiary
of Japan Airlines and offers flatbeds between the West Coast and
Japan for $1,000 each way. But note that its fares are strictly
nonrefundable and you pay extra for food, bags, etc. Condor offers
reasonable business class prices between the US and Europe, and
Norse Atlantic Airways has a decent premium economy seat at fairly
low cost that can be attractive on westbound flights.
Shorthaul, the so-called "low cost" airlines can cost more than the
mainlines but their price structure is more rational. They
generally "unbundle" all their services, so you pay extra for a seat
reservation, or a meal, or a checked bag (though the mainlines do a
lot of this now, unless you have status, and "low cost" Southwest
checks bags for free). They differ greatly in their quality of
service and available comforts. For example, Indigo in India is
very good and they provide quite a few attractive addon options at
low cost, whereas Ryanair in Europe is pretty nasty (but that's true
of almost all flying in Europe). Make sure you understand the "free
for all" boarding style used by some of these. As noted earlier,
many low cost airlines do not participate in the global reservation
systems used by most search engines and ticket vendors.
https://www.dohop.is/ is a search
engine that does include many low-cost airlines. To find what
airlines serve a given airport, examine the Wikipedia entry for that
airport, and you can then search the websites of those airlines.
The regular airlines sometimes have bargain fares, by design or
accident. Keep an eye on newsgroups such as
Flyertalk
Premium Fare Deals and similar.
Another way to fly inexpensively and in comfort is to use frequent
flier miles, but it has become increasingly difficult to find
available seats or guaranteed upgrades. Several of the blogs have
side-businesses that will book frequent flier tickets for you, for a
fee, and their expertise can be worth it. Also, there are
specialist search engines that you have to pay for, such
as ExpertFlyer. Note
that frequent flier seats and upgrades are sometimes made available
when they enter the schedule (about a year out) but more often they
show up closer to flight time, or even at the last minute (when the
airline knows they will go unsold). Booking flights a long way out
is risky as airlines often change their schedules or routings; if
you have a paid ticket they will generally work with you to find a
satisfactory alternative, but with frequent flier tickets they may
just refund your miles and leave you with no good alternatives.
The remaining way to get good deals on flights is to use travel
packages. I discussed these under cruises but you can also get them
from travel agents such as
www.expedia.com or from special web pages
of the airlines such as
vacations.united.com. The
idea is you combine flights with hotels and/or car rental and get
significant price reductions. It's important to understand that you
do not need to use their hotels for the entire duration of your stay:
some minimum such as 3 or 4 days is sufficient, and the hotel need not be
in the city where you land. And you do not even need to actually stay
in the hotel: you can book the cheapest one and simply not use it.
Read the specialist blogs or
www.flyertalk.com for more.
You usually gain access by having significant status in the alliance
to which the airline belongs (e.g., Silver in OneWorld will get you
into American or British airlines clubs), be traveling
internationally in business or first class, or hold a high-end
credit card. Or pay cash (typically around $50). It is becoming
common for credit cards to offer access as a bonus (typically by
including membership
in PriorityPass), and as a
result the clubs are often crowded. Some of these arrangements also
give you a useful (e.g., $25) discount at airport restaurants
and this can be a better deal if you have the time.
In my view, the clubs are not worth bothering with in the USA, where
they are crowded and their offerings meager, and the basic airport is
usually pretty pleasant: just find an empty gate and make yourself
comfortable. Or have a meal in one of the restaurants. In most of
Asia, the basic airports are OK and the clubs are good, so take your
pick. And in Europe, the basic airports are crowded hellholes full of
"shops" and with scarce seating and no access to the gates until your
flight is called, and a club (or again, a restaurant) can be a welcome
relief.
In India, the modernized airports like Delhi and Mumbai are fairly
comfortable and the clubs are good. In old-style airports like
Bagdogra, the basic airport is like a bus station and there are no
clubs. In these places, look for a restaurant (typically upstairs).
Some airlines and airports have "arrival lounges" where you can
spruce up and maybe get something to eat after a long flight. They
are generally available only to those who flew in business or first
class. They can be useful if you ignored my advice and arrived on a
red-eye and it is too early to go anywhere. Most airports have
public showers for a reasonable fee that will serve the same purpose
if you don't have access to a lounge. And/or you can visit a
restaurant.
If it's a major or global outage that could last for days (e.g.,
volcano, earthquake, hurricane, or IT collapse), just get yourself a
hotel in some accessible (not necessarily nearby) place and settle
in and wait for things to calm down. I assume that if you are
traveling for long periods, you can deal with a few days of delays
and diversions (recall the discussion above
on schedules).
You can speed up check in by having status with the airline or its
alliance, or by doing it online or at a kiosk. In the USA you can
generally use a bag drop outside, but are expected to tip.
Security can also take a while, so "precheck" and/or "Clear" and/or
airline status is often worthwhile.
US immigration and customs can take an hour or more so it is worth
signing up for Global Entry if you are eligible. Other countries may
have similar deals for citizens and visitors. Arriving in business or
first class will often get you into a special fast line.
Note that the US has
"preclearance"
facilities at certain airport terminals (e.g., Dublin, Ireland, and
most Canadian airports). This means you go through US
immigration before boarding your flight and the plane
arrives in the USA as if it were a domestic flight. There are some
advantages to this (e.g., if you are connecting in the USA, your
checked bags will be transferred without you having to retrieve them
to deal with customs), and also disadvantages (it can take longer
and there are fewer privileged lines).
I'm old and disabled and use a walking cane, which whisks me though
lines in some countries. Nowadays, I need to request a wheelchair,
which delays some things (you may have to wait 30 mins for the chair
or cart to arrive) and speeds up others. In most countries, you
should tip generously if you do this. And don't fake it! (You will
sometimes see 20 wheelchairs, plus their families, boarding a flight,
but on arrival 18 of them will have been miraculously cured and walk
off with no difficulty.)
Airport taxis can be intimidating in some places (e.g., more than one
person sitting up front), or unmetered, or stopping to pick up other
people; best to look for a prepaid option (sometimes their booths
are in baggage claim or at its exit, sometimes outside), or book a
private transfer there and then, or do it in advance online, or with
your hotel.
Even honest or prepaid taxis will be expensive if the airport is a
long way from your destination. New airports are often many miles
away from their city; some cities are just huge; and some airlines
use airports that are nowhere near the city they purport to serve
(Ryanair is notorious for this).
Express buses can be useful when the airport is a long way from your
destination; research it online. If you cannot find one that goes
to your hotel, go to the hotel nearest to yours and have them call
you a taxi for the last mile. The same applies to airport express trains.
Note that the Narita Express train in Japan requires a reservation
and you must sit in your reserved seat; this is because
(traveling from the airport) the train splits into three pieces
going to different destinations and you need to be in the right
piece. You get the reservation and ticket from a booth near the
entrance to the train platform. There's also the Skyliner (if you
are going to, say, Ueno), which is slightly cheaper and faster and
run by a different company. Both will be a hassle if you have much
luggage. The "limousine" buses are cheaper and can be very
slow (traffic) but luggage is no problem and they may take you
directly to your hotel (if not, do as described above and go to one
nearby and take a taxi for the last mile).
If coming off a long distance flight, I generally prefer to stay at
an airport hotel the first night and will take their bus or car to get
there. Then move on the next day, when I'm rested and alert.
Back to self-drive in richer countries: the cheaper rental
companies often hassle you to buy upgrades or insurance and/or they
discover previously imperceptible damage to the car when you return
it. For this reason I generally deal only with the big three: Hertz,
Avis, and National/Eurocar (yellow, red, and green respectively) as
they are generally hassle-free. It's important to join their frequent
travel programs: this will save you paperwork, allow you to bypass
lines, and may also have other benefits.
Beware of any airport that has a central rentacar place (San
Francisco is like this). You have to take a bus or train to get there
and then there is sure to be a line at the counter. Better to use an
off-airport location in those cases.
Don't pay for "insurance" or collision damage waiver (CDW): you should
get some other form of insurance that covers this. Within the USA you
can generally add rental car insurance to your own car insurance for a
trivial sum, elsewhere you want to use a high-end credit card that has
primary rental car insurance. (Almost all cards have secondary
insurance but that's not good enough.)
You almost never want to take the pre-purchased gas option: do the
math. You should generally return the car with the same amount of gas
as when you picked it up, otherwise they'll hit you with a refueling
charge at inflated rates. However, in some countries (e.g., South
Korea) you may find the car runs on LPG. I've no idea how you refill
those. Automated self-service gas stations can be inscrutable and
should generally be avoided unless you are running seriously low.
I've generally found a cashier or someone willing to help, but some
are totally unmanned so you may be dependent on the kindness of fellow
motorists (same goes for automated parking lots).
Speaking of automated parking lots: Japanese hotels (and some
other locations) have elevator garages, which look like a slim 8-or
10 storey building with no windows. Here, you drive your car in and
onto a ramp, collect your stuff and get out, and the car disappears
into the sky. When you collect it, it will be back on the ramp at
ground level, but facing out. There's usually a man to operate the
thing but if not, you can get help at the hotel reception--and
should do so as there are lots of buttons. I'm always worried that
if I press the wrong button it'll come back upside down or inside
out.
Note that some countries require an International Driving
License. Some (e.g., Italy) don't check but you could be in trouble
if you don't have one and have to deal with the police for any
reason. You absolutely must have one in Japan: you cannot rent a
car without it. You need to get these in your home country; in the
USA you get them from AAA for about $15.
Automatic transmissions are not common in Europe and South America
and will cost a lot more. Learn to drive a stick shift: rent one for
a day and just practice (the same goes for driving on the "other" side
of the road).
In remote places like Easter Island and other small islands, you'll
need to take whatever you can get: ask your hotel.
One-way rentals often carry a large additional cost: you need to
research it. In Japan it can matter if the dropoff is in the same
or a different prefecture. On the other hand, there can be
spectacular deals when there is a surplus of cars in one area. For
example, it is often very cheap (almost free) to pick up a car in
the American sunbelt in spring and drop it off in the North some
days later (what
counts as "North" depends on the circumstances at the company;
generally San Francisco, Kansas City, or Atlanta will do); and
vice versa in the fall. I once got a similar deal in Australia,
picking up a car in Uluru and dropping it in Alice Springs.
Taking rental cars across an international border can be
problematic. For example, you may not be allowed to take a car
rented in Germany into Italy. Taking a car between Chile and
Argentina needs to be arranged in advance and costs extra. And you
normally need to return the car to the country where you picked it
up. Taking rental cars between the USA and Canada is OK, but you
are supposed to notify the rental company in advance. Mexico is
more difficult: it is possible but needs explicit permission and
additional insurance.
The usual rental companies do not have much of a presence in Japan,
and the language of Japanese rental companies' websites can be a
challenge; I generally use JR Ekiren's English site, which is quite
good:
www.ekiren.co.jp.
(JR is Japan
Rail and eki means station, so these are always located at a train station).
Another site with a functional English web site is
Tocoo. They act as a broker
for various companies all around Japan and have good rates, but add a
modest markup of their own. Picking up a rental car in Japan can be
tricky if you don't speak Japanese (the agents will seldom speak
English) but Tocoo can send them a bilingual script. Another broker
option with a decent website is
rentalcars.com
but I've not used them myself.
All Japanese motorways/expressways are toll roads, and quite expensive.
Furthermore, the toll machines are very difficult to handle if you
don't speak Japanese. Tocoo will rent you an "ETC" card that lets
you drive through the automated lanes. On the other hand, rental
cars in Japan are most useful in rural areas where you'll be on
local roads and won't need to deal with tolls; for longer distances
you are better off using trains or planes rather than cars.
It used to be the case for navigation in Japan that you would need to
rent a car with an English (or "international") GPS. But the
English was restricted to the top level of the menus. Once you got
into details, it was back to Japanese. And Japanese GPSs don't
accept latitude-longitude as input: they want the phone number of
the destination. I now find it easier to use Google maps on my
phone, though I miss the languid female voice that did the spoken
directions "just follow the road for a while."
It's worth noting that printed maps in Japan (and some other
places) often do not have North at the top. This goes for maps in
towns and those handed out at tourist destinations as well as road
maps; this should be banned by the UN! Check carefully or you will
get hopelessly lost. And for countries that do not use the English
alphabet, an English map will be useful for planning, but for
navigation you need one in the local language so you can match it up
with road signs and street names.
Some people like to travel in campers or recreational vehicles
(RVs). I've never understood this myself, as hotels are generally
cheaper and more comfortable, so if this is your scene you'll need
to look elsewhere for advice.
You often need to buy suburban train and subway tickets from an
inscrutable machine: look at it carefully--there will generally be
some button for selecting English (maybe indicated by a British or
American flag). Beware that the machine may be cash-only, and credit
card-only is also possible. Elsewhere you may be better off buying a
stored value card at the airport (e.g., an Oyster in London, T-Money
in South Korea, or Suica in Japan) so that you don't need to deal with
individual tickets. You can load an electronic version of Suica on to
smartphones as an app (well, iPhones, for Android you need a Japanese
phone) and this has the advantage that you can add money
electronically using a credit card (otherwise you have to stick the
physical card in a machine and, mysteriously, it goes in one way round
in some places and the other elsewhere). There are many alternatives
to Suica, such as Pasmo, and they all interoperate: use whichever you
can get (or use the app version) as there is a supply-chain problem
with the chips they use and all are in short supply. Suica and
T-Money can be used in many stores and restaurants, not just for
travel.
Note that in many countries you need to "validate" your ticket before
you get on the train: there will be machines around the station and
you need to stick your ticket in and get it stamped. The fines for
not doing this are quite substantial, and they do check (I was once
fined $40 in Italy for failing to validate a $5 ticket).
For long distance travel there are usually substantial discounts
for buying tickets in advance or on the app of the operator concerned.
And there may be some discount deals for visitors that you need to buy
in advance. These can often be very valuable: for example, in
Switzerland where they also get you big discounts on mountain lifts
and trains.
Contrary to what you will read everywhere, a Japan Rail
Pass almost never pays off: you need to go much further than Tokyo to
Kyoto and back (and the price is going up in the fall of 2023 so that
even a round trip from Tokyo to Fukuoka won't make it pay off).
Furthermore, you cannot take the Nozomi shinkansen trains with these
passes (or must pay a large supplement after the fall of 2023): not
only are these the fastest trains, but they are the most frequent.
However, there are dozens of other rail passes and package deals in
Japan that can be very valuable: study
www.japan-guide.com and its
specific page on
rail passes. They have a calculator
that will help you decide whether a pass will work out for your itinerary.
An online source for discounted tickets in Japan and elsewhere is the
Hong Kong based
consolidator klook.com. I've not
used them myself, so please check their reviews. Also note that the
low-cost airlines in Japan (e.g., Peach, a subsidiary of ANA) can be
very cheap (much cheaper than train for, say, Tokyo-Osaka), and
frequent flier tickets on JAL and ANA are usually readily available
and are a very good deal (typically only 5,000 miles or points from
OneWorld or Star Alliance, respectively). If I were flying into
Narita with somewhere else as my ultimate destination, I would
stopover at a Narita hotel and take a domestic flight the next day in
preference to Shinkansen.
hyperdia.com used to be a superb site
for researching Japanese train schedules, but it's now been
butchered so that it no longer gives the times, just typical durations.
Navitime is a tolerable
replacement, and Google maps can do OK.
Etiquette on trains (and public transport in general) differs
massively from country to country. In Japan, for example, it is a
major solecism to hold or answer a phone call at your seat (do it in the
vestibule at the end of the car/carriage, if you must), whereas in
Taiwan it's OK to hold one at the top of your voice.
As someone who uses a walking cane, I find the reaction of other
people on public transport to be interesting. In London (where I grew
up), fit and healthy young people will push me aside in order to
occupy the disabled seats ahead of me. In Japan, people in those
seats will instantly give them up if an elderly Japanese comes along,
but will ignore me unless I say something (in Japanese). In Rio de
Janeiro and Moscow, half the subway car will leap to its feet to offer
me a seat the moment I enter. There seems to be a law favoring the
elderly in Rio and I have often been escorted to the head of any line
I happened to be in. A similar thing happens at airport security in
many countries.
First class is seldom necessary on trains, but is attractive if it
is cheap. A reserved seat is often worthwhile but beware that in
Japan, for example, if traveling alone, they will always assign
someone to the seat next to you, so I generally prefer an unreserved
seat in those circumstances (and then the adjacent seat will generally
stay empty--Google "gaijin seat"). Note that Japanese shinkansen are
wide and the seats are 5 across in coach (2 & 3) and 4 in first (2 &
2, called "Green Class"), whereas European trains are 2 & 2 and 2 & 1
respectively. A Japanese train ticket is not easy to decode: you have
to be able to pick out the car number and to match that to the layout
diagram above the platform to figure out where to stand (you need to
stand in approximately the right place as the train will stop for only
a minute or so).
There generally
is not a lot of space for luggage on trains, so travel lightly,
consign your stuff to the goods car, or send it separately.
Overnight trains with sleeping cars can occasionally be useful. These
need a lot of research: check
www.seat61.com.
On short overnight routes, the train may arrive at its destination
very early, like 05:00 am. Usually, you can stay in your sleeper
until a more reasonable hour, such as 07;30, but it can be noisy as
you will be in a station.
Be aware that there's a new generation of European Sleeper trains
called "nightjet", initially operated by Austrian Railways. These
have single person capsule-style "minicabins" that are quite
affordable.
In the USA, except in the Northeast, long distance trains are slow and
often delayed (they share the tracks of the freight lines, which have
priority), but they are comfortable, and many are very scenic:
see amtrak. The distances are so
great that the journey often takes several days, and some sections
have no alternative to overnight travel. Regular fares are fairly
cheap, but sleeping cars are expensive. They are priced by demand so
booking well in advance (or sometimes at the last minute), and
comparing dates, is
recommended: RailForLess.us
automates this.
The coastal ferries in Alaska and Norway are very attractive ways
of seeing the scenery; they can carry cars and have a range of
overnight accommodations, including fairly comfortable cabins.
Unfortunately the
Alaska Marine
Highway System seems to be fading away and the Norwegian
Hurtigruten
system is becoming more of a cruise line. It is still worthwhile
researching their current offerings.
Japan has a
good selection of
ferries along its coastline and to its many small islands, and
also a couple that go to Korea. The coastal ferries are mostly
overnight and capsule-style accommodations are included in the fare,
with private rooms costing extra. Sometimes a 21 Day Pass is
available: this allows 6 trips on any of 15 routes within a 21 day
period for Y21,000, which is a very good deal. It does not seem to be
available at the moment, but is worth Googling (check the dates of any
links).
The methods for boarding, paying, and getting off suburban buses
differ hugely from country to country--e.g., in Japan you board (and
take a ticket) at the middle and get off (and pay) at the front; in
London, it's the other way about; you need to research it or ask the
driver.
There are sometimes restrictions on what you can do or bring on a
bus: in the 1960s, buses in Newcastle upon Tyne (where I was a
student) said "no spitting," and in Taipei they say "no birds."
You cannot assume that "developed" countries have honest taxis.
For example, Stockholm has no regulation on taxi fares (they just have
to display the rate, usually on a rear door window) and you can easily
get charged huge sums with no recourse if you get in without checking.
Not all taxis take credit cards. Check before entering if that's
all you have.
Research the local tipping custom in advance: for example, you should
not attempt to tip a Japanese taxi driver (nor to open the nearside
rear door yourself). Incidentally, Japan has a reputation for
expensive taxis but that is because the cities are huge and distances
tend to be large. If you use public transport to get close to your
destination and a taxi for the last mile, then it will be quite
reasonable.
In poorer countries there are tuk-tuk taxis or even, e.g., in
Vietnam, motor bike taxis. These are cheaper than regular taxis but
are objectively more dangerous (in Vietnam, the driver is required to
provide you with a crash helmet), and tuk-tuks are not air conditioned
(and air conditioning is very welcome in the local climate).
The big hotel chain companies such as Accor, Choice, Hilton, Hyatt,
IHG, Marriott, etc. each operate 12 to 20 different brands targeting
different market segments. Some people have preferences for one
particular brand or chain, others not so. Each chain has a frequent
guest program that operates more or less the same across all of its
brands, so you'll accumulate points and status more rapidly if you
stick to one chain or brand. That said, the value of points and
status has declined significantly over the years, so although you
should always sign up for whatever their program is, you should study
the rewards to see if it's worth favoring one chain.
As with airlines, you can automatically gain status and points with
certain credit cards. Check out the blogs for current opportunities.
Points can get you free rooms or reduced rates, and status can get you
things like room upgrades, early check in or late check out, free
breakfast, or access to a club or lounge that provides free food and
sometimes drinks in the evening. Like everything else, the quality of
these offerings has declined significantly over the years, but it also
differs greatly from one country to another; the weakest club
offerings are in the United States and the best tend to be found in
Asia, although Europe, Middle East, and South America can also put on
generous spreads that are sufficient to replace dinner, if you choose.
The club usually offers a pleasant place to sit or work during the day
and, if it is staffed, you can usually check in and out there instead
of the usual lobby.
You will generally get the best deal for earning points, and often
the best price, by using the website of the chain concerned. For
independent hotels, and for cross checking, use booking sites such
as booking.com, or
expedia.com. For luxury hotels,
there are significant benefits (e.g., $100 food and beverage credit,
early check in) for booking with specialized travel agents such as
Virtuoso, AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts, Hyatt Prive, etc.
Check in and check out times are enforced rigidly in some countries
(e.g., Japan) and are flexible in others, particularly near airports,
and especially so if international flights typically arrive at
ludicrous hours (e.g., Sydney Australia, and most of India). Early
check in and late check out are offered as explicit privileges for
high-tier membership in some hotel awards programs. Requesting a
late check out is usually more successful if you do it the night
before, rather than the morning of. Two hours is about the limit you
can get. If I need to work, I ask if I can stay on for a few hours
after check out in the club, breakfast room, common area, lobby
etc. and have never been refused.
Different countries and different chains and hotels differ in
whether breakfast is included as part of the deal. Sometimes you
have to pay a higher rate unless you have significant status in the
chain concerned. And different countries have different ideas about
what constitutes a breakfast, with some offering just bread and jam,
or conflakes. Western chains sometimes charge astonishing sums for
a full breakfast (like $40) if it's not part of your rate. Oddly,
although room service breakfast is usually even more expensive for
the default "all in" option, it can sometimes be very reasonable for
a single simple dish such as eggs and toast. Study the room service
menu with care and note the small print for any service and delivery
charges (and you should usually tip as well). Alternatively, the
hotel may have a less expensive cafe that's separate from the dining
room.
If the hotel's offerings are
absent/inadequate/unattractive/expensive, then check out the local
cafes and restaurants, which will often have good deals on
breakfast. You may need to learn the local argot for the type of
coffee you want: for example, in Austria I ask for a "grosser
brauner" and in Australia for a "flat white"). There's a vowel
shift going on in New Zealand so, especially in the South of the
country, you may be asked if you want your coffee "blick or wet".
In surprisingly many countries the American fast food chains can
get your day started without much hassle or expense. If all else
fails, grab a sandwich or lay in supplies the night before from a
local supermarket.
The blogs tend to focus on luxury hotels, often in rather routine
destinations, and are not so useful when the hotel is not an end in
itself, but merely the means to visit somewhere interesting or
attractive.
The loyaltytraveler
blog covers strategies for more modest hotels, though I think it
sometimes goes a bit too far on the penny-pinching. (That blog no
longer seems to be maintained, but you may get some value from its
back numbers.)
I named several international chains earlier, but some countries
have their own chains. For example in Japan you have chains like
Toyoko Inn, Dormy Inn, Route-Inn, APA etc. that dwarf the
international chains and provide outstanding value: typically $50-$60
a night anywhere, including Tokyo. They are almost always located
next to a train or subway station (which are perfectly good areas in
Japan) and are designed for solo travelers (so-called business man's
hotels) but many Japanese couples use them too. Comfort Inn and
Holiday Inn/Crowne Plaza also have some hotels in this segment. There
are also several chains that are a bit more upmarket, such as
Tokyu/Excel, Prince, New Otani.
My preference is Toyoko Inn
www.toyoko-inn.com/eng;
their rooms are rationally designed and identical across all hotels.
The rooms are small, like a cruise ship cabin (but better designed)
with a small bathroom (Japanese toilet and a shower over the o-furo
bath), and Japanese breakfast is included. Their frequent guest
program has substantial benefits--definitely join. I've never
understood the attraction of capsule hotels when Toyoko Inn is often
less expensive. You are required to be out of the room between 10:00
a.m. and 4:00 p.m. so they can clean the rooms like an assembly line
(they will often call you if you are still in the room at 10). But if
you need some downtime or have work to do, you can opt for "eco-plan"
and stay in the room. Eco-plan means no service, but a bag with fresh
towels will be hung on the door handle, and you get 300Y rebate;
however, they will insist on servicing the room every couple of days.
Some Toyoko Inns are now doing day rooms--you'll need to explore their
website for details.
Their rooms have a 4-ft bed (rock solid like all beds in Asia) and
a good desk and chair. If the chair was a swivel and tilt variety I
could happily live in a Toyoko Inn room, but it is a solid upright job
(OTOH many other chains have just a stool). Consequently I generally
intersperse several days in Toyoko Inns with a couple in a comfortable
upmarket western chain.
When you check in to a Japanese hotel, there will often be a table
beside where you stand. That's for your luggage while you transact
your business; Japanese people travel with very little and this
keeps it to hand. The hotel usually supplies nightclothes
("nemaki"), toothbrush and toothpaste, razor, etc. that you may need
to pick up yourself from a nearby stash or cupboard. Japanese
people give their names in lastname, firstname order, and it can
cause some confusion at check in no matter what order a Westerner
uses; it's usually best to point to your last name on your
reservation or your passport.
Note that Japanese hotels are often very strict about check in time
(typically 3pm) and will not let you check in early, except maybe at
airport hotels. Same with check out. Also, they do not accept
bookings very far in advance (typically they cut off at 3 or 6
months ahead).
Another country with its own chain is Spain: the Paradores are
state-owned hotels, mostly located in historic buildings such as
castles, monasteries, and so on. Some of them are truly spectacular
and they are always comfortable and for the most part reasonably
priced: https://paradores.es/en.
Portugal has something similar called Pousadas but I have no personal
experience of them.
Some chains operate differently in different countries. For
example, Choice Hotels in most of the world are different to Nordic
Choice Hotels and they have separate points systems. You can use
Choice Points at Nordic Choice Hotels but can earn only Nordic
Choice Points at those hotels. And sometimes one of the point
currencies is better value and sometimes the other. Clarion
Collection Hotels (not ordinary Clarion Hotels) can be a good use of
Choice points (of either kind) as they include an evening meal, which
may otherwise be expensive in Scandinavian countries.
Ondol rooms are a somewhat similar tradition in Korea. They may
have a bed, but the floor will be bare (though possibly heated) and
furniture and seating will be minimal.
It's also worth noting that hotel chains may have special deals for
longer "free" stays using points (e.g., five nights for the price of
four) and there are sometimes similar deals when using cash. These
change, so you need to research them.
First, a couple of general remarks. Since I walk with a cane I
find it difficult to use a tray, but I've never had a problem
getting help from the staff.
Next, people are sometimes apprehensive about eating alone in
restaurants and feel they will be the object of attention and
curiosity. In fact, no one will even be aware you are there: look
up "spotlight effect."
Then, it's worth noting that some countries eat animals (e.g.,
horse, sea cucumber), or parts of animals (e.g., brain, tendon),
that you might rather not. Research it before you go. If you are
really nervous about it, learn how to ask for vegetarian food.
You first examine some small number of restaurants to get
calibrated, then start visiting the rest and take the first one that
seems better than any you've seen already. Optimally, the small
number is about a third of those available (n/e to be exact), but 2
is generally sufficient.
Japanese restaurants still allow smoking. If you want a nonsmoking
seat, say "kinnen seki". There is often a box or table by your
seat. This is for your bag. Wet umbrellas are usually left in a
rack at the door (that's true of shops, too). Some restaurants will
have a button like a doorbell on the table: you press this when you
want the server to come over, otherwise flap your hand (never point)
and say "sumimasen." I'm told that post-Covid many restaurants
require you to scan a QR code at the table and select from an online
menu but I have no personal experience of that. The waitperson will
usually leave the bill when they deliver your food; when you are
done you take this to the cashier and pay. No tipping. And don't
expect to pass money hand to hand: you put it on a tray and get your
change back in the same way (that's true everywhere in Japan,
including konbini, supermarkets, and ticket windows).
The Japanese equivalent of Yelp
is Tabelog. The Japanese
language version is more comprehensive than the English one, but
obviously more of a challenge to use.
Some traditional places may invite you to eat sitting on the floor.
Often there's another room or area with tables and chairs so look
around if the floor doesn't work for you. And sometimes there's a
pit below the table, so sitting on the floor is not so uncomfortable,
If dining solo, you will sometimes be seated at a large shared
table (or at a long counter). There will generally be some token of
privacy between adjacent seats, such as a plant or a screen, and you
are not expected to converse. Some Japanese will be apprehensive
sitting next to a Westerner, so it's gracious to sit adjacent to a
vacant seat if you can. Shared tables are found in other countries,
too.
Japanese coffee shops will also have food, with a "morning set"
(pronounced "morningu settu" or "morningu sabisu") for breakfast
(typically boiled egg and toast with bacon or another something on
the side, plus coffee or tea). You need to specify hot coffee
("hotto kohi") as it can also come iced. You usually order and
collect your food at the counter, but you'll need to look around to
suss it out.
There are numerous local chains, such as Mossburger for burgers and
Suki-ya for gyudon, plus American ones such as McDonalds and Dennys.
The western chains are useful if you need to start your day with a
familiar breakfast or just want a break from Japanese food. You have
to eat it there (the seating may be upstairs) or take it back to your
hotel: it's rude to eat on the street (except at food carts), though
it's OK if you can find a bench to sit at.
Food at chains and modest restaurants is inexpensive in Japan: you can
eat well on $5 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, and $20 for dinner. You
will find these places all around train stations, in malls, and on the
top floor of department stores.
You can also get decent food from "konbini" (convenience stores) such
as 7-11, Lawsons, Family Mart etc., including sandwiches (with the
crusts cut off), bentos, and bowls to heat up in the microwave. The
cashiers will warm food for you, and business hotels such as Toyoko
Inn will have a microwave in the common area. Family Mart sells
"famichiki," which is fried chicken pieces that are very popular.
Incidentally, 7-11 is a Japanese, not American, company and its local
stores (and other konbini) are totally clean, respectable and safe.
There's a konbini on every corner, they are usually open 24 hours, and
they provide all sorts of services in addition to selling food and
drink: photocopying, tickets for almost anything, luggage forwarding
by Takkyubin, ATMs (but only 7-11 is sure to work with western cards)
and so on. You'll find them in South Korea and Taiwan as well as
Japan.
Japanese supermarkets will also have food to go (and sometimes a
place to eat it) and the basement of department stores is almost
always a food store. These will sell unsold fresh food cheaply
toward the end of the day.
Train stations will have places selling "ekiben" -- bentos to eat on
the train; generally, some of these will be specialties of the region
or station.
There is no special tax on alcohol in Japan, so beer, wine, and
spirits are very cheap: you can get a decent bottle of wine from a
konbini for $5. They sell sake ("nihonshu") and shochu and other
spirits and premixed cocktails, too. Beer is widely available from
vending machines; there is a notion of "green beer," which is beer
made from something other than malted barley that attracts even lower
tax and is very cheap.
Vending machines are everywhere in Japan and are invaluable when you
are hot and dehydrated: they have hot and cold coffee and numerous
kinds of soft drinks. One called "Pucari Sweat" is very good--it's
like Gatorade. Calpis is also worth trying. The machines take
notes/bills as well as coins and they give change--and they always
work. Increasingly, they also take credit cards as well.
You can also drink and get food at an izakaya (pub). Just make sure
it is an izakaya and not a "club" where hostesses sit with you and
you get fleeced or worse. If you are drinking with others, it is
rude to pour your own drink: others will pour it for you, and you
should pour theirs for them.
High-end restaurants are very good in Japan, and very expensive. It
is unlikely that a westerner will even get in to a seriously high-end
sushi place--the proprietors just don't want the bother.
First, if your hotel serves a buffet breakfast you can set some
food aside, or make yourself a sandwich, and take it with you.
It's best to do this openly (e.g., take it out on a paper plate).
If the staff object, you can say you have to work and want to eat
in your room. If that doesn't work, then eat it (and more) there
and then so they see there's no percentage in it. I usually pack a
few ziptop plastic sandwich bags for subsequently transporting the
food on my outing. And, of course, you can always ask them to make
and sell you a lunch box.
Alternatively, if you are having breakfast in a cafe, ask if they
can also make you a sandwich to go. They may have a "to go" menu
or, if not, they're usually happy to improvise with what they have
(e.g., make you a bacon sandwich).
The "Subway" chain is ubiquitous in the USA and is present in
surprisingly many other countries, which may also have similar
chains of their own (e.g., Greggs and Pret a Manger
in
the UK, or Paul in France). I usually prefer to take
the sandwich unheated when I'm not planning to eat it for several
hours, but some places may say they cannot do that (e.g., at a
Subway in Auckland New Zealand I was told it must be heated for food
safety reasons). You just have to roll with it.
Elsewhere, local sandwich shops or the indigenous equivalent (e.g.,
Bahn Mi in Vietnam) can supply you. These tend to be found most
densely in business districts and around or inside train and bus
stations. And supermarkets can usually provide ready-made sandwiches
or the ingredients (I usually get packs of flatbread, sliced ham, and
cheese). In really rural areas, gas stations often have some sort of
store that can keep you going.
In Japan and many other SE Asia countries, konbini (convenience
stores) such as 7-11 have a vast array of fresh sandwiches
("sandos") and other "to go" items such as onigiri (rice balls,
maybe stuffed with something, and wrapped in seaweed).
Although I've spoken mainly of sandwiches, many countries also
have their own style of "to go" food. For example, South America
and other former Spanish colonies have empenadas, England has pork
pies and Cornish pasties, the Eastern Mediterranean has stuffed
pita, India can provide tiffin (boxes), and Japan has bento boxes.
If you are on a driving tour, note that the glove box is usually
cooled by the air conditioning (but of course heats up when parked).
In the USA, you can buy foam cool boxes for just a few dollars in
supermarkets and hardware stores, and also packs of ice. Hotels
often have ice makers, too, though these are intended for cooling
drinks in the ice bucket, not for loading cool boxes.
Finally, independently of daytrips, there may be days when you
just don't feel like going out for dinner. There's a whole
subculture
of cooking
in your hotel room (also look on YouTube) using just a coffee
maker or electric iron. It's best to pack some plastic cutlery and a
plate or bowl if you plan to do this (plastic in order not to excite
airport security). If you need beer or wine, look for screwtops.
And, of course, "long stay" type hotels may provide a microwave or
even a full kitchen, and a shop (usually, very expensive).
Note that many countries have strict rules against bringing in
food and fruit from outside (e.g., from a plane or ship), so don't
do it. Snacks like Snickers are usually OK though.
I assume those at either extreme of the plan it/wing it spectrum
can do their thing, perhaps using some of the tips above, so
I'll just add a few lines for those in the middle.
One item of advice if you want to leave things flexible is always
to have a backup, especially for accommodation. It's risky to roll
into town and expect to find a nice place to stay. But if you are
in that situation, it's usually best to visit the local Visitors
Bureau or equivalent and ask them to find a place for you. However,
you'll generally do better to search online a day or so beforehand.
As your backup, make a refundable booking well in advance at
somewhere that'll be tolerable and easy to get to, but don't forget
to find your more attractive alternative and cancel the backup
before it reverts to nonrefundable. The terms on cancellations and
refunds are often more generous for bookings made with points than
with money.
Last minute train and plane fares are usually expensive (but not
always, especially for points, which often become available in the
final few days before departure), and cancellations and no-shows can
be very costly (e.g., a missed flight will generally cancel all
subsequent flights on the same ticket), so best to plan at least a
little ahead.
Being a no-show may have no financial penalties with car rentals
and restaurants, but it is uncivil.
"The best-laid plans..." Things can go wrong: e.g., the site you
planned to visit is closed today, or the weather is bad. So have a
backup plan of places to visit or things to do.
You sometimes read of tourists trapped for days due to volcanic
eruptions, wildfires, strikes, plane groundings, epidemics etc. If
it happens to you, exercise your imagination and look for an
accessible destination with available hotels (or a last-minute
cruise), and just settle in for the duration. Sort out the
long-term resolution once you are comfortable.
First of all, the really famous places can be overcrowded and a
real hassle to visit, but they are famous for a reason. If you decide
to visit one of these (and I mean places like Yosemite, Iguassu Falls,
Matterhorn, major sites in European Capitols, the Vatican, Jerusalem, Taj
Mahal, etc.), study the restrictions and procedures and be prepared to
pay for expedited access. Even some of the natural sites (like
Yosemite and Arches) have limited and timed access. And bear in mind
that even if you do get in, it may be no fun in the company of
thousands of others. (See for example, this photo from my visit to the
Treasury
in Petra.) Consider going out of season (and Europe should in any
case be avoided in Summer due to heat and humidity and lack of
reliable air conditioning), or getting off the most beaten trails
(e.g., you do not have to walk far from the parking lots to find some
peace in Yosemite), or visiting secondary sites.
The latter point is worth expanding: although the most famous
places are famous for a reason, there are often nearby places that
are barely known to the general public and are only a little less
spectacular. So visit the main sight and get your photograph, then
go to one of the other places to really dig in. For example, after
the Taj Mahal, check out Fatehpur Sikrhi (just outside Agra) and
also the
Tombs of Humayun and Safdarjang in Delhi.
When I speak of really famous or spectacular places, I mean those
that get 3* in the Michelin Green Guides, which are a good source of
general information. Online, I suggest browsing the
community pages (especially trip reports) on
Fodors and
Trip Advisor, and
taking a look at videos on YouTube. Don't just look at the top level pages and
links: do a search. If you are really struggling for inspiration,
take a look at this list of all the countries and territories in the
world, courtesy of
the Travelers'
Century Club.
Many countries have excellent websites, some official and some
maintained by enthusiasts, such
as japan-guide.com that
provide a wealth of information. And, incidentally, the Japan
National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has an excellent series of
printable
pdf guides to various places and aspects of travel in Japan. See
also this
more extensive list.
Guided tours and daytrips can be another source of ideas. You may
not want to take such a tour, but browsing their itineraries can
suggest places you might like to visit, or to avoid.
For the record, let me observe that the finest concentrations of
scenery I've seen are in the American West (Yosemite, Kings Canyon,
Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches and numerous other parks
nearby), the European Alps (Bernese Oberland, Matterhorn, the
mountains around Mt. Blanc, Dolomites), the Norwegian
coastline/fjords (by both road and by ferry), Iguassu Falls, and
Pacific Islands (with atolls top of that list). The scenery I most
regret not visiting is Southern Patagonia (Towers of Paine in Chile
and Mt. Fitzroy in Argentina). And (I should have done these when I
was younger) further into the Himalayas (e.g., Sikkim--I've been as
far as Darjeeling) and the Karakorum.
For the works of man, I'd recommend the Taj Mahal, Dome of the
Rock (I've actually been inside, which I believe is no longer
possible for non-Muslims), cities of Andalusia, many European
Cathedrals (with Sainte Chapelle at the top), Hagia Sofia, Ravenna,
and Easter Island. The places I most regret not visiting (I should
have gone in the 1970/80s) are Iran, Uzbekistan (for the Silk Road
cities) and Mali (for the music, Timbuktu, and the Mud Mosque of
Djenne--though I have been to a reproduction of the Mud Mosque in Jeju,
South Korea, which houses an excellent collection of African art).
In addition to the most spectacular sights of nature and man, there
are places that are just pleasant to visit and to stay for their
general vibe. The country I've visited most often is Japan and it has
to be admitted there are no 3* sights in Japan, and precious few 2*
(some of the original castles, some temples and shrines, and some
scenery), but there are thousands of interesting and attractive lesser
sights. In addition, it is very easy, convenient, and cheap to travel
in Japan (if you know something of the history and culture, and speak
a little Japanese). Other places I have greatly enjoyed visiting
include mainland Greece, New Zealand, Vietnam, and their neighboring
countries. If I were younger I would explore Northern Thailand and
Laos, the former Yugoslavia, North Africa, Southern India, Bhutan,
Western China and Tibet, and more of Chile and Argentina (the Lake
District, Patagonia, Salta).
For cruises (other than repositionings as a way to get from A to
B), I recommend those that visit places it is otherwise difficult to
get to: Panama and Suez canals, Pacific Islands, high latitudes
(Arctic islands and ice cap, Greenland, Antarctic Peninsular), and
coastal scenery and isolated towns (Norwegian fjords, the West and
South Coasts of South America).
Do take note of the climate, seasons, and weather for any
prospective cruise: you don't want to get caught up in hurricanes
and typhoons nor mosquito/gnat/midge season. Summer is intolerable
almost everywhere except continental West Coasts and fairly high
latitudes (e.g., New Zealand), and anywhere close to the equator is
miserably hot and humid year round. Also be aware of local
week-long holidays, such as Golden Week and Obon in Japan.
For the actual decision where to go, it can be helpful to have a
theme. For example, at some point I realized I'd been to many of
the US State Capitols. So, if I had a reason to be in the general
vicinity of another one of these, I'd make it a point to visit and
tick it off. The same with California Missions, Cathar Castles,
waterfalls that land in the ocean, the Japanese prefectures and so on.
This causes you to go places you might otherwise overlook, and can
provide serendipitous enjoyment.
I'd like to add a special note about Antarctica. There are two
ways of going here by cruise ship. One is a "drive-by" on a
mainstream cruise ship, the other is an "expedition" cruise on a
small ship. The former generally travel between Santiago, Chile
(they actually use the ports of Valparaiso or San Antonio, which are
some distance away) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (some others use Rio
de Janeiro instead or do a round trip from Buenos Aires). All take
a 5 or 6 day excursion to the Antarctic Peninsular and most also
visit the Falkland Islands. Of these, I recommend the Santiago to
Buenos Aires option. This is because the Chilean fjords are
excellent, but seem an anticlimax after Antarctica if you do the
opposite direction. And "Glacier Alley" to the west of Ushuaia is
truly spectacular (7 or more massive glaciers) and you want to be
sure of seeing it in daylight. The expedition cruises are usually
round trip from Ushuaia, Argentina, which requires a flight from
Buenos Aires.
Either way, it takes a day or more to cross the Drake Passage
between Cape Horn and Antarctica (one of the roughest stretches of
water in the world), and you then have 3 or 4 days noodling around
the islands and coastline of the Antarctic Peninsular (some
expedition cruises also go to South Georgia, although that is
restricted at the moment due to some bird disease) before heading back
across the Drake Passage. The views and wildlife (whales, penguins)
are spectacular, if you are lucky with the weather.
The difference is that the expedition ships have landings. There
are strict rules about this: something like no more than 100 people
ashore at any one time, and no more than 500 on the ship. You land
from Zodiacs and have to wear sterile gear (usually supplied by the
ship) and boots. The landings are usually at penguin colonies; or
sometimes near research stations (you won't see Scott's hut: that's
somewhere else entirely). The downside is that it takes the best
part of a day to land everybody. Meanwhile, a drive-by cruise will
have stopped nearby for maybe an hour, and then gone on to several
other scenic locations.
People who have taken expedition cruises rave about them, but I
don't get the attraction (though I have only done a drive-by). You
can see penguins at several locations on the South American mainland
and the Falklands. Walking on glacial snow and ice with a mountain
backdrop is cool, but shouldn't be anything special if you've done
some alpine mountaineering. There's the tickbox of actually setting
foot on the continent, and you have to decide if that matters to
you.
The added thrill of the expedition cruises comes at a high price:
they cost a lot more than a drive-by (like 3 or 4 times as
much): the drive-bys cost about the same as any other cruise,
whereas the expeditions are in the 10s of thousands. You need to
decide what matters to you. Note that bad weather can more or less
wipe out the pleasure of either type of cruise, so you should be
mentally prepared to take a second trip if necessary.
There are limitations soon due to apply to ships that venture into
the Arctic and Antarctic: they will need to have an ice hull
(essentially a double skin). Regular cruise ships do not have these
so expedition cruises may be all that's left. The same will apply
to cruises to Greenland and the far North of Norway (Iceland is OK
because its waters are warm due to the Gulf Stream). Best to do
these trips soon if they matter to you. Note that even expedition
ships seldom go as far south as the Antarctic Circle: the furthest
my cruise went was 65 deg 1.5 mins South. (The Arctic Circle is
much more approachable: there are several towns north of that line
that have ferry and airline service, and cruise ships go right up to
the polar ice cap at more than 80 deg North.)
Day tours make a lot of sense if you are somewhere for only a day,
such as a cruise ship visit, and also if you want to go somewhere that
is a difficult trip from your hotel location. For example, I was in
Rio de Janeiro and wanted to visit Petropolis. This requires a couple
of buses that neither start nor end in convenient locations, or an
expensive taxi, or a rather fraught self-drive. But I found a tour
that picked me up from my hotel and took me to all the sites I wanted
to see for about $40. I don't mind fairly large groups as they tend
to move slowly and allow me time and space to look around on my own
without losing the group, but if you want a truly guided tour you'll
need to make sure it's a small group. Don't be surprised if there's a
stop at a shop or workshop: the tourguides get a kickback. Either
roll with it, or tell the guide up front that you don't want any
shopping stops and will give them a large enough tip to compensate for
the lost kickbacks.
To find local tours, check out consolidator sites such as
www.viator.com (owned by tripadvisor) or
www.getyourguide.com or
www.toursbylocals.com
or ask your hotel. Sometimes taxi drivers will do a deal to show you
around for a few hours or half a day. Again, ask your hotel or, if
you can handle rug merchant negotiations, talk with the drivers
outside or at the local taxi rank.
Another option, when you want information and guidance rather than
transport is to hire, well, a guide. These can range from volunteers
to highly qualified professionals and all shades in between. For
professional guides, start with the websites above,
Japan has volunteer guides, usually retired folks who are often highly
educated and knowledgeable, but sometimes younger people who want to
practice their English. You pay their travel costs and it's decent to
treat them to lunch and give them some small gift from your home
country, but no tipping. Check
out Goodwill
Guides.
When you enter a tourist site such as a temple or castle in poorer
countries such as India, Cambodia, Palestine you will invariably be
accosted by people offering to act as your "guide." These are
unlikely to have any special education, but it's worth taking one on
as they can be informative, know where things are, where to get the
best photos and so on--and they keep all the other touts away. Talk
with a few and tell them what you want to see and do and select one
who seems suitable (and who you can understand). There's no prearranged
fee: it's always "give me what you think it's worth," so it's
advisable to get some hints beforehand (e.g., ask your hotel). Don't
be upset or intimidated if your friendly guide turns abusive if he's
not satisfied with your tip when you think it was adequate. On the
other hand, it's not worth trying to score a bargain for sums that are
trivial to us westerners (we're talking a few dollars).
Day tours and guides are also a good idea if you are in a place where
you worry about safety.
Most westerners feel fairly safe in their home country, but that is
probably because we know where to go and not to go, what to do and not
to do; and we know the local vibe and can pick up warning signs.
Objectively, however, many western countries are only moderately safe
compared to, say, Iceland or Singapore. Take a look at this listing,
which seems reasonably fair:
www.travelsafe-abroad.com.
The United States rates alongside Cambodia and Equatorial Guinea; the
UK is a bit better, alongside Serbia, Botswana, and Uruguay. There is
also useful information on the
US
and
UK government
web sites (the US is a bit more alarmist about foreign countries than
the UK). Note that safety can vary quite a lot among different
areas of the same country.
Most of the places you are likely to visit will be at least as
safe as your home country. But as a foreign tourist, especially where
you don't speak the language, you will lack the street smarts that
keep you out of trouble at home, and you will likely be visiting
popular sights--and those may be hotspots for petty crime. And you
might be unfamiliar with the distraction techniques used by pickpocket
gangs: bird poop on your jacket, shit on your shoes, a baby, a sudden
crowd that stops you getting off the subway, a ring on the ground.
In my view, the best protection against petty crime is to make
yourself an unattractive target, and to minimize losses if you do
become a victim. That means don't carry or wear anything expensive
(or that looks expensive, like a fake Rolex). Don't keep your wallet
in your back pocket, and be prepared to lose it--so don't carry a lot
of cash, and only 1 or 2 credit and cash cards (Google "mugging
wallet"). If you are somewhere that requires you to carry ID or
passport, keep them buried in a travel pocket or money belt inside
your pants or under your shirt--and keep some spare cash and credit
cards there too. A photocopy or photo of your passport will often
work for minor ID checks (like getting foreigner or age discounts at
museums). Keep your other stuff (weather and camera gear etc.) in a
small scruffy backpack or nondescript shopping bag, and be aware of
where these are when you put them down (put your leg or chair leg
through the handles/straps). After all this, the only valuable items
you are likely to have on you are your cellphone and maybe a camera.
Hold on to these or bury them in your pockets or bag when in crowds or
public transport: don't wander around staring at the screen or
nattering on the phone and don't hand your camera over to someone who
offers to take your picture. And be prepared to lose them--which
means back up your photos and other mementos every day: you can
replace the camera but not the photos. I speak as someone whose
camera was pickpocketed in Athens--but that's all they got. (There
are lots of reasons for having two cameras; this is one of them.)
Don't think any of this is going to make you blend in: you will
still be an obvious tourist or foreigner, but a less interesting one.
And if you still feel nervous, a good plan is to join a day tour or
hire a guide--see above.
You should leave valuable stuff in your hotel's safe box (there is
often one in the room, if not it'll be at the front desk; I think it
is a legal requirement in most places). If you are worried that you might
forget to retrieve your things, include something you cannot leave
without--like a shoe. And lock up minor stuff in your suitcase.
You're not defending against the maid, but someone who walks in as if
it's their room while the doors are left open during cleaning.
If you do lose stuff, the inconvenience can be worse than the
actual loss: dealing with credit card companies, banks, insurance, the
embassy, the police. It's a good idea to scan or photograph all your
items and their documentation before you leave home and store those
somewhere in the cloud that you will be able to reach from anywhere
(e.g., Google docs).
If you are thinking of going somewhere that is objectively more
dangerous than your home country (and you need to decide where your
risk threshold lies), then I suggest going as part of an organized
group or hiring a local guide--or just don't go.
With all that said, the vast majority of people in the world are
honest and kind and should be treated that way. Deal with those who
are not by removing temptation, and possibly yourself.
That's all.
Whether to Go
Travel can be quite stressful and there is plenty of evidence that
many people find their vacations to be a source of tension rather than
relaxation. Airlines and foreign destinations pose obvious
challenges, but it seems that trip planning is often the most
stressful aspect and within that, financial concerns, travel
arrangements, and packing are the most burdensome.
When to Go
Climate change is making this topic more important: in particular,
summers are now intolerably hot in large parts of the world, with
Europe particularly hard hit. So my general advice is to visit
mid-latitude destinations like Europe during their spring and autumn.
Some mid-latitude places (e.g., Japan) are fairly dry, sunny, and not
too cold in winter, so that can be a good time to visit, while lower
latitudes (e.g., most of India, Thailand, Taiwan) are at their best
then: you need to take a look at the local data. Other than for
special purposes (e.g., to see the Aurora Borealis), high latitudes
(e.g., Norway, Iceland, Antarctica) need to be visited in their
summer. Remember, the seasons are transposed in the Southern
Hemisphere, which can provide good destinations during the northern
winter--but you will still want to miss the peak of the local summer
in most Southern Hemisphere destinations.
Time Zones
Theoretically, time zones are spaced 15 degrees of longitude apart,
but there are numerous exceptions and the zones zig-zag dramatically
in some areas (e.g., the mid Pacific). Some large countries (e.g.,
USA) have many time zones, while others (e.g., China) have only one. Some
countries (e.g., India) or states (e.g., Australian Northern
Territory) are shifted by 30 minutes from a standard time zone, and
some (e.g., Nepal, New Zealand Chatham Islands) by 15 minutes.
Jet Lag
Don't neglect the debilitating effects of jet lag, particularly with
short trips, as this can seriously erode the time when you are fully
functional. Eastbound is worse than westbound and beyond about 5
hours you need to allocate at least a couple of days for recovery,
meaning days with no very serious obligations or sightseeing.
Duration
Do you want to do, say, one three-month trip or six two-week trips?
Long trips have logistical challenges like what to do with your mail
(the US Post Office will hold mail only for one month at a time), how
to pay your bills, how to get several months supply of prescription
meds, and how to keep your home in order. On the other hand, you can
obviously go further and do more on a long trip. And travel becomes
easier the longer it lasts: after about three weeks, I find it becomes
my way of life, rather than an interlude away from normal life. I had
a very good work arrangement where I could do a month on, a month off,
provided I averaged half time over three months, so most of my trips
were three to six weeks long.
Budget
The total cost of extensive travel can mount up: $50,000 or more a
year. So you not only need to be able to afford to make a given trip,
you need to know that you can afford it. A lot of opportunities come
up at short notice, or close to departure (e.g., frequent-flier
tickets, or last-minute cruise prices), or have a very short window
(e.g., a 2-day sale on airfares) so you may need to make decisions
quickly and cannot spend days or weeks agonizing over it. The answer
is to have a rule or budget. My rule was to be willing to take any
trip that would come in at less than $200 a day excluding airfare,
with a separate budget of $10,000 a year for airfare. I arrived at
these amounts because they would allow me to travel full-time, and I
knew they were feasible. (Of course, if I did actually travel full
time I would be able to rent out my house, which would boost my
budget, but that was not part of my plan.) With inflation, I'd
probably raise that to $250 or even more today (2023). The airfare
budget was somewhat flexible: if I had a proposed trip that might come
in at $2,000 above the $200 a day rule, then I could move $2,000 from
the airfare budget. I also had a big stash of frequent flier miles
and hotel points, which were more valuable then than now, and I would
dip into those, but always try to leave a few hundred thousand for
emergencies or opportunities. And I would sometimes structure my
trips to replenish (or exploit) those points.
Loyalty Points and Status
Most travel entities such as airlines, hotels, cruises, car hire,
booking agencies, and credit cards etc. give you benefits that
increase the more you patronize them. These may take the form of
status, so that for example, as "Gold" member, you can use shorter
lines and get better phone service, get discounts on certain services
such as checked bags, or score upgrades to a higher class of service
or a better room or car.
Luggage
Never have more luggage than you can comfortably manage on your own;
typically, that means a small rolling suitcase (preferably a
carryon-sized rollaboard), plus a softsided backpack that is what the
airlines call your "personal item." In addition to being easy to
manage, it's good to have the option not to check bags on airlines and
other forms of transport, so I recommend a rollaboard bag. You should
take the same stuff for a three month trip as for a week: figure on
getting clothes washed along the way and buying some items and
abandoning others. If you collect souvenirs, put them in a cardboard
box and send it as checked baggage at the end of your trip, or mail
them home along the way.
Money and Cash
Credit cards are accepted pretty much everywhere these days; some
countries (e.g., Sweden, Australia) are substantially cashless and
you really must have a credit or debit card (preferably of the "tap
to pay" type). Some US National Parks do not accept cash for their
entrance fees. If you lack a credit card, their advice is to
purchase a "Visa gift card" (basically, a prepaid debit card) at a
local drug store, and this seems a generally viable workaround for
those without their own cards.
Tipping
This is a contentious topic, but I suggest "when in Rome" is the best
policy. No matter what the custom is in your home country, and no
matter how irrational it seems, you need to accept that the USA, for
example, pays restaurant staff little or nothing and they are expected
to live on tips (and are taxed on this assumption). So pay up:
typically 18+%. The same goes to a lesser extent for other service
staff, such as hotel maids (a few $$ a day). Conversely, don't tip
extravagantly or at all in countries where it is not the custom: in
Japan, for example, a tip is regarded as an insult, except in special
circumstances and then you need to know how to present it (in an
envelope). In other countries, it is a token of appreciation for good
service and typically ranges from 5 to 10% or just rounding up. In
many poor countries almost everyone you interact with expects or
appreciates a tip, so roll with it. Research it before you go.
Phone and WiFi
WiFi is ubiquitous worldwide in airports, hotels, restaurants, cafes,
public buildings, and other places. Usually it is free; the only
places that charge seem to be high-end hotels in rich countries. Go
figure. With WiFi and a smartphone, you can use the Web, do email,
and, thanks to what's technically called Voice Over IP (VOIP), make
telephone calls and texts using tools like WhatsApp, FaceTime,
Google Voice, Skype etc., and even do video calls via Zoom etc.
Beware of Outdated Information
Here is Current Information
GPS
Power Supply
Documents
Before discussing specific means of travel, note that you will almost
always need some government ID for domestic travel, and a passport
(typically valid for 6 months longer than your trip) for overseas--and
possibly a visa and evidence of Covid vaccination/insurance (and
Yellow Fever vaccination for some areas).
Means of Travel
Here, I'm primarily talking about long-distance travel to and from
your destination. First, let's consider scheduling.
Scheduling
Some regard travel to and from their destination as a burden to be got
over as quickly as possible, while others regard it as an attraction
in its own right. I tend to the latter camp and you will see that I
often advocate overnight stopovers and other "timewasting"
arrangements. I advocate them chiefly as a way of minimizing stress
and discomfort, particularly if you are no longer young. But
everybody should consider the possible impact of canceled. delayed, or
misconnecting flights, lost luggage, and other disruptions to travel.
Airlines often run close to capacity, so a replacing a failed flight
may take days.
Cruises
This might seem a strange way to start as cruises are usually
round-trip self-contained vacations. But cruises can also be a good way
of getting from A to B, provided you have the time. They are
often cheaper than business class airfare: for example, business class
airfare from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia can be $8,000 but a
two week cruise between the same destinations might cost only $3,000.
And, of course, a cruise can also be a convenient way to visit other
destinations along the way, and may be attractive in its own right.
That said, I'd be cautious about cruises right now because of Covid.
Cruise Lines and Pricing
Packaged Flights
Port Excursions
Flying
The single most important thing about flying (if you are older than
25) is to avoid overnight flights (red-eyes); or, if you must take a
red-eye, then do so in first or business class with a flatbed on as
long a flight as you can: preferably longer than 12 hours. Short
red-eyes are intolerable even in first or business class: you don't
get enough sleep. The goal is to be asleep in a bed throughout your
normal night time hours.
Avoiding RedEyes
Overnight Stopovers
Some of the routings advocated above require an overnight stopover,
and I also recommend stopovers in several other circumstances. Note
that international flight stopovers less than 24 hours are treated as
a connection, whereas longer will often "break the fare" and turn it
into a possibly more expensive multi-stop. However, the Middle East
airlines often have special deals for stopovers in
their home base, including cheap or even free hotels.
Here's Emirates,
Etihad,
Qatar,
and Turkish.
Coach vs. Business/First Class
Upgrades
There are two ways of getting a better seat than coach: you can pay
for it, or you can upgrade. The general business of buying a decent
seat (and perhaps paying less than usual) is described above and
below; here, let's talk about upgrades. You can (attempt to) score
upgrades in several ways, usually via the airline's frequent flier
program: you can pay cash, use frequent flier "miles" or some
combination of cash and miles, use a certificate (you "earn" these by
flying some number of miles--usually substantial--or having high
status in the program), or some type of (usually last minute) auction.
Routings
Hidden City Routings
Oddball Routings
SITI/SOTO Tickets
Nested Tickets
RTW Tickets
Low Cost Airlines
Bargain Fares
Frequent Flier Tickets
Pay with Points
An alternative to using your frequent flier or credit card points to
score an award ticket is to use the points as payment for, or toward,
a regular revenue ticket. This may not get the same value as an
award ticket, but is easier to score. Here's a description of the
Amex
version.
Travel Packages
Airline Clubs/Airport Lounges
Airlines and some other entities (e.g., credit card companies) have
member-only clubs in most major airports. Some are inside security,
others outside (in which case they are largely a waste of time). They
can offer a comfortable place to sit and usually free food and drink.
The quality varies greatly between airlines, but even more by country.
They can also provide help from skilled agents with shorter lines than
those serving the general public.
Cancellations and Misconnects
Some airlines (e.g., United) have good systems for dealing with
problems and provide options on their app for rescheduling in case of
cancellations and misconnects. In these cases, it is almost always
best to use those capabilities and not to join customer service lines
or phone them up. Alternatively, if you have the right memberships,
go to the airline's club or lounge, where there are generally shorter
lines and more skilled agents.
Arrival and Departure
You've got to get through checkin, security, and possibly exit
immigration on departure, and some of baggage claim, customs, and
immigration on arrival. These all involve standing in lines.
Getting away from the airport
I discuss ground travel in general below, but I want to stress that
you should research ahead of time how you're going to leave your
destination airport. There can often be a bewildering number of
choices, not all of which may be safe or honest, and arriving
unprepared leaves you vulnerable. For example the subway may look
simple but could be rife with pickpockets (e.g., Rome, Athens), or may
have been designed by idiots so there are several steep steps where
you need to enter the car with your luggage (e.g. Vienna). However,
the subway can be a good choice in other places: you need to research
the specifics. Similar considerations apply to local buses.
Car Rental
I'm talking self-drive car hire/rental here. But note that there are
many (mostly poorer) countries where it is impossible or dangerous to
drive yourself. Examples are India, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia
(which adds to the excitement by driving on the right but using a lot
of second-hand cars imported from Thailand, where they drive on the
left and therefore have the steering wheel on the wrong side). Instead,
you hire a car and driver, which you can do through your hotel, or in
advance via a travel agent. If you take a multi-day trip, the driver
will usually take care of himself overnight, but in a cold climate or
isolated area you should make sure he has somewhere out of the
weather: your hotel will probably have a "drivers' room" and you should
pay for him to stay there--it'll only cost a couple of $$.
Trains and Subways
Note that in British English, a "subway" is a pedestrian underpass or
tunnel. What Americans call a subway is "the underground" or "tube"
or "metro."
Ferries
These function pretty much like trains and my point is simply not to
overlook them. For some you just turn up, others you will need to book
in advance.
Buses
Long distance buses can be comfortable and attractive in some parts of
the world, for example, in South America, where they often have
recliner seats like old-style airplane business class, and these can
even be tolerable overnight if you are short of other options. Even
there, bus stations may be in a bad part of town, so research in
advance how you're going to get there, and how you're going to get
away.
Taxis
In some places, for example, Japan or Taiwan, taxis are scrupulously
honest. Elsewhere, they may not be, with even a risk of kidnapping in
some places. As described earlier, when arriving at an unfamiliar
airport it's often best to look for the prepaid taxi booth (and they will
usually take credit cards, which the taxi might not). In some
places it is fine to hail a taxi on the street, in others not. Until
you become familiar with the local vibe, have your hotel call and
negotiate with taxis for you. And in some Asian countries, taxis may
ignore you: they don't want the language hassle. If you are stuck
somewhere, pretty much any hotel or restaurant or bar will call a taxi
for you. Countries differ on where a solo passenger is expected to
sit: in Australia it is up front, but this would cause astonishment
elsewhere.
Uber etc.
Where it's available, Uber or the local equivalent will often be a
better choice than a taxi, even if it uses taxis (as it does in Japan,
for example): you can summon one right to where you are and specify
where you want to go without language issues, can pay by credit card,
and there's no negotiation or scamming in places where taxis might do
that.
Hotels
Do you prefer independent hotels, B&Bs, or standardized chain
operations? I like the predictability of the chains (I need a bed
that is high enough to get up from, likewise a functional desk and
chair, and a shower that is safe and easy to use) so I generally
select them if they are available where I'm going, and I don't have
much to say about the other choices. And I did my traveling before
Airbnb became big so I have nothing to say about them either, but I'd
encourage you to research their impact on local economies.
Ethnic Hotels
Ryokan are traditional Japanese inns, where you usually sleep on a
futon on the (tatami mat) floor. These generally include (very good,
kaiseki) food, and may have an onsen or o-furo and an exquisite
garden. They exist at all price levels and, for many people, they can
be the highlight of a visit to Japan. Just be aware that you may be
bathing naked in public (but won't be allowed if you have tattoos),
and mostly sitting and eating and sleeping on the floor, so you need
to be confident in your ability to do so (and in your Japanese
etiquette: e.g., no bare feet on the tatami, use the special slippers in
the toilet but not elsewhere, no soap in the onsen--wash beforehand
using a bucket at the
tap).
Duration of Stay
Moving on every day is tiring and does not give you time to really see
a lot. It's OK for a few days, or as part of a driving tour, but in
general I think it's best to stay in each place for at least three
nights. In addition, I recommend taking a day or two of downtime
every week or so: just stay somewhere nice and take it easy, and
maybe catch up on things. You'll need to stay at least two nights to
get a day where you can just relax like this.
Food
Well, restaurants are pretty much the same all around the world, but I
thought it worthwhile to add some notes about certain countries.
Choosing a Restaurant
Suppose you are on a street with several restaurants: how do you
choose? This is an instance
of The
Secretary Problem and it has an optimal solution:
Vegetarian and Vegan
The difficulty of going vegetarian varies significantly from one
country to another, and even more so for vegan. Restaurants in most
western countries are familiar with the concepts and will have
vegetarian and vegan options explicitly labeled as such. In India and
culturally similar places you always have the choice of "veg" or
"nonveg" (not "meat" or "nonmeat"). In other parts of Asia it can be
more difficult. In Japan, for example, ask for vegetable dishes and
you may find they include fish. Even those that do grasp the concept
may use dashi (fish-based stock) in your vegetarian noodle dish. The
website happycow.net will help
you find vegetarian and vegan restaurants, but it may not be uptodate
(many restaurants failed during Covid).
Argentina, Spain, and some other Spanish-speaking places
Be aware that restaurants may not open until 9pm and that many people
eat dinner around 10-11pm. Some restaurants may open earlier in
touristic places, or may function as a (sometimes very good) bar/snack
place prior to full opening. In Spain, there is generally an
inexpensive but good "Menu del Dia" option at lunch (a holdover from
the 60s under Franco), and Tapas is a lighter option for dinner.
Japan
Say Japan and people think of sushi, but this is not an everyday meal
in Japan; it's a rather expensive treat, like steak in many western
countries. Everyday food is rice and meat bowls (gyudon) of various
kinds, pork cutlets (tonkatsu), chicken nuggets (karaage), Japanese
curry (kare) with any of these, tempura, and noodles (udon/ramen/soba)
etc. Check out the "JapanEat" channel on YouTube. Some restaurants
specialize in one type of dish, but many offer a selection and will
have plastic models of the dishes available in their window--so if you
cannot handle the menu (and there's often an English one, with
pictures: ask for "eigo no menu"), you can drag the waitperson to the
window ("mado") and point. In some restaurants, you select your item
from a vending machine, which will print a ticket that you present to
the person at the counter. Someone will help you press the right
button if you point to the model of the dish you want.
South Korea
They use metal chopsticks. You may be expected to get them yourself
from a drawer by the water cooler. Traditional places may invite you
to eat sitting on the floor; there may be another room with tables and
chairs, so look around if that's what you want.
India
People worry about food safety in India, but any restaurant or hotel
that a westerner is likely to use will be OK. The bigger problem in
my view is breaking a tooth: meat is butchered rather crudely and
often contains chips of bone that will smash a tooth or filling if you
inadvertently bite hard on them. I usually go vegetarian for this
reason.
Water
Tapwater is unsafe in surprisingly many countries (including parts of
the USA).
There's a useful list (compiled from CDC sources)
here.
In those places, you should drink bottled water (and use it when
brushing your teeth) and keep your mouth shut in the shower. In some
places you cannot always trust even bottled water, particularly if
bought from street vendors: the bottle may have been refilled with
local stuff and the top resealed. Best to get bottles from your hotel
in these cases.
Packed Lunches
Sometimes you embark on a daytrip where lunch might be hard to find
and you would like to take a packed lunch with you. There are several
ways to accomplish this. Depending on your location and itinerary, you
may need to plan ahead and lay in supplies the day before.
Planning
Do you like to plan your trip, or wing it? There's no right or wrong
answer, but you do need to know your own comfort level, and definitely
should not leave it to the last minute. However, if you do have the
nerve for it, prices on unsold rooms can go down in the final few
days.
Destinations
I've been assuming you know where you want to go, but let me make a
few general observations that might help your deliberations. Note
that I am a middle of the road traveler: while I have been to some
places off the conservative path, I am not intrepid, but neither do I
need pampering. My general goal has been to visit spectacular sights
of man and nature that do not involve risk or hardship, though I can
tolerate some discomfort.
Antarctica
Tours and Guides
I've been assuming you organize and execute your travels
yourself, but there are places where it can make sense to join an
organized tour, either for the whole trip or part of it, or for just a
day. The only organized full trips that I've taken were for mountain
walking/climbing back in my twenties, but I would consider them if I
were still able to go to somewhere like Uzbekistan. I've heard good
reports for
Road Scholar,
Overseas Adventure Travel
and (from
UK) Saga tours,
but there are many other options.
Personal Safety
There's petty crime (pickpocketing, bag snatching, opportunistic
theft), and there's violence (and the threat of violence). The former
can spoil your day or ruin your vacation, but the latter can ruin (or
end) your life. If you take precautions to minimize your risk and
potential losses, the former need not influence your choice of
destinations and manner of travel, but the latter can (and should) do so.
