How to Travel the World: website with the nuts and bolts

by Jamie Rhein on

Although the focus of the website How to Travel the World is to help folks plan for long term travel, also known as a gap year trip, the information is useful for anyone. Whether you’re a person who is going to travel for a few days or months–years even, browsing the site is a place to start planning.

Various links provide info on everything you need to consider from how much money to budget to tips on what to pack.

Before you buy a plane ticket, the budget page can help you decide where to go on a trip in order to match your cash flow. Thailand is cheap. Australia is expensive.

Buying a plane ticket and packing are obvious details. The site also includes those items that you might forget to consider before leaving home, particularly if you’re going to be gone for a long time. The page “Pre-Trip Planning” offers a handy list that ranges from bank accounts to wills.

Anyone who has traveled for an extended period of time knows about the almost certain let down that happens once a trip is over. Reading the section “Coming Home” is one way to ease the transition. Personally, I think it’s helpful to know these details before heading out on a trip in order to be prepared ahead of time.

Another helpful page is the F.A.Q where readers submit questions and receive answers. Any travel jitters you might be having could be calmed by browsing through this one.

The How to Travel the World is written by folks who are long term travelers and edited by Matthew Kepnes who also writes the Nomadic Matt Travel Site.

Clear Traveler: Register for a Fast Pass Through Airport Security

by Jamie Rhein on

Willy wrote about the Clear Registered Traveler Program in February, but last week when I heard yet another story about someone who keeps getting pulled in for hours of questioning because of his name, I wondered if this pass might help fix that situation.

Let’s say you’re one of those people whose names (or looks) gets you stopped for hours of questioning each time you meet up with airport security. Maybe your name is on the No-Fly list. Or perhaps, airport security moves too darned slowly for your tastes–you’re a frequent traveler, and if you were paid for the hours you’ve waited in airport lines, you’d be a rich person.

As Willy wrote, the Clear Registered Traveler Program serves as an early security check-point that, once you’ve been approved and pay your membership fee, you get to breeze through the subscriber security line at the airport using your Clear pass. Here’s a recap of how it works. First, you go through a background check for TSA approval, and once you are found to be a-okay, you’re issued a card that has your encrypted fingerprint image or an iris scan. This is not a through the mail process, but involves an in-person visit.

At the airport, you insert your card into a kiosk that reads it and matches the card with your fingerprint when you put your finger on the scanner. Once cleared, you get a clearance stamp that shows TSA you are good to go. You and your baggage still have to go through TSA screening, but I assume this is faster? Otherwise, what’s the darned pass for? Still, it does sound very James Bondy or something. This is biometrics, baby.

Not all airports have this service, but the list is growing. Clear security lanes in La Guardia in New York are the lastest ones–they were to open this month.

The membership fee runs about $100 per year. Here’s the link for how to join. If your security status changes, your membership is revoked. By, the way, I’m not sure if this would work if your name is on the No Fly List even though you are not the person who is the security threat, but a person who has the same name.

10 tips for smarter flying


Call a Toll-Free Number for Travel Help

by Jamie Rhein on

Here’s travel help that caught my attention after reading Neil’s post “GPS Platforms Help Working Girls in the Night.” That Neil. Although this service I read about isn’t exactly like GPS in your shoes, the idea is kind of the same–well, not exactly, but kind of. The company 1-800-INACITY is to help travelers who are stuck in a bind, or maybe not stuck, but need some help to find lodging, a neat place to eat or other travel related info. The only thing you need is a telephone.

Steve Stephens, the travel editor for the Columbus Dispatch, wrote an article that gives the specifics, but here’s the main idea behind how it works. Let’s say you were me a few years ago and left Columbus, Ohio at 7 PM thinking that you’d be able to find a place to stay in Wheeling, West Virginia on your way to New York City. But, no, all hotels were full. So you motored on, still confident. At every exit that listed motels, you pulled off with high hopes. Still nothing. Finally, at 5 am, there was a vacancy near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You had to stop here because driving on had become impossible. You were driving with your mother who could go no further and just four hours of stretching out was worth paying for a night’s stay.

If this service had been available, you could have called the toll free number and said, “Hey, I’m on my way from Columbus to New York City. I’ve hit Wheeling, West Virginia and I have ended up with a goose egg for lodging. Any ideas?” The service that is hooked into a database with thousands of tourism related companies and an operator might have hooked me into hotel.com to find a place. Actually, the call is taken by a voice activated system that will get you to an operator once it’s clear what you need. Here’s a menu of what you could say to get all sorts of travel help.

There are plans for the company to act as a GPS service where you can provide a landmark or intersection for where you are for directions on how to get to where you want to go. By the way, James Halk, the person who started this company, is from Columbus–Upper Arlington, actually, but close enough. Here are some comments from folks who have used the service. Also, there are no ads to listen to before you get the help you need.

Excess Luggage Fees & Fines

by Adrienne Wilson on

LAX was an absolute mad house this morning. I’m going to full on go out there and just say it was probably the worst I’ve ever seen it in all my travels. To make matters worse I discovered my bag was over the Delta airlines weight limit and I was going to be hit with a $25 fee. “Is that going to be in cash or credit ma’am?”

Grrr…

So here’s my beef with this scenario. For starters my baggage has never been over the weight limit and secondly what is the purpose of charging innocent travelers? Isn’t the weight limit rule supposed to ensure the plane isn’t going to be too heavy? What if everyone’s bag was over the weight limit? How important would that $25 bucks be then? Ugh.

Anyways make sure you pack lightly unless you like coming out of pocket for your goods. The Travel Insider has some good info online on airline checked luggage allowances and a nice table with most airlines fees and weight limits. This should help you from going over and paying extra.