Travel News | Travel Advice

We all love our annual vacation but there are those that never go too far from home and then you find the adventurous types that will travel the world. No matter what your interest is with travel, there are always travel sites to help you out (see teletext holiday flights). Many people use the internet now to plan even complex travel plans, never seeing a travel agent. The days of waiting for a travel agent to become available to book your annual vacation are over, because there isn’t any waiting online.

There is obviously a great deal of trust required to use the internet this way as often the companies you deal with have never been anything else but an internet based business. I much prefer to deal with someone I can see and touch, that‘s why I still use my travel agent and I also know they have a real office that I can visit. A travel agent will also fully expect changes to be made during the booking process and can be more flexible in their approach including when there are problems. The more maddening problem with travel sites arranged vacation is when there is a complaint about some aspect of it; this is the part that lets the whole system down as talking to a human being is not easy, and if you do actually manage to speak to someone, do have any idea where they are?

The difficulty comes with the aspect of trust and speaking to someone on a phone, who knows where, does not instill confidence. It is this fear of the problems that can occur and if they do happen it is too late that prevents me from being more trusting in the way that I trust my travel agent. A best friend of mine only books her vacations on travel sites and often she’ll book a last minute vacation that a travel site is offering which is one huge advantage of using a travel site. She is good at this and saves hundreds of dollars of the proper price and has always had a good vacation.

It would be nice to do this but my career does not allow for impulsive travel arrangements. Other savings to be made using travel sites are the costs of other day trips or tours that are not part of the main vacation. There are many advantages to using a travel site to book your travel or even do your research and I do use websites when researching where I would like to travel to, and for getting my facts together. It may not be fair on my travel agent but at least I know if something goes wrong, I will have someone to complain to on my return.

Pregnant women need to plan their holidays and air travel with some extra care. Whilst the second trimester is generally considered the best time to travel, it is important to check with your doctor that there are no medical reasons not to fly before booking your tickets. If you have experienced high blood pressure or bleeding during your pregnancy, or if you are prone to swelling, such as in your ankles, your doctor may recommend you don’t fly.

Most airlines will allow pregnant women to fly internationally until 35 or 36 weeks but individual airlines may differ for a normal, healthy pregnancy and until 32 weeks for a multiple pregnancy i.e. twins or triplets. For women over 24 weeks pregnant a medical certificate is often required prior to travel as well.

Pregnant women are advised to arrive at the airport check in desk earlier to have a better seat allocated to them, one with easier access or room. Normally, typhoid and hepatitis A and B vaccinations are recommended for Asia and Africa, however, typhoid vaccinations are not recommended for pregnant women although there is no evidence of fetal damage, there is only limited research on the fetal effects of these vaccinations.

Traveling to areas where there is a risk of contracting malaria is not recommended while pregnant. In Australia, typhoid and hepatitis A vaccinations aren’t advised for children under six but it is recommended that children are up-to-date with their other immunizations.

Not only is the destination important but personal circumstances so pregnant women should check with their doctor as to what vaccinations they will require. A simple way to avoid getting hepatitis A and typhoid is to avoid drinking water that has not come from a sealed bottle and ice where tap water has been used.

Avoid eating raw vegetables, salad and fruit although thick-skinned fruits such as mandarins, which you peel yourself, or bananas are fine but always wash your hands with soap or antibacterial hand wash before eating. Nowadays it is easy to carry travel size bottles of gel hand wash that can sterilize without the need for special facilities as it dries in the air almost immediately.

Unfortunately expectant mothers have a higher than normal risk of blood clots which increases when flying but the risk can be reduced by wearing compression stockings. To help stop this happening, everyone, not just pregnant women, is advised to take some exercise throughout the flight at every available opportunity.

Travel insurance policies will cover costs relating t the pregnancy up to twenty six weeks but even policies that cover travel related claims after that period will not include those for the pregnancy itself.

To make travel more enjoyable and less stressful (owing to how often things go wrong) it is often a good idea to re-iterate a few simple rules that can help prevent disaster. Finding cheap airfares is difficult and travel can be expensive enough without expensive mistakes which could be avoided, resulting in a dislike for your chosen location and its people. In some instances it is not uncommon for fear to set in and venturing from the relative safety of the hotel room or resort is out of the question. Common sense is still the single most important tool for traveling safely when you’re in a foreign land, meeting new people, walking down strange roads, eating and drinking new things.

Trust your instincts if something doesn’t feel right, do something about it. A big mistake made by many tourists is they take everything of value with them which makes it very easy for thieves and pickpockets to steal their whole identity in one go. Expensive and necessary items like identification tickets for example should be left at the hotel in their safe or the room safe if you have one; it is much easier to recover your vacation if you only lose a few important belongings instead of all of them. If you place your cash, traveler’s checks and credit cards in various locations about your person, then there is less likelihood of pickpockets stealing all your financial assets and leaving you with nothing.

Many couples who have not adopted the travel safely ethos will have 2 credit cards, both accessing the same account; it is much easier to use two cards, each accessing separate accounts so if one is lost or stolen, there is a backup. Some of the easiest possessions to steal are bags and cameras owing to the way people carry them without even recognizing that they are an easy target for thieves; ensure the straps are over the head and across the chest if you want to hold on to them. Don’t make it easy for them when you walk around by having bags and other valuable objects attached to straps next to the road where it is a simple matter for thieves on bikes to just grab at or cut the straps with a knife. The reason most people fall for these tricks is because we are more relaxed on vacation and the people that carry out these crimes are very good at it.

Complacency is a dangerous trait and we have all been guilty of it when we are on vacation, remember this is what they do every day to make money and feed their families. One way to help reduce the chances of things being stolen is by using a back pack with a padlock, this makes it more difficult to get into and therefore acts as a deterrent. Another good idea is to use a hikers (or climbers) small shackle that can be used to safely secure your keys to a belt or bag for those people that frequently lose their keys. Both men and women lose their wallets and purses because men have wallets in their back pockets and women have their open handbags; so the easiest thing is for men to change the place they keep their wallet and for women to make sure their handbag is closed properly. There is absolutely no reason why when you are on vacation you shouldn’t be able to travel safely and have a great deal of worry free fun; just stick to the points mentioned here and use your common sense at all times.

Frequent travelers seem to be talking more about airfare deals and acquiring the best price at the best possible time to travel. At many different places around the World, ticket prices seem to fluctuate significantly, but it’s possible to fly to many destinations for considerably less than the full standard fare; given you’ve enlisted the aid of a friendly travel agent, Teletext flights online and having done some research.

The key factor related to getting good deals is how adaptable the traveler is. If you’re flexible and willing to compromise on the day and time of year you travel, there’s a great possibility that you will get a cheap seat. By slotting people into empty seats airlines save money, so if you are agreeable to modifying your dates to suit their agenda, then you can capitalize. Many airlines charge a hefty cancellation of amendment penalty, if once you have booked a flight, decide to switch the date. A related point about flexibility when booking your flight is that if you want to change or cancel your flight without having to pay added charges, you might have to pay the expensive full amount for the ticket.

Competition in the world of airlines and airfare deals assures that the frequent flyer usually benefits most. ‘Frequent Flyer’ programs usually give incentives for customer loyalty. Airline passengers earn air miles or bonuses whenever they ride with a certain carrier and redeem for free tickets or for some other award. This has caused a problem throughout the airline industry and has succeeded in causing many to form alliances with other airlines; many hotels chains have followed the airlines’ lead.

Online is the best-known source for airfare deals. Travelers should be wary however, of sites specializing in the sale of airline tickets at a discount. These may be genuinely legitimate enterprises, but it is better to book with more well-known discount agents. Mostly, the problem is that people fail in verifying a site’s legitimacy until it is too late. Never expect email contact as the only avenue for assessing an agent’s knowledge of the airline industry, visit the office and if that’s not possible, make a call and talk directly with the agent. Question to find out if there are any likely snags related to their ticket deals, like a stopover at a non-attractive part of the world. The importance of knowing exactly which airline you are flying with cannot be stressed enough; make sure you have the information.

Airfare deals and options are opening up and increasing daily, with new destination opportunities and more flexible travel tariffs. If you are careful, flexible and well-researched, you should find little in the way of getting to the destination you desire - eventually.

There was a time when you would probably have to queue to see your tour operator to book a vacation but the internet has seen the number of travel agents visited dwindle, as more booking takes place online. This gradual turn to travel / discount flights websites has come about because more discounts can be found and you can book the vacation at any time of the day. Even though I will probably save a few pounds by using the internet, I continue to book my vacations face to face with a travel agent but I do admit to some serious searching on the internet to learn more about where I am going. It is actually much easier to go to your travel agent armed with all the information including costs as it can make it much easier to find what you are looking for.

I certainly don’t want to spend my time, or their time, looking into trying to find a travel deal that I can afford if I already know that I cannot. Part of the problem is that they are often only perceived as a person who just books vacations when they are actually able to do so much more for you, like answering specific travel questions. As every country has different laws, your travel representative can be helpful if you intent to travel to an international destination. They can make recommendations of places that are particularly interesting, if there are any fees for entry into specific countries and laws relating to driving that can be easy to fall foul of.

The internet cannot do everything for you though as it’s not designed to look after your every need and make sure you have as few problems when you travel as possible. I can’t help it because I just like dealing with someone face to face and know that there is a certain amount of care involved with my travel arrangements which is something I do not feel the internet caters for. While it is easy and usually cheaper to do all you’re booking online, it is not so helpful when something goes wrong and you have to complain; something the travel agent is there for as well. When my husband and I decided to elope to exchange vows, we called up some travel agents and one in particular, seemed to be exactly what we were looking for.

She could not have done more for us and she seemed to take the arrangements very personally, something I have never forgotten. The pricing was obviously at the top of our priority list but she was even able to help there giving us plenty of options and contacting other companies for information on our behalf. As she was so quick to get all this done we decided to book the wedding and honeymoon almost straight away. I’m also a fan of travel agents over using the internet because if you end up booking the vacation from hell, you have no one to blame but yourself whereas if you used a travel agency, at least you’ll have someone to complain too.