How Do You Execute on DIY Travel?

[athena53]

I don't plan to the nth degree - I leave a lot of free time available so that we don't feel rushed to get activities in, and to take in unexpected interesting things that we encounter during the trip.

That's my tactic. It's very important to me to know we have plane reservations and hotel reservations, and to know what we might want to do at our destinations, but the rest we decide day-to-day.

 

[nphx]

I do find lonely Planet books to be a good resource for places to see, stay , eat and how to get around. The information on getting around includes public transportation and what to pay for that or taxis. Last few years i do use ebay to get a phone sim/data card so my smart phone works in a destination allowing for internet searches on the go.

 

[fidler4]

There is some great info in these posts. Thanks to everyone who has posted. My DW and I and my sister and BIL are going to Europe for 3 weeks next month. Our challenge has been to work with everyones different style of traveling. My sister is a planner. She wants to have everything pre arranged including accomodations, travel (trains, rental cars) plus an itinerary of when we need to be places. My DW on the other hand is good with getting off the plane in Europe and figuring out where to go once we get there. So everyone has had to compromise a little. We have some things pre arranged and others we will figure out once we get there.

My sister and BIL leave after two weeks so the 3rd week my DW and I will be on our own and will figure out what we are going to do and where to stay on the fly.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[ivinsfan]

My number one favorite is Flyertalk..because it covers anything and everything.
You can get tips about discount or sale airfares, tips about which airports are difficult to connect thru, tips about passports, customs and visas for different countries.

You can find all the discount codes for hotels, car rentals and travels sites sales.
I don't think there is one travel topic that isn't covered someplace on the flyertalk site. As an aggregate travel site it can't be beaten, even by Tripadvisor

 

[kaudrey]

Another vote to start at the tripadvisor.com forums. People post their planned interaries and people comment on them, so if you need to plan a trip, you can start by "stealing" someone else's itinerary and then adapting it to your needs. Please ask all kinds of specific questions about best ways to get from place to place, what hotels to stay at based on their needs etc. And then just Google for more specific details as needed.

If you need complicated help with flights, flyertalk.com is great too.

 

[sengsational]

Thanks for all of the ideas in this thread! So many sites I'd not tried and so many ideas and techniques I hadn't thought about.

Plenty of kindling...next time there's a spark I'll be prepared to generate a blaze!

 

[meekie]

I'm a planner, so I do a lot of research, and like to plan things out ahead of time. One of my biggest tips though, is to have a penciled in plan, but be flexible and ready to change it. Got plans for a day in the park and it's raining when you wake up? Change your mind and hit a museum instead (have all the hours of museums that you're interested listed, so you don't get there and it's closed).

Also useful when we went with another couple is to all have things on our A, B and C list. Things we really want to do (A list), things we'd like to do (B list), things we wouldn't mind doing (C list). We made sure everyone got to do stuff on their A list.

When I start doing research for a trip, I actually start with tour brochures and companies. They're a great start because they highlight the most popular things in a city, they have a reasonable amount of time spent for travel time, and sometimes we've found ones that match our needs so well that we just take a the guided tours. It'll also give you a starting point for costs.

 

[walkinwood]

There's so much wonderful information in this thread

For me, this research and planning is as enjoyable as the trip. My plans change quite a bit as I learn more about the places I am visiting.

But - you have to start someplace! Or you could be paralyzed by the amount of information on the web.

I try to book lodging and transportation before we leave (as much as possible) because I don't want to be researching hotels/transportation while I'm on my trip. You can also research restaurants & keep a list handy so you're not disappointed by walking into some random restaurant. On the other hand, these spontaneous discoveries sometimes make the trip.

One more tip. When you find a place you want to visit, go to google images or flickr & look for it. You'll find tons of pictures that will give you a better idea of the place than the few you would find in an article or book.

 

[Surfdaddy]

Yet another Tripadvisor fan. You can find out just about anything about anywhere. You can see the highest rated attractions in any area of the world. You can get the best rated hotels for any city. You can ask questions in the forums if you have specific needs ("How do I get from the Venice airport to St. Mark's square?...") and you'll have answers within a day.

 

[bmcgonig]

Just did a trip of Ireland, Italy and Spain. Almost imperative that you have a smart phone with data plan (buy it locally). I used tripadvisor to research hotels and things to do. Then Expedia to book the hotels. Expedia (and I'm sure other travel sites) has a neat smart phone app that pops up in the morning to tell you what time u need to check out of your hotel,and when to check into your next one. Also has the google map directions and phone numbers of the hotels that you can click on. Of course that's all easily available but it's nice to have it right there in one very simple app. Google maps was terrific for places like Venice for getting around and back to the hotel as it's very easy to get lost there. Even the little compass there let's u know if ur going in the right direction at least.

Yelp was also very helpful for finding good restaurants. They have a nice feature "restaurants near here" which worked well once or twice. Google search can do the same.

The smartphone is also invaluable for getting/displaying your boarding passes and not having to print them out, as printers are hard to find when traveling, or a pain to get working in hotels if they have them.

One issue with rental cars that I encountered is that some rental companies insist that you take the CDW which might be covered by your credit card. Either that or they want a written letter from ur card company specifically stating that they cover the damage. Hard to get. That CDW was $20/day for me. I was using SIXT rental company.

 

[audreyh1]

MotionX is a GPS app that lets you download an area on your iPhone/iPad and then navigate without needing a live data connection. You can download what you need at the hotel before heading out. That's really handy and worked well for us when we traveled with an iPhone with not cell connection.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Wow, I just discovered Google travel. Shows lowest airfares on a map, and you can add different airports. So I can instantly compare fares leaving from San Antonio, Austin, Houston, to all, for example, Caribbean islands, or European destinations. I usually spend at least 20 to 40 hours planning vacations and this is a huge timesaver, and shows me locations I may not have researched!

 

[fidler4]

Wow, I just discovered Google travel. Shows lowest airfares on a map, and you can add different airports. So I can instantly compare fares leaving from San Antonio, Austin, Houston, to all, for example, Caribbean islands, or European destinations. I usually spend at least 20 to 40 hours planning vacations and this is a huge timesaver, and shows me locations I may not have researched!

Great tip!

 

[FUEGO]

We planned a five week summer trip to Canada. It started out with a five week window of time, and we narrowed down the key cities we wanted to visit in Canada. One constraint was being in NYC for the 4th of July fireworks, so that established when we needed to leave Raleigh and which route to Canada we would take.

After that, we started looking for free hotels using our Starwood points and planned a few nights in each of the cities. Then we found good apartment rentals for the week long stays we were planning in a few Canadian cities, and booked those.

We pretty much winged the rest of it, and did the "what do we want to see tomorrow?" research and planning each night or morning on our trip. Other than a vague spreadsheet with maybe 5-10 things or places we wanted to visit in each city, we didn't have a detailed itinerary at all.

We kept some flexibility built in to our five week summer trip since we were traveling with 3 young kids. After a few weeks we decided we had seen enough, cancelled the last couple of reservations and headed back home for a few week's staycation (DW is still working and had to go back to work at the end of five weeks off).

 

[Ronnieboy]

Lots of great info. DW and I would like to do a tour of the US when we hit retirement.

I am curious as to find out which cities or specifically which areas of cities to avoid? How do you know which areas are dangerous, high crime, wouldn't want to stay at a hotel there, don't go out after dark, etc.?

For example I heard on a tv show that Compton, CA is high crime and you could get shot in the street (not sure if there was exaggeration or what) but how do you know?

 

[Earl E Retyre]

Lots of great info. DW and I would like to do a tour of the US when we hit retirement.

I am curious as to find out which cities or specifically which areas of cities to avoid? How do you know which areas are dangerous, high crime, wouldn't want to stay at a hotel there, don't go out after dark, etc.?

For example I heard on a tv show that Compton, CA is high crime and you could get shot in the street (not sure if there was exaggeration or what) but how do you know?

Ronnie,
If you are concerned about that, then google each city you plan to visit prior to driving there - either in advance of your entire trip or even the evening before you set out to drive to a city. When I google Compton, the 1st page comes up with links about crime rate, police carrying assault weapons and an Urban Dictionary caption saying: "A dangerous small city outside of Los Angeles,California. Compton has a lot of known gangs,drug dealers,pimps,prostitutes. The police basicly gave up ... " That was a 10 second search and I would know it is not a place to visit.

You could also ask locals before you head out to a city what they think about stopping for a visit.

Depending on what state/city you are in, you may want to be more or less paranoid than other locales. Compton is in LA, so based on reputation, and being a large city you should google. Many small country towns across the US, you probably do not need to bother to google since your instincts tell you it feels safe. Hope that helps ...

Earl

 

[RonBoyd]

DW and I would like to do a tour of the US when we hit retirement.

For example I heard on a tv show that Compton, CA is high crime and you could get shot in the street (not sure if there was exaggeration or what) but how do you know?

Great idea but... what kind of "tour" of the USA would include Compton CA? Apparently, an "exciting" one, I suppose.

I would suggest a more educational and enjoyable tour would be to go where other "tour"ists go. I wouldn't as a rookie traveler try to reinvent the wheel. For instance, the "real" U.S. is in the small towns, the national parks, the resort areas, etc. If major cities are involved (and they should be) then go (and stay nearby to) where the major attractions are. (They are popular for good reasons -- safety being one of them.) In any event, we have never felt threatened in any large city we have visited -- and that is about 95% of them.

Yes, tourists are an attractive target for mischief but not as much since very few people carry cash anymore. So just go and enjoy yourselves... there are few things that will match the pleasure you will get from your adventure. As they say in New Orleans (which should be at the top of your list): "laissez le bon rouleau de temps" or the current variation: YOLO (You Only Live Once).

Recently, I was given a bit of wisdom that I wish I had known many years ago: "I regret having wasted so much time thinking about things that never happened."

 

[audreyh1]

Wow, I just discovered Google travel. Shows lowest airfares on a map, and you can add different airports. So I can instantly compare fares leaving from San Antonio, Austin, Houston, to all, for example, Caribbean islands, or European destinations. I usually spend at least 20 to 40 hours planning vacations and this is a huge timesaver, and shows me locations I may not have researched!

Yeah - that's how I've been doing the initial airfare search.

 

[RonBoyd]

Where does one find "Google Travel"? A Google search turns up nothing useful.

 

[audreyh1]

Where does one find "Google Travel"? A Google search turns up nothing useful.

Just do an airfare search on the google search page.

Example https://www.google.com/#q=flight+IAH+London+October+15

The site is actually www.google.com/flights . But any google search will get you there.

 

[audreyh1]

A train travel site I really enjoyed while researching
Covers train travel all over. The Man in Seat Sixty-One - the train travel guide...

Includes a section with very comprehensive guide to train travel within Europe. I particularly enjoyed the great train photos and lots of tips on pricing, web sites to use, etc.

He also occasionally answers questions on Tripadvisor, and has Facebook page (same name) where he sends tweets while traveling.

 

[RonBoyd]

The site is actually www.google.com/flights . But any google search will get you there.

Except "Google +travel." <chuckle> I was just taking things too literally.

 

[audreyh1]

Except "Google +travel." <chuckle> I was just taking things too literally.

Right, there's no "travel". But when I did a search on "google travel" the first thing that came up we the google flights site.

If you do a search like "train from Munich to Vienna" it will display train info as well, so it's not only flights.
https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=train+from+munich+to+vienna
I can't get the time settings to work though - it used to work.

And google maps does routing with public transportation. Just click on a stop, see the buses, trams, subways, or trains that stop there. You can get directions. Sometimes clicking on a stop shows the route that bus or whatever runs.

 

[MBAustin]

While there are some things about TripAdvisor I like, I find their "Ranked #x attraction in city" ratings a total joke. For example, I went up to Dallas this week for a meeting and had a free morning. I've seen the Perot Science Museum and the Sixth Floor Museum (both outstanding) and was looking for something else interesting. #1 is the Arboretum - not very interesting when it was going to be 97 degrees by 11am. # 2 is the Symphony Center - you've got to be kidding! #3 is the Sixth Floor Museum (I agree with that - should be in the top 3). #4 is the SMU campus, just ahead of the George W. museum (which is on the edge of the campus). #6 is an Opera House, and #7 is an extreme amusement park (not my thing, but seems to be pretty unique). The Perot is #11 even though it is now one of the premier interactive science museums in the country (world?).

So don't take the Top 10 too literally in any place - you may find some gems that are more interesting to you further down the list.

PS I ended up going to the George W. museum as we went to several presidential museums last year and found it interesting to compare them. Although it was interesting because of being so recent, I though his dad's museum (on the Texas A&M campus in College Station) much better - a lot more historical context into what made the man.

 

[Ronnieboy]

Great idea but... what kind of "tour" of the USA would include Compton CA? Apparently, an "exciting" one, I suppose.

I would suggest a more educational and enjoyable tour would be to go where other "tour"ists go. I wouldn't as a rookie traveler try to reinvent the wheel. For instance, the "real" U.S. is in the small towns, the national parks, the resort areas, etc. If major cities are involved (and they should be) then go (and stay nearby to) where the major attractions are. (They are popular for good reasons -- safety being one of them.) In any event, we have never felt threatened in any large city we have visited -- and that is about 95% of them.

Yes, tourists are an attractive target for mischief but not as much since very few people carry cash anymore. So just go and enjoy yourselves... there are few things that will match the pleasure you will get from your adventure. As they say in New Orleans (which should be at the top of your list): "laissez le bon rouleau de temps" or the current variation: YOLO (You Only Live Once).

Recently, I was given a bit of wisdom that I wish I had known many years ago: "I regret having wasted so much time thinking about things that never happened."

Well I just threw Compton out there because of rumors, but if we were to do a 48 state tour, or go visit Gettysburg, which is >2000 miles away, we'd have multiple stops on the way. How do I know which is the 'wrong side of the tracks' when we stop in Omaha? IS there a wrong side of the tracks in Omaha? Just curious.