Category Archives: tips
Love saving money on traveling? Then read on my friends!
Who doesn’t like to save some money when buying virtually anything? Many people try and stretch their dinero to the max when it comes to booking their next trip, so here’s a good tip to give you a little more wiggle room. Whether you’re looking for a fantastic hotel in Mexico or that dream trip to Niagara Falls, saving money is important.
We’ve got a great tip today on Hometown Travel Gides today for you which will save you big time cash on your next travel bookings. Groupon Coupons has more than 70,000+ active online coupons available, and a large percentage of them deal with travel providers like Travelocity or travel related essentials from companies like Bose. Check them out and start saving more money today!
When is it still worthwhile to use a travel agent?
In this era of self-serve travel planning, it’s easy to assume that the travel agent is a dinosaur well on its way to extinction.
While this has been the case for the past decade, the pendulum has begun to swing back in the other direction lately, as many people have found the burden of coordinating their own travels to be a drain on their energy and their personal time.
When is it worthwhile to use a travel agent? The following three scenarios are excellent examples of when it makes sense to hire a travel expert.
When you are traveling internationally to an unfamiliar destination
You may know the ins and outs of travel within your own nation, and you might be aware of what it takes to travel to the beaches of Spain, but what about if you are traveling to Asia, or Latin America? These parts of the world often have a tricky series of visa requirements and hidden fees that would make the Byzantines crack a smile, as many independent travelers have found out about at the last minute.
Don’t be caught unaware: hire a travel agent that knows about the rules for any nation to which you might be considering a trip, and that actively stays on top of any changes that occur (that’s what they get paid for, after all!) in visa requirements and fees on a day to day basis.
When you have your hands full planning a wedding
Weddings are full of complicated plans that inspire nothing but stress leading up to the Big Day. Do you really think you’ll have the capability to plan a honeymoon while you trying to track down a reliable caterer or a DJ that will spin appropriate tunes at your reception?
Outsource this important job to travel agents at companies like Eshores (http://www.eshores.co.uk/), as they have a lifetime of experience at organizing romantic getaways for countless couples in bad need of a change of scenery to rekindle the love in their lives. Just give them an idea of what you are looking for, and let them handle the rest.
When you are tasked with planning a trip for a group of friends
While you bow to nobody but yourself when you travel solo, traveling with friends is a completely different matter altogether. Unlike the freedom of your backpacking days, you now have to consider the wants, desires and needs of multiple people, and for many, the logistical nightmare has the potential to suck the joy out of the trip for you, the anointed travel expert in your group of pals.
By letting a travel agent handle the detail work after filling them in on the needs and wants of your group, you’ll have all the fun you ought to have on a journey with your buds.
Top Things To Know About Visiting Bristol
The top things to know about visiting Bristol are not only interesting, but can also help you prepare for your trip in West Country’s unofficial capital. Bristol remains one of England’s top tourist destinations, despite the devastating legacy of the war. And with its laidback vibe backed by great music, Bristol is a place you will definitely enjoy staying in.
Here are some of the top things to know about visiting Bristol, so pack your Carlton travel luggage, get your plane, train or bus ticket, and get ready to enjoy one of England’s most interesting cities!
Great music scene. If you’re into music, then Bristol is one of the places you should definitely visit. Some of the greatest acts in the music scene have their humble beginnings here in Bristol, such as Massive Attack and Portishead. While it was once the backwater of the British music scene back in the 80’s, it is now considered Britain’s most musical city in 2010. To date, its music scene is still as vibrant as ever.
Get free maps. If you’d like to travel around Bristol without joining one of those packaged tours, you can grab a free map from the Visit Bristol website, the city’s official tourism website. You can also get the distinctive Blue A3 tourist maps from the Tourist Information Centre, the library, shops and the Temple Meads railway station. These maps cover the city centre, the Harbourside and Clifton.
It’s a year round tourist destination. One of the top things to know about visiting Bristol is that it’s a year-round tourist destination with something to look forward to the entire year. There’s a great number of celebrations and festivals spread out the entire year, so you won’t miss out on anything when you visit the city anytime you please. There is also some beautiful countryside around Bristol to enjoy.
Watch out for drunken brawls. Friday and Saturday nights may not only mean a vibrant night life in Bristol but also a night for isolated drunken brawls especially during closing time. But thanks to the heavy police presence in the city centre, this has been significantly reduced.
Scammers and drug peddlers. While Bristol is generally a safe tourist destination, there are areas that need to be avoided especially during the wee hours of the morning. Stay out of Baldwin Street at around 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM.
In addition, watch out for people selling you drugs. Often, these people don’t have drugs with them and will instead give you a bogus parcel and run-off with your money. They also have knives, so it’s best to avoid them at all costs.
Top Tips: Getting the right health insurance for your travel
There are many things that need to be checked, prepared and packed when getting ready to travel the world: passport, flight times, foreign currency, but not many are more important than ensuring you have the right medical insurance.
Medical insurance is designed to protect your health and well being wherever you are in the world. The quality and cost of healthcare provision varies greatly from country to country and as a foreign national you are unlikely to be entitled to free or subsidised care. By investing in health insurance you can ensure you will always have access to good quality healthcare without the risk of expensive medical bills. Here’s our tips for navigating the whole process.
Limitations of travel insurance
The most common form of medical insurance used by travellers comes as part of a travel insurance package. Travel insurance is designed to protect you from damaging expenses such as medical bills whilst on a short trip (generally no more than a month or two) and whilst it can be an effective solution it does have its limitations.
The medical cover provided by travel insurance is designed to get you well enough to be repatriated before flying you home for full treatment. This can be the ideal solution if you fall ill during a week-long holiday but can lead to extended trips being unnecessarily cut short by injury or illness. Moreover, travel insurance often has a maximum trip duration, which can be restrictive for ambitious expeditions.
What does expatriate health insurance offer?
Solutions for many of the limitations of travel insurance can be found in expatriate health insurance. These policies are designed to provide quality, affordable health cover for those travelling, living or working in a foreign country for extended periods of time. Unlike travel insurance, expatriate health insurance facilitates your treatment and recovery whilst abroad and has no maximum duration; policies can be extended for as long as you need them.
Moreover, policies are generally flexible and can be tailored to fit individual needs. Entry level policies will tend to include cover for hospital treatment and accommodation and may include some provision for cancer treatment and maternity care. Add-ons might include cover for emergency medical evacuation, a prudent option for extreme sports enthusiasts, and insurance covering doctors’ visits and prescriptions.
If you are planning an extended trip abroad, expatriate health insurance could be an excellent way to protect your physical and financial well being.
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