The ultimate relationship test – traveling with someone

         “We’ve been best friends since ninth grade, we’ll have the best time in Europe!” 

         “I love him!  Three weeks on the beach will give us time to connect more!”

          “You’re going to Asia?  Me too!  Let’s go together and save on the hotel costs.”

            It seems like such a good idea at the time.  You get along with/are dating/are married to/share similar interests with someone and you decide “gee, Steve, wouldn’t it be awesome if we went on vacation together?”  Picking your travel companion is usually done even before the destination is chosen, but before you begin to suggest a trip, stop and think about it.  No, I mean, really think about it.  There’s no greater test to a relationship than travelling together.

             Let your mind wander back to your childhood.  When Mom and Dad packed you, your brother and your ten thousand suitcases of crap into the van and took off for a weekend up at the lake.  By the time you reached mile eight someone had thrown something, someone had been insulted and someone was crying.   Just because you’re grown up and not necessarily with children doesn’t make a vacation any easier, as it still involves the same components:  long hours trapped together and unable to escape, tedium where you have to struggle to keep yourself occupied or come up with something to say, stressful connections or deadlines, and exhaustion.  Everybody reacts to these factors differently, and if, when she’s over tired and jet lagged, your best friend gets really weepy and needy or she gets so bitchy she’s taking shots at your family/career/significant other/fashion sense/pet, she may not be the ideal person to be with.  Unless, of course you are prepared to handle this. 

             And don’t forget, you’re going to be just as unpleasant.   We all have our triggers.  God knows, I fly all the time, but if anyone I’m traveling with wants to wait and check-in for the flight less than the recommended three hours prior, I’ll take them out.  We can relax once we’re through security, but until I know I’ve  made my flight and am not going to have to run/beg/risk having my seat given away to a standby passenger, I’m in go mode.  I don’t fucking care if you’re going to have to go sixteen hours until your next cigarette, that’s not my problem, so let’s get a move on it.  Apologies to anyone I’ve told off in this situation over the years, but I still get this way every time I step into an airport, ticket in hand, and I don’t foresee this going away any time soon.  Consider yourselves warned.

         My point is that when it comes to traveling with someone, you have to, as my boyfriend always says when he does something that mildly irritates me  (like leave his damp – they’re always damp – socks beside the hamper instead of two inches to the right in the hamper) take the “good with the bad”.  If you can work through your differences in extreme conditions, then you’re going to have a fantastic time together.  But if you have a mental picture of this person being perfect and they fail to live up to your expectations, you’re going to have issues.

          Travel can test even the strongest relationship, bringing you closer than ever or tearing you apart.  The way I see it, if neither passenger comes home in a body bag or handcuffs, it was a success.  If times get occasionally testy just remember, you’re normal.  That’s just part of the experience and (unless you’re the one in the body bag) you’ll laugh about it later.

Tags: boyfriend, family, friends, girlfriend, scary, tough, travel, weird

Vancouver: Ready to welcome the world

We’re in the home stretch now – less than 30 days until the winter Olympics get underway.  Personally, I’m excited, I love the Olympics and having it right here is going to be cool.  I’m going to be watching it on TV (afford to go to the events?  You have got to be kidding me) and going “hey, I know where that is!  I went to school down the road from there!” Or whatever. I always get excited when I see places I recognize on screen, which happens frequently, this is Hollywood North.  Like the end of the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, when they’re walking through a building to a restaurant, I actually squealed “ooh! thats the library!” aloud.  But anyway, during the olympics this is going to be happening at an alarming frequency.  Anyone who knows me, consider yourself warned.

The city itself is starting to show noticeable finishing touches.  The construction walls are coming down on Granville for the first time in like 6 years, we have the spiffy new Canada Line skytrain from the airport to the city center (which rocks!) and even the ads on bus stops and park benches are now citywide exclusively for the official Olympic partners.  Needless to say you can go blocks and see nothing but McDonalds, Samsung, Coca Cola and some random company I’ve never heard of before, but that apparently is the official vaccine supplier for the athletes.   If I can survive the crazy-long commute times – God knows I can barely get on the train on some normal mornings, and when you add eight million extra visitors we’re going to need the people to cram passengers on the trains like they have in Japan – I hope to wander around downtown a bit during the games, because the vibe is going to be electric.  All the excitement, the street performers, free shows, random overheard conversations in different languages to pretend to understand and happiness.  It’ll be great.

If you happen to live in Vancouver and are hoping to get away on vacation during the games to escape the crowds, why haven’t you booked yet?  Do you really have that much money just hanging around that you don’t mind paying eight times the regular price?  The destinations you’re heading to probably have lots of space left, it is the low season, but the flights departing Vancouver don’t and are going to cost you a mint.  At this point it’s not how much but what’s left.  There are a lot of people I see on a daily basis who are surprised by this, but think about it: all the athletes, their fans and supporters are coming and going throughout the games – most of them don’t stay for the whole time, they just jet in, do their event and take off, as do their fans (to avoid a ridiculous hotel bill, as everything’s expensive), and when you combine that with the regular people traveling, there are shit tons of people coming in and out of YVR and only a certain number of seats on the planes.  If you still insist on trying to book for mid Feb, do it now.  Like now, now.  Stop reading this and book this instant or else you’re going to be totally out of luck.

And if you already have tickets, remember that at this point (thanks to the underwear bomber) you can’t take any carry-on onboard the plane with you.  And the heightened security due to that, combined with the heightened Olympic security, means that you’re going to be spending forever in line.  Get to the airport early.  Really early.  3-4 hours early.  Any later and youre going to be in line sandwiched between the chaotic family with the screaming baby heading to Disneyland and the Blackberry-addicted businessman who texts continuously as your plane takes off without you on it.

I’m sure the city will change when the games start, and I’m looking forwards to it.  What it’s going to be like I don’t know, but I’ll report back with the details in two weeks

Tags: airports, commute, crowds, excitement, last minute travel, Olympics, public transportation, security, skytrain, vancouver

Need Christmas gift ideas? Go abroad!

My favorite time to go on vacation is the fall (well, technically my favorite time to go on vacation is any time, but you know what I’m getting at). The reason for this is not the lovely crisp air and possibility of a sample sale, but so I can do all my Christmas shopping in destination. It’s great. Combine that with Christmas shopping (my other excuse to go wild – within budget, of course – shopping time of the year) and it’s the best combination since cookies and milk.
What better way to cut down on costs? I always call vacation shopping my “get out of jail free” shopping – I’ve technically already spent the money buying the currency, now it’s just trading it for goods. So as long as I don’t overspend what I’ve brought with me and have to break out my debit card, I’m golden. It’s a second layer of protection to make sure I stay on budget. With exchange rates being what they are, the dollar goes farther in many countries, so you can also get bigger, better, more awesome gifts for your loved ones. And you can plan for this in advance, too. A couple of years ago I knew I was going to bring back Costa Rican coffee for everyone for Christmas (plentiful, not too heavy to carry, and world-renowned while not being budget-busting) but the guidebooks said that the quality was best in the whole roasted beans as opposed to the grounds. So all year I covertly checked with every coffee-drinker I know whether or not they had a coffee grinder. If they didn’t, they got one for their birthday! That year was great, I got built-in ideas for birthday gifts, too
Speaking of more awesome, instead of yet another scarf or gift card from Sears, I can guarantee your Aunt Mil is not going to get two of those hand-carved Guatemalan wine bottle holders from that tiny stall on the side of the tiny winding mountain road. That is going to be memorable. And knowing that you were thinking of them while on your great adventure, they appreciate the gesture more (in my experience, anyway). Plus, even if they don’t like it, they’re not going to return it (the airfare is too expensive) so you don’t need to worry about keeping the receipts.
The coolest thing, though, is that you can essentially get your loved ones anything, and it’s still special, because it’s from wherever. Seriously. Anything. “Yeah, it’s toothpaste, but it’s from Ecuador, so you don’t pronounce it Colgate, you pronounce it ‘Col-gaaat-eh’.” If someone gave you a couple of small pieces of wood tied together at one end with a string from the local Wal-Mart, you’d be thoroughly unimpressed. But if the same thing came back from Spain and were called castinets, now that’s cool.
So, if you’re having trouble coming up with Christmas gift ideas, just go on vacation between now and the holiday season, and everything will all fall into place for you. Simple, really.

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, Christmas., coffee, gifts, shopping, souvenirs

The Importance of Travel Agents

           Welcome to the internet age.  You can now buy a condo, meet your future spouse, learn how to hotwire a car, blog incessantly about your travels, and probably save the world all while still in your pajamas and happy bunny toe socks.  You can also book your next vacation all by yourself.  But just because you can, should you?  Despite having the universe at your fingertips, there is still reason to go to your local Travel Agent and get them to do the work for you. 

         I’m not just saying this because I am one (okay, that’s a teensy part of it), but Travel Agents are still important assets.  We really do have a wealth of information that you’re never going to find online – we talk about popular destinations on a daily basis and/or have probably been there (most tourism offices go to great lengths to get agents to visit so they can better sell their destination).  Even if we haven’t visited ourselves, we  probably know someone (a coworker/past client) who has been recently and can feed off their feedback.  Plus, we sit at computers for a reason, as we have access to a slew of specialized computer programs that can answer most inquiries with just a few clicks or keystrokes.   Think of it this way: one day you want to go to Australia, so you hop online and book a return ticket for Sydney leaving next week.  Seems perfect, right?  But if you didn’t know you needed a Visa to enter Australia (based on Canadian citizenship), the second you got to the immigration counter at Syndey International you’d be denied entry and sent home on the next flight, not getting any of your money refunded.

             Agents have your back.  More than almost anything, that’s the biggest service we provide.   We’re here to support you in booking and planning your dream vacation, but also to help you clean up the mess if something goes wrong.  We have lots of industry contacts who we’ve built up relationships with over the years, and if there’s a glitch in your trip, we can go straight to the source and get it sorted out as smoothly as possible. It’s a symbiotic relationship, we support their product, they do their best to help us (and, consequently, you) out in a crisis.  Plus, my company, at least, has more than 400 agencies across Canada, so they don’t want to make us mad.  We control a nice amount of the selling power across the country, so we wield a little more pursuasive power as the travel companies don’t want to loose our business.  I’ve had cases where suppliers will go above and beyond to get a matter sorted out to the client’s satisfaction solely because I was calling on behalf of my company.  Online, you get none of this.  The classic case is a woman who tried to book herself to London, England and accidentally booked her ticket to London, Ontario (the prices were probably pretty similar!).  She was screwed, and there was no one to blame but her own ignorance.  No online booking site is going to refund any money just because she didn’t read the fine print.  If she had booked with an agent, on the other hand, she would have been going to England correctly in the first place

            Then there’s price.  Travel agencies understand as well as anyone that in these tough economic times price is the bottom line, and that is why we have a vast network of suppliers – suppliers who do not sell to the public – that offer wholesale “bulk” prices and special contract prices just to us.  These are usually better than or at least comparable to anything that could be found online, and without an agent you would have missed out.

             Yes, we charge service fees.  All agencies do it, and if they say they don’t, that’s because they’ve hidden it in the bill and called it a “tax”.   We have to.  No business could stay afloat if all they did was give out information all day and not get paid for it.  And yes, this adds to the price of your vacation.  Think about it, you’re paying for service, booking security and peace of mind.  There is a difference between price and value, and what we offer is definitely valuable.  When you get to Europe and realize you’d accidentally booked yourself into a hotel with one shared bathroom for all the rooms, or come home from the worst all-inclusive vacation ever and want to file a complaint about it, instead of just sitting and fuming, you could contact us and we could help you get it all sorted out while you sit and fume.

              What it all boils down to is this:  I love my job.  I love creating people’s dreams on a daily basis and sharing all I know with my clients.  It’s new and exciting every day, as I don’t know what adventures the day holds.  Don’t get me wrong, dealing with distraught clients, stupid questions and annoying airlines isn’t always sunshine and roses, but at the end of the day there’s nothing better then hearing from an excited passenger that I had just sent them on the best vacation they’d ever had.  So call your local travel agent and let them put their expertise to work on the best trip you’ve ever had

Tags: London, price, service, travel agent, value

Vacation calories do count, but you can survive!

               I’ve been there.  That point in your vacation when you look back on what you’ve consumed and are hit with a wave of guilt and don’t even want to walk past that full-length mirror every hotel room has because you suddenly notice an extra paunch hanging over the top of your bathing suit.  And it sucks.   In my case it usually brings on a mild (okay, maybe not so mild) panic attack and the remainder of my trip’s spent venting to my travel companions just how awful this feels (I’m still apologizing for that).  Consequently, now I’ll do whatever I can to minimize that feeling (and avoid the “oh my God, will she just shut up already?” glares from my family and friends.  What I’m getting at is that too many of us think that because we’re in a new time zone, all the nutrition rules we have to live by on a normal day suddenly don’t apply and let ourselves go.  But with just a little bit of work, it is possible to survive your vacation with your waistline intact, and all without  taking away from your fun.

             This may sound ridiculously simple, but just monitor what you eat.  I’m not saying you can’t have that amazing (and huge) sundae with the glossy red cherry on top, I’m just saying don’t have one every day.  Or don’t have one after your deep-fried meat-of-some-unidentifiable-species with deep-fried-veggies and deep-fried-fries dinner.  It’s the same basic principle you’ve heard a thousand times: try to choose veggies, fruit and anything fresh whenever possible, and avoid anything that, if you ring it out, you can use the drippings to polish your new hardwood with.  I know the breakfast buffet is included in the room rate, but that doesn’t mean you have to personally eat everything they prepared, there are other guests to help with that, too.  Or if you go all out on breaky, have a smaller lunch and dinner.  The same goes for alcohol, too.  I know it’s liberating not to have to be accountable all the time, but six beers and you’ve racked up over a thousand calories, over half your daily target without your body even knowing it.  Moderation, people, moderation! 

              Regardless of how angelic your eating habits may be, if you’re doing nothing but lounging around like Jabba the Hut all day you’re gonna end up looking like, well, Jabba the Hut.  You have to move it to loose it.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to launch into some complex eighteen-step workout plan that you can do daily in your hotel room with only some minor equipment that you have to haul from home.  With luggage allowances being what they are, no one is going to haul your own set of dumbells and an elliptical trainer through security, and any article that suggests it is totally full of crap.  If you can’t get it in destination, it’s not worth it.    But this is where the simple fact that you’re on vacation actually helps with your exercise plan.

                Personally, I’m not a lie-on-the-beach-all-day-and-turn-over-at-regualr-intervals kind of girl.  Not only am I too pale for that much sun, but I also have the attention span of a gerbil.  Consequently, from the time I set down in a new city, I’m on the go, wanting to see everything this exciting place has to offer.  This translates into a hell of a lot of walking.  Be it walking around a museum or zoo or shopping mall or just walking because I’m too cheap to pay for a taxi for that short distance, I’m constantly on the move.  Unless you have a very active job back home, for most of us this translates into more movement than we normally do at our desk jobs and equals calories burned without actually having to think about it.  I had one client recently asking me to book him a room at a Cancun all-inclusive resort as far away from the buffet as possible to help him stop all the extra snack runs.  Or, as he said, at least burn some extra calories walking there.  This same client also thanked me for the gym membership he had to get to burn off what he consumed on his last holiday, but that’s beyond the point.  Make sure you wear comfortable shoes and you’ll find you don’t even notice the extra ten minutes it takes you to hoof it, but your body will.

                  Many hotels, resorts and cruise ships have gyms, but do you really think you’re going to get up early to squeeze in a thrty-minute cardio session before your jungle tour after staying up a little too late last night?  Me neither.  But if that tour includes a hiking component, your workout is taken care of for you.  Or if you go into the ocean/pool and actually swim (enough to get your heart rate up) instead of just bobbing like a cost guard buoy, you’re good to go.  If activity can’t be included in your busy day, this is where it’s time to get creative.  Do some lunges or squats while waiting for your turn to use the shower in the morning.  Find the music video channel on the TV and dance around like an idiot (who’s watching?  Your spouse has seen it before.  Or better yet, have them dance with you).  Have lots and lots of sex.  Lift your carry-on bags as dumbells.   Run the stairs up from the lobby every time you get back to the hotel.  Personally, I’m fond of the dance around like an idiot option, and if you’re ever in Costa Rica, I strongly suggest Telehit, the Spanish pop is awesome!

             See?  That’s not so bad, is it?  All you have to do is remember not to overeat on the things that you wouldn’t touch without crippling guilt at home and get your blood pumping in some way daily, and you should be good to go.  I’d never say you’re going to loose weight this way – hell, it is your vacation, you’re going to eat the fun stuff – but it can keep you from gaining, so you get home at least in the same shape you were in before (buh-bye, Jabba the Hut).   Don’t forget, it takes 3500 extra calories (or an extra 500 calories a day) to gain one pound of fat, so a little indulgence is not going to kill you.   But neither will a half-hour of beach volleyball :)

Tags: BlogSherpa, calories, Costa Rica, dancing, diet, Exercise, gym, pool, Telehit, vacation, weight

Insurance – why you want it, but don’t.

              It was embarrassing.  I was in highschool, looking forwards to going down to Seattle with my first able-to-drive-without-adult-supervision friends for a little outlet shopping, and Mom refused to let me go unless everyone going had travel medical insurance.  So we all paid the CAD$2.00 for one day’s coverage, went, and grumbled about how we didn’t even need to use it.  But now, looking back, I see how right she was.  That’s the whole point of having insurance, to have it but not use it.  If you do have to use it, it means something horrible has happened, and nobody wants their vacation ruined.  Plus - and take my word on this, I see it every day at work - all those unused insurance policies seem like a bargain the second you actually have to make a claim.  

            Here in Canada, we take a hell of a lot for granted.  With our free medicare we can go the doctor or hospital any time we need to and only have to pay for the prescribed medication.  But the second you cross any international boarder, all those luxuries are gone.  Years ago we had a client who drove across the boarder to play golf in Blaine, Washington, when he had a heart attack. You could practically see Canada from where he was, and since he wasn’t going to the US for long, he didn’t worry about insurance.  Then he got the bill for the medical treatment and ambulance transport back to Vancouver, and he had to mortgage his home to pay it off.  Granted, that’s an extreme case, but no one wants to go into serious debt in exchange for their health.  You shouldn’t have to trade one necessity for another.

                Then there’s cancellation insurance, the most underrated of all policies.  Nobody plans to cancel their vacation, if they did they wouldn’t have booked it in the first place.  But nowadays pretty much everything in the travel world is at least partially nonrefundable, so if you do have to cancel, you’re going to pay for it.  For the most part, cancellation insurance covers you if a serious medical condition pops up prior to your departure.  Just deciding not to go is not covered.  Some policies do offer “change of mind”, where, a certain number of days prior to departure you can cancel for any reason and claim back a percentage of your travel costs, but it’s never, ever, 100%.  If you break up with your boyfriend or get into a fight with your roommate and just cannot imagine traveling with them anymore, the change of mind clause would kick in and you could at least recoup some of your costs.  Once I had a honeymoon couple who called off their wedding right before it was supposed to take place, and were no longer speaking to one another.  They had opted not to take the cancellation insurance because they figured hey, it’s their honeymoon, there’s no way they’re going to cancel.  The bride ended up going on the vacation alone (most packages don’t allow name changes, so we couldn’t substitute a friend instead at that late date) while the groom stayed home and sued her to get his money back.  Last I heard they were still in litigation. 

                   Oh, and not getting your passport/entry visas in time is not covered by insurance.  Ever.  It’s considered your own fault for not getting the paperwork in sooner.  If you find out you can’t get your passport in time enough days prior to departure the change of mind clause in your cancellation policy may help you get some of your cash back, but for the most part, you’re hooped. 

             And please, God, do not assume your credit card will cover you.  Yes, some credit cards offer cancellation/medical insurance, particularly the higher-end platinum cards, but whatever you do, call the credit card company and double-check what coverage you have before you decline the optional insurance offered by the travel agency.  Sometimes the credit card coverage is all that you need, but they’re notorious for having low limits on how much they will pay out in case of emergency, or restrictive age limits.  One of my clients had relied on his Avion card for years without a problem, but when he did need to make a claim, he was told that, while his card did offer full coverage, he was a year older than the age limit, so he got no coverage at all.  So please, please call your credit card company and make sure you know all the details before you rely on their insurance.

         It hurts to add that extra CAD$200.00 or whatever to your already expensive trip.  I know.  But in comparison to the money and heartache that not having insurance can cause, it’s a small price to pay.

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, Canada, cancellation, health, insurance, medical, USA

Grocery stores as a tourist attraction?

              Think about it.  Have you ever walked around your local supermarket and stopped at the ”international food” section, looking at all the different uses for rice or the cool/odd/disgusting/unpronounceable sauces on offer?  It’s fun, right?  Or at the very least, interesting.  Possibly even enlightening.    Multiply that by fifty and you get why I always try to swing by a grocery store in every country I’m in.   

             Doing  a bit of your own cooking (and by “cooking” I mean mainly buying bread and meat and making sandwiches or pouring your own bowl of cereal, unless you have a kitchenette) is always a great way to save money.  Even if it’s just snacks, bringing your own granola bar and water bottle can easily save you $5-$10 a day, depending on your destination and appetite.   That’s valuable souvenir money!  So while you’re at the grocery, you might as well take a few minutes to walk the aisles and see what culinary treasures you can unearth.  You never know if that brand of beer you had once ten years ago and could never find again is hiding around the corner, or if the chili lime chicken bouillon you find in aisle four is going to become the centerpiece for your new signature dish back home.  And when someone asks you where you got it, you can be all mysterious and say “it’s imported.”

           When in London, I’m all about finding the cool flavours of crisps.   We have your standard salt and vinegar, ketchup and nacho cheese in Canada, they have roasted lamb and mint, chargrilled steak, pickled onion, seafood mayonnaise, crispy duck in hoisin sauce, turkey with paxo sage and onion… if you can braise, boil or bake it, they probably have chips to match.  Southeast Asia is also good for this, though they have substantially more seafood options and their packaging usually involves more google-eyed animated characters.  One of my coworkers in Spain said the prawn cocktail is great, though I’ll have to take their word for it.  On one trip I actually kept a list, and found no less than 25 different flavours in one country in the space of a week.  Think I tried two of them.  And these flavours are, for the most part, incredibly accurate.  The chargrilled steak I tried smelled like nothing, but once on the tongue, you were just looking for the side of mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

            I’m always drawn to snack-type foods, like chips, gum (oooh, there’s this applemint Dentyne in Thailand I loved so much I brought like 10 packs home with me) and candy, mainly because they’re cheap and small, so you can try something really experimental and, if it’s totally revolting, you can throw it out and you’re only out a buck.  Meat always intimidates me (especially since you can’t always read the label), but one day I’ll have a place with a stove in some far-flung destination and I’ll go for it.  It’s all about embracing the local culture.  In Singapore this past march we discovered pea cheezies (for lack of a better comparison).  They were made entirely of peas, green and shaped like a pod,  but puffed up, deep fried and lightly salted to the cheezie consistency.   Sounds strange on paper (hell, it looked strange in the bag, too, that’s why I bought it), but these were surprisingly good.   In Costa Rica, tamarind drink, once you get past it’s industrial-waste brown colour, is incredibly sweet and yummy.  I got all excited here when, on a day trip across the boarder to Seattle, I found some Tamarind Kool-Aid, but when I tried it back home it tasted kind of like cardboard.  Total let down.  Oh well, it’s a reason to go back to Costa Rica! 

            Also in Costa Rica I discovered my beloved coco pops (there is not a breakfast buffet worldwide that doesn’t have coco pops) are endorsed there by a space elephant named Melvin.  That was just funny.

            International grocery shopping can be a fun thing to do if you’re traveling with kids, too.  While you’re picking up the necessities, you can challenge young Jimmy to find the craziest looking fish in the seafood department or weirdest-sounding product name (this one can be particularly fun if you can’t speak the language).  Kids usually seem to gravitate to the gross, or what they think is gross, anyway, and this is where the cheaper options like candy come in handy.  Treat them to one small thing, but make it the grossest they can find, and hear the giggles start.  This can also be done locally, just check out the various ethnic food stores around your area and keep the kids entertained on a rainy afternoon.

          For me, I think this all stems back to my Grandparent’s travels when I was a little kid.  When they’d come back from driving across the US or touring Europe they’d bring me something we couldn’t get in Canada, like Barbie breakfast cereal, or Swiss cow-shaped chocolate, so now I always want to see what other surprises the world has to offer.  This can also be a good way to buy a gift for that impossible-to-shop-for person on your list.  Nobody ever turns down food, especially if it was brought into the country especially for them and you know it’s something they’ll like.  The one exception to this was when my BF got a bag of dried bean and anchovy trail mix from Hong Kong.  It’s been months and that’s still sitting unopened on his desk, but I can’t really blame him, the fish are dried whole in there, complete with the little dried heads and eyes.  But still, because we got it at a grocery store as opposed to a souvenir place, the cost was low enough that I don’t give him a hard time about *sniff* rejecting one of my gifts.

            Ever found anything spectacular/weird/memorable in the food aisle when on vacation?  Let me know.  But if not, try spending an hour of your next vacation at the supermercado and see how much culinary trouble you can get into!

Tags: Asia, BlogSherpa, budget, chips, coco pops, cooking, Costa Rica, Food, grocery stores, Hong Kong, kids, London, odd, souvenirs, Spain, tamarind

Cheap flights are waiting for you!

             They’re out there.  The cheapest seats on that flight you’re eyeing.  And they can be yours.  Yours!  Mwahhahahahaha (that’s the evil scientist laugh of victory).               

            Provided you book early, that is. 

           And by booking early, I don’t mean at 8:30 in the morning, I mean 3-6 months prior to departure.  Seriously.  Those last-minute deals you remember your Uncle Buddy getting in 1989 have gone the way of the dinosaurs (with the exception of charters, but I’ll get into that later), and now if you don’t act fast, the price of your flight will continue to go up with each passing minute.  Essentially, all economy-class seats on major scheduled airlines (like Air Canada, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, etc.) are identical, but price-wise they’re divided into anywhere from 5-20 different price ranges, with a limited number of seats at each range.  The earlier you book, the higher your chances of snagging one of the cheaper seats before they all sell out and you have to move up to the next lowest option.  This is also why last-minute tickets are usually the most expensive, as all the cheap seats have sold out and you have to suck it up and take whatever’s last.  No one wants to do that.  Unless, of course, you have gobs of money just sitting around in your Scrooge McDuck cash tower, and don’t care if you waste a few extra hundred.  But in that case, what the hell are you doing flying coach?  I can hook you up with all the cushiness of business class…

         Oh, and killer seat sales?  I really wouldn’t bet on it.  Every day another airline’s in the news as it struggles to stay out of bankruptcy, so giving away all their profits is not likely to happen any time soon.

            As I mentioned earlier, the exception to this rule is charter airlines.  They don’t fly nearly as frequently on limited routes, so having empty seats hits them harder financially as the larger carriers.  This is where we find the CAD$50.00 one way flights to London (not counting the CAD$275.00 tax, of course) and the awesome week at a Cancun all-inclusive resort for CAD$750.00 plus tax package deals.    Price-wise, charters are a great deal.   And with a lot of the smaller, unreputable charter companies not surviving the recession, the ones that remain are the ones with good service, good reputations and better financial footing, so they’re much less likely to go under between the time you’ve purchased your ticket and actually get to travel.   The flipside is that they don’t fly daily, so you need to be a bit flexible with your dates, your luggage limit is much lower (those gianttubs of gummi bears you want to bring home for each of the grandkids?  Perfect, as long as you have no clothes or other souvenirs that might push you past the free luggage allowance.  Over that, you’re paying crazy high fees per extra kilo – please see Scrooge McDuck note above.  This is a true story, too.  The passenger had to load all her gummi bears into a cardboard box, cover it in duct tape and pay extra to get them home from Frankfurt) and you’re more likely to have big screens instead of seatback TVs on your long-haul.  For the amount you’re saving, it can be a very even trade.

              But for those of us who can only take certain days off and/or really want those 12kg worth of gummi bears (umm, this is making me hungry, I should have used an example I didn’t like), the only way to guarantee you’re not paying hundreds more than the guy next to you reading the in-flight magazine over your shoulder is to book early.  Think of it this way, the earlier you book, the more time you get to just chill and plan what you’re going to do on your vacation.  Or pay off that Visa bill.

Tags: airlines, BlogSherpa, charters, deals, Flights, luggage, price, savings, travel agent

Vacation Anatomy part 3: The memories

                “Two weeks away, feels like the whole world should have changed, but I’m home now, and things still look the same.”  I think Dido puts it really well in this line from Sand in My Shoes, as that post-vacation letdown never gets any easier, no matter how often you travel.  It’s over.  You had spent such a long time anticipating this trip, and then you went and now… now what? 

          Now it’s time to develop those pictures, that’s what.  Just because the physical part of your trip is completed doesn’t mean your vacation is done.  Go through each exposure and laugh at the face you’re making in that one or how cool the Eiffel Tower looks in this one.  Take out all those cool new souvenirs and remember the story behind how you found that perfect vase in a tiny little shop down a dark “oh my God, why am I walking down here?” alley, but it turned out to be a total treasure trove.  Call up all your close friends and arrange to meet over coffee so you can give them the gift you brought back for them and describe all the cool things you saw.  Yes, your vacation might be technically over, but it’ll still be fresh in your mind for months, years to come.   Embrace this.   Use the words “remember that time…” as much as possible and milk every good feeling you can out of your trip.

           Of course, now that one trip is behind you, we can smoothly transition back  into the Anticipation stage again.   Travel is like a drug, once you get it in your system it’s hard to get out and it leaves you craving your next fix.   So do it.  Start thinking about where to go next.  I mean, you have to do something with those vacation days, right? 

Tags: BlogSherpa, memories, photos, souvenirs, travel agent

Vacation Anatomy part 2: The trip itself

           Okay, so now you’re off.  All your worldly possessions are crammed in your wheeled nylon sidekick, you have a complimentary bag of peanuts in your pocket and your camera batteries fully charged.  I’m not going to tell you how to travel, that’s a very personal thing and can vary dramatically from person to person.  But I am going to say: enjoy every second of it.

               Whether you’ve been to the destination a dozen times before or it’s your very first, the most important thing is that you have fun while you’re there.  Without a doubt, everyone gets out of a vacation exactly what they put into it.  Happiness is contagious.  Regardless if you can communicate with the people around you or not. a smile is universal and can go farther than you think in breaking down barriers.  Things have a tendency to go awry on vacations (be it a late plane connection, mislaid luggage, a disappointing city tour or even simply getting lost), but the secret shared by all great travelers is to not let that event ruin your whole trip. Far too often I’ve seen it where something goes a bit off-track at the beginning of a vacation, and, despite the fact that the matter was resolved, the passengers continue to mope about it for the remainder of the trip.   All this does is bring them and the people around them down.  Move on.  Roll with it.  Don’t rob yourself of enjoying your hard-earned vacation.  You spent a lot of time and money on this, you deserve for it to be great.     

              Remember, the  joy is in the details.  Even a trip to the supermarket can be fun if you look at it from the right angle (”They have seafood tempura flavoured chips?  Cool! ”, “It called Coke Light here instead of Diet Coke!”) and revel in all that your destination has to offer.  Then, no matter where you are and what you’re doing, you’re guaranteed to have great memories of your vacation. 

            But eventually you have to go home, which brings us to Stage 3…

Tags: BlogSherpa, enjoyment, luggage, memories, Tips, travel agent