Taking off Travel blog

This has been an interesting month. I’ve spent a lot of it visiting first Florida and now New Jersey, but today my travel will be virtual, as I look at some of the posts that caught my eye during the month of September.

First, a recent post by Darren Cronian where he says it is Time to take a stand against school holiday price hikes. I couldn’t agree more, as this is an issue that’s annoyed me for years. He adds:

come on, increasing the price every school holiday to increase the price by £400 is just outrageous.

It will be interesting to see if anyone weighs in with a practical solution for this long-running problem.

Thanks to World Hum, I found this gallery of travel trick shots - optical illusions that boggle the mind. I particularly liked this shot of the cannon.

Vagabondish discusses the hyperforeign traveler. Omri Ceren says:

Your 10 day post-graduation Amsterdam hostel stay didn’t open your eyes to “how much more laid back Europeans are about sex.”

Quite right.

Still on Vagabondish, Turner Wright posts on why it’s easier to stay fat, stupid and untraveled,  outlining four trends that lead to sloth:

With technology and the mindset of the general population slowly changing to accommodate the sloth, the world is essentially becoming the antithesis of what vagabonds desire: conveniences to eventually strip away the need for any physical activity, and the propagation of information designed to inhibit growth, not encourage greater understanding.

Two Go Round The World gives some good tips on getting a safe night’s sleep when traveling, asking:

are hostels safe? The answer is “yes—and no”. For the simple fact that safety is not quantifiable in a hostel, there will be some dangers. However, most of them are avoidable. Bottom line—if you know the risks before you check in, you can be prepared for any situation.

The rest of their traveling safely series is also worth a read.

Nomadic Matt takes a trip through the Paris sewers, pointing out that some of the best sights in Paris are underground. Although he does concede that they are “a little bit stinky”, Matt does a great job of reviewing an unusual tour.

There’s always something worth reading on Jaunted. Three that caught my eye were posts about the forthcoming Harry Potter attraction in Orlando, how mathematics might solve airport delays and a list of the top five counterfeit shopping districts in the world.

On Elliott.org, I enjoyed My Ticket Price Fell, How About A Refund. It’s a good case study in how to get your money back under those circumstances.

I think the only reason airlines feel they have to offer these refunds is because they play price games, offering a rock-bottom ticket price one minute and quadrupling the price the next.

Maybe if they stopped that nonsense, you wouldn’t feel ripped off when the price of your airline ticket fell.

Finally, for those who are not ready for international travel, here’s an interesting post on Seeing The World Without A Passport on the Matador Trips blog. It highlights American “one-of-a-kind sights might just tide you over till your bank account starts cooperating.”

Enjoy!

I can’t believe I missed my one year anniversary. I’ve been blogging here on the Taking Off Travel Blog since September 2008, so I’m now officially into my second year. I’ve really enjoyed blogging about travel and getting to know other travel bloggers – it’s just about perfect for a digital nomad. Here are some of the highlights of the year.

Since ParkRideFlyUSA is an offsite airport parking company, I started out by looking at some of the destinations where we have off airport parking facilities. These posts are not just about the facilities but about what you can do in those towns. I kicked off the series with Layover In LAX, and have followed it by posts looking at activities near Chicago Midway, Boston Logan, JFK, Indianapolis and others. Over the course of the year, in response to reader feedback, I’ve changed the series a bit to give more information on airport facilities. The posts on Hobby Airport and Chicago O’Hare are good examples. Read more »

I’ve recently discovered a great business travel tool and I didn’t have to spend a dime to get it. When you’re on a business trip to a new city, you need to be able to find your way around very quickly so that you don’t waste valuable time. Ovi Maps (formerly Nokia Maps) helps you to do just that. If you have one of the recent touchscreen Nokia phones, then this mapping program comes as part of the package. I recently put it to the test, using my Nokia 5800 Xpress Music.

Getting Started

In order to use the maps program on your phone you will need to download some maps. There’s no need to worry about the often prohibitive cost of data downloads. The bundled Nokia software also includes a desktop maps program, so fire it up and download the maps to your computer. That can take a while on slow connections, but once it’s done, you can sync the maps you need to your phone.

The maps are divided by continent and then by major area. For the UK, you can load maps for either England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, but not (as far as I could tell) for specific regions such as London. Similarly, the US maps allow you to load maps for each state. I loaded up New York and New Jersey in preparation for my trip and set my phone to use the program offline to avoid roaming charges. Read more »

Running your business from anywhere is no longer a pipe dream - that’s the premise that underlies the Location Independent site. Site founders Lea and Jonathan Woodward explain: “Being location independent is a concept, a lifestyle and a mindset. It’s a lifestyle based on freedom, choice and flexibility.”

They should know. They have been traveling the world for the last couple of years and have used their site and blog to share the lessons they have learned. With more and more people experiencing the delights of teleworking, there couldn’t be a better time to explore this site. Read more »

To round out my review of Florida attractions (see parts 1 and 2), there are just a couple more to mention. On Tuesday, we returned to Boomers to try out a couple of things we’d missed the previous week. The first of these was the wooden roller coaster, the largest of its kind in Florida. As we approached, I could see the weathered planks of wood and it looked like it had been there for centuries. However, it turned out that the Dania Beach Hurricane was opened in 2000, so it’s much newer than it looks.

Riding the Dania Beach Hurricane

There were only three of us on that first roller coaster ride, so I sat at the front with my daughter as it rolled slowly out of the station. Our excitement soon turned to terror as the coaster inched up an incline then shot down the other side.  It just didn’t feel that safe. Yes, we were locked in the usual manner, but everything rattled, and there was far too much room to bounce about in our seats. In fact, it felt like we could go flying into the air at any second. There were a couple more of those twists and turns before we returned to the station. Unfortunately, the guy in charge had offered us back to back rides (because we’d had to wait a bit), so off we went again. At this point, my hubby and daughter left the coaster, and I took the third ride alone (I didn’t want to throw the offer back in his face). As I tottered out, I decided I’d had enough of roller coasters to last me quite a while, something with which we all agreed. Read more »