Taking off Travel blog

Don't be forced to park like this. Use coupons to save on a better parking space.

Travel has become so expensive that we’re always looking for ways to save money. One area where you can cut the cost of your trip is with off airport parking. This is usually much cheaper than standard airport parking, with a number of useful additional facilities. But there’s no need to stop there; you can make off airport parking even more affordable by using coupons.

Local Airport Parking Deals

One good place to start is in your local newspaper. You’d be surprised how many off airport parking coupons I have found simply by looking through the ads at the back of the paper or in the travel section. You can get some great reductions for the price of a newspaper, which isn’t a bad deal at all. Read more »

I love this time of year – Christmas trees, decorations, finding special gifts and spending time with family and friends. This year my relatives are coming to me, but if I were travelling, here’s the advice I’d give them.

Last Minute Travel

Planes and trains run all through the holidays, so if you don’t mind traveling on Christmas Day, you could save a fortune. Leave early Christmas morning, or late night on Christmas Eve and you could still be there in time to grab a turkey leg or some slices of roast beef. Plus, you won’t have to fight the hordes of people travelling at peak times. Read more »

A travel agent recently commented on an old post on whether we really need travel insurance. She said:

I highly resent the implication that we are “scamming” the public to steamroll our clients into purchasing insurance.

Our post on the issue of travel insurance was pretty balanced, examining reasons why people might not need that insurance but concluding that it was wise to be insured, so I didn’t think the commenter was taking exception to what we had said on the insurance issue. More likely, she was blowing off steam because of things that others had said in other places. But I thought I’d expand on my response to her.

When I travel, I always buy travel insurance. No exceptions. Ever. Read more »

Flight delays – don’t you just hate them? There’s nothing worse than arriving at the airport to catch your flight only to find that you’ll have a wait of several hours before you can leave. So, what do you do? Here are some suggestions.

1. Get Out And About

If you’ve checked your baggage but haven’t gone through security yet, there’s nothing to stop you from leaving the airport. After all, there will be cabs right outside, so you might as well find out Where The Locals Eat and have a decent meal instead of airport food.

2. See The Sights

If you have time to leave the airport, it’s also worth checking out some of the places to visit near where you are. A surprising number of airports are near city centres, which means now might be the time to see those attractions you missed. Read more »

We’ve all seen it in the movies: luggage is moving round a carousel and the bad guys step in and take the bag belonging to the good guy (or vice versa) and walk straight out of the airport to examine the contents at their leisure. But as the luggage thefts at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport show, that doesn’t just happen in the movies.

On my recent trips, I’ve often thought about the security of my luggage. Years ago, my bags were so nondescript that it would have been easy for another traveler to walk off with them without being noticed. That was something I considered, particularly back in 2001/2002 when your bags had to be left for scanning without a secure area to leave them in. But a travel accident gave me the solution – and yes, it should have been obvious. Read more »