Taking off Travel blog

Have you entered Recyclebank’s Green Your Vacation contest yet? The company offers rewards for going green in everyday life. There are a couple of weeks left to enter the contest to win some great prizes. Prizes include a 10 night cruise, a 5 day, 4  night stay at a luxury resort (Four Seasons Costa Rica), 10 grab bags of travel goodies (really good stuff!) and some gift cards and Recyclebank points. Read the rules and find out the details here and check out this video:

Recyclebank’s Green Your Vacation Contest! from Ali Kalis on Vimeo.

Recyclebank has provided some tips on greener vacations:

• Leave the extra pair of shoes at home:  When packing your bags, consider scaling back and only packing the essentials. That extra pair of shoes will make the plane just a bit heavier, increase fuel consumption, and lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Multiply that pair of shoes by one thousand summer travelers, and we’ve just made a huge impact. Alaska Airlines actually found that they could save $10,000 per year in fuel costs just by removing five magazines per plane. Packing a lighter bag is better for your back, and for the fuel usage.
• Take the scenic route by train or bus: Sit back, relax and enjoy the view from a train or bus this summer vacation. Train and bus travel leads to fewer emissions per passenger than traveling alone in a car or by plane, and it is often cheaper! Per passenger mile carbon emissions by plane: 0.48 kg. By train: 0.21 kg. By bus: 0.056 kg. Reducing your environmental impact while on vacation: priceless. (Data on carbon emissions sourced from Amtrak and American Bus Association.)
• Bring a reusable water bottle: Did you know 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the U.S. are still NOT recycled? This year, instead of buying a case for your road trip, take a stainless steel, aluminum or bio-plastic reusable bottle; you never know when you will have easy access to a recycle bin on the road. Also, there is no need to toss your bottle before going through airport security—just empty it out and refill it inside!
• Rent your gear: Americans spend $289 billion on outdoor gear activities every year. Packaging, shipping and transporting the gear to your vacation destination all add up to a significant impact on the environment. Consider renting your surfboards and snorkeling gear instead of buying it this year. Rentals can be cheaper and better for the environment!
• Give your appliances a vacation: By turning off your hardworking, energy-sucking devices while you are gone, you will be helping your energy bill and the environment. Electronics with digital displays, instant-on features or remote controls consume energy even while not in use, so give them a rest!  Remember to unplug TVs, cable boxes, DVD players, computers, printers, digital clocks, etc. when you leave home.

Happy 4th of July!

I was interested to read this article on Avoiding Jetlag and Beyond — Business Travel Tips for the Mature Global Sourcing Globetrotter by Jason Busch on Spend Matters.  His tips for coping with long haul travel include getting straight in the gym when you land, eating breakfast, avoiding sleeping pills and watching your diet. All great tips, and the full article is worth a read, especially if you’re a business traveler who’s not as young as you used to be (like me!)

My prescriptions for keeping jet lag at bay when making those transatlantic flights? As well as drinking plenty of water in-flight, I use melatonin, power naps and staying awake – in that order.  Let me explain.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone which has been synthesized and is used to treat sleep disorders. It also works, to put it in layman’s terms, to reset your sleep clock. When I’m on a night flight, I take one tablet before I go to sleep, and usually wake feeling refreshed and in tune with the time zone I’m in.

If my flight is during the day, I take a different approach. I have a longish power nap when I arrive (30-60 minutes), then stay awake till as close to a normal sleeping time as possible. Then I take the melatonin at night.

Since I’m using it once every now and then I don’t have to worry about side effects, which go away when you stop taking the pill anyway.

What do you use to counter jet lag?

On the Road is the name of one of novelist Jack Kerouac’s most notable works. A largely autobiographical work, On the Road is heavily based upon Kerouac’s real life road trips that he and his friends took across the United States in the 1950s. The two most important characters in the book, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, are based upon Jack Kerouac and his good friend Neal Cassady respectively.

Many people have read On the Road and have been greatly inspired by it to take their own road trips. You may go so far as to base your road trip on the book, taking destinations and trip ideas from Sal and Dean. However, there’s no need to go all the way – Sal and Dean aren’t exactly the greatest role models all the time. Here are some tips on how to choose your road trip inspiration from On the Road carefully.

One thing that you definitely want to snag from the book is the enthusiasm for the road trip. Wanderlust is the name of the game and Dean’s definitely got the right attitude when he says, “I just wanta ride, man! I gotta go!” Your motivation for taking a road trip should stem from a desire to travel and see the world, to stretch out restless legs and spread your wings. You should not be embarking upon a road trip like Dean because you stole five hundred cars and desperately need to get out of town.

As Sal and Dean discover, a great way to save money on a road trip is to drive a car cross country for another person. In the book, that’s how Sal and Dean come to drive a ’47 Cadillac limousine from Denver to Chicago. However, let that be the extent of your inspiration – Sal and Dean mess up the Cadillac so badly that by the time they arrive at their destination, the car cannot be recognized by its owner.

Unless you want to drive on an empty stomach, you’ll need to stock up on food for your road trip. A law abiding individual will pay for said food, while people like Sal grab the food and run out the grocery store door while the owners are looking the other way. Maybe Sal could get away with that sort of thing in the 1950s, but today everything would be captured on closed-circuit cameras and the odds of you making a clean getaway are slim.

Even if you’re in the middle of nowhere, it’s a good idea to maintain a legal speed. First of all, you never know where a cop may be lurking, just waiting to give you a ticket. More importantly, keeping to posted speed limits will increase your chances of coming out of this road trip alive. Dean chose to live on the wild side and drive so fast that he ended up driving into a ditch and wrecking his fender.

Tom Calver is from the website Car Rental Express. Book a cheap car rental with CarRentalExpress.com today.

Traveling is great but packing…not so much. When you read about packing tips online they’ll go out of their way to tell you how to fit the most items in your checked luggage, but your carry-on is always neglected. Sure you could fit a bunch of tightly packed clothes there, but then where would you store your personal items? We looked at items that can be placed in your carry-on and are always helpful. And the plus is, all of them can be folded or crumbled in a way that you won’t even know they’re there when the time comes to pack.

- Water bottle: We’ve all been torn between buying water at the airport but then having to worry about carrying the empty bottle around or being stopped in customs because you have a half-full water bottle that still, somehow, defies the carry-on luggage regulations. The Anti-Bottle is a perfect solution for all your water carrying needs. This innovative water bottle is as big as lipstick when it’s empty and it expands as you place water inside it. Also, when you combine it with a small water filter, it can save your life.

- Maps: Holding up a large map is a sign that you’re either a lost tourist or an intrepid explorer. If you don’t want to look like either, the solution is at hand. FabMaps look like normal maps when you’re holding them but then you can simply crunch them up in a ball or loosely fold them and tuck them right back in your pocket or your bag. And because they’re made of microfiber, they always return to their original state undamaged. No more paper cuts and no more realizing that when you put your carry-on on the overhead compartment the map got crumbled up, or even torn apart.

- Bag: Putting a bag inside your carry-on bag seems like something redundant. But the truth is a lot of airliners, especially the low-cost ones, like to claim that your purse or your messenger bag count as your carry-on, and make you check the larger piece of carry-on luggage along with your checked luggage. Now you have a solution for that, with the Mini Maxi Ladyshopper. This fashionable bag is perfect to hold your belongings and it folds up into a flat 6’’ pouch, meaning it can be carried around just about anywhere.

- Rain Jacket: You never know how the weather will be like at your destination, but you’re usually advised not to pack something “just in case”. Well, now you can. The Pack Windbreaker is a stylish rain jacket with lots of pockets and designed to house your gadgets and keep them dry as well. But what makes it really stand out is the fact that it transforms into a useful pillow, perfect for those long, drowsy flights with bad movies.

- Keyboard: This piece was left for last, but it’s not at all unimpressive. Instead of typing away at small cell phone keys, you can plug this Pro Foldable Black USB Keyboard into just about any smart-phone. And once you’re done, just fold it up and put in your bag.

This post was written by Holly Adams @ Coupon Croc, check there for money saving Travelodge discount vouchers.

Happy Monday! Let’s start the week right with some of our best travel tips from the last three years. Enjoy!

1. How To Stay Fit When You Travel

Regular business travel can pile on the pounds unless you pay attention to your health. Here are some ways for business travelers to keep active even when on the road.

2. Taking Precautions Against In-Flight Thieves

how can you guard against losing your stuff while you sleep on an overnight flight?

3. What Do You Really Need To Know In A Foreign Language?

If you’re taking a trip abroad, whether for business or leisure, then there are certain things you need to be able to say. Here are our tips on the most useful phrases.

4. Working On The Road

I like to think I’ve got managing my business on the road down to a fine art. Here’s how I do it.

5. Ten Tips For Hotel Safety

Here are ten tips that will guard against theft and make your next hotel stay safer.

6. Nine Places To Plan Your Next Trip

To find out what actual travelers think of your planned destination, you need to browse the travel forums. Here are nine forums where you can start your research.

7. Five Tips To Cut The Cost Of Holiday Travel

Here are some tips for reducing the cost of your vacation – not just at this time of year, but all year round.

8. Currency Conversion Fees – Don’t Get Ripped Off!

How to save on spending money abroad.

9. Tipping & Gratuity Guidelines For International Travel

Americans are the biggest tippers, but what’s tipping like in the rest of the world?

10. International Body Language, Gestures & Manners: Don’t Be ‘That Guy!’

Knowing what gestures and body language mean in foreign countries can mean the difference between making friends and getting beaten up.