Taking off Travel blog

I’m just back from a trip to Florida, in the Hollywood/Dania Beach area. (It seems the person who planned the area was originally from California, hence the name.) It was fun. Flying in and clearing security went smoothly, and we were through in less than half an hour. Just as I was thinking we’d be in the pool by 2, we hit a snag - the extremely lengthy Alamo car hire process. We had prebooked so it should have been smooth. Instead we had to wait for the rep to:

• double check our reservation
• try to con us into upgrading to a bigger vehicle (for more money)
• try to sell us insurance coverage which we already had
• get a GPS system

Finally, we had to be bussed to the Miami offsite airport parking lot to collect our car. Most of the time when I hire a car, the reps give me the car that’s available. With this Alamo rental, we had the novelty of walking to the appropriate parking lot section and picking anything we wanted - and all of them were quite big enough for our luggage, despite the rep’s dire warnings.  We plugged in the GPS (later to be christened the ‘gremlin’ but that’s another story) and away we went to our hotel, one of the Marriott chain.

Pool at Marriott Springhills Suites, FL

The room was spacious, though the bathrooms needed a refurb and we had a great view of the pool and a few palm trees. (Overall, we thought the hotel was a good choice, as it was close to places to eat, local attractions and Interstate 95 without being too noisy.) Free internet access and breakfast added to the value. By about 4.30 we were finally able to hit the pool, which was practically deserted. That’s what you get for traveling at the tail end of the season when most kids are back at school.

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Planning my next trip made me reflect on how much the process has changed since I took my first self-planned trip. I was 22 and a group of girls from work were off to Miami for a long weekend. We phoned up a travel agent, booked and paid for our tickets and hoped we’d be allocated a good hotel. While some people still book their trips like that, a lot more now take the guesswork out of it with readily available tools.

A Street’s Eye View

One of the best of these is Google Maps. Used in conjunction with an excellent travel forum or website, it’s a great way to get a street’s eye view of the places you might visit or want to stay. Here’s how we use it. Once we’ve decided on the destination, we start looking for good hotels and local attractions.

Where To Stay?

TripAdvisor is a great resource for quickly finding out what other travelers have enjoyed in a given city and you can use the locations to work out where it might be good to stay. Then it’s over to Hotwire to see if there are any bargain hotels. Once I have a shortlist, then it’s over to Google Maps to see how everything stacks up. Is the hotel close enough to the attractions I want to visit? Is it going to be noisy?  I was able to rule out one hotel, simply because I could see that it was in the flight path.

Narrowing The Search

With a little tweaking, we were able to find places that were close enough to major roads for convenience, yet far enough away to avoid noise pollution. We were also able to use street view to see where the nearest restaurants are. I also plan to see which are the best places to eat by using Where The Locals Eat.

What’s On?

Once that’s done you see what events are available in your destination by visiting What’s On When (or Joobili if you’re visiting Europe) or you can visit Offbeat Guides to build your own travel guide.

Of course, I’m not saying that removing the guesswork from trip planning is a good thing. Sometimes, it’s good to just catch a last minute flight to wherever, try some couchsurfing and wait for adventure to arrive. Which option do you prefer? Which are your favorite trip planning tools?

Photo by Nezemnaya

Tips on making your vacation greener

It’s great to be eco-friendly, but sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Does having a green vacation mean missing out on enjoyment? Not at all. Read on for our tips on making your trip or vacation a little bit greener.

Plane Or Car?

There’s no getting away from it - cars spew out a lot of carbon emissions and burn a big hole in the ozone layer, if some scientists are to be believed. If you travel by car, you’ll be making a lot of starts and stops, adding to the environmental impact of your trip. Strangely, instead of driving, it might be more eco-friendly to take a direct flight (probably on the grounds that with a full flight there’s less impact per person), so book your car into an offsite airport parking lot and catch that plane. When booking your trip, choose an eco-friendly travel agent too.

Green Hotels

Getting eco-friendly accommodation does not mean staying in a shack. On the contrary, you can still stay in luxury at one of the country’s many green hotels. Green hotels minmize their impact by reducing packaging waste and waste in general, using low energy light bulbs and installing showers and toilets that use less water. They may also promote recycling and other eco-friendly strategies. There are green hotels all around the US - check out GreenHotels.com to see where you could stay. Read more »

Indy Park Ride & Fly

Indy Park Ride & Fly and 1st Class Express Airport Parking, two offsite airport parking facilities servicing Indianapolis International Airport (IND) have merged to create a bigger, better Indy Park Ride & Fly in conjunction with the opening of the airport’s new Midfield terminal.

“After 11 years and over 1.5 million parking stays, we’re extremely excited to relocate to the new Midfield terminal,” says Amy Strohmeyer, Indy Park Ride & Fly’s General Manager. “Our new Indy Park Ride & Fly facility will hold more than 2300 cars, and will be the largest off airport parking operation servicing the new Midfield terminal.”

This Ronald Reagan Parkway facility offers the same outstanding, hassle-free service as before, plus more parking spaces, long-term or short-term parking, car care services, enhanced self-parking option, free shuttles to the airport and back, 24 hour surveillance, secure, fenced-in lots, complimentary luggage assistance and more. For an even faster airport parking experience, travelers can sign-up for the Indy BizXpress Fast Pass member program, which will allow them to simply drive in, park, ride & fly.

Another brand-new bonus offer  available at this new Indianapolis airport parking facility is Long-weekend Savings. When traveling from Thursdays to Mondays between November 13th, 2008 and March 2nd, 2009, customers will save more than 40% on Indianapolis Airport parking with discounted rates as low as $6.00 a day. Read more »

It’s almost time for the start of the holiday travel season. While we all look forward to the traditional festivities, it’s also a time when there’s a lot of stress related to travel. Long delays, over booked flights and lost luggage cut down on the time available for having fun - and are a real hassle to sort out. But if you want to make the most of the holiday season and cut down on the stress, then the American Society of Travel Agents has prepared some handy tips for making sure your holiday goes smoothly. Here they are:

• Book your ticket ASAP. If you must book last minute, remember, you have options. The key to securing the best deal is flexibility in travel dates - ask your ASTA travel agent to check into holiday fares; the slow week between Christmas and New Year’s; or consider flying into an alternate airport and renting a car.
• Arrive early. Difficult airport parking, long lines at security checkpoints and the possibility of the airline overselling the flight and bumping passengers, should all be considered when deciding what time to arrive at the airport. Give yourself plenty of extra time. Need some incentive? Keep in mind that those who arrive earliest for an overbooked flight stand the greatest chance of staying onboard. Read more »
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