Travel for the Over 30s

I spend a lot of time online and it takes a great deal for me to be impressed these days - but this little online site TripIT has just blown me away. If you have ever had trouble managing your own online trip itinerary this site is for you.

You may recall in the old days that the most exciting thing was before you left of a big trip you went down the travel agency and they presented you with your pages and pages of travel itinerary - plus usually a spare to leave with your nearest and dearest at home.

Well its been along time since anyone has done that for me and I distinctly remember the last time I organised a 6 week trip to Europe that I ended up with an endlessly updated spreadsheet - which I then had problem priniting out at 3am the night before we left!

TripIT has seen a market need and provides a brilliant solution. Sign up for a free account then when you get those emails confirming your flight and hotel bookings you just forward it to TripIT and they automatically compile them into one, easy to read itinerary.  Automatically and for free! They claim to be able to automatically generate itineraries from over 500 different sources including Airlines, Hotel chains, rental car companies and major online travel consolidators.

But its better than that - TripIT also allows you to edit your itineary and add items in so you can add planned events without actually having to book them. And then you can share your itineary with a number of different emails so everyone stays up to date on your holiday plans.

There is a up sell to the paid version which automatically notifies your mobile if there are flight delays and changes - more use to the frequent business traveller - but check it out whatever your budget - free is good!

From time to time I find a new travel site so  I thought I would share the latest one I have come across - entrecard has a lot to answer for some days!

What caught my eye with Dirt Cheap Tickets Travel was its attractive clean design - I didn’t have to wait 5 minutes for all the widgets to load and then scroll through them all to find the entrecard one!  The site provides travel news and information and also includes information on attending sports events, concerts and other functions.  Their advertising is relevant and include eBay and Amazon deals for travel accessories such as GPS Units, travel wallets, luggage, carry-on’s and so on.

They include lots of information on deals for airfares, hotels, car rentals or vacation packages. They also include info on hard-to-find concert or sports tickets? Its a nice  site - hopefully they will keep up a more regular posting schedule.

Its tough these days being in the travel website niches as you have to compete with the big boys such as lonelyplanet.com now owned by the BBC and I think thats a shame because the small sites offer a far more independent view than those which have basically become on-ilne arms of real-world media outlets complete with editorial control on the content.

With airlines getting more and more focused on charging for extras then carrying a luggage scale is suddenly back in fashion. Fortunately they have improved in the last few decades. Do you remember the hook type device which you had to somehow attach your bag to and then lift it high enough to actually read it?

Well fortunately modern day digital luggage scales have got a couple of clever modifications. First off the read out is digital and freezes once you lift the bag off the floor so you can read it after putting your over-weight bag back on the ground. Also the screen is at the top of the device rather than in the front - also making it easier to read.

With airlines, like Qantas, charging up to A$48/ kilogram for overweight bag to Europe from Australian airports - having a digital luggage scale is a smart move. Particularly as many travellers now have to re-pack between international and domestic because of the different luggage and carry-on rules.

The Asus eee pc is a perfect notebook for camping or travelling. Its small, light, cheap enough to not be a disaster if its misplaced. Robust too thanks to the flash drive its much more likely to survive rough roads than a more expensive machine with a conventional, spinning, disk drive.

There are some accessories that will make life on the road for a notebook, much, much easier. The big one is a travel inverter. The 4g Asus that I have has a battery life of around 2.5hr without wireless enabled (if there is a wireless network you will probably have access to power, but if you are not online turn the wireless off to save your battery power). Australia’s camping sites have a gap in the market: powered campsites will cost you more and power your laptop – but are expensive just for that. Other power points are normally found in the bathroom, kitchen or laundry – its surprising how many people end up perched on the sinks managing their holiday snaps

There’s a better option though if you are a driving vehicle with a cigarette lighter (what are they known as in these politically correct times). Buy an inverter. These nifty devices plug into the the cigarette lighter and provide a standard 3 pin plug with an output of 150W. In practical terms this means that they won’t run a hairdryer, toaster or jug but will power a laptop or battery charger, some come with a USB port too to directly power your iPod or MP3 player.

You can also buy specific or generic laptop power packs which run from the cigarette lighter, but the inverter is cheaper and more versatile.

Well having slammed the local paper’s idea of what a travel addict would like for Christmas  I thought maybe  I should address what a travel addict may actually like for Christmas? What to buy the travel-obsessed in your life?

Well to be blunt most of us need cash to feed our travel habit but many people balk at handing over the folding stuff!  Here are some useful travel gear around and gadgets though.

Diary or Notebook?

Moleskine lovers are fanatical, especially over a brand of note book, but now the comapny has brought out the Moleskine City Notebook cost around $18 and are available for a number of European and American cities.Each notebook includes maps, logistical city info and 76 blank pages for your own notes. Link: Moleskine.com

Electronic Gadgets

Few travellers travel without something that needs power these days. A compact travel adaptor and a charger seem to be standard kit these days.  However if you are going somewhere sunny and want to save the planet then the  Solio Hybrid Charger ($95) might be handy. The Solio can power virtually any personal electronic device, including most mobiles, MP3 and GPS , free all from the sun. Best of all, it can also plug into the USB port of any computer for an electric boost.

For some more seriously weird travel gear check out Vagabondish: Killer Travel Gadget

I wrote about safety and desert travel a couple of weeks ago but I thought I would also share my packing list for our next desert trip. Now this is not packing for a remote trip - we are going to be on sealed roads: travelling the Nullabor from Perth to Adelaide. Its still a long hot drive especially at this time of the year where the temperatures could be well over 40C.

What many people don’t realise is that a lot of the road has quite a lot of vegetation: this picture is somewhere on the 550km Perth to Kalgoorlie stretch of road.

So what must be packed for the trip:

• water: lots of, we have a water container and also buy a couple of 4l containers from the supermarket. You need more than one container instead anything breaks: unlikely but could happen. Remember the car might need water too. We normally have 20l for 2 people.
• food in an esky with lots of ice. Even though there is a roadhouse every 300km or so - you don’t have to be a health food nut or a frugal to the bone to start resisting the over-priced Australian meat pie and chips fare they serve up!I also carry some basics such as canned fish which will survive anything and beer - which is always more expensive in the remote areas.
• sunglasses - good ones, especially if you are driving into the sun.
• mp3 which will play in the car or a lot of CD’s - there is an awful lot of no-radio reception areas in Australia!
• a map and a guide book or two for the boring bits so you know the trivia - i.e. where SkyLab landed!
• a eee pc subnotebook for all those road notes you will be taking: the road is smooth enough I might even be able to type in the car!
• a sarong to shade the side of my body which is getting burnt!
• a second driver - no one can drive for hours in a straight line without going crazy!

We don’t have kids and to be honest if I had kids I would probably fly! Otherwise a DVD player and lots of DVDs would be a must!

What do you take on long road trips?

I wrote a few days ago about carrying large amounts of cash when I travel, as an alternative to plastic cards. To do this safely the trick is to not to actually carry the vast majority of your cash in your wallet. In fact I rarely carry more than a day or twos worth of cash in my actual wallet. The rest goes in my money belt. But not just any money belt - and not the type of money belt that most people take: which is something that looks like this:

There are numerous versions of these: they are in silk and cotton even leather, they even come in a deluxe version with place for padlock. They all miss the point - these things are not comfortable to wear and they aren’t even secure! Wearing something close to your body is bloody uncomfortable - if you are wearing anything but the loosest shirt it will be visible. Its also easily pick-pocketable too -unless well below your waistline - which again makes it - bloody uncomfortable. I’ve seen someone loose cash out of money belt which was below the waistline, with a shirt tucked in over the top - the bus was admittedly crowded and the Bolivian woman who did it was good - but it happens because everyone knows that travellers carry their money in a belt around their waist! Except that normally these belts get left in your luggage, or even in your day-pack. Anywhere to avoid the inability to bend over that these belts povide!

There are variations of these belts, the most common is the neck pouch. Try slinging a passport, vaccination card, couple of plastic cards and a wad of cash around your neck all day - you will get a sore neck or worse. The deluxe ones come with piano wire so they can’t be cut - pity the thief won’t know that until they try using their knife on your neck!

A money belt that actually works :I use a shoulder holster money belt. These hang over your shoulder and under an arm. I sometimes connect mine to a bra strap but with the right amount of weight they will stay put. They hang free - not close to the body - which makes them a lot cooler to wear. Because they are under your arm its also a lot more descret. I still wear a reasonably loose fitting top to conceal it but it works - I know I’ve worn it for months at a time.

That said, when I travel alone I don’t carry all my cash and valuables in the one place. I sometimes just fold a $100 into a diary or my laundry bag - but I better solution came along: something that looks like a legit belt - in fact is - but has a narrow zippered compartment which will hold a few notes.

Even if I am not wearing a belt everyday this is useful hiding spot. Another option is small pocket which loops around a regular belt which hangs down inside your clothes: but I think this option is more subtle.

You can also get belts which wrap around your leg to hide a few dollars - wouldn’t be big enough for a passport - but  I wear skirts too much for this to work for me- it would certainly work for many guys.

So there you go there are quite a number of options for money belts - but none of them work unless you wear them - and you won’t wear them unless you find them comfortable!  When I am travelling solo the belt never leaves my side. I don’t trust room safes - they are a pain to use anyway, but I never leave my moneybelt in the room if I am having a shower in the ensuite - the belt comes too - and yes I do sleep with it. Tell you what it works I’ve never lost anything more serious than my wallet!

Continuing our Travel Gear series lets look at the best invention ever for the traveller: the digital camera! I can’t draw or paint so the camera has always been my friend. I never had a lot of money to waste when I travel so I don’t buy a lot of souvenirs - instead I take photos.

For many years I travelled with a film camera: and worried about the film. I regret to this day having been stupid enough to put my camera with a full film in my bag in Bolivia - the bag was stolen and I lost 36 photos of the Salar de Uyuni salt plains that I will probably never be able to replace. So I am paranoid  about loosing my photos: the camera can always be claimed on insurance, the photos are irreplaceable.

How to Backup Your Camera Photos on the Road

• don’t have a huge memory card in my camera: instead I would rather have 2 - and rotate them - that way if they get stolen or unreadable (it happens) I only loose half
• back up your photos from the camea to somewhere else often.  Make sure you have more than 1 copy and don’t carry the copy in the same bag as the camera. Preferably don’t have the same person carry both. If travelling solo mail a copyhome.
• Options include:
  • to a laptop
  • external hard-drive
  • take to a photo shop and get 2 CDs/DVDs cut: mail one hom

WhatType of Camera to Travel with

•  Digital not flm: digital is so much more flexible
• At least a 10X optical zoom - otherwise you will never get any good people shots or even be able to frame a landscape shot well
• The best quality image you can afford without getting a huge, frightening expensive DSLR which is worth more than your airfare;
• Preferably runs off standard AAA or AA batteries which are easy to replace and easy to get rechargeable batteries for

Now if you are expecting some fantastic photos and tips on how to  be good at travel photography - don’t ask me! If you have some techincal questions head over to hospitalera’s blog Microstock - she’s an expert!

As everyone knows, well you should, if you have read the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, you should never leave home without your towel. Its essential for the galactic traveller and Arthur did in fact spend the entire TV series and later movie with a towel!

I actually never travel with a full-sized towel- they just take up too much luggage real estate and are really not that much use unless you are hitching with the Vogons Destructor Fleet.
Instead I never leave home without my sarong - now that is a truly versatile piece of travel gear To date my uses for a sarong have included:

• a skirt (the original);
• dress (if I am feeling skinny);
• head covering (mosque and Catholic church)
• sheet (cheap hotels in Asia don’t often have a top sheet)
• night shirt when its too hot to be wearing anything and the loo is down the hall
• laundry bag
• carry bag
• baby carrier (haven’t tried this one myself but lots of girls do)
• swim suit cover up
• towel (sorry Douglas)
• beach towel
• table cloth for the picnic

In fact if I am travelling in warmer climates I’ve been known to take 2 sarongs - you know a dressy one, for wearing out and at home/towel one! They are certainly a whole lot cheaper than those fancy microfibre “travel towels”.

Photo Credit

We all have our favourite bits of travel gear don’t we. One thing I have certainly got better at over the years is making sure that everything that goes with me works well. I like to consider myself the queen of travelling light. I am no fan of having heavy bag to weigh me down, but the flip side is that if you are travelling light, what you take with you really, really has to do the job for you!

So I thought I would work my way through my essential packing list and what travel gear I wouldn’t leave home without. I guess my number one item I always have is a notebook. It used to be a real one: usually with a hard back to make easier writing on my knee easier, its often spiral bound, in fact something like the one in the photo below.

But that’s not my travelling notebook anymore: the cute little white Asus Eee PC 701 is, that’s the cute tiny little electronic gizmo below it! The Asus weights less than 1kg - in fact it weighs less than most guidebooks, it is a notebook light enough to take traveling.

The best thing about the Asus for me is the robustness- it has a flash drive so no moving parts to stop working when you drop it and knock it about. Oh and the price it only cost me A$300 (around $200 at the moment) - so if it does get lost its not a tragedy. With USB cables to connect your camera and wireless internet it has everything to go! It also comes with openoffice and firefox and skype so you don’t have to spend another cent on it. Well not quite true I will probably buy a protective cover better than the one it has an also SD card to up the internal capacity.

So do you carry a notebook or a laptop with you when you travel?