KI7TU's Reference Page - Travel Tips


This is far from complete, but I don't know how soon I'll have a chance to complete it, so I'm going ahead and making this version available now.

I've traveled quite a bit, both for pleasure and on business, over the years, and I have learned a few "tricks" to make travel easier and more fun.

I've shared quite a few of these tips with various people on various occasions and in various ways, but have decided to put them together here to be able to point people at them (without my having to retype everything into an e-mail, and also without the risk of my forgetting to mention something).

For what it's worth, my travel experience (as of late 2015) includes 4 trips to Europe, 4 trips to Australia, 2 to Hawai'i, one to the Caribbean, 3 brief trips to Canada (two of them "day" trips), several visits to Mexico (though it's been a dozen years or more since my last one to Mexico), and every year several within the 48 states. (My record year was 17 trips in one year -- that's about one trip every three weeks. That was OK at the time, but would be a bit much for me today.) Although I enjoy flying (I grew up around aircraft -- my father was an aircraft mechanic), I don't enjoy airports or what passes for "security", so I generally drive if time permits.

I should probably mention that I am physically handicapped, having limited walking abilities. I use a cane when I walk, and for further distances (such as going through a museum or at a convention) I use an electric scooter. I will mention more about this in various sections below.

Please don't be insulted by any of them. Some may seem obvious to you, but, unfortunately, they're not all that obvious to everyone.

I hope you find this useful!

DISCLAIMER: These are based MY experiences ONLY. Your experience may (and probably will) be different, and I make NO guarantees about them.

General Travel Tips

Tips for Traveling By Air

Tips for Traveling By Car

Tips for International travel

Country-specific travel tips

I've been to several countries, and each is, well, different. I'm putting together a few tips that I've found useful for some of them.

I'm also including a section for "Europe-specific" tips, even though Europe isn't really a country. There are a few things that apply to every country I've been to in Europe.

Australia-specific travel tips

In general, most Australians really like Americans, and try to make us feel very welcome.

There are some historical reasons for this: America has come to the rescue of the Australians on several occasions. The first time was in the 1790s, shortly after the founding of the so-called Botany Bay colony, when there was a crop failure, and a couple of Yankee Clippers showed up wanting to do some trading. When they found out about the famine, they took off, going to southeast Asia, and returned a few weeks later loaded to the gunnels with rice. The most recent event was during WW-II when the British had taken all of the Australian military to fight in Europe. The Americans showed up and kept the Japanese from conquering Australia (the way they had the Philippines).

Europe-specific travel tips

There are a few things to be aware of for all of the countries I've been to in Europe.

Italy-specific travel tips

There are a few important tips for travelling to Italy.
This screen last updated: 30-Jan-2016

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