Archive for the ‘TravelTips’ Category

Travel Tip – Learn (a little of) the Language

If traveling somewhere that uses a different language, 12 (or more) weeks ahead start listening to language lessons. The “One Minute Language Lessons” series from RadioLingua  is a good place to start. The BBC Languages page is another good source. What’s available online keeps changing, search for things like “language tips for travelers” and see […]

Travel Tip – Power Management

  Today’s traveler carries several different kinds of powered devices. Whether smartphone, tablet, digital camera, all three, or something else they have in common that they need power. You’ll almost certainly have to recharge them while you travel. Get and carry a travel power strip, plug adapter, and voltage converter. Also several USB power supplies, […]

Travel Tip – Carry on Only

Carry on only if at all possible. Yes, it is almost always possible. Checking bags slows you down at both ends of the trip, and reduces flexibility if changes are needed in the middle. I have missed flights waiting for Customs to inspect checked bags. See Airline Travel – Carryon Only for a case where having […]

Travel Tip – Set Timepieces to Destination

Set timepieces to the time zone of your destination as you depart. If traveling across more than a couple of time zones, it is useful to start being aware of the time at the destination a few days ahead of time, and start adjusting your sleep if possible.  

Travel Tips Overview

This post serves as a description of the Travel Tips category and series of posts. I have been travelling for long enough, even if not all that often in a year, to have accumulated a bunch of techniques for making it easier or better in some way. Some are things I have learned from reading blogs, […]

Two Weeks in a Carry On

You can find other people’s techniques for this via Google.  I recently took a combined business and vacation trip that lasted two weeks, and I took only a “rollaboard” carry on bag. The business trip included a need for dress and business casual clothes. This trip had an advantage over some hectic vacation trips in […]

Travel Tips – cord management

When traveling with geek toys, packing and keeping track of the connection and power cords gets to be a problem.  Lots of cords come with velcro straps attached, but not all of them.  So what to do? You could buy velcro straps and add them to the cord yourself. Or you could be cheap, and […]

Airline Travel – Carryon Only!

We recently took a long weekend vacation trip from Chicago to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.  (Yes, in part to escape the Chicago winter for a short while.)  We had an experience that proved yet again the validity of the advice to avoid checking bags if at all possible.  One of the podcasts I […]