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Staying Healthy while You Travel
Our Travel Insurer, Travel Insured Corp. sends out a newsletter which The Women’s Travel Group Office finds useful in a practical way. After all, they pay when practical things go wrong!
Here are some good tips:
—–Carry disinfecting wipes to clean items like airplane trays, hotel TV remotes, and your and public phones.
—-Get enough sleep to help your body stay healthy. Try to have a somewhat regular sleep schedule, if there are time zone changes. Use a white noise app if you have a hard time falling asleep.… -
5 Tips for Navigating a Street Market
On some Women’s Travel Group tours we include a street market if it is exciting, local and has good products. Those might be Florence on our Tuscany Cooking/Seeing trip, an organized and both local and tourist market. Or they might b the Sabato market included in our Mexico City trip, the best crafts market in Mexico’s capital. Or finally it might be one of the more upmarket street scenes in Delhi on our India trip. You will never have either enough time or energy to feel you really ‘did it’.…
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'Last Minute' Travel Woes
There are everyday issues which delay travel decisions. There are psychological ones which push us into last minute crushes. Everyday is obvious: house sold, lawsuit settled, health better, stock market up or boss had a good hair day.
But why do some women put off the decision to travel until the last second, pay more and fret longer?
Why?
Scared because of newspaper headlines? We recover from headlines quickly as soon as the next global crisis or celebrity news hits. Who was talking about anything other than the Pope for days ?…
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Quick Efficient Way to find out if a Place is Safe
This question came up today from a woman who is thinking of going to Iran with The Women’s Travel Group in August 2015. So here are a few quick ways to self-comfort and hush your family/friends about travel to unusual places:
Will our general travel insurance cover you? If the insurance company will cover you, then breathe easily. (Iran by the way, is covered by major travel insurance companies including ours, Travel Insured).
Is the place on a DO NOT GO actual warning from major Western governments?…
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How to Get Better Airplane Seats
This topic is covered everywhere with all kinds of complicated information along with sites promising you will almost sit on the pilot’s lap. How about some simple ways to improve your chances of a better seat from The Women’s Travel Group?
- Join the frequent flier program of the airline you are using, even if you will rarely use it again. You might have to book, then join, the go back to your booking for your seat.
- Know what your PNR is.
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How To Bargain without Embarassment
Women are uncomfortable paying for something that does not have set price. Tips, discretionary donations and bargaining make us squirm. Yet 48% of all Americans tried bargaining in the last 3 years according to Consumer Reports.
A few guidelines on bargaining might help you:
Do not be intimidated by a fancy store or an aggressive salesperson. Know that in some countries bargaining is part of the normal process. Everyone wants to make a sale. In cities like Paris where we go Dec 21-28 2015, ask up front for discounts for tourists and or tax rebates.…
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Who hates Reading Lists?
The Women’s Travel Group usually supplies a list of recommended books plus movies filmed in the area we are visiting. This is not school, so why bother?
Some books like The Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo open up the under belly of a Indian community that the tourist might not notice. Others celebrate a historic Indian Raj romance that brings history to life: Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Some are fictionalized versions of real events: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghes, set in Ethiopia, and others are straight history: Charles King’s The Black Sea about Turkey.…
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Icky Toilets and Women's Travels
Women are skittish about using bathrooms overseas. Frankly speaking, it is harder for us to ‘activate’, right? Our noses never had the ‘locker room experience’, and we are more prone to infections.
The Women’s Travel Group tries to find the cleanest facilities on all our trips. Our guides know where to take us; many will forewarn if the bathroom is an un-preferred situation. In India, our guide uses the terms: happy bathroom or unhappy bathroom. You get it.
Advice on bathrooms i personal, however here is mine: Wear pans or leggings you can roll up to at least your knees.…
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Mexico City Will Shock You!
Join us to Mexico City Feb 4-7 2016 and not just for Aztec temples and bargains. Mexico City is a city of startling museums, striking skyscrapers, outdoor gourmet cafes, deluxe shopping malls, built near 14century Aztec ruins. Highly innovative ways to combine old and new exist: like the 19c mansion below serving as base for a soaring office building.
Here are a few of the unbelievable buildings you will see along with the Frida Kahlo area, and the major Aztec museums and areas:
We have some space left on Mexico City Feb 4-7 with women either going on to Ixtapan Spa or returning home after the tour.…
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Why Hotel Rooms Frighten Women
On a first solo trip many of us are scared in the hotel room. The Women’s Travel Group (www.thewomenstravelgroup.com) hears that from its members. We might be veteran travelers, but we are not veteran single occupiers. Can we order room service and calmly open the door? Is the lock working? Who in the hotel knows we are alone? What if we get sick? If the alarm clock malfunctions? If we fall in the shower?…
