-
Five Travel Habits to Erase Today!
We all have some irritating habits and there are 5 travelers must get rid of in order to have the best trip.
1- Second guessing the guide: guides take travelers all the time, truly they know best when it comes to doing their job.2-Overpacking and asking others to help: if you must bring your rock collection…. do not expect others in our group to help you carry it
3-Always being late: we are a pretty punctual group of women, but from time to time we need to chase someone up.…
-
What is a non Plastic Visa?
Since we had this question from some women going to India with us in October,:here is a primer on visas.
To enter foreign countries, (or for non citizens to enter the US), travelers need a visa. If you look at your passport, you will see pages called Visa Pages. For many countries, US Citizens only need to have their passports stamped when they arrive overseas-that stamp is a visa.For Morocco for Thanksgiving, US citizens get their visa stamp on arrival easily.…
-
Five Biggest Travel Fears of Women
This article first appeared in The Three Tomatoes Website. Phyllis Stoller of The Women’s Travel Group is their Travel Guru and many readers have gone on The Women’s Travel Group tours.
Five Biggest Travel Fears for Women
The greatest angst situations that women encounter when traveling might not be the first ones you think of. In the 22 years of participating in group travel for women, we have listed from top to bottom, the five biggest “fears”.
Number One: Fear of being separated from the group because of airline delays or cancellations.…
-
New TSA Rules Need Close Attention
The TSA has announced that they are now requiring all electronic devices be opened at security. Phones, tablets, computers, kindles….. This means some time delay and it requires that your devices have a live battery. Cameras are not mentioned in the list, but beware if they are battery operated.
If you are on a long trip, you will need to re-juice your devices before you go through security, as it is possible that security overseas will match our new regulations. And when you board your direct flights to the US from overseas say like Catania from our Sicily trip, TSA regulations will apply.…
-
Top Five Hotel Complaints from Women
Cool Sicilian Gelato. Join us to Sicily for Christmas Markets, Archaeology, Farm Food and More.
Joe Sharkey wrote about Hotel Peeves the other day. He mentioned two top hotel complaints: bulky internet or expensive internet service and hard to reach power outlets. Well if you get to women’s complaints. We agree that paying egregiously for internet is annoying and definitely we are tired of moving furniture to recharge our phones.
Here is my list as a rep of The Women’s Travel Group of hotel horrors:
Dirty floors: many women either stretch or do yoga in the morning.…
-
Regroup on a Group tour?
Have you ever wanted one quiet night on a busy tour? I have and here is what I do besides wash hair and get into jammies.I buy a light dinner from a nearby supermarket. Towards the front where workers buy their lunch one finds. cheese and fruit cut up already plus small bottles of wine- get only a screw top. Supermarkets overseas are often in basement areas of department stores so you need to ask. “Following other people’s bags” is a good way to identify a store or an open air market.…
-
Packing for Summer Rain
Summer brings easy packing with light clothes and no coats, but how do you protect yourself again getting wet? And worse than that, from staying wet! A few ideas from The Women’s Travel Group:
Obvious: bring the tiny umbrellas now on sale. The Container Store has a lot of travel items and a slimline umbrella.
Next pack a few cheap or hotel shower caps and wear under a scarf or baseball cap. Mantra: never leave athe free shower cap in the hotel bathroom, they have many uses.…
-
Travel Innoculations: Why bother?
When you go to a travel medicine doctor, your wallet will be shocked at the cost. But what is smart and what is excess? We, non-medical people, are usually scared into getting every shot possible, but first, be aware of the following:
Inoculations should be based on the climate of your destination: dry season does not require some shots which are critical in the wet season.
Exactly where you are going versus large swathes of the country. For instance, India where our group is going in October: this is a huge country and what is needed for Delhi is not the same for the Himalayan plateau or the agrarian south.…
-
Tips NOT to be Ugly on the Road
Most serious travelers pay little attention to how we look when on the road for vacation. We hate overpacking and the associated burden of unpacking once home. Solo women figure they will never see anyone they know! So here are a few ways not to be UGLY on the road.
Face and Hands: Bring your night cream and consider using it even before/during day flights. When on long trips, pay the fee to use an airport lounge for a shower/freshen up mid-trip.…
-
What to do when Your seatmate is Unruly
Today a SWAir jet had to stop in Omaha to get a crazed passenger off the plane (he tried to open the read hatch). What can you do if someone near you is difficult, odd or actually talking scary? The answer is not really much. My experience was with a man who refused to let me lower my seat back on an 8 hour flight. He was aggressive towards me and then towards the crew.
The answer is here: first ask crew for help.…