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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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What You Never Thought to do in Paris
The Women’s Travel Group city trips are also for 2nd time visitors; we always include trending places. Join us on one of the few remaining places by sending in a booking form. Info below.
When you join us in Paris for the Holidays Dec 21-28, Christmas markets will be ending. However, there are street markets all year. If you wander past an organic market, scour it for herbal perfume and soap- delicate flavors of times past. Blvd Raspail has a Sunday market worth a few minutes. …
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Robbery on Overseas Trips
The Women’s Travel Group has experienced very little crime during our 23 years of tours. But it can happen in rare instances. Here are a few examples and how we handled them happily:
A lady was pick pocketed in a major European city. She was called at the hotel from someone purporting to have her wallet. We went with her to a public place to meet this person. Yes, he had found it minus the cash, but with all credit cards in place.…
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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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Uber Services Frenemies? Or Friends?
Today I read in travel news that Virgin America in Dallas Love Airport is giving free rides by Uber for passengers. Besides being frequent flyers, most of us are also frequent taxi to the airport people. Who do you use?
Taxis can be hard to find during bad weather, holidays, even Fridays after work. In some cities regular taxis now at least have a smart phone app like Uber offers. Radio cabs which you can book on line usually charge a few more dollars than taxis but they are reservable.…
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Craziest Airline Meals
Some years ago, a Women’s Travel Group member ordered a vegetarian meal for her flight. Here is what she got: a snickers bar and an apple! Well the trip was to our favorite spa, Ixtapan Spa, and she joked the entire time about ‘selling her snickers’ bar to us dieters’. Joking aside, how to make the most of lousy airline food is not impossible.
Lets start with what NOT to eat. Airplanes make you gassy so avoid any foods like broccoli,onions,beans, carbonated drinks that already do that effectively.…
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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?…
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Is Godzilla Your Travel Mate?
Many women want to save money by sharing a room on a Women’s Travel Group tour. However, they fear the imagined consequences. Here are some situations and how women solved them:
A woman talked non stop. Her share elegantly said: I am a very quiet person and I live alone in a very quiet apartment. She got the idea and stopped.
Another lady hogged the bathroom counter. Just move the stuff and create a fair division. Duh.
One of my shares broke her foot and needed constant help. …
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Airport Dangers and Preventatives
So we are ready for that fantastic trip. We called our bank to say we would be overseas, rechecked all our passwords and hid them somewhere, stopped the paper, rechecked tickets and passports for the nth time. What now can possibly go wrong?
The most common mistakes are so easy to make!
You don’t separate out the small change you will need for a taxi or airport food. Then you pull out a wad from your money belt, and drop some of it.…
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Worst Airport Behavior
This past week I was in Atlanta. Totally surprised at how terrific a city Atlanta has become by the way. Amazing food (JCT was one restaurant we loved), even more amazing the skyline with new artsy districts. At the airport returning home, here is what happened:
There were few empty seats, no room to plug in a phone. 3 seats held backpacks and plastic bags of bakery items, but were otherwise unoccupied for 30+ minutes. One seat was next to the power outlet.…
