Travel Tips Blog and Statistics
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Success; approval to enter the UK
Success for one from The Women’s Travel Group. !!! I applied for the new UK ETA ‘Electronic Travel Authorisation’ needed to enter the UK after January 8 2025. A similar application will be used for entering the European Union after January 8 2025. Consider applying before the crush….
Here is what to know about the UK one only:
Have ready:
Passport
Credit Card or Apple Pay
Smart phone
One other electronic device (my opinion).
Make up— so you look decent (I started the process in pajamas; vanity prevailed).…
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2025 Wishes- Senior Women Travelers
There is bad news for senior women travelers. Worse news for senior women who travel solo. Lets hope 2025 brings travel industry improvements for the 77 million women over 65, who FYI hold most of the discretionary $$. (Source: AARP). Here are suggestions for the industry who might be anxious for the $7000 we each spend on travel annually. These are cheap solutions.
Women’s Travel Group meal in Italy Let’s start with the subtle theme called “who pays for the wine”, aka “couples on tour do not want to eat with solos”. …
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Holiday Travel for the Petrified
Holiday travel overseas is less busy than domestic. Only 3% of flights were cancelled in 2023 vs 28% in 2022, and trends are lower for this week even with higher volume. Statistics show holidays are less insane than the press would have you believe.
Tuscany Winery with The Women’s Travel Group Arrive at your airport 3+ hours before scheduled flight times. Make sure you put your email and cell numbers into the airline app. With those contacts, you get notices of delays, cancellations, gate changes, even baggage movements (Some Airlines provide the latter Delta and SW). …
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Solo Christmas Travel
Holidays are around the corner. The Women’s Travel Group offers both Thanksgiving and Christmas trips. Thanksgiving is waitlisted this year. Christmas Rhine cruise might have space. Contact us asap. Holidays create emotional unwrapping of memories and of loneliness. Many of us especially, women who are single, miss families and friends.
There are some terrific surprises for you, ladies, with overseas travel during Christmas.
Flights are not that crowded if you do not leave on school/college semester end days.…
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Cash? Or Card?
Money when traveling overseas. Should you carry cash? Award winning tour company, The Women’s Travel Group says yes. A qualifier, carry only unmarked and un torn US bills. ( No coins. It is impossible to exchange coins overseas.) This cash is for incidentals, ie airport shops might accept a dollar for bottled water. Or you want to give a small tip to a porter? Or donate to a charity box? For most travels, $50 is the emergency cash you might need. …
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Travel Quiz-Women
Can you take the first solo trip? A test from award winning, The Women’s Travel Group.
Can you do the trip physically? Try walking a mile, which is 20 times the length of Saks Fifth Avenue’s famous 6th Floor shoe department. We are not talking run or rush, just walk.
Can you drag your suitcase from the taxi/car to airline check in? Next time you load up on Tide pods at your supermarket, push the wagon with one hand?…
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Tourism Danger and Elections
Are countries dangerous during election? This November, European visitors are asking this question about our country. Election disruptions can be a travel issue. 20 European countries had or will have elections in 2024.
Congressional Report from the Library of Congress. Unpredictable for us travelers is that election dates are scheduled differently in each country. Some are predictable, like that of the US, others are unpredictable and can be announced with little advance notice.
Some are peaceful. Some are not peaceful. Some elections come with restrictions on what a visitor can and cannot do on election day.…
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Water Water but none to drink
Even on an inclusive trip, an extra cost can be water. A liter of bottled water in Europe averages 5 euros in a store and 10+ in a restaurant That means $100 a week to quench your thirst. When should you drink H2O from the hotel sink, when not?
Center for Disease Control Airplanes dehydrate, travel is tiring, water at meals might not appear. Most of us are shy about asking for tap water, especially while watching Europeans order the bottled stuff. …
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Bye Bye Passport, Old Friend
If you are a big traveler, you suffer a stone in your stomach, as you say Good Bye to your passport. You drop your beloved passport into the black hole of the mail box. You feel a lost at sea imbalance.
Source US Passport Agency Another love it or hate electronics. You can now renew your US passport on line. This update/innovation means no mailing of a passport to the State Department and no paper application. Plus no worry that an interloper will masquerade as you on their journey to Rome.…
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“Why did I buy it”?
Visiting Vineyards in Italy with The Women’s Travel Group Women like to scratch their shopping itch when traveling abroad. Here are a few items to reconsider.
Shoes. Shoes in Western Europe, especially Portugal, Spain and Italy are mouth-wateringly attractive and cheap. Bear in mind the following: the ‘last’ used in European shoes can be different from the ‘last’ used in shoes made for the American market. European shoes can be narrower, with sizing based on centimeters not inches. The difference in measurement can alter the shoe fit.…
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Be Your Own Concierge
Even in a group tour like The Women’s Travel Group, you might want to book an extra goody, with guaranteed transportation. You can use a concierge; but be aware they might get a commission and might only offer expensive suggestions.
Some apps we use in North America can be used overseas. Uber is the best example. When in another country, your Uber app works, debits your credit card with a fair US exchange rate. Not sure Uber is available? Click on the app and it will show asap if it works in say Tokyo or Bangkok.…
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Asia too Far for Senior Women?
The Women’s Travel Visits India The Women’s Travel Group shares information to help you to explore some of the most enthralling places on earth: travel to Asia.
1 Tackling, surviving and even enjoying long distance flights. Travelers are anxious before a major trip. Flying to Europe is usually at night; we know we are in for a restless partially sitting up 7-9 hours. We know we will be tired, hungry at the wrong times, awake with the moon.
There are pleasant surprises when you fly N.…
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Female Travel Insomnia
Why do women suffer from insomnia before a trip? Even experienced travelers have trouble sleeping the night before departure.
The Women’s Travel Group Some women experience travel anxiety because of bad experiences. A cancelled flight, going to the flight with an expired passport (full disclosure it was me in August 2024). Experts say most worry is not connected to specific experiences; worry rests somewhere in our grey matter.
The Sleep Foundation lists reasons for sleeplessness: fear of flying, anxiety about problems during the trip, packing, arrival time worries, motion sickness, long flights, chance of delays or interruptions, inability to sleep sitting up, dryness and germs on planes.…
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Airline App Lesson 101
How likely are senior women to load electronic travel apps on smart phones? I say: highly unlikely. Most of us are half in the modern and half in the non-electronic world. We love sending photos with phones; we hesitate to manage flights on the smart phone airline app.
Our Group in India. Save $150 on India now. Here is why it is best to learn the airline app and get on with it.
You have control over your reservation. You have easy access to the record locator or id number of your flight and its departure times.…
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What Traveling Women Fear
Travel advertising is a turn off to us senior women. Brochure photos show clothing often associated with hiking, and the outdoors. Jackets by Patagonia? Shirts by Columbia? Parachute pants by LL Bean? Women travelers often analyze clothing especially shoes to assess the group. Women travelers do not relate to groups wearing fly fishing outfits. In sum, travel clothing in industry brochures is a turn off to senior women. We are retired or still working professionals; we need to be a teeny bit of a slob on the road. …
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Seeing the World High Up
What the Paris Olympics told me…
Some European cities are magical. From high up they are fantastical. I hate heights, but panoramas tell a story like no other. Watching the Paris Olympics made me reconsider climbing or riding to heights to catch the best views. From the air, wow’s are wow er.
Source Official Guide to Eiffel Tower. In Paris you can climb up to the basilica of Sacre Coeur for views from the highest natural point on a hill. You can climb the Arc de Triomphe for a panorama of the ladder like boulevards.…
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1st trip since Covid?
What to expect since Covid?
The Women’s Travel Group hears from women who have not traveled since Covid. They are worried, unsure of new regulations or documents, masking or not, health insurance and more. So if you have not traveled since Covid, here are some changes, some improvements, and some warnings.
Source DOT Changes
No vaccination card needed anymore. However we always recommend you bring a list of your own prescriptions in the generic and vaccinations. Generic can be read overseas; US brands sometimes cannot be read.…
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Travel: Nervous Breakdown Part 1
There is a pre-travel disease called panic. It might be worse for women travelers. Here is how to travel panic free from The Women’s Travel Group, an award winning tour company.
Lunch on our Italy trip. www.thewomenstravelgroup.com Step 1 is plenty of extra time for every stage. Have with too much time at the airport. Airports can be crowded, stand on line and ignore the line crashers. Airports have amenities: restaurants, bathrooms, ample seating, electrical outlets, USB ports. Most have free public wifi.…
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Danger in Street Markets
Fake goods can get you in trouble. Source: US Customs https://www.thewomenstravelgroup.com Is the fun of buying fakes in street markets gone? The Women’s Travel Group says Yes. Customs might confiscate your Hermes-ish bag. Two days ago it was announced US Customs seized $2.98 billion of fake goods, entering this country, way up from$1.5 billion in 2019.
There were 31,030 handbags and wallets, 28,910 pieces of clothing, 14,098 watches and jewelry, thousands of shoes, electronics, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. There were dangerous toys, even sketchy candy. …
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Travel Apps, bribe your grandchildren
Thanksgiving is around the corner. So you are not electronically savvy but need to learn if you are going on our single special river cruise in July? Bribe your grandchildren at turkey time, and upgrade your travel app skills.
There are a few bits to learn, that is if you intend to travel and have a smart phone.
1—-Go to your airline site via google on your phone. Do not click a site other than the official one. Example, delta.com is the official site for Delta.…
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Guide to Dining Overseas
How not to be a Dining Dufus.
The most awkward meal ever. The dinner was in Munich Germany; I could not read German but did know the word for ‘dumpling’: knodel (with accent marks). Who doesn’t love dumplings? I ordered knodel. Time passed, the waiter brought 2 grapefruit sized beige balls. I started uncontrollably laughing; German diners looked at me with shock. Clearly I did not know German knodel.
We were 3 ladies on a Women’s Travel Group tour. In the Tokyo Airport, we noticed a couple enjoying what looked like delicious pasta.…
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Eat Cheap-Museum Munchies
So you are alone for a meal, nervous but hungry. You are overseas? Museum munchies might be your solution. Increasingly museums are visitor friendly: seating areas, outdoor spaces, free wifi and affordable restaurants. Dining in a museum is the next thing to dining at home.
Source: Jim Thompson Heritage Quarter Some museums have famous chefs and fancy prices. The Fondation Louis Vuitton outside of Paris boosts a restaurant called appropriately Le Frank. The founding chef has a Michelin star so expect prices to be high, reservations needed.…
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Never done it before?
Many phone calls start with I have never done it before. I want to travel but but but. How do you get over ‘the never done it before’ bit. Think about the other ‘never done it before’ situations you conquered:
First coed dance ( camp? church? school?), you stood in the back, concerned about not getting a partner or worse, having to dance with a partner!
The worst is first appointment with a gynecologist. We all survived that.
First day of college.…
