Basic Travel planning is easy but can be time-consuming. I want to provide my Travel Resources, and Travel tips to help you with your travel planning. These are my, Best Kate’s travel hacks and Kate’s Travel tips.
My first recommendation is a good tourist is a welcomed guest. If you are kind, you will be an honored guest and will have a wonderful experience. Secondly, don’t over plan, but, do understand where you are going. The appropriate conduct of culture is essential to know. You have to expect, the unexpected. Know what to expect, as a tourist at your destinations These travel planning sites, prepares you for your trip. Here are some more ways to plan ahead.
Helpful Travel Planning Tips & Travel Resources
Air Travel – Accommodations – Travel by Land – Travel Companies – Travel Insurance – Travel Guides – Techy Stuff – Travel Agents
Air Travel
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Try the “Everywhere” destination option. It’s great to see where you can fly for cheap! Choose a country, i.e., fly to Spain. If you are flexible, you will find high prices. It pays to have flexible dates and be a flexible traveler.
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The Points Guy tends to report deals before anyone else! Navigate free world travel through points, miles and current deals on this site.
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The site is great. It tells you exactly what budget airlines fly between destinations.
Surface Travel
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This site provides information on trains and land travel around the world. You can navigate the entire route in some countries from Seat61, which is very helpful.
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A good site for the best resource for booking trains in the UK. No booking charge or booking fee to you.
Groups
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Want to go on a cruise? Don’t book without checking Vacations To Go. The site requires a private membership site that anyone can join. It offers the best cruise prices, anywhere.
Planning a Trip
Buying a good travel insurance policy is 100% necessary.
Travel Insurance Considerations
First, I buy my plane ticket. Next, I buy a travel insurance policy for the year. Annual travel insurance, if you travel a lot, can save you a lot of headaches. Sometimes I also buy one policy for each trip. The two policies cover different aspects of the trip. Thirdly, if I am going with someone else on my trip. I link the two travel policies and itineraries. I can’t control the circumstances and complexities around traveling with another person.
Traveling with another person increases the need for a trip cancellation policy. If I link our insurance policies, so I can get my money back too. More importantly, I don’t want a canceled trip to ruin my friendship. So, to avoid losing your relationship, I buy travel insurance, without exception.
If the amount of the deposit is less than the cost of insurance, then I won’t buy the insurance. However, if your deposit is more than the cost of travel insurance, I recommend buying trip cancelation insurance.
Sometimes, for airplane tickets, if I cancel my trip, I apply it to future airline travel. Airlines allow canceling tickets and using it towards a future flight. Their terms usually include a rebooking fee and subject to any changes in airfare.
Lastly, if your health insurance doesn’t cover you while traveling, make sure your trip insurance covers all medical situations.
The U.S. Government is Great for Travel Planning
Smart Traveler
Always remember, to check The U.S. Department of State Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) is very helpful for your safety. STEP provides travel alerts while on your trip.
Insurance
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I use Squaremouth. Five-star travel insurance coverage searches for you. You get to pick from a list of policies that fit your criteria. No travel policy agency can stay on the network with lower than a perfect rating. If customers complain, the company’s travel insurance asked to leave the site. Customer reviews keep the businesses and policies in the network and accountable to the policyholders. Membership is open to anyone.
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World Nomads for policies open to all travelers. Their coverage is excellent and can be easily extended as many times as you’d like. The site is easy to navigate. Reporting a claim is simple. BE SURE — to read the fine print and ask if the policy is right for you from one of their agents.
Your Property Insurance
Finally, most travel insurance policies won’t cover a lot of your gear, especially the pricey things, like a computer or camera. Ask your insurance agent for help finding gear coverage. Your homeowner insurance may cover your gear while traveling. Read the fine print.
Guides
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The site is my favorite guide. I use it on my cell phone everywhere I go. My profile with many reviews posted over the past few years are on Trip Advisor. I am very proud of the comments. Wish they had spell check. Even with the typos, I am proud because they are all done from the road.
Communications
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I use Skype to call home so my family and friends can see me when I’m traveling. It makes video calls for free if both people have added their contact names. Skype is great for calling anywhere, for FREE if you federated as well as FREE 1-800 calls and cheap calls everywhere. It is designed to operate anywhere in the world, anytime, on any device. Skype offers auto-renew, so you won’t run out of money when you are on a call. I used to work on this Microsoft development team when the product was called Lync and Unified Communication.
Please share your resources with us to help our readers. We love to improve and want to work and link to the best sites to help our readers. We have to try the product or resource before it is posted on this site.