Travel Tips For Traveling #2
For our second installment, let’s talk rental cars. If you need your own wheels when you get there, you will likely be dealing with one of these guys ——->
I’ll start by advising you to rent a car if you think you’ll need one. Early on in my travels, I tried to avoid renting a car at all costs, and it ended up really costing me. Some cities however, it’s easier not to have a car (i.e. NYC). Make a decision based on your needs, but be realistic at the same time. My first trip to New York several years ago I didn’t want a car in the city, but then had to go 100 miles north to my grandmother’s house. I made a novice mistake and ended up paying a chauffeur $800 to take my wife and I to the Catskills and then back to JFK a few days later. Not cool.
So you have decided you need a car. Who do you call? For years, I did everything via Orbitz.com. Flights, hotels, and cars all were booked here. I guess I’m something of a loyalist. About a year ago, I started actually doing research on prices for an up-coming trip instead of trusting my third-party provider, and I was stunned at what I found. It was actually twice as much to book a car through Orbitz!!! I felt cheated, betrayed, and actually pretty angry. All I had to do was make my reservation with the rental company directly and it reduced the price by half! (NOTE: please research this for your specific trip, this has always been true for car rentals in my experience, but I have found hotels to be about the same price, so they are not all bad…)
Who has the best rates? For me it has been Budget Rental. I have not found anyone less expensive, but keep in mind this may vary by region. My rentals generally take place in New York, but I’d be surprised to learn they are not the cheapest in most markets.
Did you know that where you pick up from will affect your rates? If fact, it plays a big role. Take my New York trips for example. I usually fly into Queens, but if I were to pick up a rental anywhere in NYC the rate would be significantly higher (almost twice the cost) than if I picked up in nearby Westchester County. Renting in a major city often carries a premium over the nearby suburbs. Something else of note is airport rentals are usually less expensive than renting from a stand-alone location. When I fly to New York, I do the mass transit thing in the city, and when I’m ready to head to the small town Grandma lives in, I hop a train to Westchester County Airport (HPN) and grab my rental.
One more strategy I’ll share; be intentional about what time of day you pick-up and drop off your rental. Generally, the rental days go 12:00PM-12:00PM. In other words, if you pick up at 11:59 AM on Monday and drop off at 12:01 on Tuesday, you will pay for two days rental instead of one. A savy renter could instead pick up after noon on Monday and drop off before noon on Tuesday, and pay half as much. Learned this one the hard way too.
Do these tips actually help? For me, absolutely. I make the same trip often, and I have seen my rental fees cut more than in half simply but following these guidelines. Hopefully they will help you as much.
***update Another helpful rental car tip: reserve the smallest car possible that will still accommodate your party. More than once I have paid for a larger vehicle and ended up with something smaller when I arrived. The simple truth is when push comes to shove, they are going to give you what they have. Sure if you do not get what you paid for their will be some 800 number to call and get a refund but keep in mind the opposite is often also true. I book the economy car and half the time I end up in an SUV at no additional cost (a smile and a complement to the clerk doesn’t hurt either…). If they do not offer the bigger car for free, you can always upgrade at the counter for about $14 a day.
If your traveling with your kids who are still in a car seat, don’t drag one on the plane, reserve one along with your rental car! They will have one waiting for you, and it will be the best $26 you ever spent.
Travel Tips For Traveling #1
OK, so that title may not be doing me any favors, but its all I’ve got. I have been thinking about posting some travel tips (for traveling) for some time, but the fact that it would become super long has held me back. The solution? Installments. Not unlike your favorite rent-to-own television, this article will have its burden distributed across a period of time.
For our first installment, let me issue a qualifier. I do not travel as often as many. I am not what you would call a “jet-setter” (or is it “jet-sitter”)? I do not receive a letter from the CEO of any major airline each year thanking me for my continued loyalty. I do however travel maybe half a dozen times a year, and although certainly not nearly as often as your average middle-management, I have been careful to develop a system, maybe even a science to traveling as efficiently as possible.
For this first nugget, let’s talk air travel. Specifically packing for air travel. My best advise to you is this: CARRY ON ONLY. Do not plan on checking bags unless you are willing to expect the following:
- Significant additional “checked bag” fees. These are per bag, and start at a flat fee and then premiums are added based on bag dimension and weight. The most I have paid personally (before I got wise) is $70 per bag, which is enough to break me of the habit, but I have spoken to others who have been charged as much as $300 for a checked item.
- Your bags have a good shot at being lost. There is no perfect system, I understand that things happen. As far as air ravel is concerned though I believe it’s a matter of when and not if your checked bag is misplaced. I suffered one such occurrence and lets just say it did not end well. I’m still not sure why they called security…
- If you calculate the amount of time you’ll spend checking your bags, and then waiting for them to arrived on the carousel at your destination, you will spend some where right around a lot of time that you could spend doing virtually anything else, especially not dealing with bags.
For all these reasons I advise not to go down that slippery slope. The next question you may have is how can I limit myself to one bag? And not just any bag, but a carry-on bag? Here is my method. Lay out everything you feel you need to pack. If you think you need it put it all together. Next is the most difficult yet most important step; get rid of half of it. That right. I know it seems extreme, but you’ll thank me later. How many times have you been unpacking after a trip and realized you packed items that were not touched during your travels? No more. Now we include mission critical items only. Lets unpack this (pun intended.)
- No more than a change of clothes per day. Fight the urge to pack an exorbitant number of choices and then make a decision based on how your feeling that day. I’m primarily speaking to one gender here, you know who you are.
- Plan to dress appropriately for any circumstance. I prefer to err on the side of caution here. I will rather be over-dressed than under-dressed, and business causal is a good middle ground. Following this guideline will keep you from packing four sets of clothes for each day.
- Shoes. How many pair of shoes do you really need? If the answer is more than one, your wrong. Dress shoes are easily worn with jeans or less formal garments, but the inverse is not true. Shoes are bulky and heavy, do your level best to limit yourself.
- Will you be able to do laundry at your destination? If you are staying with relatives or friends, they will surely be glad to let you toss in a load of clothes. Remember too that most hotels have a laundry service. Being able to do laundry just once will help you pack less.
- I never pack soap or shampoo if I am going to be staying in a hotel or motel. They always provide these items, and not packing them not only saves space and weight in your bag but helps you avoid trying to comply with TSA regulations regarding carry-on liquids.
- Can you survive without the lap-top? These machines may be necessary for work, and I have traveled with one many, many times. A great solution for me has been the iPad. This device is slim yet powerful. I can do virtually anything from my iPad that I need to do for work, and I am always working on the road. Word docs, spreadsheets, Powerpoint, email and more can all be done from this one device. There are occasions where I must run some software only possible on my computer, and even that can be solved with a remote client such as LogMeIn. I can log in and control my machine at home easily from my iPad as long as I have an internet connection, which is virtually everywhere. This device or one like it will save you a great deal of space and weight. Another plus is all lap-top computers must be removed and sent through security separately, but somehow this does not apply to the iPad, so you have just saved some hassle there too. The iPad can easily keep you entertained on the go as well with games, music, movies and internet all in your hands.
Hope this is at least mildly helpful. Be looking for tip #2. Add your own tips below.
delighted to share. 