Mar
26

Our Upcoming Itinerary

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Sample TripIt Information

Sample TripIt Presentation

The process of planning for our forthcoming round-the-world trip was not an easy one, since there were very many different issues that we needed to put into place to have a plan that would work and meet our needs.

We used a fantastic tool called TripIt (to be found at http://tripit.com) as an integral part of the planning process that we have used for the trip.

There is an earlier post about TripIt, and we decided to really give it a good workout while piecing together our itinerary.

Among the issues that we had to deal with were:

  • finding a suitable cruise to take us across the Atlantic Ocean from the Americas into Europe
  • linking in air travel options between Australia and the departure port for the cruise
  • Arranging suitable activities through Europe following the disembarkation from our cruise ship.
  • Linking all of this in to a fixed date of departure from Europe back home.

The final itinerary that we have developed with the assistance of the TripIt planning engine is:

  • Flights from Melbourne to LA and then from LA to Miami
  • 6 days in Miami
  • Board Liberty Of The Seas for transatlantic crossing from Miami to Barcelona
  • Sightseeing in Barcelona, then Elipsos night train to Milan (Gran Classe)
  • Wake up in Milan, then travel by rail to Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Explore Ljubljana then board train to Belgrade, Serbia
  • Explore Belgrade then travel to Budapest, Hungary
  • Budapest to Brastislava
  • Bratislava to Prague, with lunch in Vienna
  • Prague to Berlin
  • Berlin to Mainz
  • Day river cruise from Mainz to Bonn, thence rail to Dusseldorf
  • Fly from Dusseldorf across the channel to London
  • Board flight from Heathrow to Singapore
  • Spend a couple of nights in Singapore warming up from the European climate
  • Back home to Australia

During the coming days and weeks, we’ll be keeping this travelogue up to date with summaries of the adventures and observations that we make during this trip.

Categories : Destinations, Technology, Vacations
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Mar
25

Our Latest Venture – Around The World In 49 Days!

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John and Barbara With The Get Packing BookWe have a couple of personal milestones coming up, and as a result have planned a trip that takes us first from Melbourne in Australia across the Pacific into the US of A, thence by cruise ship across the Atlantic and into Spain.

We plan to then travel largely by train around a number of the Eastern European countries before arriving in London en route back to Melbourne via Singapore.

We will be posting stories and experiences about this trip and the places we visit on this website as we go.

 

Categories : Accommodation, Air, Destinations, Rail, Sea, Vacations
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Jan
03

Fantastic New Online Travel Itinerary Tool

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This is just a short message to alert you to a fantastic tool that we have discovered to assist you with your travel planning.

The TripIt home page

TripIt travel planning tool

TripIt (http://www.tripit.com) is a travel planning and support tool that offers great services and support for the traveler.

The founders of TripIt are frustrated travelers who have worked in both travel and technology for a long time.

They know firsthand (as we do) that using the Internet to make travel plans and organizing the details can be both difficult and time consuming – particularly when plans change at short notice.

The problem is getting worse as more people choose to make their own travel plans and as online travel options continue to proliferate.

With today’s myriad of travel sites, even the most experienced traveler has their hands full managing all the details of a typical trip.

Booking airline tickets, hotels, rental cars and restaurants leaves you with lots of separate pieces of paper. Throw in maps, directions, things to do, and weather and the chaos multiplies.

TripIt turns chaos into order by making it easy for anyone to:

  • Organize trip details into one master online itinerary — even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites
  • Automatically include maps, directions and weather in their master itinerary
  • Have the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary
  • Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary

Any traveler can create a free account with TripIt from the home page. Once the account has been set up, all that is needed to begin to create your itinerary is to simply forward travel confirmation emails to TripIt from the email address you used to set up your account.

We’ve begun to use this ourselves, and are blown away with how quickly and accurately the TripIt application is able to process our bookings and combine them into a fully detailed itinerary, but also to include travel directions, maps and weather detail for our destinations.

Categories : Business, Destinations, Technology
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Feb
14

How To Achieve The “3 Ps” Of Travel

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What are the “3 P’s” of travel? They are the three words:

pleasure, planning and process.

alice chatting to the Cheshire catWhen we plan our travels properly we are less likely to be like Alice, who after asking the Cheshire cat which way she should go was bluntly told that if she didn’t know where she wanted to get to, then the direction she decided to travel didn’t much matter.

While this comes from a children’s story, the basic message from the Cheshire cat is still true for many of us.

All too often, many of us decide to travel to a destination that we know about without any clear idea about what is available to us when we arrive.

Everybody has their own individual interests and passions, and these may or may not be the same as those of other people traveling with us.

In order to make sure that some people aren’t disappointed with the trip, you should plan to include a range of locations or activities to make sure that everyone on the trip manages to do something really special.

A typical example is that if one member of the family loves golf whilst another finds nothing better than shopping for antiques, then time shold be taken out to ensure that both of these needs can be met whilst you are away from home.

Ensuring that the correct processes are followed includes such issues as making sure that passport and visa requirements are completed well in advance of your trip and that you have obtained appropriate travel insurance to offer you the level of protection that you need.

Another important “process” element is to make certain that you haven’t forgotten to have copies of your itinerary and contact details left with family and or friends at home, and that someone has agreed to feed the cat, collect the mail, water the plants or whatever other arrangements are needed to avoid unpleasant surprises when you arrive home.

This information is based on our best selling book “Get Packing – The Ultimate Travel Guide“. To find out more about the book, and how it may help you in your travels, please visit our website:
http://www.getpackingtravelguide.com

Categories : Vacations
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Apr
19

Case Study: A Search For Accommodation In Italy

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Just last night I received a request from a close friend who is planning a trip to Italy at short notice, and asked me to assist her in locating suitable accommodation options for the trip.

She is traveling with her two adult daughters, and  is on a tight budget for the travels. Her requirements were:

  • locations close to tourist centres such as Florence, Rome, Sorrento, but not too hectic
  • they’ll have a hire car, so need parking availability
  • places to sit and relax whilst recharging batteries
  • pleasant surroundings, with plenty of garden space or views
  • dates of travel fixed – starting in 14 days
  • four different locations for a trip lasting 17 days
  • preferably a comfortable and well appointed ensuite room for all three to share

Time is tight, so I had no opportunity to look for early booking bargains, instead needed to look at available stock. Luckily, the trip comes before the high season, so short-term availability is less of a problem than it may have been, particularly when looking for options a short distance away from city centers.

I began the search using Google to search for “budget accommodation” in the areas of interest. Whilst such a simple search usually throws up a lot of inappropriate sites, a look both the search page and sponsored results can often prove useful. In the case of the search for Sorrento, the following sponsored link showed up:

55 B&B in Sorrento, Italy
Accommodation in Sorrento, prices
descriptions, map, Users Feedback
www.BBPlanet.it/B&B_Sorrento

I clicked on this link, and was able to find 2 or 3 properties from the site which fitted my friend’s requirements. I sent a request to 2 of these, and must say that I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly replies about availability and cost were received.

To sum up, within about three hours of internet searching, I had uncovered a number of options (each with availability on the required dates) that I was able to pass on to my friend, for her consideration and decision about which to book.

It obviously helps to know the region for which you are looking for somewhere to stay, but if you don’t a great option is to look up the area in a travel publication  such as Lonely Planet, Berlitz, Frommers, Fodors, etc. If you can’t access such a publication, then you can try an online search for information on the region’s characteristics using the term “travel guide” with the name of the city, town or region.

Best of luck with your travel plans.

Submitted by Barbara Walsh-Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Destinations
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Aug
31

New linkage between Google and British Airways

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British Airways and Google have recently announced a novel collaboration designed to make holiday preparation even easier by launching a new interactive service through the ba.com website.

To celebrate its ‘World Offers’ fare sale,  which launched on August 31, the airline will feature Google Earth satellite technology on ba.com, allowing travelers to zoom in on their destination of choice when evaluating excellent discounts available on flights and hotels.

British Airways has created special ‘layers’ of information for Google Earth to enable ba.com visitors to see popular tourist hot-spots and their proximity to their chosen hotel – the ultimate planning tool for holidaymakers, so they can organize their itinerary before they arrive.

Jayne O’Brien, head of brands and marketing communications at British Airways, said: ” …this has the added customer benefit of allowing them to familiarise themselves with the local area, hotels and amenities through Google Earth. ….”

Obi Felton, Head of Consumer Marketing at Google, said: “We hope holiday-makers have fun with this specially created tool.  ….”

I believe that this announcement represents a novel combination of two different technologies which can combine to enhance the advantages of online services available for travelers wishing to plan itineraries and trips themselves. I’m sure that we will hear a lot more of this form of technology in the months to come.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Destinations, Technology, Vacations
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