Comments on: June’s 5 Must Know Travel Tips

By: Gail Giacomini

Gail Giacomini — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:13:21 +0000

I also agree not to send via e-mail on ordinary mail-
put it in international youth hostel’s e-mail “vault.”
It’s very secure and can hold all of your passport, hotel, international driver’s licence, credit card, insurance, airline ticket, etc. info and can only be accessed with your password. I’ve used it for the past ten years’ worth of trips, and just update it when we’re ready to travel. As for taping stuff under the liner – I shudder to think what would happen if the bag were “lifted!” Even carry-ons can
disappear in the crush of baggage areas.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:44:06 +0000

I have to disagree with putting your credit card numbers and other valuable information into your webmail account. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and others are not secure and if you were able to ask each if they would recommend it, I’m certain the answer would be NO. It would be especially treacherous if you were accessing it from a public computer.

By: sheri

sheri — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:11:54 +0000

Check out the silk waist pouch by Bellhop. I couldn’t stand pouches, until I came across this one. I wore this for the better part of a month and never once noticed it. The super soft & super flexible makes the difference. Also there’s an upgrade one with more compartments, but that one already is too bulky.

(I think Lewis & Clark’s silk one might be the same thing but also marketed under the Bellhop name?)

I got mine through REI.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:20:00 +0000

I hatehatehate money belts; the neck ones too. Of course we’ve used them, but has anyone got other ideas? Thanks Gerry for the tip about scanning info and sending it to self on line. Is it safe?

By: Shirley

Shirley — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:44:07 +0000

I wear a watch that has two faces when I travel internationally. One face is set to my home time and the other to the time zone where I will be traveling. I always know what time it is at home so that I don’t make a phone call and wake someone up in the middle of their sleep night, and I always know what time it is in the country where I am traveling. These watches are not expensive and can be purchased online from Magellan’s or Travel Smith.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:42:20 +0000

To retrieve copies of your credit cards,passport and/or medical information, scan them and send them to yourself as an email attachment on a webmail account. They can be accessed from anywhere. Gmail, yahoo mail or msn are good examples. You can always get to them from a hotel or intenet cafe, worldwide, 24 hr/day.
/Gerry

By: Anita

Anita — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:10:05 +0000

In the tip #5 regarding copies of documents and credit cards–duct tape under WHAT liner?

By: Elaine

Elaine — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:47:12 +0000

I have a comment to Katy’s tip for hiding the spare card and money. You might have gotten away with this so far, however, Duct tape isn’t the best tape to use as it will show on the x-ray machine as metallic. That would be a bell for a search because of it’s hiding place. I don’t travel with a lot of extra cash so I keep it on me at all times. As for my extra cc’s, they never leave my site either. If you want a different place for them, use a money belt.

By: Michelle Giger

Michelle Giger — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:37:59 +0000

I definitely agree. When the international flight begins, we change our watches to the correct time in the city in which we will land. We drink lots of water, and try to get as much sleep as possible. When breakfast is served, we eat it. Then, when we land, we’re always ready to hit the ground running.

By: Joyce

Joyce — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:48:02 +0000

Regarding the tip for avoiding jet lag… When I regularly flew between the US and the Philippines — two to three times per year — I actually found it more helpful to change my watch as soon as I got onto the plane, to the local time of the place where I was headed. The flight typically arrived at about sunrise, and the airline served breakfast about an hour before landing, all of which helped to reset my body clock to the new local time. I suppose each person has a practice that works for him/her. Also, I was spending more than a few days at each arrival point; Judy may only have been traveling for a couple of days, in which case I could see not wanting to reset your body clock to another time zone.