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Show your US passport when you leave or enter the US, show your UK passport when you leave or enter the UK. Do whatever else anywhere else. Although it would make sense to show your EU passport when entering or leaving the EU—possibly this is even mandatory, but I don't think so. Yes you can just get your travel insurance to go longer, until whenever. The 'end date' is important for you to not overpay; they won't care. At worst you pay some extra, but traveller's insurance is pretty drat cheap anyway. I got Allianz's most deluxe plan and it was only like $300/yr, so whatever if I paid 3-4 months extra. Traveller's insurance will usually (never?) not cover you in your country of residence or your country of citizenship, and I think the UK means "all of EU" although I'm not positive about that, as I'm neither an EU resident or passport holder. Definitely double-check me on that.
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Apr 12, 2016 21:50
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I don't think anyone's mentioned this before, and I just found out about it: http://www.secretflying.com/ That's going to change how I do vacations. If I can get, say, a round-trip ticket from Europe to Australia for like €600, then that sounds a lot more feasible for a 2-week vacation...
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Apr 13, 2016 11:56
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FISHMANPET posted:Spending my entire approximate budget to fly to Eastern Europe then be in a series of countries where neither of us speak the languages does not sound "easy" to me. IME people are more likely to speak English in Poland and Slovenia than they are in Italy or Spain. Muse flights.google.com to find some cheap tickets and see whatever city is cheapest to fly into for your dates. Also keep in mind that Scandinavia is crazy cheap to fly into, but then everything is super expensive once you're there. Outside of July and August you should be able to find a flight from wherever you are in the US to 10 places in Europe for $500 (east coast), $600 central. Not sure about typical west coast cheap prices but it shouldn't be much more.
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Dec 5, 2016 10:10
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FISHMANPET posted:Yeah I'm not seeing prices anywhere near that. We're in Minneapolis which always strikes me as a little more expensive to fly anywhere than it should be, maybe on account of everything being so overwhelmingly Delta with little competition. DC sounds fun. Just for reference though, check out google flights. You can definitely get $600 and sub-$600 flights to Europe from Minneapolis pretty easily. My family usually flies Delta and they don't pay much more than that even including their connection from the local airport to MSP then to Europe and back. You need to be pretty flexible on dates though, flying out and returning on a weekend I doubt you can get much for sub-$800. Just checking right now for dates in early spring, I see Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris all at sub-$500 and Marseilles and London for $550 from MSP. Eastern Europe airports are all a lot more expensive than I would have guessed, all around $1k regardless of the dates I pick. VVV: Missed that you said your dates were limited until first two weeks of January. Also, it's not like travel always has to be abroad anyway to be enjoyable! Saladman fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Dec 5, 2016 |
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Dec 5, 2016 18:38
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Yeah, even Sweden has the same problem although their time limit was longer. I'm not sure when they stopped issuing the old bills, but at least as of last summer the vast majority in circulation, even from ATMs, were the old style. The last gen goes out of acceptance on June 30 2017 and become worthless even at banks on June 30 2018. A lot of places (well, maybe just taxis) stopped accepting them even on june 30 2016 which I thought was funny because new bills were still hard to come by from atms even by may 30, 2016. Most stable countries besides sweden seem to accept old currency indefinitely. I got an old, 1930-1990 style, $20 out of an ATM a while back and had no issue spending it to my surprise. A few notes have changed for CH, UK, and EU recently but all the old ones are valid indefinitely afaik. Although the replacement €10 note is hard to even distinguish from the old one, and as soon as CH switches it's notes even the week after you'll never see an old note. Swiss efficiency for money handling is appropriately legendary. Any idea if there's a way to easily find out which countries have invalidated old banknotes? My parents would've been screwed out of like $500 in kroner if I hadn't coincidentally noticed and knew that they had a ton for a country they go to once every 5 years.
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Jan 23, 2017 09:58
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What are good travel forums for less-visited countries? This forum is pretty decent for Europe and North America (and maybe Asia too, I never check those threads) but there isn't a lot here when you post about Latin America or Africa for instance. Lonely Planet's forums are sometimes OK, but even then fairly thin, like I was kind of surprised that even there Cameroon only has 2 threads within the last month—and only one had responses, and that was a single response. I was looking into Algeria a while ago, and we ended up going somewhere else instead, but I had little luck finding anywhere you could ask questions about it, even then searching in French as well, not that I knew where to look. I've found plenty of static resources about less-visited countries, but mostly blogs and stuff where things are often massively out of date.
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Jun 21, 2017 21:22
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Texibus posted:Any other VRBO like sites that are not crazy on fees? Every time I find house it jumps up 300 to 600 bucks from fees You mean as a person looking to rent a place? On AirBnB the cleaning fees are usually like 30-50% of a single night's rate (e.g. 3 nights @ $100/night -> usually around $300 in rent + $50 in fees although the amount is entirely up to the person renting the place and it is not officially standardized at all). I have never, ever seen anywhere where the fees are anywhere even remotely close to doubling the price and I've rented maybe 80 apartments on AirBnB, although never for a one-night stay.
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Oct 7, 2017 16:40
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Hey this is a kind of generic question, but how do people ensure that they are able to withdraw money in foreign countries? I have 3 different cards from different banks—a 4 digit PIN unchipped bank card on Plus/Interlink/Star, a 6 digit chipped bank card on plus, and a 6 digit chipped bank card on Maestro. I usually try the 4 digit unchipped card first because it has no withdrawal fees, and quite often it is not accepted, e.g. in Tunis this past week I tried 3 or 4 ATMs and it never worked. Conversely, there are a couple places I have been (Bolivia and... Uruguay?) where my 6 digit card was not accepted, but the 4 digit PIN card worked fine, as in the ATMs did not even allow more than 4 digits to be input. I've been trying the three cards out of curiosity whenever I travel for the past year or so, and not infrequently one card or the other will not work. I've heard some people say that for a 4 digit PIN in a 6 digit machine you can press "00" after the 4 digit PIN to have it work, but that seems to be entirely mythical in my experience. So far the only places I've been where I could not get any card to work was Cameroon, but nearly 10 years ago, and Cuba, even though 2 of the cards are non-US. Can you always go into a bank or something to make it work, if you actually need to get money but the ATMs won't accept your cards? I've googled "how to withdraw money in foreign countries when ATM does not work" but all of the results are basic advice about forex fees and per-withdrawal fees.
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Aug 6, 2018 22:51
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I was looking for something like this a while ago, might help somebody, or me also if I forget it: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/ist/routes Basically I wanted to see what cities have direct flights to/from where I live, and on what days. Flightradar24 provides a really good summary of this; way better than Google Flights' map, which only lets you set one specific day instead of the full week.
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Aug 31, 2018 12:35
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El Gallinero Gros posted:General opinion about hotels.com? Their prices are usually not that great, usually they're identical to using Agoda or eBookers or Booking.com or directly booking through the hotel's website. I tend to use Booking.com or Hotels.com because it's nice to have everything centralized if I'm doing a trip with like 4 places to stay, and I've never had an issue with a hotel stay, with dozens of uses of all of the above websites. I just book with whichever one is cheaper, but 90% of the time all 4 booking sites offer the exact same price and conditions (cancellation policy etc). I have almost never found booking through the hotel to be cheaper than using a third party website, and often it's more expensive. The only hotel I ever book with them directly is Hilton (oops, wrote "Hotels" here at first), or sometimes with hotels in unusual places, like for safari lodges. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Dec 19, 2019 |
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Dec 18, 2019 18:10
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lol internet. posted:I'm flying international with a domestic leg (SEA > EWR > NAS) They mean for the initial flight. In practice today, it makes zero difference whether your flight is domestic or international since the US does not have exit customs nor exit immigration (unlike most countries). Because there is no exit immigration, international flights out of the US are not really any different from domestic flights from a passenger's perspective except for a very few exceptions like flying to Israel. In many airports you'll have a flight to Tokyo right next to a flight to like, Sacramento. On the way back in, immigration can be a real shitshow in which case the most important timing is the connection where you land in the US and even with TSAPre√ I'd never take by choice a connection under 2 hours. Other times, immigration can take 3 seconds. Customs is trivial in the US; you hand a TSA agent a sheet of paper after you clear immigration, and that's it, there is no baggage scan or whatever. I've never been spot checked nor known anyone who has been spot checked, but probably it happens. Anyway it is irrelevant unless you were planning on smuggling back tons of cigarettes or alcohol. I'm not really sure how they keep track of foreigners leaving the US now; I guess it must all be connected to your passport and when you scan your ticket.
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Jun 8, 2021 11:07
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Beef Of Ages posted:In addition to the good info that saladman has provided, when you come back to the US from NAS, you'll clear immigration and customs in NAS as it is one of the handful of locations around the world (Canada, Ireland, and a couple other locations) that is part of the US Preclearance system. This means your flight will arrive in the US as essentially a domestic arrival. Huh, that is a weird grab-bag of countries. Canada (OK), Bahamas (I guess, only a little odd that none of the other Caribbean states are eligible but I guess it is way closer), Ireland (??), and UAE (???). The only list more odd than that is the list of nationalities that are eligible to do Global Entry ( U.S. citizens, U.S. residents, then Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Argentina, India, Colombia, Panama, Singapore, South Korea, and Mexico). Canada has some equivalent program which is why it's off that list, but it's weird that like, Australia is not on it. I'm sure there is some rhyme and reason to all of those lists. The other weird lists is the places where you can do your interviews for Global Entry: the US, Canada, and... Qatar?? Even though Qatari citizens – nor any GCC members – are not even eligible for Global Entry. It took me like a year to get all my wife's documents for Global Entry, and then COVID hit and bam, wasn't able to do a goddamn interview.
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Jun 9, 2021 11:51
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no hay camino posted:Should I carry my passport around everywhere in a foreign country? I was asked for a passport to exchange currency. Carry a copy on a sheet of paper. IMHO also never put it in the hotel safe, you're 100x more likely to forget it in the safe than you are to have it stolen from your hotel room. Put it in a part of your luggage that cannot possibly be forgotten when going from place to place. The only time I can think of offhand, besides hotel check-in and travelling when you'd anyway have your luggage on hand, are a very few countries where it is needed for very specific things (e.g. Tunisia: changing currency; Egypt: buying hard alcohol). Also if you are driving a rental car I would keep the original passport handy in case you get stopped by police. Sometimes there are other random discounts if you have a certain type of passport on you, e.g. Petra is 98% discount if you have an Arab passport on you, the Louvre is 100% off if you're under 26 and have an EU passport on you, etc.
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Sep 6, 2021 22:15
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I've done that and used a max screen resolution setting on a Mac with retina display (you have to download "Display Menu" to switch to such a max resolution), taken screenshots, and then used the panorama feature in Photoshop to stitch them together perfectly – but it takes a lot of effort by hand, and a license for photoshop and knowing how to use it. It's a pain in the rear end but it does work. Otherwise you can try to stitch them together by hand in GIMP or something but god help you if it's more than about 20 sheets, as it takes a minute or two to screenshot and stitch each one by hand and it's boring and repetitive - which is why I know Photoshop has a feature to do it automatically. Also I had a summer job once which was essentially doing that for old documents so I got pretty fast at doing it by hand before I realized Photoshop could do 80% of the work for me.
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Sep 26, 2022 12:29
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smackfu posted:Any good resources for planning US road trips? It’s hard to tell which smaller towns are worth visiting and which are dull, and which roads are scenic and worth a longer trip over the fastest route. Guidebooks are perfect good for this kind of thing, unless you happen to find a blog by someone who has done it and was a good photographer and has similar tastes as your own. IMO go to an actual bookstore and look at their travel section and flip through the books they have on American roadtrips and get one or two that look like your style. I've found a lot of small towns, even ones that get some guidebook note, are not particularly interesting unless you're someone who's impressed by seeing the World's Largest Chair, or the World's Biggest Elephant Statue Made Out Of Cement, or whatever, so I'm a big fan of the ones that have lots of photographs, and not a big fan of the ones that are largely text and/or contain a bunch of worthless information about restaurants and hotels, like it's back in 2002 and I can't just google search and in two seconds find every hotel within a 50 mile radius. I'm looking at you, most Lonely Planet guidebooks. Lonely Planet does publish some good picture-heavy books now though, but I find their actual guidebooks to be archaic. Wikivoyage has some articles on the most famous routes like 66 and Highway 1 ( https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Route_66 ) although I see that particular article is also totally junk, as it's written for people time travelling from 1995 who apparently want turn-by-turn directions for a 2000 mile drive because they're still using roadmaps and don't speak English and also don't have phones. That article is actually hilarious in how much utterly useless detail it goes into and it's worth clicking for the laugh alone.
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Oct 2, 2022 17:35
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:With all of the fees that AirBnB is adding... I don't know why anyone even bothers? It costs the same as a decent hotel now. AirBnB is great for multi-day stays, and it's great if you want your own kitchen. For one or two day stays, AirBnB sucks, even for room in a shared apartment. But yeah the cheapest AirBnBs are usually on par with 2* or 3* hotels. I don't remember the last time I booked a hotel for > 3 days. Probably almost a decade?
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Nov 24, 2022 13:05
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Lincoln posted:Is there a NYC thread? Looking for Midtown hotel advice. There's not a current NYC thread, maybe an ancient one somewhere. For real recommendations you'd need to include budget max, and key preferences like if you like having space to do your own thing, or do you prefer service. I really like having my own kitchen (even if minimal) and dislike breakfasts at hotels, except at resort hotels, for instance. Last time I looked for NYC (March 2020), I went with one of the Sonder locations in downtown: they're often even cheaper than AirBnB for sub-week stays, now that AirBnB and AirBnB hosts have made their service and cleaning charges ridiculous, respectively. E: Looks like Sonder The William is the only midtown location with kitchenettes. Sonder Chambers (unsurprisingly) is just rooms as are apparently Sonder Henri and Sonder Flatiron.
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Jan 5, 2023 14:25
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I do. I actually like cooking, especially for breakfast where I’d rather have it chill in my apartment rather than have to go down to some breakfast area. I can’t remember the last > 3 day stay in a place where we didn’t cook. Probably many years. It’s also a large reason for why I rarely look for hotels.
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Jan 7, 2023 10:42
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Harminoff posted:Looking to book my girlfriend my daughter (17) and myself our first domestic trip! We are looking at all inclusive just for the peace of mind of not having to worry about anything. You mean first international trip? You'll need passports for Punta Cana, which means you should apply for them like... yesterday if you haven't already. I would not book an international trip for March 19th if I didn't already have valid passports for everyone. You can pay extra to expedite them and get them within 6 weeks, but I'd still make sure the trip was refundable. For most affordable: depends on your flights and package tours, which means it depends where you are physically located. If you're in LA, probably cheaper to go to somewhere in Mexico. If you're in Atlanta, maybe Punta Cana. To be honest if you want to stay in an AI then you may very well be better off going to a travel agent and seeing what they offer rather than trying to DIY. Since you don't care where you go, just whatever is cheapest and AI, then this is exactly what real, physical travel agents are ideal for. Vvvv I also did a double take with the “my 17 year old girlfriend-daughter" statement. A more horrific version of “a panda eats, shoots, and leaves" example. Saladman fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jan 12, 2023 |
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Jan 12, 2023 15:15
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Not to be snarky, but really go look up physical travel agent offices in your town and go into one. Modern physical travel agents are pretty specialized in exactly the market share you are part of: someone who doesn’t care where they go, doesn’t want to plan anything themselves, and who wants to go to whatever is the cheapest decent AI in their specific time window. The reason to look locally is that travel companies can and will charter planes specifically for this type of travel, meaning you won’t even see it if you looked independently. If you do a cruise you might not even need the passports - but I’d still send them out tomorrow just in case you don’t want to limit your possibilites. You will also have to go in person to some government office if this is the first passport for any of you three, and keep in mind you’re paying $200 per passport if you’re especially price sensitive. Even with that it’ll probably still be cheaper than going to somewhere in the US like South Padre Island, plus the water will be a lot warmer. If you want to look yourself to have a general idea of price then just look for the cheapest AIs in the Yucatán, the DR, and Bahamas. I’m not sure what the best way to sort for that is, i guess google to find some sort of resort comparison site? You could check booking.com but I bet there’s something more specialized I’ve never done travel like that, but I walk by travel agent offices all the time that advertise these deals (Europe) and I have occasionally looked out of curiosity and they’re way cheaper than I could get myself for flight+3 meals a day+decent hotel. I’ve never done it both because I’m an active vacation kind of person who would get island fever after two days at an AI, and because I actually enjoy the planning, but they’re definitely a good deal for people who enjoy that kind of relaxation travel. Saladman fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Jan 12, 2023 |
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Jan 12, 2023 23:28
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It is possible they selected the wrong price for those dates, but gently caress em, they should honor their listed price. I would report the issue to Airbnb as what they are doing is incredibly against the hosting rules, and I would also look for another place unless that is the one and only perfect place you want to stay. Don’t cancel though and don’t book anything else until Airbnb arbitration is finished. Report them to Airbnb and do not engage further for now until Airbnb arbitration has responded. I’ve done almost 100 Airbnb rentals and have never had that happen. If they have lots of positive reviews it’s probably just they selected the wrong price for those dates but still, that’s not your fault. I would be very sketched out booking directly. I have done that one time, but I had gone and actually met the host in person and he had shown me around the property. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Jan 15, 2023 |
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Jan 15, 2023 12:30
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impossiboobs posted:I often make a Google Maps list of all the places I want to check out on a trip (I have a bunch of different lists of saved places), then I zoom out and figure out the path based on where the pins mostly fall. I used to do this with a physical map (back in the day) and just carry it around with me. I don't know if there are any apps to optimize your route, but I like to plot it out myself anyway. Once I can see the points of interest plotted out, I find it's easy to stake out a path. YMMV, I like to wander and give myself time to take an unexpected turn if something comes up, so having an app tell me the optimal path isn't what I am looking for when I travel. What the OP wants is a "Travelling Salesman Problem Solver" but applied to destinations selected on Google Maps, and which I guarantee there are already like a hundred such programs as this is like the most common project assigned to computer science students. It looks like there are: https://francofolini.com/2020/09/25/call-google-maps-from-google-sheets-the-travelling-salesman-problem/ which looks pretty easy to use but you'd have to give it a try. Here's the most recent solution I could find that also looks easy https://www.reddit.com/r/computerscience/comments/xas8fq/traveling_salesman_problem_implementation_on/ which is a browser extension. I found a million other solutions too, but mostly older and at least a couple were broken. In practice I do the same thing that impossi does since I don't really care about perfect route optimization.
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Jan 24, 2023 15:31
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