Jim’s Travel Tips

As promised, I will focus on a destination over the next several posts. To start with, I will add several posts for my “Destination: Hong Kong” series. Hong Kong is a great destination to start any trip to China or a destination of its own. These posts are not written to be your end all destination guide, but to provide you with some tips from experience and also some web references for trip planning. One of the great things about Hong Kong is that English is fairly prevalent, making it a great introduction to Chinese culture.

Destination planning is important to any successful trip.  It can help immensely to have some inside tips for a location you will be visiting for the first time.  Or, maybe it will be your tenth time to a favorite place but you are looking for something new.  With this in mind, I am going to start writing groups of tips all related to specific destinations as a new feature on my blog.  I look forward to sharing with everyone my tips on locations I have frequented over the years.  Paris and Hong Kong will be featured in March.  See you there!

Communicating with people in foreign countries can be a challenge, especially when you don’t speak the local language. I’ve written on this topic before here, but I felt the need to expand on it a little to clarify and reemphasize its importance. A common mistake that I see people make is asking people if they speak English when trying to find directions in a foreign city. Almost always the response is an emphatic NO. You are asking the stranger if they fully understand the English language – what you really want is some direction or information help – two vastly different questions. TIP: Go up to a likely stranger with a map or tour book pointing to what relates to your question (your hotel, tourist spot, metro station, e.g.). You get much more mileage out of this approach than just asking if they speak English.

I do carry a wallet when on foreign travel. But if your wallet is like mine, it has all kinds of cards, coupons, and memberships stored in it. Most of these are not needed or valid when you travel out of the US. If you will not be driving you may not want to carry your drivers license as you will have your passport for needed ID. I have a small folding wallet that can carry a few necessary cards and has a nice money clip for cash. This way you can keep the unnecessary cards, etc. at home in case something gets lost. Just take what you need. TIP: Bring a photo copy of all the cards you did bring in case of theft. This should include a copy of your passport. Include the back sides of credit cards as they provide phone numbers to call just in case. It might be a good idea to give a copy to someone at home too. Keep a “spare” credit card in your hotel safe along with your passport, as insurance against theft.

I was traveling in mainland China, in the city of Qingdao on the Shandong Peninsula. I was at the steps of the hotel making arrangements to meet a colleague the next day. I said to him “Let’s meet tomorrow morning at the Starbucks across the street.” He knew what I was referring to and started laughing. Look again at the sign:

A colleague and I were traveling to Taipei for the first time and had arranged a hotel car to take us from the airport to the hotel. As we traveled through the darkness the driver turned off the highway squeezing through two cement barriers and on to some not so great streets. We thought we had been had and would end up being a story in the paper. We did arrive at our hotel safely and we quickly gave the driver some US money. We were relieved to be checking into the hotel. During the check in process my colleague noticed a man smiling at us with a camera around his neck. My friend said “That looks just like my camera” – it was. It was our car driver with my friend’s expensive camera which was left on the back seat of the car in our haste to get out. We learned that tips can pay unknown dividends! As my post on tipping in foreign countries says – when it doubt - tip!

There are many theories on this topic – My philosophy is, when in doubt - tip. It is also good to ask the locals what the custom is. USA Today had a good article on tipping recently. Here is the link to the foreign tipping guide (I don’t know how long it will be active): www.usatoday.com/travel/world/2007-09-10-tipchart_N.htm

All frequent fliers have different ways to get over and deal with jet lag. Jet lag is something that is different for everyone. Some people really suffer from it while others barely notice a change at all. I’ve talked with lots of frequent travelers like myself and they all have slightly different methods of coping. But, they all swear by their own methods. So it is a good idea to try several different solutions on different trips to see what works best, or at all, for you. TIP: A fellow traveler used the following method, which he insisted was fool-proof. He would set his watch to the local time of his destination at takeoff. He would eat the meal as close as possible to fit the destination time schedule and take a Tylenol PM when it would be his destination sleep time.

Traveling within Europe by rail can be relaxing, efficient, cost effective, and fun. The web site provided here is a great way to check out schedules to see if your plans will allow the time and to check out pricing. Many of the large gateway cities in Europe (direct destinations from the US) have railway stations integrated into the airport. TIP: Check out this site for planning - www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm

When looking at foreign travel, it’s usually good to take some extra steps of planning and security. The State Department has made it easier than ever to register your overseas itinerary with them, thanks to the internet. It may seem unnecessary, but it doesn’t take long and is free to do. The ten minutes it takes you to fill out the report is well worth it should you ever need help in a foreign country. Here is what the State Department’s website has to say about it:

“Millions of Americans travel abroad every year and encounter no difficulties. However, U.S. embassies and consulates assist nearly 200,000 Americans each year who are victims of crime, accident, or illness, or whose family and friends need to contact them in an emergency. When an emergency happens, or if natural disaster, terrorism, or civil unrest strikes during your foreign travel, the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate can be your source of assistance and information. By registering your trip, you help the embassy or consulate locate you when you might need them the most. Registration is voluntary and costs nothing, but it should be a big part of your travel planning and security.”

TIP: Go to https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ to register your trip.