Handy Travel Tips
- Best credit card for travelling overseas is the 28Degrees MasterCard. It has no international transaction fees, no currency conversion fees and no annual fees. Load it up before you go and use your own money free of charge while overseas. Priceless…
- Make sure you join hotel or airline frequent guest programs. They help you get upgrades, and if you stick to the same ones you might even accrue enough points for freebies.
- Buy an annual travel insurance policy before you head overseas next time. It will not only cover the trip you are about to do, but any in the next 12 months, including domestic travel. Great for those weekends away, especially if you often fly and pick up a hire car (your car insurance excess will be covered as will any lost or stolen goods).
- Don’t get cabs from airports. Use the local shuttle service. For example in Melbourne a taxi is $40 plus to the city. The airport express runs 24 hours and is a quarter of the price and takes the same time.
- Always have some small US dollars in your wallet - especially when travelling in Africa and South America.
- Photocopy all your cards/passport/airline tickets etc. before leaving home and keep a copy in your bag and at home in case stuff gets lost or stolen.
Hot Tip - you can purchase a Starwood Privilege Card for $319 per year and this gives you a host of benefits, most importantly being 50% of your food bills when dining at any Starwood property in Australia and Fiji.
Hot Tip - when away - take that photo, buy that souvenir, eat in that restaurant. You may not get the chance again. I wanted to buy a bag in Oaxaca Mexico and thought wait till tomorrow, well tomorrow the shop was shut and we left that afternoon and I never saw a nicer bag again.
Check out these websites:
Seatguru.com - gives info on the best and worst seats on any airline.
Smarttraveller.gov.au - Department of Foreign Affairs website. Recommended that you enter your travel plans online before departing Australia.
Airlinemeals.net - information on in-flight dining.