Baby boomer travel
You may want to eat your turkey at home next year.
Some 25 million Americans are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday – up seven percent from 2017.
It’s considered the busiest travel season of the year in the U.S.
Last year, more than 153,000 flights departed from U.S. airports between the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the Monday after.
Airports are busiest on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, making it the worst day to fly if you’re looking to avoid crowds, delays, and disruptions.
The best time to fly to avoid disruptions is between 6 a.m. and noon.
Here are the busiest flight routes:
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) → San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and reverse
New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA) → Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and reverse
Kahului Airport (OGG) → Honolulu International Airport (HNL) and reverse
New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) →… Continue reading
What we left behind in Greece. Photo by Catharine Norton
After an idyllic three-week sojourn in the Greek islands (which I’ll write about soon in subsequent posts), my wife, Catharine, and I experienced “one of those days” where virtually everything went wrong trying to get home to Tucson.
It was like having a karmic payoff for everything that had gone right in Greece, where we got tanned, rested, and ready (we thought) for the slew of appointments and other challenges that we knew awaited us over the coming weeks.
I don’t want to suggest in any way that our bad day compared to the serious disruptions that many travelers have suffered from weather-related delays and cancellations — including, no doubt, some on our own Newark to Dallas flight who were trying to make connections to a plethora of onward destinations.
More than any single thing, this day was a… Continue reading
Are you getting the most mileage out of your travel credit cards?
And I don’t mean just airline miles, but other, lesser-known perks as well.
Today’s guest post from consumer writer Andrew Rombach should give you some ideas about how to leverage your travel credit cards to their maximum advantage — and make your travel experience just a bit easier and more economical as well.
By Andrew Rombach
While cash back, airline miles, and discounts on shopping are pretty well-known fare for many travel credit cards, there is a long list of other travel benefits you may not be aware of.
These little-known travel benefits can save you plenty of money and make your travel a lot more convenient.
And they aren’t just limited to high-end cards. Knowing what to expect from your credit card benefits should also make travel hacking a bit easier as well. Here are a… Continue reading
While you’re running with the bulls in Spain, someone may be making off with your possessions.
Today’s guest post may save you some money if you’re a traveler and a renter — and have renters’ insurance.
How much do you know about what your policy covers? You may be pleasantly surprised.
I know I’m going to check my policy more carefully from now on!
By Armand Levitz
With an average cost of only $12 a month, renters’ insurance offers tremendous value at a low price.
But what many travelers don’t realize is that renters’ insurance can protect you even when you’re far from home.
And you don’t even need an international renters insurance plan to be protected abroad.
Take the example of one couple, Andres Modak and Rachel Cohen, who recently took a trip to Spain to attend a wedding.
Unfortunately, what should have been a… Continue reading
Prague’s famous Charles Bridge is often jam-packed with tourists. Photo by Clark Norton
You may have experienced it yourself when battling humongous lines to enter San Marco in Venice, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, or the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, or when you found yourself in a wave of fellow travelers struggling to get a peek at the changing of the guard at palaces in London, Athens, or Prague.
You may have been put off by hordes of drunken revelers in Amsterdam, Mallorca, or Berlin (of which, we trust, you were not one yourself).
You may have found small Alaskan ports or Croatian islands too overrun by your fellow cruise ship passengers to appreciate the beauty that attracted you to such cruise itineraries in the first place.
You may have sought out privacy in Iceland’s hot springs, only to find them packed with Game of Thrones fans drawn… Continue reading
Just what does Medicare cover when you travel?
Today’s guest post examines an important topic: For those U.S. baby boomer travelers on Medicare, just exactly what kind of coverage can you expect when you’re on a trip, whether it’s in the U.S. or abroad?
Medicare expert Danielle Roberts says that all depends on where you’re going and what you’ve signed up for. Here’s her analysis:
By Danielle K Roberts
Whether you travel within the United States or to other countries, it’s important to know when Medicare travels with you and when it doesn’t.
Here are the key questions to ask yourself before setting off:
Are you going to another country?
How far outside the United States are you traveling?
Are you traveling from state to state?
Do you only have Original Medicare?
If not, what kind of Medicare plan do you have?
If you know the answers to… Continue reading
This idyllic scene could be yours if you plan properly. Photo from ExperiencePhlippines.org
Even if you travel a lot, its easy to forget some of the basics of Trip-Taking 101. I know, because I’ve made all the “freshman” mistakes myself over the course of my travel-writing career.
And these days, despite — or because of — all the ever-changing technology and options available to travelers, it sometimes seems like you need a graduate degree in travel logistics just to get ready for a trip.
That’s why I’m glad to run this guest post by Jim McKinley with some simple reminders of what you can do to prepare for your next vacation, whether it’s halfway around the world or the next state over.
Which reminds me, I still need to make a bunch of hotel and train reservations for my trip to Europe next month…
By Jim McKinley
No matter… Continue reading
Fishing boats in Gloucester harbor. Photo from gloucester-ma-gov
Some terrific destinations just seem to fall through the cracks and when you finally visit, you wonder where they’ve been all your life.
My latest revelation is Gloucester, Massachusetts, a city of 30,000 about 30 miles northeast of Boston on the Atlantic Ocean.
It shares scenic Cape Ann with four other communities: Rockport, Essex, Ipswich, and Manchester-by-the-Sea, and if you like water views, boating, seafood, history, and art, you’re bound to love Gloucester and surroundings.
My wife, Catharine, and I spent a recent weekend there with old friends who live in a former sea captain’s house overlooking Gloucester harbor, where we dined on lobster as ocean breezes tempered the summer air and we watched a pink twilight settle on a parade of vessels — water shuttles, yachts, cruise ships, schooners, tour boats, party boats — passing by.
You can go whale-watching in… Continue reading
It’s often fun to fantasize about buying a vacation home.
Where I live now in the desert, my thoughts sometimes turn to owning beachfront property. When I lived in upstate New York, with its cold, snowy winters, I found myself dreaming about snapping up a little vacation spot in the tropics.
I never took the plunge into actually purchasing, but many baby boomers have — or are seriously considering it.
Today’s guest post, by Jim McKinley, offers some sound advice on what to do and think about before you sign on the dotted line. (And by the way, I’ve been told I make an excellent house guest.)
By Jim McKinley
The current housing market means that now is as good a time as ever to purchase a vacation home — preferably providing both a getaway and a good investment.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your homework before… Continue reading
White Rhino
As a follow-up to our recent post “5 Great Reasons to Take an African Safari,” we bring you this offer from Kenya Airways:
A free safari with the Nairobi National Park Stopover Package!
Yes, passengers traveling on Kenya Airways flight 101 from London’s Heathrow Airport to Nairobi and transiting to one of seven other East African destinations can spend a long layover looking for wild animals rather than vegetating in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport waiting for their onward flight.
Animals you might see include rhinos, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hippos, hyenas, buffaloes, giraffes and birds (with over 400 bird species recorded).
If you have at least six hours to kill between flights, and book the arrangements in advance, you’ll be:
* Met on arrival at the transit terminal by the “KQ Karibu” hospitality team
* Fast-tracked through immigration using your granted eVisa
* Transferred… Continue reading
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