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Tag: Tourism

7 Tourist Mistakes to Avoid When Traveling

Traveling around the world as a tourist can be an adventure that most people desire. Tourists, however, often make various mistakes when traveling. Here are some of the most critical to avoid.

Carrying too much baggage

As a tourist, one should appropriately plan for their trip. When packing and preparing beforehand, some people may choose one too many items, which could exceed certain weight limits. Excessive baggage, in addition to being cumbersome to carry, costs more money on transit.

Changing money to local currencies

Tourists often forget to exchange their cash to local currencies upon arrival at the airport. This can cause many inconveniences should a tourist need to pay for anything immediately upon landing. Aside from airport-based purchases, having to exchange your cash for local currency can come with higher fees in banks or services around the city/country.

Failure to inform credit card companies

Credit card companies have put in place credit card safety measures where they will freeze transactions conducted on foreign grounds to assure your account’s security. Sometimes, tourists tend to forget informing their credit card companies of their international travels. This may cause a major inconvenience as the tourist may have his or her cards blocked for carrying out transactions in another country.

Assuming travel insurance

Tourists assume the importance of buying travel insurance, thereby ending up losing out on important issues. Some travel insurance companies offer covers on inconveniences relating to losses suffered in a foreign country, medical coverage, and other emergencies. Failure to make such travel insurance arrangements may prove burdensome both physically and financially.

Failure to check travel requirements

Sometimes, travelers forget to check the necessary requirements when visiting another country. Requirements such as visa confirmations and stamping of passports may prove costly in situations where persons become stranded in airports for failure to comply.

Planning a squeezed schedule

When planning an itinerary, mistakes occur when tourists plan too many events in one trip. This proves quite costly as travelers may end up being too tired or spend too much money while on vacation. It also makes tourists unable to enjoy their trips due to the stress of connecting flights, additional travel, and a seemingly never ending restlessness.

Failure to keep items safe

Tourists often lose an array of items such as money and other valuables as a result of failure to observe personal safety measures. Theft can occur in hotel premises, beaches, downtown areas, and more as well. Such theft can sometimes be extremely taxing seeing as personal identification documents and credit cards are often the first to get stolen.

In conclusion, when planning for your next trip, whether international or a few hours away, take the necessary safety precautions to avoid succumbing to the aforementioned tourist mistakes.

A Trip to the Netherlands

Seeing as the Netherlands is a small country that only takes roughly three hours to travel through by car, visitors are able to see its highlights in essentially one weekend. Even if you only have a day to spare, it’s well worth a visit.

Contrasts

The urban centers are known for their art collections and serene canals. Cozy cafes and charming townhouses with gables exist gracefully among innovative architecture that’s full of modern designs. Outside the city, you can find endless dune-backed beaches, colorful tulip fields, vast forests and charismatic windmills.

Museums

Highlights of this charming country include the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk and the Anne Frank house. All of these cultural attractions are located in proximity of each other in Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum is full of art dating back to the 17th century.

Van Gogh’s sunflower series and self-portraits are housed at the museum that bears his name. The Stedelijk is devoted to modern art while the Anne Frank house is known as the museum with a story. Since the latter is a popular destination, it’s recommended that you book tours 60 days in advance.

Main Cities

Besides the capital of Amsterdam, Den Haag, Zwolle and Rotterdam attract many visitors. Den Haag is also known as the city of the sea, and those outside the country often refer to it as the Hague. Take a boat through its canals, visit the Peace Palace or relax on the Scheveningen beach. The city is also home to Parkpop, the biggest free music festival in Europe.

Zwolle is known for its star-shaped moat, situated in the historic Gothic quarter. It is home to the Basilica of Our Lady, a tower that dates back to the 14th century. You can still climb its stairs for a fantastic view of the city’s landscape.

Rotterdam is full of architectural masterpieces. These include Piet Blom’s cube houses, the Erasmus Bridge and the Markthal. The latter is a uniquely designed indoor market hall. This horseshoe-shaped marvel houses fresh food stands, supermarkets, shops, restaurants and underground parking.

Bicycling

Since Dutch people love bicycling, you can find over 19,000 miles of dedicated cycle routes. You can rent a bike just about anywhere. If you want to explore the Netherlands on two wheels, try the themed Dutch Coastal Route or head to the Hoge Veluwe National Park.

Researching and Planning for Your Next Trip

Each year, you may be ready to take a trip that allows you to spend time in a beautiful destination and enjoy a slower pace of life. The quality of your trip can be directly determined by the amount of research that is performed ahead of time. If you want to plan a dream vacation that is enjoyable from beginning to end, you can follow a few steps that will prove to be effective.

Research Transportation

How you plan to get around in the destination that you visit will determine how much money that you spend and the number of attractions that you can you explore each day. You’ll need to research the multiple ways of getting around, which can include taxi, bus, or by renting a vehicle. When considering transportation, it’s also necessary to research if you can get direct flights and the cost of the tickets.

Consider Your Budget

Knowing your budget ahead of time will determine where you can afford to visit when you travel. Research the average price of visiting the top destinations on your list that you want to visit. Depending on where you travel, you can adjust the number of days that you spend in the area according to how much or how little money you wish to spend.

Ask Family Members and Friends

Make it a point to ask your family members and friends for advice on places that they enjoyed traveling to in the past to get a few ideas. Getting someone else’s opinion is necessary to determine if you’ll have fun on the trip or if it’s a dangerous place to explore.

Find the Right Place to Stay

Booking a hotel room ahead of time will allow you to lock in rates, making it necessary to research several months in advance. Find a place that is in proximity to areas that you want to visit to ensure that you don’t have to travel too far to get where you want to go. If you have children in tow, you may want to book a hotel that has a pool to enjoy or can provide a crib. Some hotels even offer childcare during the day, which can allow you to get out with your spouse during the trip.

Booking the Best Hotel For You

Reserving a top-quality hotel room no longer has to be a hard or anxiety-inducing experience for any traveler. Travelers need to concentrate on hotels that are optimal fits for their individual requirements and wishes. They need to steer clear of concentrating solely on hotels that are widely known or those receive a lot of customer-based hype. Fortunately, intelligent travelers can depend on a range of effective hotel room booking strategies nowadays.

Looking at Websites That Specialize in Travel

It can be helpful to meticulously assess any and all websites that specialize in travel matters. These sites give people invaluable details that pertain to hotel amenities and features. They provide them with practical pricing information, too. People who are looking to score hotel rooms that are the rare blend of desirable and economical can often get significant insight from the most trusted travel sites out there.

Paying Attention to Customer Reviews

Reviews are a major part of the internet in this day and age. Consumers turn to the power of reviews prior to purchasing household appliances of all kinds. They turn to the power of reviews before booking hotel rooms as well. People who want to select hotels that can accommodate their lifestyles well should pay close attention to reviews on the internet. A traveler who wishes to avoid hotel rooms that are dark and cramped may benefit from a review’s assistance. A traveler who is passionate about staying away from hotels that lack bright bathrooms may benefit from reviews, as well.

Finding Out About the Specifics

People should never assume that a hotel is nothing more than the sum of its bedrooms and guest amenities. That’s the reason that travelers who want to make informed decisions should find out about hotel location in advance. A hotel that seems too good to be true may have a “catch” of sorts. If a traveler comes across a hotel room that’s gorgeous but suspiciously cheap, that may mean that the building is located in a neighborhood or community that’s not exactly safe or convenient. Travelers always need to delve deeper.

Requesting Corner Guest Rooms

Guest rooms that are in corners of hotels tend to be a lot more spacious. Travelers who want extra space should try to request them.

24 Hours in Beantown: How to Spend a Day in Boston

For those driving through New England or residents of surrounding areas, you’ll know that Boston is often regarded as one of the best cities to visit while there. If you are limited on time however, spending just a day in the city is possible, and can be full of all the Boston basics. With the right amount of planning, the following activities can be done within the span of 24 hours.

The Freedom Trail

Especially scenic during earlier hours, walking the Freedom Trail throughout the city is just a 2.5-mile trek that takes you to 16 of Boston’s most historical sites. Some of these sites include the Boston Common, Paul Revere’s house, the Old South Meeting House, and the Bunker Hill Monument, just to name a few.

An average amount of time spent on this walk is roughly an hour and a half if you don’t stop to carefully study every site you come to, so keep in mind that you’ll save yourself the rest of the day by doing just that.

Cheers

For your first meal and/or drink of the day, stop over at Boston’s famed bar Cheers; the pub where the aptly named television show Cheers was filmed. While it may be very popular and, at times, flooded with tourists, it is surely a spot to add to your list. Enjoy a great meal and experience this timeless pub like the cast of the original show.

Fenway Park

The baseball stadium home to the Boston Red Sox is one of the most well known in the country, and is also one of the oldest, first being built back in 1912. Undergoing major renovations in 1934, Fenway now offers daily tours year round (which last roughly 1 hour). If you happen to visit during baseball season, try buying tickets to a game that day if they aren’t already sold out, which is not uncommon.

Boston Tea Party

This museum is one of the most unique in Boston which encapsulates the events that took place on December 16th, 1773. Actors dressed in the attire of that time period greet you upon entry, then take you on a march through the harbor, where you are then invited to throw tea overboard. Guests can even board authentically restored tea ships, which house one of only two tea chests that are still in existence today.

Little Italy

While it may not be as large as New York City’s version, what better way to end your day than with an authentic Italian meal in Boston’s Little Italy? Located in the oldest residential community in the city (Boston’s North End), this neighborhood boasts more than 80 restaurants and bakeries. End your dinner with a traditional cannoli, tiramisu, or cappuccino to complete a day of bliss in Beantown.

How to See the World with Money in Mind

Traveling the world is an expensive hobby. Many people typically reserve this activity for the one-to-two times per year that their budget allows it. However, avid adventurers often know how to adequately manage their spending in order to see as much as the world as they can without breaking the bank. Aside from scouring the web looking for the cheapest flights possible, there are a number of strategies you can implement to best maintain the money you have on hand.

When Planning…

Always pack enough to be prepared for wherever you are going, and how long you plan on staying. This includes clothing, toiletries, non-perishable foods, and anything you can pack that will prevent you from making frivolous purchases once you arrive.

Look into all-inclusive resorts or packages, so long as your chosen destination supplies them. Much of the features that come with a stay in these resorts are paid for with a relatively reasonable up-front fee.

When Flying…

Check airfares regularly. Prices are always fluctuating, so comparing them during down seasons or times in which tourism rates are lower in certain destinations can land you the cheapest tickets possible.

When traveling internationally, non-U.S. airlines tend to be cheaper when booked through regional discount sites like easyJet.com. Compared to major U.S. airlines, the prices you’ll find here can be astoundingly lower.

When Choosing Where to Stay…

Seek out options other than hotels, as they can be fairly expensive depending on the country you are staying in. Renting houses, condos, or utilizing the online traveling wizard known as Airbnb can help you find a residence that won’t run up your vacation’s total bill. In addition to saving a few hundred dollars, most two-bedroom apartments available to rent are often the same price, if not cheaper than one-bedroom hotel rooms.

Should you prefer the amenities of a hotel, opt for a smaller one. Large chains and brand-name hotels cater specifically to avid travelers, hiking their prices up to account for their regular customers. Independent businesses usually have flat rates that are much cheaper than their competitors.

When You Arrive…

First, research modes of transportation that cost you little to nothing. Many airports will provide you with train systems or busses directly to your place of stay, which can be significantly less expensive than taking a cab.

Check out your destination’s tourism website. Most countries offer deals for first-time visitors, or those traveling in groups. From museums, to parks, to local events, you can experience your location of choice like its local citizens, without spending much more.

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