Triumphant Travel!

By John Rae

Travelling abroad can and should be a rewarding and enriching experience. You may prefer to join a wine-tasting tour of France, backpack through Nepal, visit the archaeological wonders of Egypt, or simply spend some time lounging on the beaches of the Caribbean. Whatever your style of travel and your choice of destination, investing time in pre-trip planning will enable you to get the most out of your trip.

First, decide how much you can afford on your vacation. Flying overseas on charter flights, using a Eurail pass, joining local walking tours, and staying in travel hostels, bed-and-breakfast hotels or with families can help stretch your budget and bring you into closer contact with local residents. Booking far in advance or purchasing last-minute sell-offs can gain you big discounts. And if your schedule allows you to travel in off-peak periods, you are likely to benefit from both discounts and smaller crowds at your favourite attractions.

Find a good travel agent. This process is much like searching for any other quality resource or product. Speak to your friends and associates and ask for their recommendations. Shop around. Talk to several travel agents, and ask lots of questions. Sooner or later, you are bound to develop that all-important rapport with an agent who understands your particular likes and dislikes and who makes suggestions that are compatible with your pocketbook and travel style.

Read as much as you possibly can. Your local library or bookstore will have, or can acquire for you, a wealth of worthwhile books on whatever destinations you may be considering. Guidebooks such as "Fodor’s," "Lonely Planet," the British Association series, or Harvard University’s "Let’s Go" series contain lots of background information on a country and its people, along with numerous suggestions on places to visit, where to stay and where to eat. Most good guidebooks offer a range of options, based on various styles of travel and budgets.

Contact the country’s national tourist board. Staff are there to provide advice, lots of brochures, and maybe even some vouchers or coupons for discounts on places to stay or visit. Thanks to the assistance provided to us by the Danish National Tourist Board, my wife and I were able to put together our own customized, problem-free tour of Denmark.

Consult the brochures of several tour companies. By reviewing a number of itineraries, you can discover the most popular attractions. While we will not necessarily always stick to the most popular sites -- we usually prefer to include some off-the-beaten-track, less touristy places in our itinerary whenever possible -- we do want to be fully aware of which sites are considered to be the most significant.

Choose your destination, and develop a list of "must visit" places. After all, there are many, many exciting destinations throughout the world to choose from, and it may be that you visit a particular area only once. You would not want return home after visiting India or France without seeing the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower.

Decide how important your lodgings will be to you while you are away from home. Are you looking for luxurious accommodations with lots of pampering, or are you prepared to stay in more modest places and spend the rest of your available funds on sightseeing and sampling from the region’s culinary delights?

Determine which style of travel best suits you and your chosen destination most comfortably. While we generally prefer the flexibility of independent touring, this approach can be more difficult, and it definitely requires greater preparation.

The less experienced traveller, or the first-time visitor to a particular country, may feel more secure participating in an organized tour, in which your travel arrangements and accommodations are made in advance for you by the tour operator. Group tours also provide companionship throughout the journey, and we have made some lasting friendships this way.

Be sure you have a valid passport, and find out if the country you are planning to visit also requires an entry visa or proof of vaccinations. Your travel agent should be able to assist you in acquiring necessary travel documents, but obtaining visas can sometimes take a rather long while.

Decide how you plan to pay for your trip while you are away from home. Will you take cash, credit cards, travellers’ cheques, or a combination of these options? Carrying large amounts of cash is always risky. Too many people have had their trips ruined when their cash was stolen. However, if you obtain an initial supply of local currency before starting on your journey, you can avoid long airport lineups upon arrival and, perhaps, higher commissions for exchanging dollars into local currency.

Credit cards are being accepted in more and more places. When you use a credit card, you are usually charged the prevailing exchange rate for that particular day, and that can result in some more savings; but credit cards will not be accepted everywhere, especially in smaller shops and in more rural areas.

Travellers’ cheques are much safer than cash, and usually can be replaced quite quickly if stolen. You will always be advised to carry travellers’ cheques in U.S. funds only, since most countries would like to acquire more U.S. foreign exchange dollars. While I will not dispute that advice, I have never had much trouble cashing travellers’ cheques that were in Canadian funds.

Determine what clothing and other accessories you will take with you on your trip. Do you expect to encounter varying temperatures while you are away? Do you expect to attend events where fancy evening wear will be required, or will more casual clothing suffice?

If you take any medication regularly, be sure to obtain a sufficient supply to last throughout your entire trip -- getting a prescription refilled in some countries can be difficult. If you are planning to take along any electrical appliances such as hair dryers or electric shavers, find out if you will need a converter for the electrical current.

Keep in mind that most travellers pack far more than they will ever need. Some guidebooks recommend that when you are ready to pack, you should lay out everything that you think you will need for your trip, and then divide that load in half. Perhaps that is going a little overboard, since most travellers want to be ready to enjoy themselves throughout their journey. But most people do pack far too much.

Shopping enthusiasts often purposely pack lightly when they know they are visiting a destination that is a shopper’s paradise and where they know good bargains abound.

Pre-trip planning will pay large dividends for any traveller, but this process is doubly critical for any traveller with a disability. No wheelchair user wants to arrive in an unfamiliar city and discover their hotel room is nowhere near as accessible as they require. A traveller who is blind may be able to get hotel staff to read about attractions, but they should not always count on this.

Contact the office of a particular attraction in advance to determine if its amenities will meet your needs. It is also sometimes possible to arrange a special tour that can offer great insight into the collection on display.

There are lots of guidebooks that are geared specifically to travellers with disabilities, but most of these tend to focus mainly on concerns of travellers with mobility disabilities.

All vacationers want to enjoy themselves when away from home. A little pre-trip planning will go a long way to ensure that you will come home with lots of great memories from your trip.

(John Rae is a freelance writer living in Toronto, Ontario.)Travelling abroad can and should be a rewarding and enriching experience. You may prefer to join a wine-tasting tour of France, backpack through Nepal, visit the archaeological wonders of Egypt, or simply spend some time lounging on the beaches of the Caribbean. Whatever your style of travel and your choice of destination, investing time in pre-trip planning will enable you to get the most out of your trip.

First, decide how much you can afford on your vacation. Flying overseas on charter flights, using a Eurail pass, joining local walking tours, and staying in travel hostels, bed-and-breakfast hotels or with families can help stretch your budget and bring you into closer contact with local residents. Booking far in advance or purchasing last-minute sell-offs can gain you big discounts. And if your schedule allows you to travel in off-peak periods, you are likely to benefit from both discounts and smaller crowds at your favourite attractions.

Find a good travel agent. This process is much like searching for any other quality resource or product. Speak to your friends and associates and ask for their recommendations. Shop around. Talk to several travel agents, and ask lots of questions. Sooner or later, you are bound to develop that all-important rapport with an agent who understands your particular likes and dislikes and who makes suggestions that are compatible with your pocketbook and travel style.

Read as much as you possibly can. Your local library or bookstore will have, or can acquire for you, a wealth of worthwhile books on whatever destinations you may be considering. Guidebooks such as "Fodor’s," "Lonely Planet," the British Association series, or Harvard University’s "Let’s Go" series contain lots of background information on a country and its people, along with numerous suggestions on places to visit, where to stay and where to eat. Most good guidebooks offer a range of options, based on various styles of travel and budgets.

Contact the country’s national tourist board. Staff are there to provide advice, lots of brochures, and maybe even some vouchers or coupons for discounts on places to stay or visit. Thanks to the assistance provided to us by the Danish National Tourist Board, my wife and I were able to put together our own customized, problem-free tour of Denmark.

Consult the brochures of several tour companies. By reviewing a number of itineraries, you can discover the most popular attractions. While we will not necessarily always stick to the most popular sites -- we usually prefer to include some off-the-beaten-track, less touristy places in our itinerary whenever possible -- we do want to be fully aware of which sites are considered to be the most significant.

Choose your destination, and develop a list of "must visit" places. After all, there are many, many exciting destinations throughout the world to choose from, and it may be that you visit a particular area only once. You would not want return home after visiting India or France without seeing the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower.

Decide how important your lodgings will be to you while you are away from home. Are you looking for luxurious accommodations with lots of pampering, or are you prepared to stay in more modest places and spend the rest of your available funds on sightseeing and sampling from the region’s culinary delights?

Determine which style of travel best suits you and your chosen destination most comfortably. While we generally prefer the flexibility of independent touring, this approach can be more difficult, and it definitely requires greater preparation.

The less experienced traveller, or the first-time visitor to a particular country, may feel more secure participating in an organized tour, in which your travel arrangements and accommodations are made in advance for you by the tour operator. Group tours also provide companionship throughout the journey, and we have made some lasting friendships this way.

Be sure you have a valid passport, and find out if the country you are planning to visit also requires an entry visa or proof of vaccinations. Your travel agent should be able to assist you in acquiring necessary travel documents, but obtaining visas can sometimes take a rather long while.

Decide how you plan to pay for your trip while you are away from home. Will you take cash, credit cards, travellers’ cheques, or a combination of these options? Carrying large amounts of cash is always risky. Too many people have had their trips ruined when their cash was stolen. However, if you obtain an initial supply of local currency before starting on your journey, you can avoid long airport lineups upon arrival and, perhaps, higher commissions for exchanging dollars into local currency.

Credit cards are being accepted in more and more places. When you use a credit card, you are usually charged the prevailing exchange rate for that particular day, and that can result in some more savings; but credit cards will not be accepted everywhere, especially in smaller shops and in more rural areas.

Travellers’ cheques are much safer than cash, and usually can be replaced quite quickly if stolen. You will always be advised to carry travellers’ cheques in U.S. funds only, since most countries would like to acquire more U.S. foreign exchange dollars. While I will not dispute that advice, I have never had much trouble cashing travellers’ cheques that were in Canadian funds.

Determine what clothing and other accessories you will take with you on your trip. Do you expect to encounter varying temperatures while you are away? Do you expect to attend events where fancy evening wear will be required, or will more casual clothing suffice?

If you take any medication regularly, be sure to obtain a sufficient supply to last throughout your entire trip -- getting a prescription refilled in some countries can be difficult. If you are planning to take along any electrical appliances such as hair dryers or electric shavers, find out if you will need a converter for the electrical current.

Keep in mind that most travellers pack far more than they will ever need. Some guidebooks recommend that when you are ready to pack, you should lay out everything that you think you will need for your trip, and then divide that load in half. Perhaps that is going a little overboard, since most travellers want to be ready to enjoy themselves throughout their journey. But most people do pack far too much.

Shopping enthusiasts often purposely pack lightly when they know they are visiting a destination that is a shopper’s paradise and where they know good bargains abound.

Pre-trip planning will pay large dividends for any traveller, but this process is doubly critical for any traveller with a disability. No wheelchair user wants to arrive in an unfamiliar city and discover their hotel room is nowhere near as accessible as they require. A traveller who is blind may be able to get hotel staff to read about attractions, but they should not always count on this.

Contact the office of a particular attraction in advance to determine if its amenities will meet your needs. It is also sometimes possible to arrange a special tour that can offer great insight into the collection on display.

There are lots of guidebooks that are geared specifically to travellers with disabilities, but most of these tend to focus mainly on concerns of travellers with mobility disabilities.

All vacationers want to enjoy themselves when away from home. A little pre-trip planning will go a long way to ensure that you will come home with lots of great memories from your trip.

(John Rae is a freelance writer living in Toronto, Ontario.)