Planning Travel for the Holidays

I know, summer is barely coming to an end, but it’s never too early to start looking ahead to your next trip, especially if you want to keep costs within a budget. Fall is the perfect time to start thinking about the holidays and planning a trip to visit family or have an excuse for why you can’t make it this year. Why not take the kids to Disneyland on Christmas or arrange a low-key Hawaiian holiday? 

Book as soon as possible – When traveling around the holidays, the further out you can book, the better. The closer it gets to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve the higher the prices for everything will creep, even if you aren’t flying until February. That means right now is the optimal time to start looking at airfare for your chosen destination.

Visit busy summer destinations – By doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing, you can get fantastic deals. While most people are visiting relatives, you can fly and stay cheaply in destinations like Cairo, Rome, San Francisco or even the Bahamas. We've left on Christmas day and done Disneyland (as well as Universal) in the past and it was crazy empty, so no waiting in long lines! We touched down, dropped our bags at our hotel and made it to Disney just in time to have dinner waterside at the Blue Bayou. 

Go south – It may be cold here in North America, but countries in the Southern Hemisphere are having spring and summer. This makes them ideal locales to get away from it all and not having to wear seven layers. Just remember to pack your sunscreen!

Bundle up – Many times you can find package deals to your chosen destination for much less than what you would pay separately. In fact, sometimes you can get up to half off this way. With a little comparison shopping, you could save huge. I have found great package deals on BookIt and Hotwire, but do your research, because they aren't the only two good bundling sites out there.

Start a new tradition of winter travel. Your whole family could come together to celebrate the season in a different location each year, or move the holiday to January or February, so you can all take advantage of all the fabulous sales after December. With shorter hours at stores and attractions and fewer tourists, you’ll get to see and do more and then still have plenty of relaxing family time. 

Where are you planning to go over the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year)?

P.S. For even more tips on how to save over the holidays - My Holiday Travel ebook is available on Amazon.

Why and Where to Travel Solo

Solo Travel can be scary, but it can also be rewarding. As an only child, I'm used to my alone time (even away from my husband), so solo travel and other activities doesn't seem weird to me. I've traveled solo before, by air and by car, and I'd highly recommend it. If you've considered it or even if you haven't, I think everyone should travel alone at least once in their life. It doesn't have to be lonely or boring. It can really teach you about yourself, too.

Do Whatever You Want (When You Want)

When you travel alone, you only have to plan for yourself. It's much easier to do things, because you can travel on your own schedule, not worry if anyone else is bored and you can skip the things you don't want to do. That sounds pretty great to me. If I want to go to the museum for four hours, I can. If I want to watch a parade, I can. If I want to get takeout and then take a nap, I can! The freedom when you solo travel is pretty great.

It's Easier to Travel

Truthfully, when you travel with others, you have to find tickets for more than one seat on the plane, on the bus, on the train. As one person, it's easy to find a free seat and it's sometimes cheaper, too.

Staying Safe Requires a Little Extra Effort

You maylet your guard down when you travel with others, but when you travel solo, you need to really pay attention to your surroundings and the people there. I always bring a cross-body purse that has anti-theft zippers. I figure as a single person, I'm an easier target for thieves, but I like to stay alert when I walk around, and that means looking around, not playing on my phone as I walk, not walking around with headphones in, doing everything I can while it's light outside, wearing shoes I could conceivably run in, and trying not to walk in deserted parts of town. I'm probably more untrusting than a lot of people, but I have never been mugged and I still have fun, so I'm doing okay. 

Other tips to stay safe: 

• Don't take drinks from anyone except the wait staff and never leave your drink unattended. In fact, don't even look away from your drink if you are sitting at the bar or with strangers, because it only takes a split second for them to slip something in.
• Research the area you plan to stay and make sure it isn't affordable/cheap because it's sketchy.
• Know where you're going before you head out. Study your map or directions a bit before you leave your hotel, so you aren't walking around with your nose in a map. This immediately makes you the "lost" target.
• Look confident. People don't tend to mess with those that look like they know where they're going...even if they don't.
• Never tell people you're traveling on your own.
• Give someone at home your itinerary, or text someone to let them know where you'll be. On my solo road trip, I had three people I checked in with throughout my drives I use Voxer to keep in touch instead of texting, because it shows when I send the message and from where, plus I can see that the message was delivered to the person and if they read it or not. Make sure you check in throughout your trip, so people know you didn't die. I'm sure your mom would appreciate it.

Learn More About Yourself

Some people never really take the time to learn who they are. Being inside your head is something that you should do, if only to to figure out who you are when you don't have a travel buddy. I know who I am when I am around other and I know who I am when I'm alone. It's not necessarily the same person, but I find myself enjoying different things as I go about on my own. Learn what you like, what you don't like, what you're capable of and how to deal with being in a foreign place when you only have yourself to depend on.

Stay On Your Travel Budget

When you know what you have to spend, it's easier to travel within your means. There's no one saying "let's do this or that" when you really don't have the funds to do it. If you decide to splurge when you solo travel, it's because you know you can swing it, not because of peer pressure. 

No  Fighting

When you spend 24 hours a day with someone(s), things can get stressful. You may not agree with them, you may be hangry or just generally tired of being near them. There has almost never been a trip that I have taken with others where I haven't had a meltdown of some sort and either yelled at them or broke down crying for one reason or another. Travel with others is hard, but solo travel can be totally pressure-free, as you are the only one who can stress you out or annoy you.

Gain Confidence

If you weren't confident before, because you were uncomfortable eating alone or wandering a museum alone (both of which can be rectified by having a smartphone and a backup battery and a magazine, book or notepad), doing it more often will make you more comfortable. Maybe you think everyone's staring at you, but they aren't. Everyone's focused on their own thing and they aren't paying attention to you eating alone and writing an email or playing Sudoku. 

If you want to interact with people (or you don't), bust out your camera and take some pics. It'll give you something to do, but it can also be a talking point between you and others, especially if you ask them to take your picture. Probably don't do this while at a restaurant, unless you want photos of the cool decor and your awesome food. There are so many food bloggers out there, this doesn't seem weird to anyone anymore. Also, servers are probably used to taking pics of diners and are usually happy to do it. 

You're Not Holding Anyone Back

So, on my last trip to Vegas, when I road tripped all alone, I had driven non-stop (well, potty breaks and gassing up happened) from Portland to Vegas to save money on accommodations and airfare. It  practically 16 hours of being in the car, but it was fun for me, but it was also exhausting. Since I was all alone, I could sleep in or go back at 2 in the afternoon to take a nap. I could eat a sandwich and chips for dinner if I wanted. Nobody was going to be annoyed with me that I didn't have the energy to go out after spending half a day at the Travel Goods Show. 

As an introvert, forcing myself to engage with a bunch of strangers is also draining, so if I wanted to eat my sandwich in bed, because I was done with people, nobody tried to get me to do otherwise. The only person who could be mad at me was me. Luckily, I've been to Vegas so many times, I was happy with the one day of "sightseeing" and the lunch I had with my husband's lovely aunt that I stuffed in before heading back home. One night I picked up a giant selection of sushi and ate it while watching TV and checking emails. It was awesome.

Get Away From it All

Don't limit yourself when you travel solo. Just because you don't have someone to go with you doesn't mean foreign travel is out of the question. Budget Travel has a nice list of 35 easy solo trips to try. Cooperatize rounds up 10 solo female travel bloggers whose pics will make you want to get out and see the world. Travel+Leisure wants you to jetset on your own and, to get you started, made up a list of the best countries for solo travels.

Are you a solo traveler? What do/did you enjoy most about it?

P.S. Learn more about how to meet people and make friends while traveling solo. {#sorrynotsorry about all the selfie pics in this post}

What Do You Do When Your Flight Is Overbooked

These days, it’s almost mandatory that airlines overbook flights in order to make money and also fill each and every seat on the plane. There is a small percentage of people who arrive too late to make their flight or just don’t show up and the airlines take this into account when booking seats on each flight. Unfortunately, this means that planes are often crowded and many people each day get bumped and have to sit around the airport for hours waiting for the next flight going to their destination. This is especially true during the holidays. Of course, getting to the gate early could have prevented that from happening. While you could dwell on all the things you dislike about overbooked flights, it’s just as easy to look at the bright side and see how fewer flights per route and stuffed airplane cabins can work for you.

You want to get to your destination just like everyone else, but unless you have reservations to do something right after you arrive or are traveling for business, you can easily be a Good Samaritan and give up your seat to someone who really needs to arrive on time. You may be doing a good deed for someone else, but you’re also getting something in return, besides karma points. Airlines hope that people will volunteer to get bumped and are willing to reward you for doing so (even though they will reward Passenger X, too, when he arrives late and can’t get a seat). Maybe his ride was late or there was traffic or his alarm didn’t go off and he’s in a bind. Let him have your seat and wait for the next flight out. You will end up getting to your destination a bit late, but with some extras in your pocket.

While Passenger X happily gets to his work meeting on time, you can browse the Internet, grab lunch or peruse the shops. You might even want to start planning your next vacation, because your empty seat can net you a free ticket on a future flight. That’s right! You now have two tickets for the price of one! The fuller the flight is, the more desperate an airline will be to have people volunteer to be bumped. This gives you leverage. You can haggle for anything from a credit for future travels (a credit is always better than a free ticket, because you can use it like a gift certificate) to a hotel room to free drinks at the bar. Since the seat you gave up was, essentially, paid for twice by you and Passenger X, the airlines aren’t losing money by rebooking and also giving you a free fare certificate for the future. Of course, what you can bargain for also depends on how long after your initial flight your new one is scheduled. The longer the wait, the more you may get.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has imposed a mandatory compensation for all those bumped from a flight and it always helps to know what you are owed, just in case. For flights arriving less than two hours after your original flight, you should be rewarded at least the cost of your one-way ticket, up to $650. For flights arriving more than two hours after your original flight, airlines are required to compensate you twice the cost of your one-way ticket, up to $1,300. 

If you are looking to get bumped in order to score some free travel, arrive at the airport early, check in at the gate to see if the flight is oversold and travel with only a carry-on to make it easier to get your stuff to your destination with you. Do something nice for someone else and reap the benefits in big ways. Now you can travel practically for free again in the future, helping you to stretch your trip budget enormously. Woot!

Have you ever been bumped from an overbooked flight?