Harry Potter’s London 7.20.11

Can you believe the last movie raked in an amazing $158M in box office revenue in its very first weekend? By Friday, it had pulled in nearly $60M and half of that was in pre-sales! If only we had a cut of those earnings, we’d be able to go nearly anywhere we wanted and not have to get there on a broomstick. Although, I'm sure you helped contribute to that total, just like I did. Since there isn’t a floo network – that we know about – we still have to get places the old fashioned way: via planes, trains and automobiles. And because it’s been all Potter all the time in the news, papers and magazines, I’ve decided to dedicate this Wednesday’s post to my favorite fictional character and the Boy Who Lived’s hometown: London.

You all know my love and fascination with the metropolitan city across the pond, so it should come as no surprise to you that I plan another trip there in the coming years and will incorporate some Harry Potter goodness into my itinerary. Hey! I’ve already seen all the major tourist sites, so now’s my chance to see a totally different London – although I’ll probably still visit the zoo, which was missed on my last trip, due to the decision that we should check out something a little more unique instead and headed to Chislehurst Caves and Eltham Palace. Both totally worth the train and bus rides.  Not to mention getting to hear the train station’s lovely recording for incoming commuters – “Orpington, this is Orpinton.” – which made us feel like we were in a (classic) sci-fi movie.

So, let’s start with fun and funky Potter inspired tourism and then we’ll talk about some not-to-miss London sites as well as how to save on the outrageous ticket prices. I’ll tell you now that London is NOT a budget destination by any means, but with planning and saving, it can be done and you can still do it on about half the budget you thought, assuming you aren’t dying to eat at a variety of Michelin-starred restaurants or think you should take a black cab everywhere (or really anywhere…those things are cute to look at, but a total drain on your wallet).

First up on my list of must-dos for the Potter fanatic – you know who you are – is the as-yet-to-be-opened Warner Bros. owned Leavesden Studios. I loved, loved, loved Harry Potter: The Exhibition when I trekked up to Seattle for the weekend to see it, but nothing is going to be quite as awesome as walking the “halls” of Hogwarts and the sets from the movies. Can you beat actually standing in the Great Hall or Dumbledore’s office? I think not! Of course you’ll have to take the train out to Watford, a good 20 miles outside of London, but you can make a day of it. Doors are expected to open in Spring of 2012, so that’s about all I know.

Harry Potter Walking Tour of London is another must. I’ve wanted to do this since I heard about it. Unfortunately, when I was there, it was not on the list of tours I could take through the city. Also, we walked everywhere, so by the time we got back to the room and looked at the schedule, we basically decided to relax, go eat dinner and then come back and crash until morning. On one of our walks back from the Tube, we stopped at a place called the Italian Pizza Connection in Paddington and grabbed a pizza and some tiramisu, that turned out to be the best tiramisu we’ve ever had.

But, I digress…do you want to see the real Diagon Alley? The Leaky Cauldron? The Millennium Bridge that was destroyed by Death Eaters? Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station? Okay, while there isn’t a real platform 9 ¾, there IS a barrier between platforms 9 and 10 that you can take a picture in front of. Brush up on your Harry Potter trivia and take a walk with other fans on this magical (surely, it must be!) tour that rings in at $32 per person. While not totally cheap, it’s a great way to experience London and get some exercise while also hanging with a fun crowd and seeing amazing sites from one of your favorite series of movies.

If $32 is too steep for your budget, consider a different tour with London Walks. They are the best walking tour company anywhere (they got an award and everything!) and they offer several Potter walks. You could do two for the price of the big one above. They will have the same stops along their route(s) – if not more – as well as smaller groups for each tour. You don’t have to book ahead. You just show up with your money…so if you find you’re too tired when you planned to go, you can rearrange your plans and go the next time it’s offered.

Do your own walking tour and stop by these awesome sites for free! (unless there’s an admission price)

·    London Zoo – When Harry is introduced to us in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, he visits the zoo with Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley and fids out he can communicate with snakes, when he lets loose a large Brazilian python and traps Dudley in the snake exhibit.

·    King’s Cross Station – Take a picture of you and/or your travel companions in front of the famed barrier on the platform between 9 and 10. You won’t be able to board the Hogwart’s Express like Harry and his school friends, but you WILL be able to stand where they stood.

·    Millennium Bridge – You can cross this one without fear of it snapping in half and sending you hurtling into the Thames. It is nicknamed the Wibbly Wobbly Bridge, though, for the sway and give it has during windy days.

·    Picadilly Circus – Go here by night for the full effect, then maybe take in a show or get something to eat. I’d recommend that sad little diner the trio ducked into, if I knew what it was called.

·    Australia House – Home of the marble-floored exhibition hall of the Australian Embassy, but known better as the wizarding bank Gringott’s.

·    Borough Street Market – Remember the knight bus in The Prizoner of Azkaban? Harry wishes he couldn’t, but you can visit the end point of his journey – The Leaky Cauldron – in Borough Street Market on Stoney Street near the Market Porter Pub.

·    London Eye – One of the awesome sites that whizzed by during Order of the Phoenix’s getaway broom ride. You can see all of London from the rotating pods and get some excellent pictures of the city and the river.

·    Big Ben – Another site seen from Harry’s broom. A visit to London just isn’t complete without a photo of it.

·    Buckingham Palace – Yet another London staple shown during the opening scenes of Order of the Phoenix.

·    Leadenhall Market – You probably can’t buy an owl or school robes or a Quick Quotes Quill there, but it is still the setting for Diagon Alley in the Sorcerer’s Stone. You can take home your own finds from here, to remind you of your trip.

·    Phone booth to enter the Ministry of Magic – Still cool, though it doesn’t take you anywhere, you can find this red telephone box where the Strand, Agar St and William IV St meet near Charing Cross Station.

There are probably loads more places to visit on your trip to soak up the history of Harry Potter, but that ought to keep you busy for a day or more. When you’re ready to do some other cool sightseeing, check out these awesome sites that I highly recommend:

Thames River Cruise – If you have a London Pass, the cruise to Greenwich is included on your card. If not, you can view the different cruises and pricing here. Greenwich was definitely a cool place to visit, plus you can stand at 0° longitude, or what is known as the Prime Meridian. Home of Greenwich Mean Time, which is the worldwide time reference. Of course, you can also see the Queen’s House, National Maritime Museum, Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich and whole mess of other cool stuff. I highly recommend a trip into the Queen’s House. It will be host to some of 2012’s Olympic games, and while we were there we experienced an amazing photo exhibit of Princess Diana.

Hyde Park – A great freebie for those wanting to take a stroll, people watch or have a picnic lunch. The park is massive and you can easily spend the whole day just wandering around the place. Hit up Kensington Palace where you can see where many royalty have lived, the royal wedding dress collection and more.  We really enjoyed our tour through the palace, and if you are smart enough to go earlier in the day, you can have lunch or tea at The Orangery. Keep an eye out for the oversized squirrels frolicking on the lawns, if only to marvel at their size in comparison to normal squirrels.

Victoria & Albert Museum – Another free activity, V&A claims to be the “World’s Greatest Museum of Art and Design”. My trip was so packed full of stuff, I never made it here, but it’s certainly on my list for my next visit. View clothing and architecture, jewelry, paintings, prints, furniture and quite a bit more. Some special exhibits have an admission fee, but otherwise, you can walk right in and spend as much time as you want without ever opening your wallet.

OXO Tower – Want to see all of London from the top? The OXO Tower viewing platform has an awesome 8^th floor gallery to see across the Thames. If you’re feeling splurge-y, make a reservation at one of their restaurants and take in the view while having a fantastic meal.

Do you want to pack a lot of sightseeing into your trip? Consider a London Pass. It works just like CityPASS and gets you into a multitude of attractions, as well as giving you discounts to dining, shops and other touristy stuff. If you don’t plan on walking everywhere – which you probably could do if you were very ambitious – you can also add transportation to your pass and jump on tubes, busses and trains with a swipe of your card. We took advantage of the London Pass while we were in the city and saved gobs of money, because it enabled us to do much more than we even planned to do, including the Aquarium, Sherlock Holmes’ house and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. We were always busy doing something and had a great time.

Dining on a budget is super easy in the city. Use TopTable to make restaurant reservations and get deals like 50% off, 2-for-1 dining and special prix fixe menus. You can also eat in cafes, split entrees or stay where you have a kitchen(ette) and make some of your own meals. There are groceries all over, so picking up some food stuffs is relatively easy and usually on your way back to where you are staying.

For more London tips on saving and what to do, you can check out these other posts I did on Jetsetera and My Itchy Travel Feet. Even in the absence of Harry Potter it can be a magical place to visit. We had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go back. You’re probably lucky I didn’t try to fit in more photos. It’s hard to choose favorites when you come back with hundreds!

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Hotel. Motel. Holiday Inn. 7.16.11

You’ve decided where you should go on your vacation and booked your airline tickets. Now what? I suppose having a place to stay is high up on your list. I know a lot of people don’t even bother making hotel reservations and just wing it when they get to their destination. This is scary to me because, 1.) I like to be prepared and 2.) I don’t want to end up in a dump. Although, I guess staying anywhere with a roof is better than getting there and not finding anything and having to sleep on a park bench or the train station. In any case, I like to do my research ahead of time, make my reservations and also get the best deal possible. If you travel on a whim and just choose a hotel when you get there, how do you know you aren’t settling? You can’t really shop around at that point.

In any case, I know you budget travelers are also planners, because that’s how you end up with a smokin’ deal that gives you extras and is located conveniently (usually). I have loads of websites I like to hit up, as you can see by my favorite links list on the right sidebar and you will also get the entire list when my book comes out*, but today I’m going to talk about my top five go-to sites. Why do I use them and why are they useful? While I’m sure you have plenty of your own preferred sites, you might find a new one with this list, especially when you see that they all offer something different.

Hotels.com – Yes, they are one of the most popular hotel booking sites, but with good reason. They have a fantastic low-price guarantee and also offer the Welcome Rewards program where after staying a collective 10 nights in hotels booked through their site, you receive a free night. Of course, it’s not just ANY hotel. You can’t have stayed in Motel 6s and put in a claim for a free night at the W. They add up what you’ve spent all 10 nights and then take the average of those. You can either spend a night for free within that budget or use that as a credit towards a higher-end lodging. Hotels.com is always having some promotion going, so it’s a lot easier to save than you think. Right now you can get 30% off participating hotels and a $50 gas card. That’s awesome if you plan to rent a car or go on a road trip. And if you don’t, use it at home to save money driving to and from work or taking the kids to camp.

Venere – I found this website when it was first starting out and only had accommodations in the UK and big cities in Europe. It’s come a long way since then – I found several hotels in Seaside, Oregon the other day – with worldwide listings. There are many great things about Venere, but my top three include not having to prepay, excellent hotel reviews from travelers and listings for accommodations that you can’t book online. Now, that sounds tricky, but usually, if you can’t book a hotel online, you also can’t FIND it online. Now, Venere doesn’t have the no prepay deal on all their hotels. It depends on where you are traveling, but about half of what I’ve searched now doesn’t require you to put down anything when you make a reservation. I love this! As much as I like to have everything paid for by the time I leave, what if I find a better deal elsewhere? I’m not saying I will, but I might. It’s a pain to have to cancel a booking, wait for your card to be refunded and then rebook elsewhere. To be clear, I’ve used Venere many times and have always been happy with my choice of accommodation and their rates and have never had any issues at all. They have a larger selection to choose from than a lot of sites, especially when you’re looking for places to stay in Europe and the UK. They even include apartment-hotels and B&Bs.

HotelClub – This is another site that has grown successfully over the last few years. Now covering worldwide destinations instead of just the UK, HotelClub offers a new twist on booking your accommodations. They give you cash back (which I call cash forward) towards  your next booking with each completed reservation you make through them. At first, this may seem like a ploy to get more of your money – let’s face it, it’s mostly that – but you can also see the value in getting a discount on hotel rates after making just one reservation through the site. Unlike other booking sites, HotelClub has attainable tiers that give you even more for your money. Your very first booking gets you 4% cash forward and puts you at Silver Club Membership. Bookings 2-5 put you into Gold Club Membership and get you 5% cash forward. On your 6^th booking you become a Platinum Club Member and get 6% of all bookings as credit toward your next one. The only break in these is when you make a last-minute reservation, which only garners you 2% credit. You must keep your account active over a 24 month period in order for your credit to not roll off your account, but that’s easy enough if you take at least one vacation a year. Even better, you don’t even have to use your club bucks on your next booking. You can save them up and choose to use them towards any reservation you choose. 2.5% cash back

BookIt – You hear me say again and again how many great deals can be found on BookIt. I don’t say this because they pay me to. I say it because it’s true. I just told someone on Facebook that I have used them and recommended them to friends and family and we’ve all had excellent experiences with them. She was checking with me, because their prices were so low, she thought they might be too good to be true. I’ll admit, that was smart of her to be concerned, because not all sites out there are legit. BookIt partners with hotels and airlines to bring you the best deals on popular tourist destinations. Book just your hotel, book a package with airfare and even add activities. I found their prices for Disney tickets were even BETTER than those for AAA, which had by far been the best deal I’ve found, and they even had a small, but significant discount on Universal tickets. All in all, great value can be found on BookIt, whether you’re going to Jamaica or Las Vegas. If it’s a beach destination you’re after, I would definitely check here first, though they cover much more than sandy locales.

BedandBreakfast.com – I just discovered this gem a few months ago, because I never thought I’d actually want to stay in a B&B, or that I could afford one. Amazingly, BedandBreakfast.com has a lot of affordable options in very convenient locations. Some of the participating B&Bs are even cheaper than hotels. I’ve seen rates as low as $45 per night for beautiful home in a quiet neighborhood. The benefit of staying in a B&B over a hotel is that a meal is included in your price, making it an even better deal that many hotels. The accommodations are usually homey and also offer the peace and quiet of being in a lovely neighborhood instead of next to a busy freeway or bars, though they are still close enough to get to shopping and nightspots by foot or on public transportation. In addition to included breakfast, some B&Bs offer more extras, like cocktail hour or tea time. If you like to get to know new people everywhere you go and get treated like one of the family, a bed and breakfast is certainly for you. Traveling with your dog? Don’t worry. There are many pet-friendly accommodations on the site, too!

 Do you?

If you haven’t yet signed up for Ebates, it can really help you save even more on your travels (and everyday purchases). In fact 3 of these 5 sites are eligible for cash back with Ebates Travel: Hotels.com gets you 3.5%, HotelClub gets you 2.5% and BedandBreakfast.com gets you a whopping 5%. And not only hotel booking sites are on the list. There are dozens of fantastic travel merchants that partner with Ebates to get you the best deals around, including AmericanAirlines, Orbitz, Club Med, Courtyard, Enterprise rent-a-car, Delta, Golden Tours and Luggage Point. You’re seriously losing money by booking with the participating sites and NOT using Ebates. Just because you think two to three dollars isn’t worth your time, think about adding up several $3 worth of cash back. It doesn’t take long for a few dollars to be ten dollars and then even more. I’ve earned hundreds of dollars in cash back over the last 8 years I’ve been an Ebates member. That extra money has come in handy when traveling, too. I’ve used it toward spending money on my trip or for paying for things before I go!

*Shereen Travels Cheap will soon be a book! Do you want a free copy? Of course you do! We can help each other, because my book is LOADED with amazing travel tips, money-saving tactics, awesome sites, packing tips and suggested products. You want a free book, I want your great feedback: If you have praise for Shereen Travels Cheap (as a site) or if you’ve saved a good deal of money because of my tips or deals via this site, Facebook, Twitter or a guest post, leave a comment on my blog – or use the email me button – with your quote, first name and last initial and city/state or country. If I use your quote, which is highly possible, as I have very few to work with, I’ll contact you for your shipping address and you’ll get one of the first copies. I’ll even sign it for you!

Join me and Kristin from BonBonRoseGirls on Monday the 18^th at 5pm PST/8pm EST for a live chat on travel fashion for your upcoming late summer and fall trips. Learn how you can incorporate the latest trends into your travel wardrobe while still packing light and flying with only a carry-on. The Savvy Living Community on Ebates is where it’s at!

There will be a lot of useful information and you can share your own ideas and fab finds with us! Like I shopped the Betsey Johnson BOGO sale last week and got two amazing necklaces that are definitely making it into my travel bag for Hawaii. They will be fantastic for dressing up my outfits when I go out in the evening. It’ll save me room, because I won’t have to pack any extra clothes! Kristin is a wonderful blogger and is on top of all the new trends, be it clothes, shoes, jewelry or makeup. It’s going to be a fun hour, for sure.

I’ve been slacking on your cool “gadgets” and deals lately, so I feel like I should make it up with a couple extra things for you to ogle over. Look fantastic, smell fantastic and prepare fantastic food with these fun goodies.

Stila make-up palettes – Take all your make-up staples with you in one slim palette. Stila includes an eye shadow quad (great for a fabulous smoky eye and a pop of color), blush and a bronzer in a sleek, easy to pack case. It even includes instructions on how to get a perfect look every time. You just supply the applicators – or use your fingers like I do.

 

Soak wash – You don’t always know if you’ll be staying in a hotel that has or is close to laundry facilities, and even if you do, who’s to say that there will be enough to make doing your laundry convenient during waking hours? Soak Wash is a revolutionary detergent for hand washing your clothes on your trips (though you can probably toss it in the washer, too) that requires absolutely no rinsing. No more squishing your clothes forever trying to get all the suds out. Throw some Soak Wash into the sink with your clothes, let it set, wring it out and hang it up to dry. Easy!

Travel spice kit – If you find that a lot of places you go could use some spice, or simply plan to cook your own food, the travel spice kit is a must for you. With 15 spices included, you can make nearly everything you want just as you would at home. Most vacation rentals or hotels with kitchenettes only have the basics in their spice racks, if they have anything beyond salt and pepper. Kick your travel cooking into high gear and dine with flavor!

Did you miss getting an Entertainment Book this year, or need one for a travel destination? Right now you can buy 2 books for just $10. You can't lose with this deal, because even if you only use one coupon, you've already paid for the book!

Everyone wants a relaxing vacation in an exotic locale. How does and Italian spa vacation sound? Totsy has decided to offer travel deals and one of the first ones sounds awesome: a 6-night stay for two at the Grand Hotel and La Pace Spa that includes 8 spa treatments for each of you, free WiFi and free unlimited soft drinks for $2,532. Purchase this package by Thursday July 21 and stay by January 9th, 2012. (With each travel package you book on Totsy, you'll receive a $100 Totsy credit.)

Take a break in Morocco from KGBDeals: £99 for a three-night break for two at the stunning Dar Tassa Moroccan guest house – an eco-friendly mountain retreate – in Marrakech worth £265, including breakfast and taxi transfers. Purchase by Wednesday, July 20th.

Do you need some new walking shoes for your trips? Get an extra 25% off sale shoes on Shoes.com through 6/18 with promo code: 25SALE They have popular shoe brands for men, women and children. You also get free shipping!

Visit Hawaii and Waikiki Beach with this awesome Living Social Deal: 5-night stay for 2 in the Waikiki Gateway Hotel, which includes daily breakfast, free parking, free internet access, Hawaiian chocolates and a $25 activity credit. Blocks to the beach and close by major shopping and dining. Book by Tuesday July 17. Must stay by November 1.

Live and Learn – Ecuador 7.13.11

While thinking back on my travels, I’ve realized that there are a lot of lessons I’ve learned with each and every trip I’ve taken. Now, that’s great for me, but then I realized that it would be even more beneficial if I shared them with others, so that they can also learn from my mistakes. Of course, many of these will be included in my book*, but that doesn’t mean you can’t gain from hearing them more than once. In light of this, I’ve decided to start a new series called Live and Learn that you all can jump in on and contribute to. In short, it’ll be one destination and things I’ve learned from that trip that will stick with me on future journeys that you can learn from, too!

Ali Shungu Hotel in Otavalo

*Yup, Shereen Travels Cheap is going to be a budget travel book soon, chock full of amazing money-saving tips, product and website suggestions and packing information! I’m mostly done with additions and need to get through edits. I’ve got an ISBN and I just applied to register a trademark for my name, too. I am still on the lookout for great quotes I can use from readers. If you’re interested in getting a free copy of the book and seeing your name in print, send me a great positive quote from you on how Shereen Travels Cheap saved you money on your trips…or just to say how awesome it is!

Even though nothing went smoothly, we're still smiling

I think we learned enough things from our Ecuador trip to last a lifetime. It was just one learning experience after another with some bouts of sobbing in between. Oddly enough, it’s still one of the best trips we’ve ever had and we’ll have stories for years. If there was a word to describe it, boring would not be on the list! Frustrating, terrifying (at times), adventurous, frugal and enlightening would top the long list of things the trip was. Here’s what we learned and what mistakes we won’t make again when we travel to Ecuador.

Take a taxi everywhere – Normally this is on my list of no-nos, but in Ecuador, taxis are cheap like the bus is everywhere else. We took it 10 miles away and paid just $5 for the fare and tip. It cost us $1.50 to get from one end of Quito to the other. If you can walk there, do it, but if it’s night time or you have no clue where it is, just hail a cab. They’re everywhere. This can probably be said for many South American countries as well. Do you research before you leave (check sites like Lonely Planet for up-to-date info on transportation costs), so if you can save money and not rent a car, go with that option.

Getting the glass vacuumed out of the car after the new window was put in.

Don’t park your car on the curb after dark – This is probably a great tip for almost anywhere you travel, because thieves like to steal stuff out of cars. We rented a car and when we were in Quito we asked the hotel clerk if it was safe to park on the street. We didn’t specify that we meant overnight and she didn’t say “yes, but not after dark.” Unfortunately, our rental car was broken into on that first night and it took us all day to get it taken care of. Lucky for us, they only brok the window and stole my husband’s phone and some random junk left in the back seat. We were able to put a hold on the phone number and have the window fixed for around $30, but the filling out of the police reports and getting an interim rental car while everything else was being taken care of was a pain in the you know what. Spend the few bucks a night it costs to leave your car in an overnight, secured parking lot or garage. It’s cheaper than a new window and cell phone.

Rent a GPS – While I don’t recommend renting a car if you are staying within Quito, do get one if you want to be on your own schedule and do things in neighboring towns. You will almost never find a useful map for guidance, even within a town, and many streets aren’t even marked with signage anyway, so you can only guess as to what the name is in order to navigate poorly given directions from someone that may or may not get you partially to your desired destination. A GPS will at least tell you where to turn and how far to go.

Most highways are 2 lanes

Your blinker has two jobs – In America, and many other places I’ve driven or been driven, your blinker is a request to get in another lane or indicate a turn. In Ecuador it works very different. First of all, if you want in another lane where there are cars, you put on your blinker and just start to move over. Your blinkers tells people you’re coming and they will slow down enough to let you in. If you wait for an opening, you’ll never get in. The other job that your blinker does is let people know it’s safe to pass. This is pretty awesome and was easy to understand after a bit of highway driving where there was only one lane in each direction. If you saw that a car behind you was hoping to pass you, you would turn your left blinker on when there was an opening enough for them to pass you without getting hit by an oncoming car. It’s efficient and courteous and I would love for America to adopt this “law”.

Toll Booths

Carry small bills and lots of change – Ecuador is a country that is easy to travel inexpensively in. Small bills will be good for everything and if you are driving on highways, it will be necessary to carry a handful of random change to make it through toll roads. We hit a lot of them, but I still think we only spent a grand total of $3.00 the entire trip for toll charges. At least the roads are nicely paved! (U.S. Dollars are the official currency of Ecuador, so no need to even exchange your money.) This is a good idea in a lot of countries.

Credit cards are not widely accepted – Hotels, restaurants and car rental companies accept them, but there are many smaller shops that don’t, so don’t plan to rely too much on them. We made a purchase at a jewelry store and for a sale of hundreds of dollars, they required you to pay in cash. We had to make a quick run to the ATM before we could complete the transaction. Also, Discover Card is not accepted at all in Ecuador.

One of the many markets where you can haggle for goods

Know a little bit of Spanish – Just the basics are enough to get you by, like where is, how much, may I, excuse me, and so on. Numbers are a good thing to know, if you are into haggling. You will find English speakers when you least expect it and many more Spanish speakers where you thought catered to tourists. We purchased My Spanish Coach for the Nintendo DS and played for a month or so before we left. It helps you learn pronunciation, construct sentences and more. The higher the level, the more difficult the lesson, but it’s fun and really helped me to brush up on my language skills and my husband to learn at least the basics for communicating. I still did much of the translating, but we got by well enough. Of course please and thank you will get you quite far in any language.

Bring your own ketchup packets – This may sound weird, but if you like ketchup, you won’t find any in restaurants. The closest thing I ever got was tomato paste. Maybe ketchup is an American thing? I don’t know, but they served fries many places we went. Next time, I’ll load up on fast food ketchup packs or bring a small bottle of ketchup bought on Minimus.

One of the many phone banks in town

Know the telephone codes to call in-country – You can’t believe how important it is to know this until you realize you thought of everything else except how to call someone if you needed help or directions. We got lost trying to get to our eco-lodge and had to stop at a phone bank (a place with several phone booths that charge people to make calls) and ask them to dial for me…and pay them a dollar.

Common area of our eco-lodge in Mindo

Eco-lodge might be another word for electricity-impaired – While I’m not opposed to people saving the world by offering lodging with no electricity  and low-flow toilets, it IS a bit of a surprise when you don’t know when you’ve booked such a place before you get there. Again, this wouldn’t be a big deal either, unless you don’t like gigantic bugs and are planning to stay in such a lodging in the middle of the rainforest. If I were to stay at such a place again, I would bring a lantern flashlight, so I could see my way back from the main seating area to my cabin without almost killing myself. A candle is not all that helpful.

Bring extra batteries from home – While I brought a couple pair of my own batteries with me, it turned out not to be enough for the camera I had with me. We purchased at least 3 or 4 packages of batteries from “convenience” stores and they all worked for about 10 minutes and then were dead. No telling how long they’d been on the shelf, so make sure you bring fresh ones with you.

Free WiFi does not mean everywhere – When you stay in a hotel that claims to have free WiFi, make sure you find out if that includes service in your room, too. Our hotel, while awesome, only had Internet in the common areas...sometimes. After dragging your laptop up and down 3 flights of stairs at high altitude with no luck, you finally just leave it in your room and go to the lobby and use the public computer. Unfortunately, 90% of the time we were there, the same male guest was sitting in front of it doing things for hours, so we just decided that Internet access was not something that was that important during our trip. We also had spotty wireless in Otavalo, since the bungalows were widely spread out from the main house. We could get access, but only in a chair in the back corner of the room with the curtain open. LOL!

When all else fails, go to lunch

So, while we learned a lot and did a lot wrong, we still had a great time and was able to make the most of our trip. We put Ecuador on our list of places to return, so we can see things  we didn't get to on our last trip and hopefully travel a bit more efficiently next time we get there. The trip was made special by being together and the people we met along our journey. I mean, I joke that we can have fun at the DMV, but it's really true. We know how to take a bad situation and turn it into something positive, so ultimately our trip was successful and totally memorable.

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