On Earth Day last year we were visiting Santa Barbara – a beautiful and eco-friendly destination.  In Santa Barbara hotels, restaurants and a variety of businesses offer discounts to travelers who take advantage of alternative forms of transportation like trolleys, kayaks, the train, bicycles and walking.  Wouldn’t it be great if other cities followed their example?

It’s nice when cities take the initiative, but you can do your part as a traveler as well.  Here are a few suggestions on how to be a green traveler:

1. Adjust the thermostat of your water heater and A/C before leaving on your trip. (more…)

Normally when I fly, I pack only one bag and try to carry-on my luggage.  I can avoid baggage claim and be on my way that much faster.  There are some trips – especially those with lots of varied activities - where it’s a challenge to fit all my outfits into one bag.  The shoes alone seem to take up half the space!

Checking a second bag when needed is currently free, but that changes May 5th.  Delta, United, Continental, US Airways and Northwest Airlines will be charging normal passengers an additional $25 for a second checked bag. 

Why the change?  Lighter airplanes mean less fuel is burned on the flight.  United expects the new baggage policy to generate $100 million in revenue and cost savings.

To avoid paying this surcharge, brush up on your packing skills and check-out our post on packing tips! 

To put it mildly, this has not been a good week for air travel.  Thousands of American Airline flights have been cancelled, along with cancellations by Alaska Airlines, Midwest Airlines and Delta. 

The reason?  Stricter guidelines by the FAA. The airplanes for these flights are MD-80s — and subject to FAA wiring guidelines that many of the airlines seem to have either ignored or just been confused by. 

We all know air safety is important, but I can’t help but wonder if the FAA and the airlines could have handled this in a better manner.  During the past week over 250,000 air travelers have been affected and the cost to airlines like American will be in the tens of millions of dollars. 

A word to the wise: check your flight departure status before heading to the airport.

Via: MSNBC

When I travel I try to carry on my luggage  - and will only check my bag when its absolutely necessary.  The last time I made an exception to this carry on rule was on my recent return trip from Chicago.  Sure enough, my bag missed its connection and arrived 12 hours after I did.  Not a big deal, just an inconvenience that would have been nice to avoid. 

To learn about the fine art of packing light, check out a site called OneBag.com.  This site has a wealth of packing tips including a sample packing list which you can tailor to your travel occasion, tips for packing clothes to avoid wrinkles, advice on choosing a carryon bag, and other useful topics.

If you can apply some of these tips, you’ll be surprised how unencumbered you feel on your next trip. On arrival you’ll be able to breeze past the baggage claim area and be heading towards your destination while others are still waiting for their bags to appear.  

 

“…because in the real world, there are two kinds of luggage: carryon and lost. – oneBag.com”

 

I just ran across a travel tool that I think is extremely cool.  You know when you’re exploring a new city - maybe shopping or visiting a museum – and your travel group decides they want to grab some Mexican food?  Or maybe during dinner you decide to catch a current movie and you want to know what’s playing nearby along with show times.

Now you can find nearby restaurants, movies and much more with just your cell phone.

Here’s how it works.  First you send a text message to 466453 (GOOGLE on most phones) and in the message body include what you want to find out.  Google will send you a text message back for free with the information you asked for. 

Examples:

For the complete list of message phrases, see the Google Mobile page.

Send a message and give it a try!
 

Memorial Day is only a few days away and for as long as I can remember it meant two things to me as a kid. The pool was officially open for swimming and it was finally OK to wear the white sandals I’d been storing in my closet for months.  Contrary to what you may think, this long-held rule of fashion is still in effect according to the Etiquette Grrls, who’ve written books about such things.

How they answered this frequently asked question:

Q: Can I wear White Shoes / Linen / Sandals / Straw Handbags / Seersucker / Other Warm-Weather Clothing before Memorial Day or after Labor Day?

Nope. Unless you want to look like a Fashion Victim, that is. We’ll make an exception for Brides and Nurses on the White Shoes, and for Monks on the Sandals, but in all other cases, the answer is a firm no.

If part of your celebration of Memorial Day includes wearing a new pair of white sandals, here’s a few you may want to check out:

 Links: Etiquette Grrls |  Zappos  |  Brighton   

Of all the things I need to spend money on when I travel, a rental car is at the bottom of my list.  I just want something that I can rely on to get me to the places I want to visit.  I’ve found that I can usually do a quick search with Expedia and find a car rental in most cities for about $20 a day.  At those rates, I don’t give a car rental a second thought.

I wish I could say the same for renting a car in Florida.  For some reason, Florida car rates are in a league of their own – Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando all run between $50-70 a day.  With these rates you might find yourself staring at the screen saying, this can’t be right!

Fortunately, these prices are merely a wish list for the rental agencies and there are ways to avoid paying the astronomical prices with a few extra minutes of searching. This is what I’ve learned from my travels to Florida — don’t rent without first combing the web for car rental discount codes.  When I rented a car in Ft. Meyers, FL a few months ago, Googling “car rental discount codes” instantly saved me $60 off a 3 day car rental.  (more…)

One of the benefits of traveling with a group of women is that you can divide the major expense of a hotel room by sharing.  With the proper preparation, sharing a hotel room with a group of girlfriends can be fun.  Just keep in mind that, like you, everyone has their own nightly ritual before they go to sleep. 

Even in our little group of four, we have an early sleeper, and an all night talker (or two), and then there’s me, who likes to relax with a good book.  I usually stake out the side of the bed nearest a lamp.  With this kind of diversity, you have to be prepared.  For us, that means taking eye shades and having ear plugs on hand.

It used to be that eye shades were strictly utilitarian and came in only one color - black.  Today, eye shades have evolved into a kind of sleep fashion statement.  For a great selection of sleep masks check-out Cris Notti’s collection at crisnotti.com. 

Here are a few of my favorites: