Travel Dilemas: When to Open the Guidebook

A friend and reader of this blog raised an interesting point recently when discussing how to carry a guidebook when visiting a city.

Do you definitely draw attention to yourself as a tourist and peruse the book while standing on the street corner? Or do you sit in the hotel room and memorize every detail of the selected pages so you won't need to refresh with a peek at the book? Maybe you just take your chances without the book and if you get lost, well, you get lost.

He also mentioned ripping a few pages out of the book and carrying them along. While I haven't done that, I will admit to at times pulling the book out of my backpack while on the subway or bus or sitting at a park bench. Yes, it screams lost tourist, but sometimes when you're, you know -- lost! -- you sometimes have no choice, at least if you want to get unlost.

But I also try to have my own mini-travel guides that are easy to fold up and stuff in my pocket. One of the more common things I do is before leaving for a trip I will pinpoint on Mapquest the city, neighborhood or area that I will be traveling to and print it. Then, on the blank corner or back of that sheet of paper I will write out a guide of restaurants, shops, sites, subway stops and any other points of interest and number them. I will then put the corresponding numbers on their respective spots on the map.

So I have a small sheet of paper that I either fold or roll up and slip into my pocket. Yes, I might be standing on the street corner studying a map, but to you I could be poring over a take-out menu.

I'd love to know what you do.

How to Pack Light: The Rolling Method

I came across great advice today in a New York Times article on how to pack efficiently. While it's a good article, what I really enjoyed was the slideshow that shows how a flight attendant packs for a 10-day trip all in a carry-on.

That's right, no checked luggage. And in these days of paying baggage fees with airlines, this is great advice. But women, don't fret. As you see in the pictures, she has a full wardrobe laid out, not just one outfit that has to be washed over and over.

Her tip os to roll everything. Pack shoes and heaviest items on bottom and move up with the lightest items rolled and placed on top.

She also suggests that if you have really nice clothing that needs to be laid out as flat as possible start with those items across the bottom and then leave them hanging out of the suitcase until you get to the top.

So if you have a nice pair of slacks lay them across the bottom and then place all your rolled clothing items on top. Then when you've finished, take the pants that are dangling out of the suitcase and drape them over the top. It appears that this will keep all folds out of the pants.

And thanks to the NYT article, I discovered a cool travel blog I recommend: Heather Poole, the flight attendant whose rolling I recommend above.

Planning trips in wake of disasters

This time last week I found myself closely monitoring news of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as we plan a trip to the Florida Panhandle for late June. Now, after spending a weekend in rain-drenched and flooded Middle Tennessee, my travel thoughts also include Nashville.

I don't think I can compare these disasters to the tragedies brought by the terrorism acts of Sept. 11 and the devastation along the Gulf Coast brought by Hurricane Katrina. But in a purely travel sense -- the reason for this blog -- there are similarities.

New York recovered, but it wasn't immediate. Same for New Orleans, although many would argue that city will never be the same.

Considering the Gaylord Opryland Resort is the largest hotel and convention center in Nashville, I think it's safe to assume convention business is questionable for the time being there. The Opryland hotel could be closed for several months. Where will those already scheduled conventions go? If Nashville loses even some of its convention business that will be a major hit to the local economy there.

I read earlier that some of Nashville's attractions could begin reopening this weekend. And with the country music fan festival still scheduled to take place in June, there is hope that a drop in tourism in Nashville will be just a blip.

The Gulf of Mexico is a trickier situation. The oil spill hasn't reached land yet other than some scattered reports in Louisiana. But if or when it does, what will it mean for that area? Some reports have total devastation because of what it could mean for the seafood and travel industries among others.

The sands along the Gulf are still white. But will that change? How long will it take to clean up if the oil does wash ashore?

But maybe it doesn't wash ashore. Maybe as it drifts toward the beaches the booms they've put in place keep the slick back. I've read reports of the oil's putrid smell. When I'm sitting beachside in a couple of months will I still smell the beautiful saltiness blowing in on the breeze or will it be the rank smell of oil? Will I be able to step foot in the waters? Will there be any fresh seafood at all the seafood restaurants? Or will I find myself ordering the chicken nuggets off the kid's menu?

And I can't even begin to wrap my mind around the environmental damage to the marshes along the coast.

Too many questions abound and I don't even know where to begin to look for the answers.

I do recommend, though, if you have planned a trip to the coast for this summer or are thinking about it, don't be too quick to cancel your plans. Be smart and don't join the rush to judgement. Those coastal communities need our tourism dollars.

There are some informative websites out there and I recommend you peruse them. The first stop should be Deepwater Horizon Response. This is a great site with everything related to the cleanup efforts. It has daily updates, pictures and links to state information.

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Keeping track of e-mail travel offers

My personal e-mail inbox is full of e-mails from inns, convention and visitors bureaus, newspaper travel sections, attractions and the like. Many of these messages remain unread for weeks, if not months, at a time.

Why do I have all these, you might wonder. I sometimes wonder the same thing. I was just looking at a message that's only a week old from a bed-and-breakfast in Eureka Springs, Ark., that I've never stayed at. I'm on its mailing list because I bought gift certificates from this inn a couple years ago to give as a Christmas present.

I could get rid of messages like this by clicking "unsubscribe." I choose to continue receiving these, however, on the off chance I might one day revisit these places.

Through e-mails, Twitter, Facebook, blogs and newsletters many hotels and attractions offer promotions to subscribers. They also announce unique events and opportunities that I would never know about otherwise if I just kept a list of inns to consider for future visits.

Is this efficient? I doubt it, really, especially considering I receive so many of these newsletters and the items they're writing about are never applicable to me at the moment. But, if one of these days I decide to plan a trip to Eureka Springs, I will at least know what this one inn has going on.

Maybe you have a better idea of how to keep track of e-mail offers. I'd love to hear them.

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Tips on Tipping in Europe

Tips on Tipping in Europe

I've been to Europe a couple of times and always find myself confused about tipping. This blog post from cheapoair.com is great.

Don't judge a hotel review by its cover

I had a friend e-mail asking about the best source for hotel reviews. My personal favorite is Trip Advisor, but that’s not really the reason to write. I highly recommend using sites such as Trip Advisor and Yelp for great user reviews from travelers and locals alike on the best in hotels, restaurants, shopping and sites.

But please don’t base your final decision off one review. I find that especially true when researching hotels. I used the following example in explaining to my friend that concept.

In researching hotels for San Francisco a couple of years ago, one of the most recent hotel reviews was a complaint about the hotel based on the soap products. Yes, that’s right, soap products.

I am not a luxury traveler so maybe I don’t understand how the proper free soap products at a hotel can make any difference. But this woman went on and on about how pathetic this hotel’s service was simply based off the wrong soap brand.

Needless to say I quickly skipped to the next review that gave me more important information: how clean the room was, the friendliness of the staff, which rooms to avoid because of street noise during the night. That’s the kind of information that really helps me make a decision.

Now, for those of you who don’t frequent travel forums, you might be wondering what to look for. Well, the most important thing to me is consistency. If one person says the check-in counter staff was rude but the next 20 reviewers rave about the exceptional service they received upon arrival, I’m going to chalk that up as either an isolated negative experience or a reviewer who is just a bit too sensitive.

Pay attention to trends. If five out of 10 reviewers say the room had a musty smell to it, I’m going to assume this property is questionable at best, and probably has inconsistent cleaning staff, is possibly under renovation or some of the rooms are better than others. I would then weigh the positives of this place against this uncertain negative. If I decide to stay there, I make sure I inspect the room and ask for another one if I don't like it.

When we traveled to Rome nearly five years ago, I did a very exhaustive search on Trip Advisor for a hotel that offered the following: Good location, clean room and a decent price. I found all those at a property located three Metro stops from the Spanish Steps. The location wasn’t the best; the train shut down for construction each night at 10 and there weren’t an abundance of restaurants in the area. But for a quick three-day trip to Rome that saw us rising early every day, it was perfect.

The hotel, in fact, was perfect to me despite the majority of reviewers saying the staff was rude and even tried to rip them off with false charges from the room’s mini bar. We actually did encounter false charges for using our mini bar. But they were more than happy to wipe the charge from the bill following my explanation of using the refrigerator to store leftovers.

My point in all this? Don’t judge a hotel off one review, or even three. There are still rare properties out there that don’t have too many reviews to use to form an opinion, but I usually find those to be in smaller towns I might only be staying a night in while passing through town on a car trip. Let the masses form an opinion for you.

Got Reservations? Avoid Lines to See Renaissance Masterpieces

Just because the Renaissance was some 500 years ago, it doesn't mean you have to wait for hours to see many of its masterpieces. But don't ever try getting into Florence, Italy’s Uffizi Gallery during peak tourist season without a reservation.

A few years back in planning a trip to Italy, I knew I needed to reserve a spot to get in to this museum featuring many of the Renaissance period’s great masterpieces. But when I called six weeks in advance there were no tour times available until two and a half hours before our train was set to depart for Venice.

I had a choice and I had to make it quick. We could skip the museum, which wasn’t much of an option with my art-obsessed wife, or we could make do with a quick hour and a half of seeing the highlights in the Uffizi before heading off to catch the train. For me, it was a no-brainer.

I mean, yes, I hope to make it back to Florence one day. But just in case one day becomes never or many years from now, I had to make that reservation. Looking back, I’m glad we did, but I do wish we would have had more time to see this wonderful museum.

But I certainly am very glad we were not among the visitors who we saw standing in line for 10-plus hours trying to get squeezed into the museum. Our reservation was exactly that, a reserved spot for two that meant we did not have to spend hours waiting to get in.

So what can you do to avoid this at the Uffizi or other popular attractions? Well, if you’re planning a trip to a foreign country chances are you are doing it a few months in advance. So pencil in a few hours for those “must see” attractions, go to a travel forum such as Trip Advisor and find out from that forum’s experts if reservations are a must for that attraction.

Take it from me, it is well worth the extra time and effort to research the sites you want to see, particularly if your time is limited. Other than that, well, you can plan a trip next time for the off-season.

Who and What is the Local Traveler?

For those who don’t know me I’m Lance. I’m 33, married since the weekend of my college graduation and a father of a 3-year-old son. We live in Memphis (well, technically the suburb of Collierville, but I call myself a Memphian).
I love Memphis. I love everything about the city, even its flaws that have most people complaining about the city. Memphis is dirty, but in a good way. It has soul. It’s a soul that is not polished. It says, “Here I am. If you don’t like me then you can just bugger off because this is me.” If more Memphians would take on that attitude I think our inferiority complex would disappear.
But this blog does not exist to discuss the dirty soul of Memphis. I am a Memphian who loves to travel. Traveling is my dirty soul. I love traveling, I love dreaming of my future travels, I love planning my future travels. I even love planning other people’s travels.
I lived in Central Arkansas until moving to Memphis just before high school. Growing up, most of my travels consisted of basic trips to the Ozark Mountains.
But the summer following the first grade came The Trip: Two weeks in Florida, the first in Miami and Key West and the second in Orlando’s Mouseland. Despite spending two days straight in a car to get to Miami that trip transformed me. I remember picking up every brochure I came across. I had a very large box full of Florida brochures stuffed in my closet. For years after that trip, I spent hours at a time in my bedroom planning and dreaming of the next trip.
I love to travel and feel I’ve seen my fair share of places. I’ve been to many of this country’s major cities, roughly half the states and a handful of countries. I know people who have traveled much more than me and others who have barely traveled at all.
I don’t get jealous of other people – I’m pleased with my life. But to a degree I do envy those people who have had the opportunities to travel more frequently.
But I’m happy with the travels I have made. I feel sorry for those who have not left their homes to see what is out there.
You’d think I would have ended up as a travel agent or somehow work in the tourism industry, maybe even have a job that would have me traveling. But unfortunately I do not. I’m an editor at a business newspaper in Memphis. I’m a freelance writer, but I’ve never written articles related to my travels (I hope this changes that). I spent some time during college working at Graceland (yes, I was a tour guide at the second-most visited house in the U.S. behind the White House). But that time has been the closest I’ve come to collecting a paycheck from anything related to my love of travels.
With that in mind, this blog is a way for me to connect to that love.
What will I write about? Well, everything related to traveling. One day it might be my top 10 pizza places in New York followed by an essay on why people travel. I sometimes will give advice on Memphis tourism. Other times it will be about other places I’ve visited in the U.S. and in Europe. Maybe I’ll consider the pros and cons to staying at an all-inclusive resort.
Still other writings will be about places I hope to one day visit but haven’t yet stepped foot in. Just because I’ve never been to a locale doesn’t mean I haven’t already researched it to death. I haven't been to Miami in 25 years but I feel my knowledge of the best Cuban restaurants in the area, for example, can match the advice most South Floridians would give. When I or someone I know travels to a locale, I dive in and learn everything I can about that city. That was the case when my wife took a recent trip to South Beach.
You might ask what makes me an expert. Well, nothing, except for the fact that I have a passion for traveling. And, I was the Memphis Expert on Trip Advisor for a couple of years. I found myself way too busy then and had to relinquish that role.
But no, I certainly have not been certified by anyone to speak my mind about travels. You can choose to ignore everything I say. But whether you agree with my recommendations or not, I am just happy you have taken a minute to check in to see what the Local Traveler is about.
Anyway, that’s the Local Traveler in a nutshell: A person who would be happy if he could spend nearly every day of his life in a new place. I hope you are able to learn something about traveling by reading my thoughts.

Lance
The Local Traveler