travel tips Archives - Page 4 of 9 - Mom's Guide To Travel

Aug 11 2013

Traveling Solo With Kids: Managing Travel As A Single Parent

The blog has experienced an uncharacteristic length of silence because I’ve been in constant adjustment to managing a travel lifestyle as a single parent. Since my husband‘s work has taken him overseas a few months ago, I’ve had to get accustomed to traveling solo with kids. It’s not the first time that I’ve had to taken on single parent travel but the circumstances have changed – the kids are older, mommy is older, and life is more hectic in our home.

Managing a household, a business, two young boys, fitness, and travel has been inexplicably difficult. I’ve been faced with some challenges throughout my life but this is one that I can’t pick up a book and read about. Single-entrepreneurial-travel-traithlete-special needs-cancer management-motherhood hasn’t been published yet. I’m living out the chapters on a daily basis.

So why don’t I give up the travel thing? Two reasons, it’s my livelihood and it keeps me sane.

However, that sanity doesn’t come without a headache. It takes a bucket of coordination with other people outside my household (along with an inherent dependency), whether it’s family to watch the boys when I need to travel solo, or a nanny to accompany me when I need the extra set of hands for a family trip.

This past week, I took my 15 year old nephew with us for the first time and we road tripped to the Laurel Highlands and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 4.5 hour drive with a 5, 9, and 15 year old was more pleasant than I’d expected. I love when my boys surprise me. I even surprised myself! I followed all the tips that I leave for families on my blog, tips like:

Use a packing list.
Dole out responsibilities to any able-bodied person.
Leave at a strategic hour.
Take your time and don’t rush to get to the destination if you can help it.
Pack plenty of snacks, toys, and devices.
Factor in those very important driving breaks every two to three hours.
Get a good night’s sleep the evening before.
Focus on the journey as much as you do the destination.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from the trip that I’d say is consistent with the obstacles I face in my life, it’s that there’s always a beginning, middle, and end. My goals should always be to live in the moment and focus on where I’m at.

Jul 08 2013

Traveling With Autism: Resources And Things To Know

Traveling with kids can be a handful; add autism to the mix and it can quickly turn into the Amazing Race. I have a five year old who’s battling both leukemia and autism, so our travels are almost always an adventure. He’s a pretty good traveler, I must admit. He’s limited verbally but he loves riding in new cars, enjoys hopping on trains and buses, and has done well on the plane in the past. He has his tantrums and meltdowns but in general, he isn’t overwhelmed by loud noises or changes in his routine. Traveling with autism isn’t so simple for other children.

For many families of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the travel landscape feels narrow. Managing the process of flying, dining with a special diet, deciding where to stay, and gauging appropriate destinations, presents a labyrinth of decisions for ASD families. These are just a few of the obstacles to overcome in the trip planning process. However, there are resources in the travel space that are taking note of our growing population and trying to make things more manageable for us.

Autism Defined

Autism is a neurological and developmental disorder characterized by difficulty in communication, socialization, and repetitive behaviors. According to the most recent CDC report, 1 in every 50 children has been identified as having an autism spectrum disorder. The spectrum is wide, and so are the ways in which autism presents itself, especially during travel.

Many children with autism are accustomed to routines and defined schedules. When taken out of their normal setting, breakdowns and tantrums can emerge. Here lies the inherent problem for a family traveling with autism. Travel is anything but routine. More often than not, there will be a hiccup, a delay, a cancellation, or something totally unplanned. That’s the paradox and beauty of traveling for a vacation: expect the unexpected. Yet, a child with autism doesn’t want to hear that. Luckily, the travel landscape is changing.

Flying With Autism

Some families of kids with autism opt not to use the airplane as a means of transportation for their vacations. Issues with security, the boarding process, flight delays, food, uncompassionate travelers, untrained officials, and general sensory overload can be discouraging. However, several US airports are implementing ways to help families with the flying process. Boston Logan; Washington Dulles; Atlanta International; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Manchester, New Hampshire; Philadelphia; and Newark, all offer “mock boarding” experiences that help familiarize ASD children with the routine. Participating airlines in mock boarding programs include: Jet Blue, Air Tran, Continental, Frontier, Southwest, and United Airlines.

The mock boarding process involves practicing: purchasing tickets, navigating the security line, walking through a security scanner, strapping into a plane, and hearing the plane’s engine without ever taking off. Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles are expected to rollout programs this year in a partnership with nonprofit organization, Autism Inclusion Resources (AIR). Hopefully, every major airport around the country will soon offer a mock boarding program.

The airport rehearsals are invaluable for both families and transportation officials. The child gains familiarity with the routine and airport officials gain insight on how to accommodate and manage the special travel needs of the growing autism community.

Cruises and Autism

Cruising can be therapeutic for most people. For children on the spectrum, that’s not necessarily the case. Ships can be crowded and the rooms can feel claustrophobic, and let’s not even discuss the muster drill. However, an ASD family interested in cruising doesn’t need to rule out the manner of vacationing.

Autism on the Seas (AutismOnTheSeas dot com) is the leading developmental disability service provider to the cruise industry. They arrange group cruises and land resort stays with their staff of therapists, as well as one-on-one respite for individual family trips. Autism on the Seas will handle dining and dietary needs, disability accommodations, pre-vacation planning services, respite care, and special needs accommodations for the muster drill, boarding and disembarkation.

Hotels and Accommodations

When it comes to accommodations and traveling with a child with autism, standard hotels can be a nightmare. There usually isn’t enough space, dining options can be limited, and the arrangement of the room can present a challenge. Over the past couple of years, Trade Winds Island Resorts in St. Petersburg, FL; Clinton Inn in Tenafly, New Jersey; Wyndham Hotel in Austin Texas; and Wyndham Tampa Westshore have made renovations to become official autism-friendly hotels. The Wyndham Hotels, in particular, offer autism-friendly rooms which feature door alarms, power outlet covers, cushions on corner tables, locks on drawers, shorter blind strings, and a set of toys with books in the room.

Dining With Special Diets

It’s not uncommon for a child with autism to be on a special diet. As a matter of fact, it’s becoming more the norm. When we travel, we often opt to stay in hotels or homes that have a kitchen, where I can prepare food for my family. However, when I’m on vacation, I’m not trying to cook everyday and I imagine that’s the case for other parents. There are gluten-free restaurants out there but it takes a bit of research to find the certified ones. Luckily, more and more restaurants are offering and listing their gluten free menu items.

Seattle, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Los Angeles, Nevada, San Diego, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin have gluten free restaurant guides where parents can use the restaurant locator for specific locations. The Gluten Intolerance Group of North America (GIG) offers a gluten free restaurant database of spots in thirty two states that provide safe options for the gluten free community. Users can search by cuisine type, keyword, and price point.

In general, at the end of the day, traveling with children is tough. Traveling with autism just adds extra spice to the mix. With a little research, the right resources (hire a special needs travel agent to help you out and consult your occupational therapist to address your child’s specific needs), as well as travel industry considerations, traveling with autism can be manageable.

1. Photo courtesy of whitestone, 123rf.com; 2. Photo courtesy of dubova, 123rf.com.

Jun 10 2013

5 London Travel Tips for Americans: Must-Sees and Money Saving Advice

This article has been republished and sponsored by Rebtel.

I ~~recently~~ visited London last Fall and wish I had read an article about London travel tips. If you’re headed across the pond, here are 5 travel tips that can help save you money, point you to a couple of neat attractions, and help you enjoy this beautiful city even more. If you have some London travel tips of your own, please share them with us in the Comments section below.

Make a reservation to see the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour. Enough said – read my article on it.
Harry Potter Studio Tour: Hogwarts at Night
Take a ride across the Emirates Air cable car in East London for a great view of the Thames River from above. If you’re scared of heights, you may want to skip this. I shared a car with a couple who had a fear of heights and they squealed just about the entire ride. Although it’s another form of transportation, the 5 minute ride is not as inexpensive as the Tube. However, since you’re visiting, just view it as an attraction. This will help you get over the £10 round-trip sticker shock.
Emirates Cable Car Gives Great View of East London
When flying out of London Heathrow, pack all of your toiletries in your checked luggage. (Tip 3B: Check where you’ll be staying in London and decide if Heathrow is the closest option for you. There are two other airports that may be closer and a more economical choice once you land and have to commute to your accommodations). Unlike the U.S., agents will only allow you enough items to fit in 1 Ziploc bag, which they provide, which has to be closed! Whatever doesn’t fit, will go into the trash. If you don’t get the point by my bold lettering, know that I learned this lesson the hard way. I’m short some very fancy miniature toiletries!
Thank goodness for hotel samples!
Opt to take the Tube everywhere to save money. You’ll be traveling like a local, dodging high cab fares, and avoiding heavy London traffic. Be sure to purchase an Oyster card for however number of days you plan to be in town, respective of the Zones (located on a Tube map) where you’ll most likely visit. If you plan to do a lot of sight-seeing, purchasing an Oyster card is a lot more economical that purchasing per trip tickets. Plus, you’ll bypass long lines at limited teller windows in the stations. You can also use the Oyster card to transfer to buses and to use on ferries. If you purchase a per trip card, be sure to scan in and scan out as you go through the station or you could be charged the maximum fee. Also, you might end up paying higher ticket prices during the rush-hour commute.
Tube Map
“Service Charge” in London means tip in America. If you see this on your bill, your waiter/waitress is already taken care of. My two travel buddies and I were given misinformation by a very opportunistic server and ended up leaving our waitress a $53 tip. On our way out of the restaurant, we found out from one of the managers that “service charge” is exactly what we thought it meant. Lesson learned.

Here’s a bonus tip for you: Compare your international service plan options before you get there. There are lots of free calls app for iPhone on the market. There’s no need to spend a lot of money on international calls or roaming. I’m an iPhone user but my international calling plan with my service provider is the worst.

However, there are ways around me having to pay for an international call or for SMS texts. As long as I’m calling another iPhone user who has their text messages settings on iMessage and I can find WiFi, I can send them a text for free or I can FaceTime for free. Great! But what if I can’t find wifi? I can use an app like Rebtel, tell whoever I need to stay in touch with to also get the app, and can call them for free over WiFi (or 3G) and if the connection is dodgy, just press a button and continue talking over the regular operator network at no extra cost. If the other person doesn’t have the app, I can still make cheap international calls for a fraction of what I’d pay on my international calling plan. I love technology!

Everyone can use some London travel tips, whether you’re an American or not. There are dozens more out there but based off of my personal experience, these are the top 5 that I wanted to share. As a native New Yorker, London has never been an intimidating city for me. My philosophy is all about, give me a few good tips and I’ll be on my merry way. Share your tips with us. We’d love to hear what you think.

Looking for a good price on a hotel? Find your ideal at the best price with trivago!

Feb 13 2013

Travel and Health: Countries With Dirty Drinking Water

Ever travel overseas and order a drink with ice, or brush your teeth with the tap water and have that moment of pause where you say to yourself, did I just do that? Did I just ingest the water before checking whether it was safe to do so or not? A day later you’re kicking yourself because of that bad stomach ache or case of diarrhea, and realized that you consumed dirty drinking water. Hopefully, this hasn’t happened to you but if it has, you can probably share your own cautionary tale. One piece of research you should always conduct before you travel to another country is check if they have safe water of if they’re a country whose water you should avoid.

dirty water — The choice is obvious here but it’s not always so blatant.

A reader’s question on a recent post I wrote on USAID’s global efforts for clean, safe water inspired this post. She asked:

What do we do in regards to drinking water in certain countries? For example, when I was 21 I went to Mexico and drank bottled water while there but I totally forgot about ice and of course the drinks or punches they make you on the short cruises. So I got sick. Can we only drink beer or cokes from a can when we travel to certain countries?! Are there any countries you strongly recommend avoiding the water when we travel there?

Countries with Poor Water Supply

In general, just about any developing country falls into the category of countries to avoid. You can find over thirty countries listed below or check out more detailed information on each country on Travel.State.Gov where you can also find a run down of other important travel issues. Many countries of Africa fall on this list, as well as popular American destinations such as Mexico, Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Venezuela. I think the list looks a little thin, and would add that you should be careful on small Asian island countries and even remote parts of developed countries like Spain. Some countries like Japan don’t put fluoride in their water the way we do in the states, but this doesn’t make the water undrinkable. It may just taste different.

Here is a short list of countries:

Mexico	Haiti	Dominican Republic
Senegal	Bolivia	Turkmenistan
Chad	Cambodia	Congo, Republic
Kosovo	Uzbekistan	Nicaragua
Ghana	Gabon	Cameroon
Niger	Madagascar	Sierra Leone
Mauritania	Liberia	Russian Federation
Turkey	Thailand	Zambia
Kenya	Venezuela	Cape Verde
Peru	Namibia	Congo
Eritrea	Guyana	Burma (Myanmar)
Malawi	India	Honduras

I’m pretty conservative when I travel. I don’t mind paying the extra few bucks to buy myself a bottled water every time I’m sitting down for a meal, and especially when I’m walking out and about. Although Jamaica isn’t on this list, when I traveled there last, I opted for bottled water, although I don’t think I remembered to decline the ice in my drinks. Luckily, I didn’t get sick.

To keep your health (and your children’s health) safe, you should only drink sealed bottled water in any of the aforementioned destinations. This also means, brushing your teeth with bottled water, washing your fruit with bottled water, avoiding ice in beverages, as well as any type of reconstituted drinks, like punches. This is the one time where canned soda and beer are your best friends.

Purifying Your Water

clean water alkaline water bottle — My glass alkaline water bottle perfect for travel and purifying water.

If buying sealed bottled water isn’t an option, you can always purify your water. (Note: If the bottle isn’t sealed, it could’ve just been refilled with tap water). There are methods you should follow, as outlined by the CDC, to purify your water, but essentially, you will have to either boil the water, vigorously for 1 minute and allowed to cool. Remember, Do Not Add Ice! At higher altitudes, you have to boil the water three times as long.

OPTION 2: The other option you have to clean the water and disinfect it is to use iodine tablets. They can be easily found in most stateside sporting goods stores and pharmacies. Be sure to purchase them BEFORE you reach your destination. However, you have to keep in mind that some parasites may not be killed by this method alone. Using iodine tablets, tincture of iodine and crystalline iodine is an involved process, so you have to be careful to read the instructions carefully.

If you have space in your luggage, you may want to travel with a water bottle like the one pictured above. It comes with a filtration system inside the bottle which ionizes the water and makes it alkaline, an even better option for truly healthy water.

OPTION 3: Your third option is to carry a portable water filter. The water filter bottles that you purchase in your supermarket are not going to do the trick. You will need to get specially designed filters and even some of those don’t effectively remove some viruses, parasites, and diarrhea-causing bacterias. Be sure to read the CDC’s guide to water filters to ensure you have the right filter. Even after filtration, you may need to boil and add iodine to the water to completely purify it for safe drinking.

Unfortunately, some 800 million people worldwide do not have access to clean, safe water. If only they had these options like us. In addition to USAID, other organizations, like Blood: Water, are also joining in the clean, safe water fight. Know some countries that should be added to the list? Leave them in the comments below and I will continuously update.

Have you had a bad water incident? Where were you traveling and what did you do to overcome it?

Jan 16 2013

The Flu and Traveling: How to Avoid It Like The Plague

The flu season in the United States is in full effect. Over 47 states have reported flu outbreaks with two of them, Boston and New York, declaring medical states of emergency. So what does that mean for you as a traveler? Does the flu and traveling go together?

No. Traveling and the flu are like oil and water – they just don’t mix.

Bottom line, if you knowingly have the flu, you should not be traveling. But as I’ve said before, in special cases, traveling while sick can’t always be helped. In addition, we don’t always know that we have the flu until we really HAVE the flu. That tickle in the back of your throat and that slight “headiness” could be early warning signs, or they could just be symptoms of something else. If they are early signs, then you’ve just spread your contagiousness to other travelers, or the reverse, someone spread their germs to you.

So what can you do and what do you need to know?

Current Statistics

Besides the far West of the United States, the rest of the country has either experienced high levels of illness or reported flu outbreaks, as relayed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also reports:

The hardest hit areas are the East, South, and Midwest.

In New York alone, there have been more than 19,000 reported cases so far this season, a 250% increase as compared to last year.

At least 18 children have died nationwide.

Hospitalizations are up 169% from the same period last year.

If you walk into a major retailer like Costco, you’ll see their vitamin and nutritional stock relocated to the front entrance of the store. However, in addition to offering vitamins, many retailers with pharmacies like Costco, Target, major supermarkets, and big pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens, are also offering flu shots. In some states, like New York, there have been reported shortages for the vaccine.

Costco Helping Flu — Costco’s Vitamin Stock

Protection and Prevention

1. Healthcare professionals and the CDC are saying the most important step is to get the flu shot. Even though the shot is only 62% effective, the CDC feels that’s better than nothing.

2. Practice good hand washing: Germs are rampant and abundant on any surface you touch, so wash your hands frequently. In lieu of a basin and some soap, carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Don’t be afraid to offer a squeeze to others.

3. Personal space: As I tell my son, if you see someone coughing and sneezing, move away from them. Forget about being polite, focus on protection.

4. Be healthy: a healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, and vitamins is always a great first course to a healthy immune system. Couple that with plenty of fluids and rest, and you’re building great defenses.

5. Wear a surgical mask: Don’t be afraid of “looking crazy” – surgical masks are a great way to protect your system from airborne germs. Walk into any hospital and you will see workers donning masks in times like these to protect themselves from sick patients or vice versa. In Japan, it’s commonplace to see people wearing surgical masks in public to prevent the spread of disease. (It is also worn to protect against pollen in the Spring but that’s another travel and health subject.)

Although I’m not a fan of the flu shot, if I were traveling, specifically if I were boarding a plane, bus, or cruise ship, I’d get the shot. The CDC also has its HealthMap Vaccine Finder site where you can plug in your current zip code to find the nearest location to get the shot.