How To
Travel Safe and Travel Smart

Do you love traveling in Europe?

Well if you do, you know that learning to travel safe and travel smart is key to having a great European trip. One that's filled with memories, packed with fun, and with as little hassle as possible.

Veteran travelers know that learning to be safe and smart when we travel over-seas is fairly easy - once we have the right information. 

The same information that seasoned travelers and those on the inside use every day.

With the world now virtually at our fingertips, we can be our own vacation travel planner or business travel consultant.

With minimal command of a keyboard, we can book a flight, rent a car, or reserve a hotel room.

But the quality of our overseas trip, whether we're traveling for pleasure or for an international business trip, will increase exponentially, once we learn  the skills to travel safe and travel smart.

How To Be A Successful Traveler

Being successful when you travel is as subtle as using the right words at the right time - with the right information - to get what you want or what you need.  

It's confidence in knowing the basics of your trip are covered, so you can enjoy what you worked so hard to plan.

It's the ability to roll with the punches when things go bad. [And they will.]

Yet knowing how to right your personal travel ship - turning a mishap into an opportunity - and creating the very travel adventure you can't wait to tell your friends about.

It's planning ahead, doing your research, and taking charge of your unfolding travel plans.

It's exploring options for how you want to travel by reading and learning about the places you'll visit. It's opening your mind to new customs and cultures, thoughts and ideas, experiences and events.

In short, it's your personal investment in learning how to travel safe and travel smart.

What To Know Before You Go

There are thousands of travel sites, blogs, and 'how to' travel pages on the web.

Many offer discount airfares, independent travel packages, and a mind-boggling array of escorted vacations or group tours to anywhere on the planet.

There are collections of travel guides to help you choose your destination, apps and maps for getting around, hints on how to pack your bags, and tips to get your passport and travel documents.

But, do you really know how to travel safe and travel smart?

• Do you know if it's necessary to buy travel insurance? Which kind should you purchase? How much does it cost? Where should you get it?
• What are your rights if your airline involuntarily 'bumps' you from your flight? Or loses your luggage?
• What if your airline cancels your flight due to bad weather? Or your checked luggage doesn't arrive when you do?
• Can you really spend two weeks in Europe with only carry on luggage? How much will your airline charge you to check a bag? Or two?
• Has the TSA relaxed any of the in cabin carry-on rules? How do you travel with your medicines? Your valuables? Your travel papers and documents?
• Will you be safe in foreign cities, airports, and hotels?
• How can you find the best travel guides and local information for your trip? Is it reliable and up to date? How should you choose [or create] your travel itinerary?
• What do you need to know to book the right hotel online? How do you complain, if your room isn't right when you get there?
• What's the best way to get cash overseas? Should you take a credit card? A debit card? An ATM card? Where do you get the best rate of exchange? Are Traveler's Checks still viable in our electronic world?
• How much will you pay for gasoline? How big is a litre? How far is a kilometer? Do you need an International Driver's License? Will you be able to drive a manual-shift and drive on the 'other' side of the road?
• What's a prix fixe menu? How about table d'hote? Should you eat in your hotel or venture out into unfamiliar areas? And how concerned should you be about drinking the water?
  
  

The Key To Travel Safe and Travel Smart

Well...if your goal is to have a unique and memorable travel adventure...if you want the best possible value for your travel dollar...if you want to see and ex-perience the most you can from your travel time in Europe, you can do it all!

Your trip begins with the planning.

Whether it's choosing your destination, learning about the history and culture, or creating a travel budget, planning ahead is the most important step in the travel planning process.

And knowing how to travel safe and travel smart is the glue that holds your travel plans together.

As you move through our site you'll find resources, suggestions, and practical travel advice to help you plan your over-seas trip.

Whether your choice for travel in Europe is a guided tour or doing Europe on your own, you'll find options, strategies, and information that comes from inside the travel industry to help you create your travel plan for Europe.

As your guide throughout these pages, I'm fortunate to have been around the world and around the travel industry for years.

I have both professional and personal insights to share with you, to help you learn to travel safe, travel smart, and make your next European trip the best it can be.

I'm passionate about travel - especially in Europe.

I'm drawn to the personal discovery that comes from leaving the comfort of your daily existence and plunging headlong into the unknown of another culture.

Overseas travel is a gift we give ourselves of awareness, growth, knowledge, and understanding: about ourselves and where we visit.

It's memories gathered for a lifetime.

It's new friends and new experiences you won't find in your everyday routine and familiar surroundings.

So come - travel with me. And I will challenge you to travel safe, travel smart, and have your best trip ever!

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