Just curious if I am posting in the wrong section, but I'm looking around JC for maybe some topics or posts or forums by some more hardcore travel bennie abusers.
In the past year I've done Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, St. Maarten, Sydney & Melbourne, Tokyo, Athens, Lisbon and northern Portugal and one day in Spain, and Hong Kong.
I only got bumped once and got first class a bunch of times. Total cost including departure taxes, accommodations in hostels, food, everything, probably about $1700 and the trips ranged from three days to seven days in length.
Where are good places to go see?
Basically wherever you want to see! I've got a photo book called
Heaven on Earth by Life magazine. They picked 100 places around the world that most likely make a good trip, so I've gotten some ideas from that book but many of them are places you'd think of anyway.
WikiTravel has usually had some good suggestions of the big stuff to see and do for a first trip to whatever location I'd be on my way to. I'd usually read it on the plane ride over after reading the sections about non-sightseeing stuff (like how to get from the airport to where I was staying, exchange rates, etc.)
A lot of people say Lonely Planet is good, I think I looked at that online for one or two of the trips.
The Eyewitness travel books (they have a "DK" on the binding) have great descriptions of lots of sights at a given place.
Foreign neccesities (Skype phone...what is that?)?
I don't know; I brought my laptop on a few trips because many hostels now have free WiFi and if they don't there's usually a cafe or something nearby that does. But now that my laptop is dead I haven't brought anything on recent trips and it's fine. I just go and disappear for a few days, and the day before going home I go to some internet cafe and spend a buck or two and check-in for the flight back and look at what will be a good backup if needed.
For money, I take out the local currency at an ATM when I first arrive and I make that an amount that I think will cover the entire trip. If there is leftover, I just keep it when I get home because by the time the next trip rolls around, those Euros or whatever are worth more since the dollar has inevitably fallen more between trips.
Districts to avoid/seek, Basically how to travel overseas done right and where should a person start.
Just take a look online at where you're staying and make sure it's not someplace bad.
As I mentioned I've mostly stayed at hostels but in Frankfurt my friend found a great deal at a really nice downtown hotel on priceline two days before we went. We took the risk of not getting over there at all and bought the hotel room for a low price.
I've done about half of my non-rev trips in the past year alone and half with co-worker friends whom are also pilots, so they're flexible with the passriding stuff too.
I usually look on Hostelling International's website for places. They are basically the AAA of hostels. I have yet to have a bad experience at one of the places they approve. I typically opt for not quite the cheapest option. They might have a 10 person room that's $15 a night, but for $20 a night you can get in a 5 person room. Well, I'd pay the five bucks and take out half the crowd. There's less chance of people snoring or making noise in the night/early morning etc. That's the last thing you need when you're far away from home.
Many of the hostels have lockers and you can just put a deposit down for the lock and get it back a few days later when you check out. If they don't have a locker, and sometimes what I do anyway, is I have a bike lock and I double-wrap it around two parts of my Purdy Neat bag and chain that to the radiator and/or the bed. Then I lock anything important in the suitcase with two locks. Now that I don't bring my laptop though, there's not much left in the room since I'll have my camera out and about with me and passport and the rest is obviously in my pocket.
Some of these hostels are more than just accommodations; they are great fun if you are young. The place me and a buddy stayed at in Sydney was awesome. It is called WakeUp! Hostel and if you go to Sydney, stay there. I walked into my 10-bed room and there were 9 girls from Europe on the floor painting their nails and reading magazines. The 10th bed was mine. Some also slept topless. Anyway, they had a great bar and live music in the basement and stuff.
Or the place I stayed at in Japan, looked so perfectly Japanese. The table was about a foot off the ground and lots of decorations and stuff. It was like staying in an apartment. I went all around the city with a German girl I met there and her friend came out with us the last day; they went back to Germany the day I went back to the states.
So anyway a lot of people don't want to try staying in a hostel but I've bad it be much better than a hotel would have been, more than half the time so far. For $20 a night you can't beat it.
I figure I have way too much time off and I am wasting the perk of my benifits if I don't go at least somewhere cool. As of right now I think I'd like to try out either Buenos Aires, Thailand, or Germany (Berlin)....Thanks!
Yeah, you need to use them if able, when able! I fly with captains who envy my freedom as a single person with these travel benefits. I say something like "I might go to ___ when this trip ends if we get back on time, but I might not get first." Then they say 'JUST GO' and talk about how they still wish they had the free time they had a few years prior. Very, very few people have the means to travel to far away places on their days off. Despite what people say about travel privileges being useless, I have found they are not. You have to be flexible and use common sense. So I'm gonna keep this up as long as I can since there's a lot more out there than Home Depot and Starbuck's. Although the second floor of the Shibuya Starbucks in Tokyo is a great view of the world's busiest pedestrian crossing.
