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Book Picks: Useful Transportation, Budget, and Safety Tips Air Travel The Airline Passenger?s Guerilla Handbook Brown has written an excellent guide to making your next airplane trip more comfortable, safer, and more relaxing. Sadly, the book has not been updated for a while and is dated especially post 9/11. That said, it still is worth reading. Fearless Flyer: How to Fly in Comfort and Without Trepidation Ostensibly written for people afraid of flying, this book will help anyone ? even the most seasoned traveler ? travel more comfortably. It also contains great advice for fearful flyers as well. Your Flight Questions Answered by a Jet Pilot Cronin addresses an astonishing variety of passenger questions about every aspect of flying including safety, baggage handling, flight crew training, air traffic control, and flight delays and cancellations in a very clear, concise, and approachable manner. Your Flight Questions Answered is easy to read, informative, and even in spots entertaining. Finding Bargain Airfares The Courier Air Travel Handbook: Learn How to Travel World Wide for Next to Nothing Traveling as a courier is a potentially great way to travel extremely cheaply abroad. Yet, it is also fraught with many restrictions and caveats (see Paul?s article on Courier Tips and Realities). Field presents a thorough and well written guide to the ins and outs of this travel option. Consolidators: Air Travel?s Bargain Basement Consolidators are the only really effective way to buy inexpensive flights abroad consistently. Courier flights are limited. Charters are risky. This book contains a good summary of how a consolidator works. However, since the book hasn?t been updated in a while, I?d recommend that you supplement this reading with the Practical Nomad Handbook.
No book anywhere offers such a comprehensive yet approachable discussion of the intricacies of global airfare, such a comprehensive bibliography of travel resources, and so many relevant tips for being a culturally sensitive traveler. All in all, if you are thinking about traveling on a Round the World Trip this book is for you. Hasbrouck also maintains an excellent website with tons of useful supplemental information. Cruising Tips The Complete Idiot?s Travel Guide to Cruise Vacations Surprisingly entertaining and informative, the Complete Idiot?s Guide to Cruise Vacations gives both novice and experienced cruisers a lot of useful tips on how to make your next cruise experience more enjoyable and inexpensive. It is also a great guide to finding the right cruise ship for you. The port information at the back of the book is scant and far too skewed to Caribbean ports, though. Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships An extremely through and well researched guide to the world of cruising. Nowhere else will you find such a thorough, qualitiative review of all the different cruise lines and ships (including some small, obscure river cruise lines). It is filled with valuable tips to help you enjoy your cruising adventure more and to ensure that you select the right cruise for your personality and pocketbook. TIPS FOR A MORE SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY Great Tips for Trips to Another Country Also refer to the Extended Travel book picks sections for more useful tips. Traveler?s Tool Kit The Traveler?s Tool Kit is a comprehensive compendium of tips to make your travel more economical and enjoyable. It is designed for all ages, budgets, and lifestyles. Sangster also does a great job of listing and analyzing reasons to travel. It is, however, a little too comprehensive and could be more valuable if it concentrated on a smaller range of tips. Nonetheless, the book is well worth the money and effort to read! The Globetrotter?s Guide The Globetrotter?s Guide is the perfect beginning travel tips guide. It is easy to read, well laid out, and the tips are well chosen. It is not nearly as daunting as the Traveler?s Handbook or the Traveler?s Tool Kit and it is helpful to budget and luxury travelers. An excellent addition to any travel library.
The single most comprehensive guide to travel ever written, the Traveler?s Handbook contains hundreds of interesting article covering every aspect of commercial travel written by Britain?s foremost travel experts. The Traveler?s Handbook can be daunting and occasionally pedantic in spots, but it is a must have part of any comprehensive travel library. 1001 Smart Travel Tips: Get the Trip You Want, Find Deals, Avoid Hassles Around the World Even though Fodor?s Guides. are usually oriented toward high income mass market tourists, this guide does have useful information for everyone. Read the comprehensive country specific tips. Shopping Tips The Fearless Shopper: How to Get the Best Deals on the Planet Borrus provides an insightful and practical guide to selecting quality merchandise, bargaining with merchants, and finding bargains. Filled with interesting tips gathered during Borrus?s frequent shopping trips, The Fearless Shopper is a worthwhile companion to take along on your next trip abroad. Dining Tips The Fearless Diner: Travel Tips and Wisdom for Eating Around the World The Fearless Diner is an entertaining and informative introduction to finding and enjoying good food no matter where you lay your head at night. The book is also a great guide to staying healthy while on the road. Good advice since the worst afflictions for most travelers are food related. Packing Tips The Packing Book I will profess if travel were a school, I would flunk packing. About three years ago, I read this book but has never actually tried to use its advice. I will read this book while packing for the first leg of my around the world in January 2005 and let you know my thoughts about the quality of the information at that time. However, it seems very thorough, comprehensive, and approachable. Tips for Seniors
Although I am 40 years old, I love this book. The Foxy Old Woman?s Guide is chock-filled with Ben-Lesser?s enthusiasm and love for her life and travel. I wish everyone was as filled with passion as Ben?Lesser. Ben?Lesser?s ideas about gradually work their way into feeling comfortable solo, though written for widowers could be useful to anyone who feels uncomfortable traveling without a companion. No Problem: Worldwise Travel Tips for Mature Adventurers No Problem is a thorough, approachable, and concise guide to the special concerns of Senior travelers. While it has none of the personality and grit of the Foxy Old Women?s Guide, it is still an excellent additional to any senior citizen?s library. Single Travel
Traveling Solo is a fantastic guide to over 250 different vacation options for singles. No other guide does such a good job comparing a variety of travel programs ? including several unexpected options like learning and adventure vacations. Berman gives tons of useful information such as the age range and group size for all 250 programs. She also includes quotes from actual people who have taken these trips in the past. All?in?all, Traveling Solo has such comprehensive information that it should be useful to anyone ?including married couples and families ? who is looking for a great group travel experience. Family Travel Travel Smarts: Everything You Need to Know to Go Anywhere The best guide anywhere if you want to travel for a short trip with your family in a traditional manner (cruise, resorts, etc.). Travel Smarts is a mediocre guide for non-traditional tourists and has almost no advice for long-term travelers. Simplify Family Travel: How to Plan a Family Vacation the Whole Family Will Enjoy Loomis has packed a lot of useful information into this attractive, well organized book. It?ll help you keep your children comfortable, safe, and entertained. It also contains information on age and interest appropriate activities for children.
The Frugal Globetrotter thoroughly and concisely lays out all the details travelers need to know to take advantage of several little known budget travel options including air couriers and round the world airline tickets. It also showcases Northam?s quirky, but ultimately highly compassionate, view of travel and its meaning in the modern world. Read the Frugal Globetrotter?s poignant chapter on Endangered Travel Paradises before these places become tourist traps. The World?s Cheapest Destinations: 21 Countries Where Your Dollars are Worth a Fortune Want to know the cheapest place to buy beer in the world? If so, the World?s Cheapest Destinations is written just for you. If not, Leffel?s book is useful nonetheless. Nowhere else can budget conscious travelers find so much concise and well organized information about traveling costs in foreign lands. This book will also help the frugal traveler determine the best place for their next adventure. Pay Nothing to Travel Anywhere You Like Pay Nothing is a succinct and simple guide to budget travel tips for travelers who want to embark on short term, mass market vacations (primarily in the USA). It also contain a few, unusual ideas for free travel that make it worthwhile reading for ?culturally adventurous? travelers The Frugal Traveler: How to See More of the World for Less While the Frugal Traveler does not contain any earth shaking new budget travel tips, it does an excellent job of summarizing and explaining the ins and outs and the joys of several exotic low budget travel options to middle?class, middle?aged Americans. Read Jones?s entertaining anecdotes of her experiences on the road. Travel Bargains Insider?s Guide Many people may be turned off from buying this guide by the book?s homespun appearance. That?s a shame. Wizard fills this handbook with tons of useful, often little known, tips to creating truly inexpensive ? and sometimes free ? travel options such as air courier, cruise ship lecturing, discounted timeshare, and cheap language schools. The Cheapstake?s Guide to Vacations: How to Save Thousands of Dollars No Matter Where You?re Going This is the ultimately guide to saving big bucks on mass market travel. Tanenbaum has scoured the world for low cost, high value tours, cruises, resorts, restaurants, and lodging so you won?t have to. While you could save more money with the more off?the?wall tips in the Travel Bargains Insider?s Guide or the Frugal Globetrotter, if you want a cheap two week cruise or resort stay, you couldn?t do better than the Cheapstake?s Guide.
Now a bit dated, You Can Travel Free is the best book anywhere if you want ideas on how to extend your travel through work, hospitality exchange, and inexpensive and free transportation options. Read this book, if you believe that you need a lot of money for travel. It?ll change your perspective. Luxury Travel on a Beer Budget The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Deals from Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Ships, and Car Rental Agencies While the Travel Detective purports to be a general travel advice guide, it it doesn?t address the needs of shoestring travelers at all. That said, if you want to find ways to make a high cost travel experience more affordable, safe, and enjoyable this book is for you. Greenberg is an expert on the ins and outs of the traditional travel industry. What?s more, he writes about the complex inner working of the industry in a clear, intelligent, and consumer friendly manner. However, for someone like Paul, who wants to travel cheaply so that he or she can really get under the skin of their destination, The Travel Detective has little to offer.
The Penny Pincher?s Passport contains everything you need to know to enjoy a champagne travel lifestyle on a beer budget. Widzer?s expertise in finding travel values leaps from every page and some of his advice is totally unexpected. Even if you don?t really care that much about luxury travel, The Penny Pincher?s Passport is worth reading for its excellent time and money saving tips. Hitchhiking, Sofa Surfing, and Other Extreme Budget Travel Adventures The Hitchhiker?s Handbook Of course you shouldn?t hitchhike, however, should you choose to try it some day, MacLaren has written a great guidebook to help ensure that you are as successful and safe as possible. Even if you never hitchhike, the book is also an interesting peak into another way of life. The Sofa Surfing Handbook: A Guide for Modern Nomads Want to be a perpetual freeloader? Want to find out what it is like to live in your car and float from friend to friend?s house? Then, The Sofa Surfing Handbook is a must read. Even if none of these apply, the book is fun and educational in a quirky way. Travel can be Murder: The Business Traveler?s Guide to Personal Safety Travel can be Murder is an extremely thorough compendium of travel safety tips written by a man clearly obsessed with ensuring that all voyages are safe. Many of his little known tips are useful to both business and leisure travelers. Riley?s tips are a bit paranoid (What else could you call Riley?s suggestion that women tape phony HIV medication labels on pill bottle to thwart would?be sexual assailants?). He seems to think that danger is lurking around every corner.
Safety and Security is one of the few books about travel safety that is actually enjoyable to read. Swan and Laufer liberally spice great quotes (read the opening one about how Victorian ladies kept their jewels safe while traveling) and compelling family anecdotes throughout this book. They also fill the book with useful, occasionally surprising tips ? for both safer and more comfortable travel ? that apply to both men and women alike. What Your Travel Agent Won?t Tell You!: A Checklist for your Safety Abroad What Your Travel Agent Won?t Tell You is an excellent checklist for ensuring that your travel safety. While only a truly prepared (or paranoid) person would follow every suggestion, the book is well worth reading prior to your next adventure (particularly if you?ll be traveling for a long time or in a dangerous part of the world).
The World?s Most Dangerous Places is the best book about travel safety, bar none. Pelton puts the real dangers of travel into proper perspective. He argues persuasively and logically that the world is mostly a safe place, provides useful tips to avoid becoming a victim, and thoughtfully analyzes the real danger for travelers in some of the places that travelers universally avoid ? like Iran, Afghanistan, and Colombia. This book should be part of every travel library. Pelton seems to relish danger and, as a result, the World?s Most Dangerous Places at times reads like Soldiers of Fortune magazine. Fear Less: Real Truth about Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism Fear Less argues that the best way to avoid fear in an increasingly unsafe world is to be observant of things that seem out of place and report these events to the proper authorities. De Becker also presents a logical discussion on how terrorists think, how to avoid terrorist attacks, and how the USA government safeguards its citizens. All?in?all, Fear Less presents a rational and intelligent message that should be required reading in this jittery age.
The Gift of Fear is the best book to read if you want to learn how to live a safe life anywhere on this planet. While the Gift of Fear does not particularly address travel safety, it teaches you how to develop and trust your instincts and shows you why your instincts are the most useful key to safety. A great resource for everyone. Traveler Beware: An Undercover Cop?s Guide to Avoiding: Pickpockets, Luggage Theft, and Traveler?s Scams This CD/cassette set contains a ton of useful advice for safeguarding your belongings while traveling. It is particularly useful if you plan to do a lot of traveling by air. I like Coffey's approach to safety. His advice is practical and intelligent but not nearly as overwhelming as many of the resources listed above. My only caveat: The casettes are somewhat dated. I would suggest that you supplement this casette, by reading the Transportation Safety Administration's website. The Complete Terrorism Survival Guide: How to Travel, Work, and Life in Safety This is an encyclopedic guide to ensure your safety both on the road and at home. The advice is practical and generally easy to follow. However, there is so much information and advice that it would be impossible for an ordinary traveler or citizen to follow everything in this book. That said, Aviv?s book is nonetheless worthwhile reading for everyone concerned about safety.
Central and South America Lonely Planet's Healthy Travel Series is an outstanding compendium of tips to avoid health problems throughout the third world. The advice is useful and not overly cautionary. With its low cost and small size, it is a must have addition to any long term trip in the developing world. Don't leave home without these books.
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