Great Travel Tips

Congratulations on booking your vacation and I wish you safe travels. On my way home from visiting Sandals Grenada last week it occurred to me that maybe some of the things that I do when I travel might be of help to others, so this blog post is dedicated to some of these tips.

Where Did I Park ?

If I drive myself to the airport, I take a photo of the closest marker to my parking location, if I use a parking service such as Park “N Fly I take a photo of the parking ticket stub they give to me just in case I loose it.

2. What Time Is It?

Always remember – the time is the local time in the city your are originating in, connecting in or departing from. It is especially important to remember this if you are connecting in a different time zone than you originate in – for example I normally fly from Nashville, TN which is on CST / I most often connect in Charlotte, Miami or Atlanta all of these cities are EST or one hour ahead , so I reset my watch when I land – and one thing I found on my last trip even though I though that iPhone automatically adjusted the time, it did not change when I landed in Miami, so I had to rely on my watch I set ahead one hour.

3. Helpful travel APPS I have on my phone

Most airlines have an APP so check for your airline and put it on your phone, will send you updated flight information, let you know your check luggage is loaded and more.

I also have WhatsApp to communicate back home with those in my network, I do not have Global Entry , so I use the APP Mobile Passport, many cruise lines and resorts have an APP of some sort for their guests – I have many of those on my phone.

4. Keep Your Passports Handy On The Flight

Keep these handy !If you are lucky enough to be traveling out of the USA to an international destination to the Caribbean, Mexico or other parts of the world most often at some point during the flight you will be given immigration forms that need to be filled out before you arrive, so that you can present them to the immigration and customs officers upon arrival. I have a travel pouch that I keep in my purse with passport and an inkpen as the flight attendants do not have extras to share with passengers.

5. TSA PreCheck

Lucky you to have TSA PreCheck on your boarding pass on your flight originating from the United States – but do know that TSA PreCheck is just in the United States by TSA – If departing from another country regardless if your boarding pass happens to say TSA PreCheck, you will not have TSA PreCheck so plan accordingly to take off your shoes, take out your laptop and so forth.

6. 3 Ounce Liquid Rule in your carry on luggage – (TSA 3-1-1 liquids rule)

TSA still has has the 3 oz rule on any liquids that you have in your carry on luggage and these must be in a ziplock bag. You can put full size bottles of shampoo and so forth in your checked luggage but not carry on bag. In regards to this – especially if you are coming from the Caribbean with all the bottles of Rum staring at you from the duty free shops, If you are making a connection on your way home, do not be tempted to purchase those large bottles because once you clear immigration and customs, you will have to clear security again to get back on the concourse for your connecting flight- unless you are prepared to put those big bottles in your checked luggage and risk them breaking and ruining everything in your luggage just say no. I have seen so many people in near tears because they had to leave it at security. For more info check out their website www.tsa.gov/videos/travel-tips-3-1-1-liquids-rule

I hope you find these as useful as I do.

Linda Dancer – Email [email protected] to plan your next vacation !