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Beware of Hidden Car Rental Costs Cruise Gratuities Are Going Overboard Youth Travel - Keeping in Touch Hotel Fire and Smoke Protection Hood
Take a calling card with you when you travel outside North America. Many countries no longer have coin-operated pay telephone booths due to increased vandalism and theft of coins from these machines. Your local telephone company can provide details on either a pre-paid calling card or a card that automatically bills your home number. Beware of Hidden Car Rental Costs Here are some ways car rental firms turn cheap rates into expensive ones. Buying insurance from the car rental company can cost an additional $15 a day. Your own car insurance company can probably insure you on car rentals for about $30 a year. This can amount to a huge savings, depending on the number of times you rent a vehicle. When renting a vehicle outside your country of residence, check with you insurance company before leaving as some insurance companies will not insure you in a foreign country. When car rental companies ask you to choose between returning the vehicle with a full tank of gas or returning the vehicle empty, choose to return the car filled with gas. Most car rental companies charge almost double if they do the filling. Beware of 'airport concession fees' which can add an additional 12 per cent daily, plus applicable taxes, to the cost of a rental vehicle. Booking ahead doesn't always put you at an advantage with regard to daily/weekly rental price. When you get to the car rental booth ask the price before you tell them you have a reservation. Play the odds - it will often work out in your favor, as individual car rental businesses sometimes have 'specials' not advertised or promotions the parent company doesn't know about. You can always cancel your reservation easily since the larger car rental companies do not require a credit card for a telephone reservation. Cruise Gratuities Are Going Overboard Tipping at sea might make you wet, but tipping on those huge cruise ships could just make you angry. The evening before the ship docks, while you're enjoying the last dinner and show, your cabin steward has made your bed for the last time and has left a bunch of little, white envelopes on the dresser for the expected, discreet tips. Tipping on a 10-day cruise could easily cost upwards of $100 US per person. Some ships have tip envelopes for the maitre'd, waiter, assistant waiter, cabin steward and housekeeper. And all those drinks you buy and sign to your room could have another 15% service charge added to the bill. The staff on some ships become visible on disembarkation day ..until they receive their little, white tip-envelope. Then they disappear or become unhelpful. The day of disembarkation is hectic for the cabin crew members, who must clean the entire ship and get it ready, in a matter of hours, for the newly-boarding passengers. Ships with no-tipping policies often charge more for their cruises. This is because they pay their staff a little more. Yet, even on those no-tipping ships some cabin staff attentively hang around your cabin on disembarkation day, until they get a little something. A woman who has taken 34 cruises in the past17 years, said she plans ahead for the tips by putting aside $100 US in the cabin safe for the tip envelopes and forgets about it until the little tip envelopes arrive. By planning the cost of tips into her cruise vacation, she's not surprised when she calculates the tipping costs on the last day. Also she said any unused wine or spirits she ordered to her room and wasn't completely used is appreciated by the cabin staff. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have, as of January 1999, been introduced to their new currency. All 11 countries are pricing in both their past currency and the new 'euro'. The transition from individual country currency to euro currency should take about three years to complete. Here's what happens when you go to exchange dollars to francs, lira, marks, etc. The exchange rate is now based according to the rate of the euro and the dollar will fluctuate against the euro. You will still receive local currencies from the banks, but in effect, the frank, mark or lira is the local use of the euro. These local currencies can be thought of as a denomination of the euro. The rate of the euro is about $1.20 US. A new bank, called the European Central Bank, based in Frankfurt, Germany, will take on a role similar to America's Federal Reserve setting interest rates in the Euro Zone. Shopping in the eleven euro-currency countries should be interesting until the complete conversion to euro currency takes place in about three years. Prices in many stores will be both local currency and euros. Although you will be paying in local currency at this time, the two-price system is apparently used to help people get started thinking in euros. The euro currency will be available January 2002. Americans may find that when the euro currency is fully operational, travel between the eleven European countries using euros will be less complicated. One disadvantage is that the euro is expected to be a strong currency against the US dollar and therefore, buying power may be reduced.
Youth Travel - Keeping in Touch The redesigned 1999 version of the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) now supplies travelling students with an e-mail and fax messaging service. The ISIC Student Travel Handbook is free when a student registers, and it contains discount lists and useful travel tips, local culture, banking, health and safety measures. The photo-identity card is available to students over 12-years-old with proof of full-time student status. The service provides a Telesafe communications package, including a voice-messaging system, where friends and family can call a (usually) tool-free number and dial the travelling student's ISIC number to leave their personal message.The student need only have access to a touch-tone phone, anywhere in the 90 countries ISIC services, to retrieve messages. The ISIC is endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Local high schools and some travel agencies may provide contacts and additional information.
If you're looking at taking the entire family on a vacation and don't have any idea where to start, a good place to begin is with a visit to: www.gorp.com/gorp/eclectic/family.htm for lots of outdoor activities. Hotel Fire and Smoke Protection Hood There's a product on the market that could add precious minutes to saving your life. The thought of being caught in a hotel fire is frightening. Toxic, smoke-filled hallways combined with the frantic need to follow the hotel evacuation instructions and routes, which are usually posted on the back of the door, could require quick thinking and action. And the lightweight smoke hood you have packed in your suitcase may help. The EVAC-U8 emergency escape smoke hood claims to filter carbon monoxide and other deadly gases for up to 20 precious minutes. It's light weight and affordable. For more info visit: http://www.evac-u8.com
A handy site for an updated currency converter is : www.oanda.com/cgi-bin/travel
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