Travelers’ Most Common Mistakes And How To Avoid
Them
(By Christopher Elliott,
Washington Post, 15 May 2014)
The secrets to a hassle-free summer vacation seem
simple enough: Keep a checklist. Read the rules, especially if you’re flying.
Take photos of your rental car. Don’t make assumptions about your hotel. And
remember your paperwork when you’re traveling overseas. But simple as that sounds, in practice it’s
not always that easy. Let me say right
from the outset that I hardly started out as the world’s smartest traveler. But
over the past decade and more, I’ve learned, from my own wide-ranging travels
and from the many problems I’ve helped resolve for readers, what not to
do when you’re on the road. So what are
the most common mistakes that travelers make? And, more important, how do you
avoid them? How, in other words, can you vacation like the world’s smartest
traveler?
1. Be
prepared
Bob McCullough, a sales representative for a cheese
company in Hainesport, N.J., admits that he’s a serial procrastinator, so he
decided to start packing for a recent trip a full week in advance. He even
booked a flight leaving Philadelphia on a Sunday to avoid the Monday crush of
business travelers. “I got to the
airport two hours before my flight, found the parking garage pleasantly
unpacked, and parked in a spot I had never dreamed of finding on a weekday,” he
says. “I opened the trunk and reached in to grab my suitcase — which wasn’t
there. I realized then, in shock with a cold sweat building, that I had left my
suitcase in its normal pre-staging area of my laundry room.”
The smartest travelers plan ahead, like McCullough,
but they also have a fondness for checklists. Did you pack the right clothes?
Remember all the power cords? Is your luggage in the trunk of your car? Lists
are your friends. Smart travelers know when to wing it and when not to. Sure,
your friends and family might poke fun at you for keeping a list for
everything, but they’ll thank you when you’re the only one with a power adapter
in France. Travelers who keep lists are far less likely to get into trouble on
the road.
2. Read
those airline rules
Airline policies can be counterintuitive, even
bizarre. For example, a one-way ticket can sometimes cost more than a
round-trip ticket on the same plane. A change fee can exceed the actual value
of a ticket. Also, “non-refundable” means non-refundable, except when it
doesn’t. Confused yet? If it’s any
consolation, even airline employees sometimes get mixed up about their own
rules. Don’t laugh, I’ve seen it. Kelly
Hayes-Raitt remembers seeing an unbeatable deal for a flight from Los Angeles
to Tampa, Fla. But when she arrived at the airport, she noticed her itinerary.
“The plane landed in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston and New Orleans before finally
arriving in Tampa,” remembers the writer from Santa Monica, Calif. “I still
groan when I think of how stupid I was.”
Based on the cases I’ve mediated, my best advice is
to familiarize yourself with the always-changing, often Byzantine rules
developed by the airline industry — rules that are often created for the sole
purpose of “protecting” an airline’s revenue or, to put it in terms that
everyone else can understand, to separate you from your money. They may make about as much sense as a
coast-to-coast flight with four stops, but you — and you alone — are
responsible for knowing the rules.
3. Take
photos of your rental car
Anna Arreglado didn’t do that when she recently
rented a car in Bardonia, N.Y. “My mistake,” says Arreglado, who works for a
pharmaceutical company in Ridgefield, Conn. Sure enough, the car rental company
came after her, insisting that she’d damaged the vehicle. She couldn’t prove
that she’d returned the car unharmed. It was her word against the company’s. Fortunately, Arreglado reads this column and
knew how to fight back. She disputed the claim in writing and copied her state
attorney general on the correspondence. “Within an hour of sending my e-mail, I
got the case dropped,” she says.
Listen up, campers: Take pictures of your cars
before and after your rental. Some customers allege that car rental
companies have built a profitable business around charging you big bucks for
small damage, and the only way to avoid a repair bill is to show an “after”
image of your undented car. That, and maybe having the e-mail address of your
attorney general. Actually, the takeaway
from Arreglado’s story applies to more than rental cars. Sometimes, a brief,
polite e-mail to any travel company will get the resolution you want — if you
copy the right people.
4.
Assume nothing about your hotel
No segment of the travel industry — except perhaps
the airlines — profits more from our collective ignorance than hotels. They
would like you to think that they’re the only lodging option in town, but
they’re not. Today’s accommodations cover the spectrum, from glamping to
vacation rentals. Don’t lock yourself into a traditional hotel or resort, at
least not without first shopping around. You might be able to find a bargain on
Airbnb.com with a better location and fewer hassles.
Travelers make other assumptions about their
accommodations that aren’t necessarily true, too. For example, you’d imagine
that the room rate you’re quoted is the room rate you’ll actually pay, maybe
not including sales taxes. But when Tom
Alderman recently tried to book a room at his favorite casino hotel in Las
Vegas, he was broadsided by a mandatory $14-per-night “resort” fee, which
supposedly covered in-room wireless Internet access, use of the fitness center
and “printing of boarding passes.” He was particularly outraged because the
resort had repeatedly promised on its Web site to “never” charge a resort fee,
like other Vegas resorts. “I’ll never stay there again,” says Alderman, a
retired documentary filmmaker. Resort
fees are normally disclosed just before you push the “book” button, so don’t
thoughtlessly click through. If you see a fee you don’t like, stop what you’re
doing and look elsewhere for a room.
5. Don’t
forget the paperwork
Having the right visas and permits and an updated
passport is your responsibility, no two ways about it. That’s a difficult
message for many travelers to hear. They rely on the advice of a travel agent
or what’s posted on a Web site and believe (incorrectly) that those third
parties should reimburse them when something goes wrong. This is especially
common in the case of cruises, where a birth certificate, instead of a
passport, is often enough to board a ship.
The consequences can be heartbreaking. A worried mom from Sacramento
recently contacted me because her daughter and son-in-law, en route to their
honeymoon in St. Lucia, had been stopped at the airport and denied boarding.
The reason? The bride’s passport was due to expire soon — too soon for her to
be allowed into the country. Some countries require your passport to be valid
for six months from the date of your entry. An alert travel agent might have
caught the problem, but now it was too late. And without travel insurance, the
entire trip would be lost. “Can this trip be salvaged?” the mom wrote to me,
with only hours before the vacation was to have begun. Sadly, it couldn’t be. Point is, the most common travel mistakes are
easily avoided with a little planning and by taking common-sense precautions.
It looks easy, and sometimes it is easy. But the truth is, in many
cases, there’s often a lot more to it, and questions arise. And that’s what
this column and I are here for.
Summer
2014: Best Vacation Escape Routes For Drivers Leaving The D.C. Area
(By Robert Thomson, Washington Post, 16 May 2014)
The Memorial
Day weekend marks the traditional beginning of the summer travel season, and
we’re back with our annual guide of problematic routes and roadways you might
want to avoid in your rush to get out of the Washington region. The 95
Express Lanes project is on a fast track, but that probably means
summer vacationers won’t be going anywhere fast when they drive through that
construction zone on Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia. Of all the compass points travelers will
follow on their getaways from the D.C. area in 2014,
the most difficult — for the second summer in a row — will be due south. The
express lanes project, begun in
late summer 2012, is building “29 miles in 29 months,” said Walter
J. Lewis III, project director for Fluor-Lane 95, the construction company. The 2013 work included construction of nine
bridges, sometimes forcing weekend detours on I-95. Through the rest of this
year, the remaining work will include frequent weekend shutdowns of the HOV
lanes in the middle of the interstate, limiting its capacity to handle vacation
traffic. While that slow ride is likely
to be the biggest challenge at the beginning and end of long trips, it won’t be
the only one. Here’s a look at what’s ahead along the main summer escape
routes.
Northeast corridor
Classic
route: I-95 to I-295,
across the Delaware Memorial Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike to northern New
Jersey approaches to New York (about 227 miles).
Alternatives: Consider I-95 to I-695, just
before Baltimore, to I-83 to York, Pa., and Harrisburg, Pa., then I-81 to I-78.
Options include staying on I-78 across New Jersey toward New York or taking a
more northerly course: following Route 22 just before Allentown, Pa., to Route
33 to I-80 across the top of New Jersey.
Or take
Route 50 across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, follow Route 301 to Route 896
(Churchtown/Boyds Corner roads) to Route 1 (toll) or Route 13. From there,
drivers can reach I-295 and the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects with
the New Jersey Turnpike. For those who
want to vacation while they travel, consider driving about 120 miles from the
District to take the 80-minute ferry ride from Lewes, Del., to Cape May, N.J.
Reservations recommended: 800-643-3779 or www.capemaylewesferry.com.
Travel
tips: North of
Baltimore on I-95, the Maryland House rest area has reopened, but 14 miles beyond
that, the Chesapeake House in North East, Md., is now closed for
reconstruction.
Approaching
the Newark, Del., toll plaza, the two left lanes will take you to the
highway-speed E-ZPass toll readers. Tune your radio to WTMC (1380 AM) for
traffic reports.
Before
leaving home, check the Delaware Department of Transportation Web site at www.deldot.gov for traffic conditions.
The widening
of the New Jersey Turnpike continues between interchanges 6 and 9 in the
central part of the state, but construction may end late this year. Tune to
WKXW (101.5 FM) for New Jersey traffic reports.
New York’s
Tappan Zee Bridge remains open as construction begins on a replacement span to
take I-87/287 over the Hudson River.
Deep Creek Lake
Classic
route: I-270 to I-70
west to I-68 west to Exit 14A at Keysers Ridge, Md., then follow Route 219
south (about 180 miles).
Alternatives: Between Frederick and Route
219, try portions of Route 144 and Alternate 40, which weave along with the
interstates. Much of that route is the Historic National Road. Take it to enjoy
a different drive to Western Maryland rather than to save time. Maryland travel
maps, including a map of scenic byways, are available at www.marylandroads.com.
Travel
tips: Maryland’s
major roads — including I-270, I-70, and Routes 15 and 40 — pass through a
bottleneck at Frederick. Try to avoid starting your trip between 1 and 8 p.m.
Fridays.
Between school
closing and Labor Day, the roads around Deep
Creek Lake can get very crowded. There are peaceful state parks with
cabins along the way west, including New Germany and Herrington Manor. At
Frederick, vacationers could swing north on Route 15 to cabins at Cunningham
Falls State Park in Thurmont.
Travelers
can make reservations on the Department of Natural Resources Web site at www.dnr.maryland.gov.
The Maryland
State Highway Administration has some highway repair projects in the western
part of the state this summer, but they are unlikely to severely affect traffic
flow during the peak travel times.
Eastern Shore
Classic
route: Route 50 east
to Ocean City (about 150 miles).
Alternative: There really isn’t a good
highway alternative to the Ocean Gateway (Route 50). Around Wye Mills, Md.,
Route 404 branches east from Route 50 and heads for Rehoboth Beach on the
Delaware shore, but it’s narrow and crowded.
Along the
Route 50 corridor, there are some short breaks, including Route 662 at Wye
Mills. Approaching the shore, Route 90 (Ocean City Expressway) provides an
alternative way into the city, at 62nd Street.
Travel
tips: The best Bay
Bridge travel times for summer weekend getaways are Thursday and Friday before
10 a.m. and after 10 p.m.; Saturday before 7 a.m. and after 5 p.m.; and Sunday
before 10 a.m. and after 10 p.m. The regular car toll for the bridge is $6,
paid eastbound.
Headlight
use is required at all times on the bridge. At peak periods, the westbound span
is sometimes realigned for two-way traffic. In that case, the five lanes on the
left side of the toll plaza are directed to that span. Drivers who want an
E-ZPass Only lane for the exclusively eastbound span should use toll lanes 6 or
9.
Maryland
offers traffic information for the bridge at www.baybridge.com.
To get information about your entire route, dial 511 from within the state and
use the voice-recognition system, or use the Web site www.md511.org.
Outer Banks
Classic
route: I-95 south, to
I-295 south, to I-64 east, to I-664 south, then I-64 to Exit 292 for Chesapeake
Expressway/I-464/Route 17. Then keep left to continue to the Chesapeake
Expressway (Route 168) and take Nags Head/Great Bridge Exit 291B to routes 168
and 158 and the Outer Banks (about 270 miles to Kitty Hawk, N.C.).
Alternatives: South of Fredericksburg, some
I-95 drivers pick up Route 17 south at Exit 126 and take it to I-64 in the
Hampton Roads area. Others take the I-295 bypass around Richmond into the
Petersburg area, then take Route 460 east into Hampton Roads.
Drivers on
the east side of the D.C. region could take Route 301, crossing the Potomac
River on the Nice Bridge ($6 car toll collected southbound), then connect with
Route 17 south. Drivers starting southbound trips from west of the D.C. area
may avoid some of the I-95 congestion by taking Routes 29 and 17 to the
Fredericksburg area.
Travel
tips: I-95 traffic on
Friday and Sunday afternoons can be stop and go between the District and
Fredericksburg. Traffic volume is very high, plus there’s the 95 Express Lanes
construction.
There will
be lane closings on I-95 during off-peak hours and overnights, plus those
weekend closings of the HOV lanes. Also watch for many construction vehicles
turning into and out of the work areas.
Get
information about Virginia traffic conditions through the 511 system. On the
Web, it’s at www.511virginia.org.
You can also call 511 from any phone in Virginia.
