Travel Tips

I used to travel between 3 and 6 months a year in relative comfort and to fairly exotic destinations at fairly low cost (I have some photos here), and people sometimes ask me how to do the same.

Quick links

This is written from a US, solo travel, and somewhat disabled perspective (I walk with a cane). The first topics are whether to go at all.

Whether to Go

Travel can be quite stressful and there is plenty of evidence that many people find their vacations to be a source of tension rather than relaxation. Although airlines and foreign destinations have their obvious challenges, it seems that trip planning is often the most stressful aspect and within that, financial concerns, making travel arrangements, and packing are the most burdensome.

I discuss these topics later on, but one benefit of frequent and lengthy travel is that you get better with practice, so the stressful elements are reduced. But that does not answer the basic question about travel: why bother? That's something you have to answer for yourself: maybe general curiosity, specific interests, bragging rights, or a host of other reasons. In my case it started with business travel to meetings and conferences where I would add a side trip to some interesting nearby location. Later, I would seek out conferences in interesting locations and later still, I would just go. My goal was to see the finest works of man and nature; local culture was not a major motivation. However, I have always returned with more favorable impressions of the countries and people visited than before I went.

Assuming you have your reasons for going, you next need to decide how much comfort and familiarity you need. Are you OK traveling with whatever group you have in mind, or solo, for an extended period? How about in places where you do not understand the language? How about those where you cannot even read the street signs? Or where the culture is totally...well, foreign? Do you need Western-style hotels or food? There's no right or wrong answers, but you do need to know yourself and your comfort levels.

I discuss these topics later on, but first let's deal with top-level questions of time and money: when to go, for how long, and how to afford it.

When to Go

Climate change is making this topic more important: in particular, summers are now intolerably hot in large parts of the world, with Europe particularly hard hit. So my general advice is to visit mid-latitude destinations during their spring and autumn. Some mid-latitude places (e.g., Japan) are fairly dry, sunny, and not too cold in winter, so that can be an OK time to visit, while lower latitudes (e.g., most of India, Thailand, Taiwan) are at their best then: you need to take a look at the local data. Other than for special purposes (e.g., to see the aurora borealis), high latitudes (e.g., Norway, Iceland, Antarctica) need to be visited in their summer. Remember, the seasons are transposed in the Southern Hemisphere, which can provide good destinations during the northern winter--but you will still want to miss the peak of the local summer in most Southern Hemisphere destinations.

Long thin counties like Chile and Vietnam can span multiple climate zones: Saigon is darn hot, so you might prefer to go there in winter, but then it will be freezing in Hanoi and flooding in Hue. Large countries such as USA, Canada, Russia, China, Australia pose similar challenges, both north to south and east to west, and so do remote destinations such as Pacific Islands: you need to look up very specific weather data.

In addition to temperature and humidity, you should pay attention, and avoid, major weather threats such as hurricane, tornado, and typhoon seasons (summer into October in the Northern Hemisphere), and monsoons.

And beyond climate there are topics like mosquito/gnat/midge seasons, flu season, school holidays, and major (i.e., week-long) national holidays such as Golden Week and Obon (Japan), New Year (both Western and Chinese), Thanksgiving (USA), Christmas (pretty much everywhere, not just Christian countries), and religious holidays and observances such as Ramadan (especially its final day, Eid). Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day is the big event in many countries (e.g., Germany, Argentina), and England and some former colonies also observe the day following (Boxing Day). Note that Christmas occurs on a different date in some Orthodox countries, as does Easter. And the Chinese New Year is on a lunar calendar and moves around between 21 January and 20 February.

Look up the holidays and events for the specific places you are considering to visit but beware that sites like timeanddate.com are inaccurate. Also beware of significant sporting and other events (e.g., Olympics, Soccer World Cup. UK Cup Final, Worlds Fair and Expos). The most miserable day of travel I ever had was Expo 2005 in Nagoya.

Be aware that many countries structure their weeks differently than you may be used to. For example, Friday is the holy day in Muslim countries and Saturday in Jewish communities and in Israel. And Sundays are observed differently (particularly shop openings) in different countries. Museums are usually closed on Mondays in Japan, as are restaurants in many countries.

Time Zones

Theoretically, time zones are spaced 15 degrees of longitude apart, but there are numerous exceptions and the zones zig-zag dramatically in some areas (e.g., the South Pacific). Some large countries (e.g., USA) have many time zones, while others (e.g., China) have only one. Some countries (e.g., India) or states (e.g., Australian Northern Territory) are shifted by 30 minutes from a standard time zone, and some (e.g., Nepal, New Zealand Chatham Islands) by 15 minutes.

Locations that are significantly displaced from their "natural" time zones (or are at their edges) may structure their days differently than normal (e.g., things happen earlier than you might expect in Brisbane Australia).

And, of course, day lengths are dramatically different at high latitudes, with "midnight sun" beyond the Arctic and Antarctic Circles during their midsummmers and total darkness during their midwinters. Some locations are at much higher latitudes than you might suppose (e.g., London is further north than Calgary) and this affects their day length and how you should plan your days.

Daylight Saving/Summer Time is observed on different dates, or not at all, in different countries and parts thereof (e.g., Arizona does not do Summer Time but its Indian Reservations do). And the time shifts are reversed between Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Airline schedules are significantly disrupted during periods when the time shifts are out of sync.

Beware that crossing the date line (roughly mid Pacific) causes you to lose (westbound) or gain (eastbound) a day. And some neighboring islands are on opposite sides of the dateline.

Jet Lag

Don't neglect the debilitating effects of jet lag, particularly with short trips as this can seriously erode your available time. eastbound is worse than westbound and beyond about 5 hours you need to allocate at least a couple of days for recovery, meaning days with no very serious obligations or sightseeing.

Flying eastbound usually leaves you with two problems: lack of sleep, and jet lag, and you need to deal with them separately. I talk about lack of sleep below, under flying, but the telegram version is to avoid it: overnight, always choose long nonstop flights (more than 10 hours) leaving as late as possible, in a lie-flat business or first class seat. If you are exhausted on arrival and it is earlier than about 4pm local time, then take a nap of no longer than 2 hours. Then go to bed at your usual time.

I find that melatonin helps a lot with jet lag, and also over-the-counter sleep aids (antihistamines: diphenhydramine hydrochloride aka Benadryl). You only need very small doses: more is not better. Take the melatonin on going to bed, and the sleep aid if you wake up earlier than say 3am (taking it later will leave you feeling groggy). During the day, get out in the daylight. If you take care of yourself, and exercise a bit of discipline, you can deal with about 3 hours of jet lag per day of recovery.

Duration

Do you want to do, say, one three-month trip or six two-week trips? Long trips have logistical challenges like what to do with your mail (the US Post Office will hold mail only for one month at a time), how to pay your bills, how to get several months supply of prescription meds, and how to keep your home in order. On the other hand, you can obviously go further and do more on a long trip. And travel becomes easier the longer it lasts: after about three weeks, I find it becomes my way of life, rather than an interlude away from normal life.

For short trips, you may be able to keep going every day, but for long trips I consider it essential to schedule a couple of days downtime each week or so, where you stay in one place and don't plan to do much.

Budget

The total cost of extensive travel can mount up: $50,000 or more a year. So you not only need to be able to afford to make a given trip, you need to know that you can afford it. A lot of opportunities come up at short notice, or close to departure (e.g., last-minute cruise prices), or have a very short window (e.g., a 2-day sale on airfares) so you may need to make decisions quickly and cannot spend days or weeks agonizing over it. The answer is to have a rule or budget. My rule was to be willing to take any trip that would come in at less than $200 a day excluding airfare, with a separate budget of $10,000 a year for airfare. I arrived at these amounts because they would allow me to travel full-time, and I knew they were feasible. (Of course, if I did actually travel full time I would be able to rent out my house, which would boost my budget, but that was not part of my plan.) With inflation, I'd probably raise that to $250 or even more today (2023). The airfare budget was somewhat flexible: if I had a proposed trip that might come in at $2,000 above the $200 a day rule, then I could move $2,000 from the airfare budget. I also had a big stash of frequent flyer miles and hotel points, which were more valuable then than now, and I would dip into those, but always try to leave a few hundred thousand for emergencies or opportunities. And I would sometimes structure my trips to replenish (or exploit) those points.

The 200 dollars a day would be divided approximately into $100 hotel, $50 food and drink, and $50 travel and incidentals. Those are averages so a couple of free hotel nights using points might compensate for a couple of hotels costing $150 a night and similarly a few days of free car hire courtesy of Hertz points might liberate money for train fare.

Of course, I could afford some trips at well over $200 a day and would do so if there was a good reason: the point is not to set a cap on travel spending, but to define a threshold below which you do not need to think about it. Your own circumstances will determine your budget and you will obviously need to adjust it if you are traveling as a couple or family.

Now that you know you can afford it, you want to get the best deal for your trip.

Loyalty Points and Status

Most travel entities such as airlines, hotels, cruises, car hire, booking agencies, and credit cards etc. give you benefits that increase the more you patronize them. These may take the form of status, so that for example, as "Gold" member, you can use shorter lines and get better phone service, get discounts on certain services such as checked bags, or score upgrades to a higher class of service or a better room or car.

In addition to status, you earn points or frequent flyer miles that can be used for free or discounted flights, cars or rooms, or for upgrades. Points can usually buy you free award flights on "partner" airlines as well as their own: for example you can use United (or other Star Alliance) miles to pay for flights on ANA, and OneWorld miles for JAL. Credit card points are "transferable" to dozens of partners. Quite often, there are "bonuses" (e.g., 30% more miles) for specific transfers: check Google and the travel blogs such as www.onemileatatime.com. And some transfers are instantaneous, while others can take a few days; again, check the blogs. Beware that some "free" flights etc. have copays, misleadingly called "fuel surcharges," that can amount to many hundreds of dollars and negate their value. Some redemptions on British Airways are like this.

You can score some status just by signing up--the car hire companies are like this--or by holding a suitable credit card, and you can get a one-time stash of specific points or miles by signing up for certain credit cards and meeting some minimum spending requirement (typically a few thousand dollars over a few months). Otherwise you earn points or miles by patronizing the airline, hotel, or whatever, or by using the right credit card. Many of the most useful cards come with (sometimes substantial) annual fees; you need to research whether the benefits are worth it to you. You can also score points by using the "shopping portal" of the company (e.g., this one for American Airlines) to access online retailers. There's no cost or downside to this and it can also be a way to generate activity needed to keep points from expiring.

Loyalty benefits used to be really significant (e.g., I've flown across the Atlantic more than 150 times and only a handful of those were in the back of the plane, thanks to upgrades and free flights), to the extent that it was worth taking "mileage runs": flights or hotel stays taken solely to earn points or status. Nowadays, points are much less valuable and harder to use and the cash price for benefits such as business class has come down so that it can be best just to pay for what you want. For example, in 2011 Delta sold just 14% of its first class seats for cash and the other 86% went to upgrades and frequent flier tickets. Now it sells 74% of those seats for cash. Nonetheless, there's nothing lost by participating as long as your expectations are realistic. Whatever you do, don't hoard your miles and points for retirement: they'll be devalued to nothing by the time you are ready to cash in: earn and burn is the motto. Check out blogs such as www.onemileatatime.com, , thepointsguy.com, and those at www.boardingarea.com (don't read just the front pages: use the search function as they each have thousands of articles).

One thing to beware of is that the company's idea of an upgrade may not correspond to yours: for example, a hotel may upgrade you from ordinary room to a suite but I prefer the ordinary room (it's usually a rational design, whereas a suite can be a less comfortable ad-hoc arrangement); a car rental company may upgrade you from a decently engineered small car to a waddling SUV; or a cruise line may upgrade you from an interior room with a walk-in shower to an ocean view that has a bath, which I for one cannot use safely.

There are philosophically different ways to use points or miles: one is to use them opportunistically to save money or increase comfort on a trip you are taking anyway (e.g., to pay for a hotel, flight, or car, or an upgrade on these); another is as an enabler (e.g., to get a one-way long haul business class flight to or from a distant destination--e.g., a flight home from a one-way cruise--that might otherwise be out of reach); and another is for "aspirational" trips where you travel first class on a really good airline (e.g., with showers or Dom Perignon Champagne on board), or stay in a really luxurious hotel, or visit a truly exotic location like the Maldives.

The blogs tend to have a lot of coverage on aspirational trips but beware that it can take normal people (i.e., not bloggers) a long while to accumulate enough points and there can be program changes and devaluations along the way, not to mention pandemics, wars, and personal circumstances that thwart your aspirational trip before you can execute it. Furthermore, as I hope this web page explains, it need not be that difficult or expensive to get to exotic locations (and I doubt that anyone who has traveled in, say, French Polynesia would consider the Maldives either exotic or attractive) and, beyond a certain level of comfort and good service, I don't see the value in ever more luxurious hotels--I'd rather spend the money on a good restaurant--or another trip. Hence, I tend to advocate the opportunistic and enabling usages, but the choice obviously is yours.

Luggage

Never have more luggage than you can comfortably manage on your own; typically, that means a softsided backpack as a "personal item" and a rollaboard. You should take the same stuff for a three month trip as for a week: figure on getting clothes washed along the way and buying some items and abandoning others (e.g., cold weather gear).

You may have to override this advice if you need specialist gear for, say, mountaineering or scuba diving, but I would still advocate taking no more than a rollaboard's worth of regular stuff, plus a dedicated bag or backpack for your special gear.

Packing everything into a rollaboard and backpack requires practice, and ruthless decision making. Some recommend packing cubes, but I've not found them useful. I do, however, recommend plastic compression bags for dirty clothes. And nylon bags that fold to nothing for organizing stuff when you unpack. Many clothing items do better rolled up than folded, and be sure to cram things inside your shoes etc. Wear your heaviest shoes and jacket etc. on the plane and, if necessary, cram the pockets with heavy or bulky items. You can take it all out/off once you are seated. Take minimal toothpaste etc. and buy those supplies after you are arrived and settled. Do note, however, that hotels in many countries do not supply washcloths/face flannels, so take one with you if that's important to you (use a handkerchief if you forget). If you do end up traveling extensively, it's worth spending money on small, lightweight versions of gear like laptops, cameras, etc.

Hotel laundry services vary greatly in price, from tolerable to outrageous: read the price list. But if you don't mind doing it yourself, many hotels have washing machines: they are ubiquitous in Australian and New Zealand motels, and in Japanese "business hotels" such as Toyoko Inn, and are often found in Europe and USA at "long-stay" type hotels. In less wealthy countries, there will always be some way to get a bag of washing done (and collected and returned) by someone around the corner: just ask your hotel. And if all else fails, you can wash the odd item in the sink. The best practice is to use the hotel hair shampoo as the soap, trample on the items while you are having your shower, finish off and rinse in the sink, then roll up in a towel and twist to get the water out. If you need a warm place to dry them and there is nowhere obvious, investigate the area at the back of the refrigerator. Don't drape them over a light fixture: you risk a fire if it's an incandescent light bulb, and other types do not give off heat.

Cruise ships used to have washing machines but most have been ripping them out to force you to use their expensive laundry service (though it can be free if you have status: e.g., 4* and above on Holland America). On cruises longer than a week, there will generally be some "all you can fit in the bag" type of laundry deal that is fairly reasonable, or unlimited laundry for a few $$ a day.

I prefer not to check bags on flights and generally carry on my rollaboard and personal item: it avoids the possibility of them getting lost, and it makes it easier to organize alternative arrangements if your flight is delayed or canceled. Plus airlines now generally charge for checked bags unless you have status or an expensive ticket. In the USA, another reason why people, including me, carry so much on to the plane is because it typically takes 30 minutes or more for checked bags to be delivered at the destination. Elsewhere, this is usually handled much quicker so checking a bag is slightly less of a burden.

What counts as a carryon bag differs greatly around the world and between airlines. In the USA anything that fits in the overhead is OK (e.g., a fairly fat 22 inch rollaboard) and it doesn't matter much what it weighs (as long as you can lift it yourself), and your "personal item" can be a fairly big (soft) backpack as long as you can cram it under the seat in front of you (that's for takeoff and landing, it's usually more comfortable to put it under your legs--but still in your own space--in flight).

Elsewhere, there may be limitations on size and, more obnoxiously, weight: 10 or 15kg is typical. An empty bag can weigh 4 or 6kg so this is very restrictive and you may be forced to check it. And of course, some airlines charge for carryons.

At boarding, if your bag is deemed oversized or overweight, or if the overheads are already full, you may need to gate-check it. So in case this happens to you, make sure you have all your documents and necessities in the "personal item" that you will still be able to carry on. I prefer to avoid the risk of having to gate-check a bag if I'm connecting to another flight (I think it increases the chance of your bag going missing as it will get a handwritten tag that lacks the barcode used for routing it to the next flight), so I study the rules beforehand and preemptively hand my bag over at checkin if I may be unable to carry it on. Some people, on the other hand, volunteer to gate check their bags as it usually avoids the fee for checked bags. Low cost airlines often have arcane rules about carryons (e.g., you may be able to reserve space for them by paying extra) so, again, you should study up beforehand.

Regional jets (typically 50 seats or less) tend to have small overheads, so you leave your carryon at the bottom of the jetway or in a cart beside the plane, and it travels in the luggage compartment at the back and is returned to you the same way at the end of the flight. Very convenient. Some propeller planes are like this, too. Others, you board at the back and your bag goes in a luggage area right there. Upstairs on 747s there is usually a big luggage area by the top of the stairs.

Apple AirTags and the equivalent for Android (e.g., Tile) can help you track down your luggage if it does go missing.

It is sometimes useful to travel independently of your luggage. In some countries this is very easy to arrange, and is safe and cheap: using Swiss Rail, for example, or the service in Japan known as Takkyubin (strictly it is takuhaibin and Takkyubin refers to a specific company, like tissues and Kleenex). For example, in Japan you can send a rollaboard anywhere in the country for less than $20 and it will arrive in 1 or 2 days; meanwhile you can go somewhere else with just your backpack. There will be counters for Takkyubin at the airport--look for the logo of a black cat with a kitten in its mouth (or a pelican for one of the other companies)--and any hotel (or 7-11) can arrange it and fill in the form for you, but you must have the address of the destination in Japanese (you can usually print this out, or just display it on your phone, from the hotel's website). The destination hotel will happily look after your bag if it arrives a few days before you do and it will be in your room when you get there.

Speaking of which, you can usually stash your bag at your hotel a few hours (maybe even days with some negotiation) before you check in or after you've checked out so that you can sightsee unencumbered. There used to be "left luggage" counters at most airports, bus stations, and train stations, but these are becoming rare in most countries, although there may be coin operated lockers. In Japan, there's an app to find and book luggage storage. And London has bag storage and transfer companies such as bagbudy.com (note just one "d") and transferbags.com. Google for similar services elsewhere.

A note on medicines: you should keep medicines and other essentials like passports and papers in your "personal item". Note that some countries regard medicines as potential drug paraphernalia and require you to bring the prescriptions with you, or even to file forms and seek permission ahead of time (Japan is like this). And some prescription medicines, and even over-the-counter drugs, are banned in some countries (e.g., pseudoephedrine is banned in Japan and some of the Middle East--e.g., see this list of 293 drugs banned in the UAE) and can land you in jail. Best to research the rules beforehand.

Money and Cash

Credit cards are accepted pretty much everywhere these days; some countries (e.g., Sweden, Australia) are substantially cashless and you really must have a credit or debit card (preferably of the "tap to pay" type). Some US National Parks do not accept cash for their entrance fees. If you lack a credit card, their advice is to purchase a "Visa gift card" (basically, a prepaid debit card) at a local drug store, and this seems a generally viable workaround for those without their own cards.

Elsewhere (e.g., Japan), cash may be preferred, especially for small transactions, so it's best to have some local cash onhand for those circumstances. In poorer countries, US dollars and Euros (or Australian dollars in the South Pacific) may be accepted or even preferred, but it is gauche to expect it: you should research it. .

You want a credit card that does not impose a fee for foreign transactions and you may need a "chip and pin" or "tap to pay" card in some countries (especially for unattended locations like gas stations). Visa and MasterCard are accepted more widely than American Express. The credit card companies run a scam called "dynamic currency conversion" where the vendor offers ("for your convenience") to bill you in your home currency rather than local. Always decline: they use an exchange rate that will rip you off: if you are billed in local currency (the default), the credit card company uses the much more favorable Interbank rate. In Argentina, foreign credit cards are now charged at the "blue rate" rather than the official rate (a factor of about 2:1), but you'll need to study the latest details.

For small quantities, it's OK to get cash from a cruise ship or hotel front desk or an airport currency exchange if that's convenient. But otherwise, and certainly for any sum over about $50, it's almost always best to get it from an ATM, provided your bank does not impose fees for foreign withdrawals. The exception is when there's a black market, where an "informal" exchange will be a better deal--but may have other downsides. Some ATMs (particularly at airports or inside hotels) are run by third parties, not the banks themselves, and these generally impose fees, but can be worth it for the convenience and safety.

Do be aware of your surroundings when using an ATM and be careful about your bags and possessions as well as your card and cash. Use an ATM inside a bank if you can. Some countries have protected shopfronts shared by many different banks and ATM companies. And in some countries (e.g., India) there may be a man or soldier with or without a gun sitting by the ATM. He's there to protect you, or at least save you from getting hassled. In some countries, bad guys have tampered with ATMs to steal your card details. This was said to be true of all the ATMs in the main airport of Rio de Janeiro (GIG); again it's best to use an ATM inside a bank.

If I have foreign cash left over, I just donate it (the airlines usually have a collection for charity on board) or keep it for the next trip. But beware that many countries periodically renew their bills and the old ones become worthless or can only be replaced at a (sometimes special) bank. I've used old bills for tipping in India: I offer a new 100 rupee bill or an old 500 one and mostly they choose the 500.

Foreign cards do not work in most Japanese ATMs: the only Japanese ATMs where they can be used reliably are those at the airport, at Post Offices (where the ATMs are often outside, so they can be used when the Post Office is closed), and in 7-11 stores (but not other konbinis) which are usually open 24 hours.

In some countries, the limit on withdrawals is very low and your card may be rejected without explanation for exceeding this amount. If that happens, try requesting the equivalent of $100. Elsewhere, the machine will explicitly tell you the limit, but get it wrong. For example, in Chile the machine will reject a request for 250,000 CLP (the equivalent of about $250) and tell you the limit is 200,000 CLP. So you try 200,000 and it rejects that with the same explanation. In fact, the true limit is (or was) 150,000.

And in some countries, a modest withdrawal will generate a mountain of cash so be sure to have some kind of secure bag with you. Pre-ATM days I once changed $300 at an airport in India and ended up with a stack of bills about 5 inches high. And in Vietnam, $100 will produce almost 2.5 million Dong.

Banks would rather leave you penniless in a foreign land than expose themselves to the smallest chance of a fraudulent ATM withdrawal or credit card transaction. I think this should be illegal and they should be required to honor a first transaction in a new location and later ask you to confirm it. As well as rejecting the withdrawal or transaction, they may invalidate your card. Make sure you know how to contact your bank if you get rejected in these circumstances (often their smartphone app is the best way). And always carry multiple cards (and stash them in different places in case of loss or robbery). It's worth having a few hundred dollars or euros in cash for real emergencies.

Some banks and credit card companies want you to notify them of foreign travel. In my experience, they pay no attention to this information and will still randomly reject foreign transactions, so I never bother. Other companies (e.g., AMEX) explicitly tell you not to notify them. Some banks have no conception that there is a world outside the USA and will require you to use dual-factor authentication via cellphone when you are in a location where you have no cellphone reception. Forwarding texts and voicemail to email (e.g., with Google Voice) can be useful for seeing what is going on in these circumstances.

Tipping

This is a contentious topic, but I suggest "when in Rome" is the best policy. No matter what the custom is in your home country, and no matter how irrational it seems, you need to accept that the USA, for example, pays restaurant staff little or nothing and they are expected to live on tips (and are taxed on this assumption). So pay up: typically 18+%. The same goes to a lesser extent for other service staff, such as hotel maids (a few $$ a day). Conversely, don't tip extravagantly or at all in countries where it is not the custom: in Japan, for example, a tip is regarded as an insult, except in special circumstances and then you need to know how to present it (in an envelope). In other countries, it is a token of appreciation for good service and typically ranges from 5 to 10% or just rounding up. In many poor countries almost everyone you interact with expects or appreciates a tip, so roll with it. Research it before you go.

Begging is an even more contentious topic and I leave that decision to you. You may prefer to donate to a charity instead of individual beggars. Note that if you buy, say, a postcard from some kid who is bothering you, that will not be the end of it. Word will get around: "this person wants postcards" and you will be swamped. Hiring a guide will usually keep others from bothering you.

Phone and WiFi

WiFi is ubiquitous in airports, hotels, restaurants, cafes, public buildings, and other places worldwide. Usually it is free; the only places that charge seem to be high-end hotels in rich countries. Go figure. With WiFi and a smartphone, you can use the Web, do email, and, thanks to what's technically called Voice Over IP (VOIP), make telephone calls and texts using tools like WhatsApp, FaceTime, Google Voice, Skype etc., and even do video calls via Zoom etc.

But WiFi will not help when you are in the street, on the road, or otherwise outdoors and out of range, and want to call your hotel, or summon a taxi or Uber or its local equivalent. Hence, I consider it useful to have a smartphone that works on the local phone system. You can also use it for translation of both speech and written text (via Google Translate) when out and about, and you can navigate by Google Maps--which also provides public transportation and timetable information. Note however that if you have downloaded the relevant map or language data, then Google Maps and Translate will work at a basic level without a connection.

Connecting to the local cellphone system means you need a modern smartphone with lots of radio bands, and a worldwide service provider. Your home provider may have some reasonable deals for overseas use, particularly T-Mobile. Beware that you do need to arrange this ahead of time: see this story of a $143,000 bill.

If you need a worldwide provider, I wouldn't look any further than Google Fi (you don't need one of their phones as long as you have one that is "unlocked"); it's $20 a month for a single user, plus $10 per GigaByte, worldwide. I use it as my primary phone. You may also be able to get a "Worldwide travel SIM" (similar to Google Fi) in your home country. If you do not use these worldwide providers as your primary phone, you'll need to swap your primary SIM for the worldwide one (be careful not to lose your primary one) and your phone number will change until you swap back. This can be a hassle so one alternative it to have a separate phone for this purpose. Alternatively, you could get a own Solis WiFi Hotspot, although you need to choose carefully among their plans.

But a better alternative, if you have a modern phone, is to use eSIMs, which are purely digital (like downloading an app): Google for "worldwide esim". It should then be possible to switch between your primary and worldwide services with just a click. You'll need to do your own research on costs and quality; in all cases, make sure the deal allows you to use your phone as a WiFi Hotspot ("tethering") so you can connect your other devices (and your companions' devices) to its signal.

Note that much information on the Web is outdated. In the past, your phone might not be compatible with the local phone system--in Japan, for example--so it was worth renting a phone or a "mobile Hotspot" that connected to the phone system and provided a WiFi signal. Nowadays, however, pretty much the whole world uses similar phone systems: your phone might miss some radio bands in some countries, but should work at a basic level.

Also in the past, it was sometimes worth getting a local SIM card for your phone, but the combination of Google Fi or other "worldwide SIMs", plus ubiquitous free WiFi, means this is seldom necessary now. Nowadays, the only reason for getting a local SIM is if you need a local phone number. It used to be a hassle to buy local SIMs: I remember once buying a SIM from a streetcart in India that involved handing over my passport while a cow licked my shoes and small boys examined my phone. ESIMs may have simplified that side of things, but I have no personal experience of them and, as I say, unless you need a local number, Google Fi and its equivalents are a better alternative.

Cruise ships offer WiFi that connects to the Internet via satellites, but the service can be expensive (like $20 a day) and low bandwidth (although performance is improving as many ships switch over to SpaceX StarLink service). Read reviews before signing up. If you can live without Internet for a few hours or days at a time, then Google Fi will generally work when you are in port or close to inhabited land, but it won't help when you are out at sea (which obviously depends on your itinerary). Apart from the oceans, the only places I've been where Google Fi did not work are Kiritimati, and Alaska (it does sometimes work there: it depends on the deal they currently have with the local provider).

Some hotels have only wired Ethernet and lack WiFi, so it is worth having a mini travel router, and even better if this can act as a WiFi repeater (to extend the range of a weak signal, and to overcome restrictions on having just one connected device). I have a Hootoo Tripmate Nano that does all this and is smaller than a box of matches and cost $19 in 2016.

GPS

I used to travel with a Garmin standalone GPS, but Google maps will work without an internet connection provided you've downloaded the local maps beforehand, and can function as a basic GPS even without maps. You'll need to install some additional apps if you want to recover the full functionality of a Garmin GPS, such as recording your tracklog, and guiding you back along it. Tracklogs are nice mementos of your trips--like photographs. Beware that in some parts of the world (e.g., Middle East) Google's maps are not very accurate, and in others they do not discriminate well between main roads and minor trails.

If you are traveling in really remote regions, consider something like a Garmin inReach that can periodically notify friends and relatives of your whereabouts (and exchange text messages with them), and can summon help, anywhere on Earth, using Iridium satellites (you need a subscription in addition to the device). Apple AirTags and the equivalent for Android (e.g., Tile) can provide something similar for your luggage (and also you) when in reach of other people with cellphones, and you can use apps on your own cellphone to automatically notify others of your whereabouts when you have a signal.

Power Supply

There are several kinds of electrical plugs used around the world, so take a universal adapter. Many of these are bulky and massively over-engineered. Get a minimal one that folds flat. It's also worth having a 3-way power strip and some of these are flat, too. Make sure the geometry allows you to plug in several USB or other chargers simultaneously. Note that adapters and power strips with "surge protection" are banned on cruise ships (they can catch fire because the neutral wire carries current on ships), so make sure you get them without. Voltage worldwide varies from 100 to 240 and frequency may be 50hz or 60hz (Japan has both!) and it's best if your devices work on any of these (voltage converters are cumbersome and only for low power).

Documents

Before discussing specific means of travel, note that you will almost always need some government ID for domestic travel, and a passport (typically valid for 6 months longer than your trip) for overseas--and possibly a visa and evidence of Covid vaccination/insurance (and Yellow Fever vaccination for some areas).

Many countries impose visa restrictions and costs tit-for-tat relative to what other countries do to them. So US citizens need an expensive visa to go to Brazil, and Europeans do not. You need to check what is required and be aware that some visas take a long while (and they will be holding on to your passport all that time) and others may require visiting a consulate in person. Specialist visa companies can really speed things up, but they cost quite a bit (upwards of $100). Some countries (e.g., India, Vietnam, Turkey) allow you to apply for certain visas on the web; you can then travel using the approval email and get the actual stamp on arrival (which may entail a line). Other countries (e.g., Cambodia, Oman) do visa on arrival. Western countries that previously had mutually visa-free travel, like Canada and Australia, increasingly require some form of pre-travel web-based registration that is basically a visa.

You generally need some blank pages in your passport for visas. It's worth getting a passport with extra pages if you plan to travel a lot. US passports can have extra pages added but for most you have to specify extra pages when you apply. Entry and exit stamps can use up pages that you want to keep blank for visas; I use a paperclip to hold some pages together and hope the immigration officers will follow the path of least resistance and stamp one of the other pages. It usually works.

Means of Travel

Here, I'm primarily talking about long-distance travel to and from your destination.

Cruises

This might seem a strange way to start as cruises are usually a round-trip self-contained vacation. But cruises are often a good way of getting from A to B, provided you have the time. They are often cheaper than business class airfare: for example, business class airfare from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia can be $8,000 but a two week cruise between the same destinations might cost only $3,000. And, of course, a cruise can also be a convenient way to visit other destinations along the way, and may be attractive in its own right. That said, I'd be cautious about cruises right now because of Covid.

For A to B you obviously want a one-way cruise and these are generally called repositionings. Cruise ships migrate with the seasons, like birds. So, for example, in the Northern Hemisphere summer there will be lots of cruise ships in Alaska, and around Norway, and in the Mediterranean. In the fall these will move to the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere--mainly Australia and South America. And in the Northern Hemisphere spring the migration will be reversed. You can often do these trips for well under $200 a day all in.

Specifically, in September/October you'll find ships repositioning from the American West Coast to Japan and then Southeast Asia, and also to Australia and New Zealand, typically via some Pacific Islands; a few will go to South America. They will be joined by some East Coast ships that first go through the Panama Canal. From Europe most will head across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, a few will go to South America, and a few more will go through the Suez Canal to the Gulf States and possibly on to India and Asia. The flow reverses in March and April. Note that repositionings pay no attention to seasonal weather: those to Japan arrive in typhoon season and those to the Caribbean in hurricane season.

Be aware that repositioning cruises have lots of sea days, so you need to be able to entertain yourself. There are usually some "enrichment" talks, and these can be quite good, plus trivia and other games. In the evenings there'll be live music and other entertainment, though all these have diminished in variety and quality over the years. During the day, I'm usually content to take in the lectures and to work or read in my room (I'm an academic, so sometimes I sits and thinks and other times I just sits).

Then there's food. There'll be a buffet that is often very crowded. Some people hang around the buffet all day, playing card games or just sitting there, and this can make it hard to find a table. I find the scene very unattractive, plus it's very difficult to handle if you are on your own as the staff will clear your food off your table (if you can find one) while you're fetching something else. Many buffets do not provide trays (to reduce hoggish behavior and waste) and that increases the number of trips to the counter. Buffets are next to impossible if you use a cane and have only one hand free, but a staff member will generally assist you if you ask. I visit the buffet only to grab ready made sandwiches before or after an excursion, and otherwise prefer to join a shared table in the (waiter served) main dining room (MDR) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and sometimes for afternoon tea as well. Some people eat in the buffet because they are nervous about sharing a table in the MDR, but I have had many interesting conversations, and only a few duds, at these gatherings. Alternatively, you can eat on your own in the MDR, but do be aware that the two-top tables are often very close together and will usually be occupied by people who have chosen them because they do not want to interact with strangers. Some people retreat to the buffet because they are nervous about sharing but also apprehensive about eating alone, feeling they will be an object of curiosity. In fact, no one will pay you any attention: look up "spotlight effect".

Cruise ships will generally have some arrangement for solo travelers to meet up for meals. These may be well-organised, with a staff member acting as the host, or they may just be a note in the daily program stating a bar and a time to meet--and they may well nominate the same place and time for different groups, such as LGBT, which can make things a little fraught. Sometimes, there will be a "solo table" that the Maitre D will direct you to. I occasionally join these gatherings but generally prefer mixed groups: "solo" is only one aspect of my identity, I also have a certain nationality, home state, occupation, education level, age, and I like the opportunity to encounter people who share some of those aspects, and also people who may have totally different life experiences.

In addition to the buffet and MDR, there will also usually be casual hamburger, pizza, and cafe-style places that are included in the basic fare, plus "specialty restaurants" that usually cost extra (e.g., $20 to $50 per person). The casual places vary in pretension: some will have pre-made food ready to go (useful before an excursion) while others make it to order, which can be either delightful or infuriating, depending on your circumstance. You need to decide if the extra-fee specialty places are worth it for you; it's still mass-produced food and I'd rather spend the money at a real restaurant on land. There's also room service; the type of selections vary by cruise line (some let you order from the dining room menu, others have fixed and limited choices), and some charge while others don't. There's usually some way to preorder room service breakfast (a card to hang on the door, or some function on their app or the TV) and this can be useful if you have an early morning excursion. It's customary to tip the delivery person a couple of $$ cash.

For dinner in the MDR, cruise ships usually offer a choice between "assigned seating" or "anytime dining". The former means you dine at one of two fixed times (typically 5:30pm or 7:30pm on American ships, later on others) at the same table, with the same people, every night. The latter means you turn up when you like and get assigned to whatever table is filling at the moment. Or, in either case, you can dine alone if you prefer. Some people like the predictability of assigned seating but I detest it. First of all, your table companions may not turn up (they eat in the buffet or one of the specialty restaurants) so there may be just a couple of you sitting at a table for 8, then you may not get along with them (you can ask the Maitre D to swap your table if it is really bad), and finally you are tied to a fixed schedule. With anytime dining you can tell the Maitre D that you are happy to share and get different companions each day, so you only have to put up with them once if they are duds. If you do have agreeable companions, thank the Maitre D as you leave and he will look out for you next time, or you can explicitly arrange to meet up with the same people. Breakfast and lunch always operate like anytime dining but have the disadvantage that people do not explicitly volunteer to share, so you can find yourself sitting with people who wish you weren't there or have no idea how to hold a conversation with anyone but a relative. All human life is there, so you need to be versatile, and a little thick-skinned.

You should also be aware that eastbound cruises will give you several 23 hour days in succession, which can be enervating (they often try to minimize the effects by putting the clocks forward during the day (rather than in the night), but this is not good for the crew as they have an hour less to complete their tasks), whereas westbound gives you 25 hour days.

Cruises usually board a bit before noon and depart about 5pm. Your boarding pass may specify a time but nobody pays attention or checks. Most passengers turn up early but I prefer to arrive later, when the crowds have subsided. The process is like boarding a plane: you do bag drop, paperwork, checkin, security (they are looking for alcohol in your carryon, not guns), and then actually go on board. You may not be able to get into your room until mid afternoon, and your bag will arrive a bit later (minus any alcohol you were trying to sneak aboard). There will be a "muster drill" before departure. The procedure varies by ship and cruiseline; some require you to stand by your assigned lifeboat and watch how to put on a life vest (or even to do it yourself), while others just require you to watch a video, airline style. You must do whatever is required and get signed off for doing so or the ship cannot leave.

Your welcome evaporates on arrival at the destination, when they have to turn the ship over in readiness for another batch of passengers. You usually need to be out of your room by 8am (you leave your big bags outside the room the night before and collect them on shore). They call you for disembarkation in groups starting about 7:30 and finishing about 10. You cannot get off earlier than your assigned group (which is based on a questionnaire about travel plans sent out a few days prior), but you can be late, so I usually go and have a leisurely breakfast in the MDR and get off late in the proceedings.

If you are continuing on the next cruise of the same ship (so-called back-to-back, or B2B cruises), you may or may not be required/allowed to get off; the procedure varies by ship and country and port. You'll be informed about it, and also about the procedure if you need to move cabins (the crew will do a lot of it).

Cruise Lines and Pricing

There are dozens of cruise lines, although many of them are owned by just a few mega corporations. The cruise lines are stratified by opulence just like hotels and it's easy to spend $1,000 or $1,500 a day on the more luxurious lines, but you can also pay less than $100 a day for one or two people on more modest lines. And on each individual ship there are different grades of accommodation and correspondingly different costs: inside cabins (no window), ocean view (usually a decent sized window that doesn't open, but sometimes just a porthole), balconies, and suites. And there may be further gradations corresponding to more private dining or inclusive drink packages. But even the most basic deal will include accommodation, meals, and entertainment. Drinks (and that includes soft drinks and decent coffee, as well as alcohol) will cost extra, with a pretty high markup (you can drink water from the tap, but it may not taste good). On top of the basic fare there will be taxes and port fees and what are called gratuities or appreciation for the crew. The latter are theoretically optional but you should never remove them as they are actually their wages, just like tips for waiters in American restaurants. Port fees are just the cost of parking the ship at the various ports; if you want to take port excursions, those are a separate cost.

When you see a price quoted for a cruise you need to check that all these non-negotiable extras are included. There may also be genuine options that you probably do not want: drink packages (you need to drink a lot for these to pay off), and special restaurants (save your money for a good restaurant on land), and some that maybe you do want, like Internet. Increasingly, cruise lines are offering all-in packages that bundle several of these and they can be an OK deal (e.g., one that includes crew gratuities, wifi, drinks, and often a few special meals and discounts on excursions, all for about $65 a day per person). The upmarket cruise lines generally include all of these (and sometimes flights and excursions) in their (much higher) basic fare.

A typical cabin has a queen size bed that can be separated into two twins, a desk or table, a couple of chairs, and a shower and toilet. Some cabins have additional bunk beds that lower from the ceiling, or convertible sofas. These cabins can sleep four in total and might be suitable for families with small children but you have to know each other really well before you put more than two adults in normal sized cabins.

Fares are typically quoted per person for two sharing. There are often deals where third and fourth stay free. If you are traveling alone you will encounter the solo supplement which is usually 100% (though occasionally much less, and sometimes even more), so you'll pay as much as two people, even though you don't eat for two nor require twice the service. The rationale is that the ships make all their profit from incidental spending--drinks and so on--and if there's only one of you then they only get half of what they would otherwise from that room. It's not worth getting upset about, nor trying to minimize it: just look at the all-in bottom line price and decide if that's acceptable to you. Some ships have a few solo cabins; these are always small and more expensive than paying 100% supplement on a regular cabin, so never a good deal.

Many people insist on cabins with a balcony, and these can be attractive in scenic locales (though you will see more from the open decks) or for lounging in warm ones, but they will usually be a lot more expensive. Beware that they don't have blackout curtains so any ocean view or balcony cabin will have light streaming in during summer nights at high latitudes (e.g., Alaska, Norway, Antarctica). An inside room is blessedly dark and good for sleeping.

Fortunately for our purposes, repositioning cruises are often among the cheapest; I've taken many, solo, within my $200 rule, mostly in inside cabins on the mainstream lines. Those I've used include Carnival, Princess, Holland America (all owned by Carnival), Royal Caribbean and Celebrity (owned by Royal Caribbean), and Norwegian. These are like the airlines: they're all pretty similar but some people have strong preferences. And there have been some recent developments that could change assessments: for example, Princess has removed the armchairs from their cabins, deliberately making them less comfortable so that you will spend more time out in the bars, and Holland America has removed almost all its entertainment and its enrichment talks and dumbed down its food (presumably to reduce costs). These might have been reactions to Covid, and may be reversed now that business is booming.

An unfortunate development is that cruise ships are getting bigger: anything under 2,000 passengers is now considered small, and mainstream ships may carry 3,000, 4,000, or even more. Also, newer ships tend to have smaller cabins than older ones, and may lack a promenade deck (where you can walk all around the ship in the open). Few ports can handle the big ships so this limits where they can go. And when they do dock, each one is an instant crowd--and there will often be more than one in the same port because they have nowhere else to go. Furthermore, big ships cannot navigate the rivers where many cities are located (e.g., Saigon, Hanoi, Bangkok, Tokyo) so they park at an industrial port 50 or more miles away and you have to waste several hours on buses to get to where you really want to be. If you actually want to visit the intermediate ports on a cruise, my advice is to avoid ships bigger than 2,000 passengers, and for small places and those that require tenders (where there is no dock and the ship's lifeboats are used to ferry people ashore, such as Pacific Islands) prefer ships with less than 800 passengers. Also note that tendering requires calm seas, so these ports are skipped more often than those where the ship can actually dock. Several ports (e.g., in French Polynesia) now ban large ships, and some ports (e.g., Venice, Monterey California) ban cruise ships altogether. Even if you are on a small ship, your visit may by spoiled by a megaship being there at the same time. Check out who's in port here: https://www.cruisetimetables.com/#ports. Look up Santorini to see what I mean about getting crowded by other ships.

In addition to the places mentioned above that just do not want cruise ship crowds, others are placing restrictions due to pollution, carbon dioxide, or danger. Cruise ships are pretty significant polluters (most burn "bunker fuel", which is thick sludge that has to be heated before it can be injected into the engines) and have about the same consumption per passenger mile as an airplane. Norway, for example, will ban cruise ships from its fjords in a couple of years time unless they are "clean." Antarctica requires fairly clean fuel and all icy latitudes will soon require some sort of "ice hull" that is likely to restrict visits to luxury or expedition ships. Best to go to these destinations fairly soon. I have some notes on Antarctica below.

To familiarize yourself with cruising, read the messages at boards.cruisecritic.com but beware that most of these people are avid cruisers, whereas I am chiefly advocating it as a pleasant and inexpensive way to get from A to B.

To search for cruises and prices go to www.vacationstogo.com; you'll need to give them your email address but they don't hassle you. You can search by many criteria and can then get pricing for different styles of cabin and solo or not, and you can also get the cost per day and can sort on that by clicking on the column header. Another good search engine for cruises is www.cruiseplum.com.

For example, I'm writing this on 22nd of October 2022 and a 13 day cruise from Lisbon Portugal to Tampa Florida on the Carnival Pride is available next week for $29 a day solo (yes, $389 all in). Or, at the end of November, a 16 day cruise from Lisbon to Rio De Janeiro on the Azamara Pursuit, a somewhat luxurious line, is available for $124 a day solo, or 11 days from Lisbon to Miami on the Azamara Onward is $181 a night solo, or there's 14 days on the Celebrity Infinity from Fort Lauderdale Florida to Rio De Janeiro for $132 a day solo. Then, in February 2023, 25 days on the Diamond Princess from San Diego to Tokyo via Guam and Saipan is $99 a day solo. Or in April 2023, 14 days on the Holland America Westerdam from Tokyo to Seattle is available for $102 per day solo. And 21 days from Auckland to San Francisco (or 29 days from Sydney with a circumnavigation of New Zealand) on the Grand Princess is $168 per day solo. The cost for two people sharing will typically be about the same (because of the 100% single supplement). You'll need to add the cost of drinks and port excursions to these.

Cruise pricing involves quite a lot of rug merchant stuff, with "today only" sales and special discounts and so on. If you qualify, the discounts can be substantial, especially for "interline" (airline crew etc.), with more modest ones for past guests and those over 55. Check the buttons at bottom left of vacationstogo. If the discounts are really huge, then it probably means the cruise is not selling well and this will be reflected in the regular price if you wait a while. You can often get a good price by waiting until 90 or 60 days before the cruise departs, because this is when people holding reservations have to pay up or cancel. And you can buy from the cruise line itself, or from a large specialist travel agency (TA) like Vacations To Go, or a large general TA such as Expedia, or a small local one, or from a big box general retailer like Costco. TAs and big box stores will sometimes give you a discount out of their commission, but you can't expect much given the bottom-fishing strategy I'm describing here. I've done okay with www.cruisecompete.com who basically broadcast your interest to several big agencies and you'll typically receive half a dozen competitive offers.

Packaged Flights

I've advocated cruises as a way of getting from A to B but what if you first need to get to A or to get home from B? Well, wait, there's more. The cruise lines have deals with the airlines and you can often get stunning discounted fares for one-way flights in business class. Holland America and Princess share a booking system called FlightEase that you can research on the Princess web site without having to make a cruise booking first.

There's no need for the flights to connect up to the cruise. So, for example, I once took a cruise from Florida to Rome, then independently took some European flights and traveled around the Greek islands and mainland, and finally used FlightEase to fly home from Frankfurt to San Francisco nonstop on United in business class for $1,000. Usually that ticket would be $5-8,000, and unobtainable with frequent flyer miles. Similarly, I've flown San Francisco to Amsterdam and back on KLM in conjunction with a cruise out of Rotterdam for $1,120 each way in nonstop business class.

Of course you don't have to fly to A or go home from B: you can take another cruise, possibly on a different line, or start or continue with a land trip.

Port Excursions

In addition to cruises as a superior way of getting from A to B than business class airfare, they can be an enjoyable way to visit certain destinations. A port stopover is typically from 9 to 5 but there may be immigration or customs hassles beforehand or on reboarding, and delays in tendering. So cruises make most sense for ports where a short visit is adequate, or where you can view the sights from the ship. These are mostly small islands (e.g., Polynesia, some Mediterranean islands), isolated coastal towns (e.g., Arica, Chile, or Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok, Russia), coastal scenery (e.g, Alaska, Norwegian and South American fjords), and extreme latitudes (e.g., the Arctic ice cap and Antarctic Peninsula). A cruise is not the way to see Paris or Rome--although river cruises might be an option. I've never taken one of those and there are persistent problems with low water levels on Europe rivers that can turn them into a bus tour. They could make good sense on the Nile or Mekong.

When your cruise ship stops over at an intermediate port, you have to decide what to do: stay onboard, get off and look around on your own, or take an excursion/tour. You can sometimes pick up a tour at the dock; these can be very good but you will have no guarantee of quality or honesty--it's luck of the draw. Alternatively, you can book one ahead of time, for example by using www.viator.com or www.toursbylocals.com or by joining a group of people who have arranged this (check out the "roll calls" on boards.cruisecritic.com). Or you can sign up with a tour organized by the cruise line.

My experience is that wandering around on your own is always a mistake unless you have a very explicit plan. Generally it's best to take a tour and I usually use the cruise line's offerings for simplicity. These are generally graded easy, medium, or difficult. Easy will mostly be a drive-by with a few strolls, medium will involve some more difficult walking (hills, cobbles, or trails), and difficult can be quite adventurous. These days, I generally opt for easy which will typically cost somewhere between $40 and $120. If you do want to explore on your own, Tom's Port Guides provides pdf guides to 78 ports, mostly in North America and the Mediterranean. What's in Port" provides general information for 1,200 ports. You can also get ideas by searching on YouTube.

One benefit of the ship's own tours is that they will "guarantee" to get you back on time (or hold the ship for you or, as a last resort, get you to its next port of call). In reality, there is little risk of missing the ship with other activities, but you do need to be aware of it.

Flying

The single most important thing about flying (if you are older than 25) is to avoid overnight flights (red-eyes); or, if you must take a red-eye, then do so in first or business class with a flatbed on as long a flight as you can: preferably longer than 12 hours. Short red-eyes are intolerable even in first or business class: you don't get enough sleep. The goal is to be asleep in a bed throughout your normal night time hours.

So, never, ever, take a standard flight from the US East Coast to Europe: it'll take off about 8:00 p.m. and land about 2 or 3:00 a.m. your time, which is 7 or 8 a.m. local time. You'll feel terrible from jetlag and lack of sleep (they'll have had the lights on to serve drinks and meals for the first two hours, and the final one), and it's too early to get into your hotel (although a dayroom may be an option--see below). If you have a connecting flight you'll find it deeply uncomfortable and will have difficulty coping with any problems. Either way, it'll take you days to get over it. (An exception may be if you live at the destination and can go straight home and to bed.) westbound flights are not a problem (unless they are exceptionally long) as these are invariably daytime flights.

Avoiding RedEyes

If you must fly from the US East Coast to Europe, then the best approach is to take one of the few daytime flights to London: these depart about 9:00 a.m. and land about 10:00 p.m. local time and are tolerable in coach class. Typically, they depart from Washington DC, New York/Newark, Boston, and sometimes Toronto. You can also do this from Chicago if AA90 is operating and there are sometimes daytime flights to other European destinations: Iceland, The Azores, and occasionally Paris and Istanbul.

On arrival at London Heathrow, you can check into an airport hotel (there are dozens of them), have a meal and a drink and a full night's sleep, and get up at leisure the following morning and proceed to your actual destination. Hotels are not allowed to run their own shuttle buses at Heathrow but the red bus routes around the airport are frequent and free (though you do need an Oyster card) and run all night, but you must be able to manage your bags without inconveniencing others (so nothing more than carryons). The free zone includes most of the hotels along the Bath Road. Aaah, the buses no longer seem to be free (that's a good site for general information about Heathrow hotels), due to Covid. Even paying for them (it's only a couple of pounds), the red buses are always to be preferred (unless you are burdened with luggage) to the infrequent, slow, and expensive "Hotel Hoppa" shuttles (which do not run overnight). Taxis from the airport are not an option for these short journeys (going back may be ok).

An alternative way to get from the US East Coast to Europe is by cruise ship as discussed earlier. There are many ships repositioning in that direction in Spring, and Cunard does New York to Southampton year-round. The repositioning cruises are dirt cheap and Cunard (in modest cabins) is cheaper than a business class flight.

If you are starting further west, then one option is to head east, overnight there, and then take a daytime flight (or a cruise). When I could not get an affordable business class flight from San Francisco, I would fly to Chicago in the afternoon, stay overnight at the Hilton that is attached to the airport by a pedestrian tunnel, and then take AA90 to London the next morning.

However, the best way to fly from the Western US to Europe is to first get to a hub airport as far west as you can and then take a business (or first) class flight with flatbeds that takes off as late as possible and goes non-stop to your destination or somewhere further east. For example to get to anywhere in Eastern Europe, consider flying nonstop to Istanbul in business class on the excellent Turkish Airlines, optionally spending a night or two there, and then continuing to your destination. Similarly, the Gulf airlines, with a day or two stopover in their home bases, can be a good way to get from the USA or Europe to India. These flights can be 14 or 16 hours long, but that is no problem on a decent airline with flatbeds and good food and drink.

There are some routes where it is impossible to find flights at rational hours; examples are those between North America and the Southern Hemisphere (where, for example, the airlines will leave a plane on the ground in Santiago Chile for 12 hours rather than fly back to the USA during the day). Here, you have to put up with it, take a cruise, or split the journey into pieces. For example, I've flown from San Francisco to New Zealand (where the nonstop flights take off at 10pm and land two! days later at 6am) by taking a daytime flight to Honolulu, spending the night there, then a daytime flight to Fiji, spending the night there, then a daytime flight to Auckland (via Kiritimati--Christmas Island--seeing this was a real bonus) and arriving in Auckland, perfectly rested and relaxed, at a civilized hour one day later than the nonstop. And from Santiago Chile I've returned to San Francisco on daytime flights via a few days in Panama City.

Overnight Stopovers

Some of the routings advocated above require an overnight stopover, and I also recommend stopovers in several other citcumstances. Note that international flight stopovers less than 24 hours are treated as a connection, whereas longer will often "break the fare" and turn it into a possibly more expensive multi-stop.

So, for example, after a long flight I will almost always stop over for a night or two rather than continue directly to a connecting flight. And also before any long or early flight, I will typically avoid the anxiety and hassle of a connecting flight or train, or other uncertainty, by getting that out of the way the day before and spending the night at a hotel by the hub airport.

Apart from comfort, another reason for breaking journeys with an overnight stopover is to avoid arriving at a strange town in darkness. It's one thing to arrive in London at 10:00 p.m. and quite another to arrive in Kolkata/Calcutta at 3:00 a.m., particularly if you've not been to India before.

It's worth noting that some airports have hotel rooms actually inside the airport that you can rent by the hour. Singapore and Bangkok are examples. And some have more minimal "sleeping cabins": YotelAir is one such chain of these. Elsewhere, a nearby hotel may provide "dayrooms" that you can rent from say 8am to 6pm. There are specialized booking sites for these (they come and go as none is particularly good, so Google for them) and Hilton, for example, can do this on their standard booking site (just use the same dates for arrival and departure). These can all be useful when you can arrange a long layover but not a full stopover (as noted above, a layover greater than 24 hours may break the fare).

Some will say these routings waste time, but my experience is the opposite: they maximize the number of days when you are fully functional, and are pleasant in their own right. Think it through: the usual way is to leave the US East Coast on (say) Friday afternooon/evening, arrive in Europe feeling dreadful on Saturday morning, where it will be too early to check in to your hotel, or where you have to cope with connecting flights; you'll finally collapse in bed, exhausted, possibly earlier than you should, compromising your jetlag recovery; then you have Sunday for recovery and you still might not feel good on Monday. (If you start on Saturday, you won't have a day for recovery and will feel dreadful on Monday and most of the week.) Alternatively, take a daytime flight on Saturday, have a meal and sleep on arrival, use Sunday to get to your ultimate destination in comfort and another night's sleep; Monday you are ready to go. The daytime route has taken less total time, and eliminated the misery.

Coach vs. Business/First Class

Coach/economy class has become significantly worse over the years; in particular they are now cramming more seats per row into widebodies. 777s were built for nine abreast and they now cram in ten; 787s were built for eight and they now put in nine; A350s were designed as extra-widebodies so they would be very comfortable at eight across and now they cram in nine or even ten. This not only makes the seats cramped, but it makes the aisles narrow so that you will get jostled constantly, and it means the overhead bins run out of space. There are a few airlines that preserve the old spacing--Japan Airlines, for example. And of course the pitch (distance to the seat in front) has also got reduced. There will usually be some seats with larger pitch available to passengers with status or for a fee, and there will sometimes be seats with a bit more space and comfort called premium economy or similar that cost quite a lot more. And at the front there will be business class and/or first class that cost significantly more. On domestic US flights these seats are called first class and are substantially bigger and roomier; on flights in Europe they are just ordinary coach seats with the middle seat blocked off. Intercontinental business and first class seats are in a different league and should normally fold down into a (truly horizontal) flatbed; the state of the art arranges it so that each seat has aisle access and sometimes a door.

To check the type and configuration of seats on your airplane, use aerolopa.com. Do not bother with seatguru: it is no longer maintained and is full of disinformation.

I can cope with coach class for flights up to about 5 hours, but it's worth paying or having status for the extra legroom seats and for early boarding so there will still be room in the overheads. And better seats are always welcome if you can score them at reasonable cost. For longer flights, premium economy or better is highly preferable, and for really long flights or overnights a flatbed is essential.

Let me stress that red-eyes and flights longer than about 5 hours are close to intolerable in coach, whereas 12 or more hours in good business (or first) class can be a pleasure. But do beware that not all business and first class seats are equal: some international business class seats go flat but not fully horizontal (so-called "slantbeds") and these should be avoided as they are little better than recliners for a decent night's sleep (and there may even be some previous-generation recliners still around). Airlines typically advertise their best product, irrespective of whether this is actually delivered on your route: see this court case. Read the blogs for informed reviews.

Routings

To research routings, flights, and prices use flights.google.com or matrix.itasoftware.com; the latter has an extremely rich routing language that allows very sophisticated queries (in particular, the extension code "minconnect 12:00" ensures a 12 hour layover and "-redeyes" eliminates red-eyes). Google it. However, many low-cost airlines do not participate in the reservation systems that these query. https://www.dohop.is/ is a search engine that includes low-cost airlines. To find what airlines serve a given airport, examine the Wikipedia entry for that airport, and you can then search the websites of those airlines.

It's worth studying the local geography: for example, Western Japan is closer to Seoul than to Tokyo and flights to, say, Fukuoka or Hiroshima are often much cheaper via Seoul than those via Tokyo. Business class to the US from Auckland, New Zealand is often much cheaper than from Sydney, Australia, so it can often be worth a cheap coach-class flight SYD-AKL, optionally spend a few days in New Zealand, and then fly to the US from there.

Hidden City Routings

Sometimes round trip tickets will be best, other times it will be two one-ways (e.g., on different airlines), or open jaws (that means A-B-C or B-A/C-B where the "open jaw" distance A-C is less than A-B or B-C), or any of these combined with domestic flights. One-way trips are often expensive and this is where frequent flyer miles or points can be useful, as the flights you buy with these are usually one-way. Sometimes you can reduce the cash price by adding a throwaway leg to the itinerary, so instead of going A-B, you buy a ticket A-B-C and do not use the final leg. This makes it look like an open jaw. Usually C needs to be in the same continent as A, but need not be close (e.g., A is San Francisco and C is New York). And A-B could be in business class and B-C in coach.

Note that skipping a fight will automatically invalidate all the later ones on the same ticket, so don't do it except in circumstances like those just described. There's one additional exception: so-called hidden city ticketing, which is a variant on that above. The idea is that you want to go from A to B but it is expensive. When B is a hub airport you may be able to find connecting flights A-B-C to another city C that is much cheaper. So you buy that ticket but get off at B.

For these wrinkles to work, C must be the final stop on your ticket (because the airline will cancel all later flights on the ticket when you no-show for B-C) and you must have only carry-on bags (because the airlines will insist on checking bags through to C). An exception is if A is outside the US and B is a US gateway: it's a peculiarity of the American system that you must clear immigration and customs at your point of entry, so even if your bags are checked through to C, they will be unloaded at B for you to take them through customs, after which you just walk away with them. Another possibility is for the B-C flight to be several days later than A-B, but this usually breaks the fare. The airlines are wise to hidden city routings and will jump on you (e.g., cancel your frequent flyer account and possibly ban you) if you do it more than a couple of times (you can say you fell ill the first time), so it's best to do it on an airline you don't care about, and possibly use a different frequent flyer account (e.g., fly on United but credit the miles to ANA). It's up to you whether you are comfortable with the ethics of this. And, of course, it might actually be interesting to go to C and later return to B or A.

Oddball Routings

And for "avgeek" fun, it's worth knowing about and seeking out oddball routings. I mentioned the Kiritimati routing above, others include "milk run" flights in Alaska that visit several small towns on their way to Anchorage or Juneau, and the United "Island Hopper" that goes from Honolulu to Guam via Majuro, Kwajalein, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Chuuk/Truk. (Kwajalein is the largest atoll in the world, and you are not supposed to look out of the window on approach and on the ground as it is a US base with classified installations.) I've taken this as part of a routing to Japan (San Francisco to Honolulu, stay overnight, Island Hopper to Guam, stay overnight, then go sightseeing the next day and continue to Tokyo in the afternoon) that cost no more than the standard direct flight. Google for "milk run" flights.

SITI/SOTO Tickets

Sometimes it can be best to buy the tickets from an overseas travel agent or website: look up the abbreviations SITI/SOTO etc. For example, domestic flights in Chile (and Easter Island is a domestic destination) are much cheaper if obtained from a Chilean site (such as LAN airline's local website, in Spanish) than an overseas one. You need to experiment and to check whether the warnings that this is "illegal" are serious or not.

Nested Tickets

Another variant is when you wish to make two trips A-B-A and A-C-A. It can sometimes be cheaper to buy one open jaw ticket A-B/C-A, and another B-A-C nested within it (so that you fly A-B on one ticket and return B-A on the other, then vice-versa for A-C and C-A). This can be useful for international trips, where business class fares originating outside the USA are often less expensive than those originating inside.

RTW Tickets

The airline alliances (OneWorld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam) have round-the-world (RTW) fares, and also other special fares, such as Circle Pacific. These have complex rules and are difficult to book (you generally need a specialist travel agent) but can provide good prices, The general restriction is you have to keep going in more or less the same direction and cannot backtrack (much). A typical RTW business class fare is about $10k in the USA, but can be as little as half that if you start somewhere else (typically, Japan or Norway). Read the discussions under the various alliances on Flyertalk.

Low Cost Airlines

How do you get desirable seats and routings at a reasonable cost without all these complexities? One way is to use low cost airlines that fly longhaul and do have true business class or flat beds. Most of these have gone out of business (after all, selling stuff for cheap is a difficult business model) but ZipAir is a subsidiary of Japan Airlines and offers flatbeds between the West Coast and Japan for $1,000 each way. But note that its fares are strictly nonrefundable and you pay extra for food, bags, etc. Condor offers reasonable business class prices between the US and Europe, and Norse Atlantic Airways has a decent premium economy seat at fairly low cost that can be attractive on westbound flights.

Shorthaul, the so-called "low cost" airlines can cost more than the mainlines but their price structure is more rational. They generally "unbundle" all their services, so you pay extra for a seat reservation, or a meal, or a checked bag (though the mainlines do a lot of this now, unless you have status, and "low cost" Southwest checks bags for free). They differ greatly in their quality of service and available comforts. For example, Indigo in India is very good and they provide quite a few attractive addon options at low cost, whereas Ryanair in Europe is pretty nasty (but that's true of almost all flying in Europe). Make sure you understand the "free for all" boarding style used by some of these. As noted earlier, many low cost airlines do not participate in the global reservation systems used by most search engines and ticket vendors. https://www.dohop.is/ is a search engine that does include many low-cost airlines. To find what airlines serve a given airport, examine the Wikipedia entry for that airport, and you can then search the websites of those airlines.

Bargain Fares

The regular airlines sometimes have bargain fares, by design or accident. Keep an eye on newsgroups such as Flyertalk Premium Fare Deals and similar.

Frequent Flyer Tickets

Another way to fly inexpensively and in comfort is to use frequent flyer miles, but it has become increasingly difficult to find available seats or guaranteed upgrades. Several of the blogs have side-businesses that will book frequent flyer tickets for you, for a fee, and their expertise can be worth it. Also, there are specialist search engines that you have to pay for, such as ExpertFlyer. Note that frequent flyer seats and upgrades are sometimes made available when they enter the schedule (about a year out) but more often they show up closer to flight time, or even at the last minute (when the airline knows they will go unsold). Booking flights a long way out is risky as airlines often change their schedules or routings; if you have a paid ticket they will generally work with you to find a satisfactory alternative, but with frequent flyer tickets they may just refund your miles and leave you with no good alternatives.

Pay with Points

An alternative to using your frequent flyer or credit card points to score an award ticket is to use the points as payment for, or toward, a regular revenue ticket. This may not get the same value as an award ticket, but is easier to score. Here's a description of the Amex version.

Travel Packages

The remaining way to get good deals on flights is to use travel packages. I discussed these under cruises but you can also get them from travel agents such as www.expedia.com or from special web pages of the airlines such as vacations.united.com. The idea is you combine flights with hotels and/or car rental and get significant price reductions. It's important to understand that you do not need to use their hotels for the entire duration of your stay: some minimum such as 3 or 4 days is sufficient, and the hotel need not be in the city where you land. And you do not even need to actually stay in the hotel: you can book the cheapest one and simply not use it. Read the specialist blogs or www.flyertalk.com for more.

Airline Clubs

Airlines and some other entities (e.g., credit card companies) have member-only clubs in most major airports. Some are inside security, others outside (in which case they are largely a waste of time). They can offer a comfortable place to sit and usually free food and drink. The quality varies greatly between airlines, but even more by country. They can also provide help from skilled agents with shorter lines than those serving the general public.

You usually gain access by having significant status in the alliance to which the airline belongs (e.g., Silver in Oneworld will get you into American or British airlines clubs), be traveling in business or first class, or hold a high-end credit card. Or pay cash (typically around $50). It is becoming common for credit cards to offer access as a bonus, and as a result the clubs are often crowded. Some of the credit card arrangements give you a substantial (e.g., $25) discount at airport restaurants and this can be a better deal if you have the time.

In my view, the clubs are not worth bothering with in the USA, where they are crowded and their offerings meager, and the basic airport is usually pretty pleasant: just find an empty gate and make yourself comfortable. Or have a meal in one of the restaurants. In most of Asia, the basic airports are OK and the clubs are good, so take your pick. And in Europe, the basic airports are crowded hellholes full of "shops" and with scarce seating and no access to the gates until your flight is called, and a club (or again, a restaurant) can be a welcome relief. In India, the modernized airports like Delhi and Mumbai are fairly comfortable and the clubs are good. In old-style airports like Bagdogra, the basic airport is like a bus station and there are no clubs. In these places, look for a restaurant (typically upstairs).

Some airlines and airports have "arrival lounges" where you can spruce up and maybe get something to eat after a long flight. They are generally available only to those who flew in business or first class. They can be useful if you ignored my advice and arrived on a red-eye and it is too early to go anywhere. Most airports have public showers for a reasonable fee that will serve the same purpose if you don't have access to a lounge. And/or you can visit a restaurant.

Arrival and Departure

You've got to get through checkin, security, and possibly immigration on departure, and some of baggage claim, customs, and immigration on arrival. These all involve standing in lines.

You can speed up checkin by having status with the airline or its alliance, or by doing it online or at a kiosk. In the USA you can generally use a bag drop outside, but are expected to tip.

Security can also take a while, so "precheck" and/or "Clear" and/or airline status is often worthwhile.

US immigration and customs can take an hour or more so it is worth signing up for Global Entry if you are eligible. Other countries may have similar deals for citizens and visitors. Arriving in business or first class will often get you into a special fast line.

I'm old and disabled and use a walking cane, which whisks me though lines in some countries. Nowadays, I need to request a wheelchair, which delays some things (you may have to wait 30 mins for the chair or cart to arrive) and speeds up others. In most countries, you should tip generously if you do this. And don't fake it! (You will sometimes see 20 wheelchairs, plus their families, boarding a flight, but on arrival 18 of them will have been miraculously cured and walk off with no difficulty.)

Getting away from the airport

I discuss ground travel in general below, but I want to stress that you should research ahead of time how you're going to leave your destination airport. There can often be a bewildering number of choices, not all of which may be safe or honest, and arriving unprepared leaves you vulnerable. For example the subway may look simple but could be rife with pickpockets (e.g., Rome, Athens), or may have been designed by idiots so there are several steep steps where you need to enter the car with your luggage (e.g. Vienna). However, the subway can be a good choice in other places: you need to research the specifics. Similar considerations apply to local buses.

Airport taxis can be intimidating in some places (e.g., more than one person sitting up front), or unmetered, or stopping to pick up other people; best to look for a prepaid option (sometimes their booths are in baggage claim or at its exit, sometimes outside), or book a private transfer there and then, or do it in advance online, or with your hotel.

Even honest or prepaid taxis will be expensive if the airport is a long way from your destination. New airports are often many miles away from their city; some cities are just huge; and some airlines use airports that are nowhere near the city they purport to serve (Ryanair is notorious for this).

Express buses can be useful when the airport is a long way from your destination; research it online. If you cannot find one that goes to your hotel, go to the hotel nearest to yours and have them call you a taxi for the last mile. The same applies to airport express trains.

Note that the Narita Express train in Japan requires a reservation and you must sit in your reserved seat; this is because (traveling from the airport) the train splits into three pieces going to different destinations and you need to be in the right piece. You get the reservation and ticket from a booth near the entrance to the train platform. There's also the Skyliner (if you are going to, say, Ueno), which is slightly cheaper and faster and run by a different company. Both will be a hassle if you have much luggage. The "limousine" buses are cheaper and can be very slow (traffic) but luggage is no problem and they may take you directly to your hotel (if not, do as described above and go to one nearby and take a taxi for the last mile).

If coming off a long distance flight, I generally prefer to stay at an airport hotel the first night and will take their bus or car to get there. Then move on the next day, when I'm rested and alert.

Car Rental

I'm talking self-drive car hire/rental here. But note that there are many (mostly poorer) countries where it is impossible or dangerous to drive yourself. Examples are India, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia (which adds to the excitement by driving on the right but using a lot of second-hand cars imported from Thailand, where they drive on the left and therefore have the steering wheel on the wrong side). Instead, you hire a car and driver, which you can do through your hotel, or in advance via a travel agent. If you take a multi-day trip, the driver will usually take care of himself overnight, but in a cold climate or isolated area you should make sure he has somewhere out of the weather: your hotel will probably have a "drivers' room" and you should pay for him to stay there--it'll only cost a couple of $$.

Back to self-drive in richer countries: the cheaper rental companies often hassle you to buy upgrades or insurance and/or they discover previously imperceptible damage to the car when you return it. For this reason I generally deal only with the big three: Hertz, Avis, and National/Eurocar (yellow, red, and green respectively) as they are generally hassle-free. It's important to join their frequent travel programs: this will save you paperwork, allow you to bypass lines, and may also have other benefits.

Beware of any airport that has a central rentacar place (San Francisco is like this). You have to take a bus or train to get there and then there is sure to be a line at the counter. Better to use an off-airport location in those cases.

Don't pay for "insurance" or collision damage waiver (CDW): you should get some other form of insurance that covers this. Within the USA you can generally add rental car insurance to your own car insurance for a trivial sum, elsewhere you want to use a high-end credit card that has primary rental car insurance. (Almost all cards have secondary insurance but that's not good enough.)

You almost never want to take the pre-purchased gas option: do the math. You should generally return the car with the same amount of gas as when you picked it up, otherwise they'll hit you with a refueling charge at inflated rates. However, in some countries (e.g., South Korea) you may find the car runs on LPG. I've no idea how you refill those. Automated self-service gas stations can be inscrutable and should generally be avoided unless you are running seriously low. I've generally found a cashier or someone willing to help, but some are totally unmanned so you may be dependent on the kindness of fellow motorists (same goes for automated parking lots).

Speaking of automated parking lots: Japanese hotels (and some other locations) have elevator garages, which look like a slim 8-or 10 storey building with no windows. Here, you drive your car in and onto a ramp, collect your stuff and get out, and the car disappears into the sky. When you collect it, it will be back on the ramp at ground level, but facing out. There's usually a man to operate the thing but if not, you can get help at the hotel reception--and should do so as there are lots of buttons. I'm always worried that if I press the wrong button it'll come back upside down or inside out.

Note that some countries require an International Driving License. Some (e.g., Italy) don't check but you could be in trouble if you don't have one and have to deal with the police for any reason. You absolutely must have one in Japan: you cannot rent a car without it. You need to get these in your home country; in the USA you get them from AAA for about $15.

Automatic transmissions are not common in Europe and South America and will cost a lot more. Learn to drive a stick shift: rent one for a day and just practice (the same goes for driving on the "other" side of the road).

In remote places like Easter Island and other small islands, you'll need to take whatever you can get: ask your hotel.

One-way rentals often carry a large additional cost: you need to research it. In Japan it can matter if the dropoff is in the same or a different prefecture. On the other hand, there can be spectacular deals when there is a surplus of cars in one area. For example, it is often very cheap (almost free) to pick up a car in the American sunbelt in spring and drop it off in the North (what counts as "North" depends on the circumstances at the company; generally San Francisco, Kansas City, or Atlanta will do); and vice versa in the fall. I once got a similar deal in Australia, picking up a car in Uluru and dropping it in Alice Springs.

Taking rental cars across an international border can be problematic. For example, you may not be allowed to take a car rented in Germany into Italy. Taking a car between Chile and Argentina needs to be arranged in advance and costs extra. And you normally need to return the car to the country where you picked it up.

The usual rental companies do not have much of a presence in Japan, and the language of rental companies' websites can be a challenge; I generally use JR Ekiren's English site, which is quite good: www.ekiren.co.jp. (JR is Japan Rail and eki means station, so these are always located at a train station). Another site with a functional English web site is Tocoo. They act as a broker for various companies all around Japan and have good rates, but add a modest markup of their own. Picking up a rental car in Japan can be tricky if you don't speak Japanese (the agents will seldom speak English) but Tocoo can send them a bilingual script. Another broker option with a decent website is rentalcars.com but I've not used them myself.

All Japanese motorways/expressways are toll roads, and quite expensive. Furthermore, the toll machines are very difficult to handle if you don't speak Japanese. Tocoo will rent you an "ETC" card that lets you drive through the automated lanes. On the other hand, rental cars in Japan are most useful in rural areas where you'll be on local roads and won't need to deal with tolls; for longer distances you are better off using trains or planes rather than cars.

It used to be the case for navigation in Japan that you would need to rent a car with an English (or "international") GPS. But the English was restricted to the top level of the menus. Once you got into details, it was back to Japanese. And Japanese GPSs don't accept latitude-longitude as input: they want the phone number of the destination. I now find it easier to use Google maps on my phone, though I miss the languid female voice that did the spoken directions "just follow the road for a while."

It's worth noting that printed maps in Japan (and some other places) often do not have North at the top. This goes for maps in towns and those handed out at tourist destinations as well as road maps; this should be banned by the UN! Check carefully or you will get hopelessly lost. And for countries that do not use the English alphabet, an English map will be useful for planning, but for navigation you need one in the local language so you can match it up with road signs and street names.

Trains and Subways

Note that in British English, a "subway" is a pedestrian underpass or tunnel. What Americans call a subway is "the underground" or "tube" or "metro".

You often need to buy suburban train and subway tickets from an inscrutable machine: look at it carefully--there will generally be some button for selecting English (maybe indicated by a British or American flag). Beware that the machine may be cash-only. Elsewhere you may be better off buying a stored value card at the airport (e.g., an Oyster in London, T-Money in South Korea, or Suica in Japan) so that you don't need to deal with individual tickets. You can load an electronic version of Suica on to smartphones (well, iPhones, for Android you need a Japanese phone) as an app and this has the advantage that you can add money electronically using a credit card (otherwise you have to stick the physical card in a machine and, mysteriously, it goes in one way round in some places and the other elsewhere). There are many alternatives to Suica, such as Pasmo, and they all interoperate: use whichever you can get (or use the app version) as there is a supply-chain problem with the chips they use and all are in short supply. Suica and T-Money can be used in many stores and restaurants, not just for travel.

Note that in many countries you need to "validate" your ticket before you get on the train: there will be machines around the station and you need to stick your ticket in and get it stamped. The fines for not doing this are quite substantial, and they do check (I was once fined $40 in Italy for failing to validate a $5 ticket).

For long distance travel there are usually substantial discounts for buying tickets in advance or on the app of the operator concerned. And there may be some discount deals for visitors that you need to buy in advance. These can often be very valuable: for example, in Switzerland where they also get you big discounts on mountain lifts and trains.

Contrary to what you will read everywhere, a Japan Rail Pass almost never pays off: you need to go much further than Tokyo to Kyoto and back (and the price is going up in the fall of 2023 so that even a round trip from Tokyo to Fukuoka won't make it pay off). Furthermore, you cannot take the Nozomi shinkansen trains with these passes (or must pay a large supplement after the fall of 2023): not only are these the fastest trains, but they are the most frequent. However, there are dozens of other rail passes and package deals in Japan that can be very valuable: study www.japan-guide.com and its specific page on rail passes. An online source for discounted tickets is the Hong Kong based consolidator klook.com. I've not used them myself, so please check their reviews. Also note that the low-cost airlines in Japan (e.g., Peach, a subsidiary of ANA) can be very cheap (much cheaper than train for, say, Tokyo-Osaka), and frequent flyer tickets on JAL and ANA are usually readily available and are a very good deal (typically only 5,000 miles or points from One World or Star Alliance, respectively).

hyperdia.com used to be a superb site for researching Japanese train schedules, but it's now been butchered so that it no longer gives the times, just typical durations. Navitime is a tolerable replacement, and Google maps can do OK.

Incidentally, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has an excellent series of printable pdf guides to various places and aspects of travel in Japan. See also this more extensive list.

Etiquette on trains (and public transport in general) differs massively from country to country. In Japan, for example, it is a major solecism to hold or answer a phone call at your seat (do it in the vestibule at the end of the car/carriage, if you must), whereas in Taiwan it's OK to hold one at the top of your voice.

As someone who uses a walking cane, I find the reaction of other people on public transport to be interesting. In London (where I grew up), fit and healthy young people will push me aside in order to occupy the disabled seats ahead of me. In Japan, people in those seats will instantly give them up if an elderly Japanese comes along, but will ignore me unless I say something (in Japanese). In Rio de Janeiro and Moscow, half the subway car will leap to its feet to offer me a seat the moment I enter. There seems to be a law favoring the elderly in Rio and I have often been escorted to the head of any line I happened to be in. A similar thing happens at airport security in many countries.

First class is seldom necessary on trains, but is attractive if it is cheap. A reserved seat is often worthwhile but beware that in Japan, for example, if traveling alone, they will always assign someone to the seat next to you, so I generally prefer an unreserved seat in those circumstances (and then the adjacent seat will generally stay empty--Google "gaijin seat"). Note that Japanese shinkansen are wide and the seats are 5 across in coach (2 & 3) and 4 in first (2 & 2), whereas European trains are 2 & 2 and 2 & 1 respectively. A Japanese train ticket is not easy to decode: you have to be able to pick out the car number and to match that to the layout diagram above the platform to figure out where to stand (you need to stand in the right place as the train will stop for only a minute or so).

There generally is not a lot of space for luggage on trains, so travel lightly, consign your stuff to the goods car, or send it separately.

Overnight trains with sleeping cars can occasionally be useful. These need a lot of research: check www.seat61.com.

In the USA, except in the Northeast, long distance trains are slow and often delayed (they share the tracks of the freight lines, which have priority), but they are comfortable, and many are very scenic: see amtrak. The distances are so great that the journey often takes several days, and some sections have no alternative to overnight travel. Regular fares are fairly cheap, but sleeping cars are expensive. They are priced by demand so booking well in advance (or sometimes at the last minute), and comparing dates, is recommended: RailForLess.us automates this.

Ferries

These function pretty much like trains and my point is simply not to overlook them. For some you just turn up, others you will need to book in advance.

The coastal ferries in Alaska and Norway are very attractive ways of seeing the scenery; they can carry cars and have a range of overnight accommodations, including fairly comfortable cabins. Unfortunately the Alaska system seems to be fading away and the Norwegian Hurtigruten system is becoming more of a cruise line. Japan has a good selection of ferries along its coastline and to its many small islands, and also a couple that go to Korea.

Buses

Long distance buses can be comfortable and attractive in some parts of the world, for example, in South America, where they often have recliner seats like old-style airplane business class, and these can even be tolerable overnight if you are short of other options. Even there, bus stations may be in a bad part of town, so research in advance how you're going to get there, and how you're going to get away.

The methods for boarding, paying, and getting off suburban buses differ hugely from country to country--e.g., in Japan you board (and take a ticket) at the middle and get off (and pay) at the front; in London, it's the other way about; you need to research it or ask the driver.

There are sometimes restrictions on what you can do or bring on a bus: in the 1960s, buses in Newcastle upon Tyne (where I was a student) said "no spitting", and in Taipei they say "no birds".

Taxis

In some places, for example, Japan or Taiwan, taxis are scrupulously honest. Elsewhere, they may not be, with even a risk of kidnapping in some places. As described earlier, when arriving at an unfamiliar airport it's often best to look for the prepaid taxi option (and they will usually take credit cards, which the taxi might not). In some places it is fine to hail a taxi on the street, in others not. Until you become familiar with the local vibe, have your hotel call and negotiate with taxis for you. And in some Asian countries, taxis may ignore you: they don't want the language hassle. If you are stuck somewhere, pretty much any hotel or restaurant or bar will call a taxi for you. Countries differ on where a solo passenger is expected to sit: in Australia it is up front, but this would cause astonishment elsewhere.

You cannot assume that "developed" countries have honest taxis. For example, Stockholm has no regulation on taxi fares (they just have to display the rate, usually on a rear door window) and you can easily get charged huge sums with no recourse if you get in without checking.

Not all taxis take credit cards. Check before entering if that's all you have.

Research the local tipping custom in advance: for example, you should not attempt to tip a Japanese taxi driver (nor to open the nearside rear door yourself). Incidentally, Japan has a reputation for expensive taxis but that is because the cities are huge and distances tend to be large. If you use public transport to get close to your destination and a taxi for the last mile, then it will be quite reasonable.

In poorer countries there are tuk-tuk taxis or even, e.g., in Vietnam, motor bike taxis. These are cheaper than regular taxis but are objectively more dangerous (in Vietnam, the driver is required to provide you with a crash helmet), and tuk-tuks are not air conditioned (and air conditioning is very welcome in the local climate).

Uber etc.

Where it's available, Uber or the local alternative will often be a better choice than a taxi, even if it uses taxis (as it does in Japan, for example): you can summon one right to where you are and specify where you want to go without language issues, pay by credit card, and there's no negotiation or scamming in places where taxis might do that.

Hotels

Do you prefer independent hotels, B&Bs, or standardized chain operations? I like the predictability of the chains (I need a bed that is high enough to get up from, likewise a functional desk and chair, and a shower that is safe and easy to use) so I generally select them if they are available where I'm going, and I don't have much to say about the other choices. And I did my traveling before Airbnb became big so I have nothing to say about them either, but I'd encourage you to research their impact on local economies.

The big hotel chain companies such as Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Choice, etc. each operate 12 to 20 different brands targeting different market segments. Some people have preferences for one particular brand or chain, others not so. Each chain has a frequent guest program that operates more or less the same across all of its brands, so you'll accumulate points and status more rapidly if you stick to one chain or brand. That said, the value of points and status has declined significantly over the years, so although you should always sign up for whatever their program is, you should study the rewards to see if it's worth favoring one chain.

As with airlines, you can automatically gain status and points with certain credit cards. Check out the blogs for current opportunities. Points can get you free rooms or reduced rates, and status can get you things like early check in or late check out, free breakfast, or access to a club or lounge that provides free food and sometimes drinks in the evening. Like everything else, the quality of these offerings has declined significantly over the years, but it also differs greatly from one country to another; the weakest club offerings are in the United States and the best tend to be found in Asia, although Europe, Middle East, and South America can also put on generous spreads that are sufficient to replace dinner, if you choose.

You will generally get the best deal for earning points, and often the best price, by using the website of the chain concerned. For independent hotels, and for cross checking, use booking sites such as booking.com, or expedia.com. For luxury hotels, there are significant benefits (e.g., $100 food and beverage credit, early checkin) for booking with specialized travel agents such as Virtuoso, AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts, Hyatt Prive, etc.

Different countries and different chains and hotels differ in whether breakfast is included as part of the deal. Sometimes you have to pay a higher rate unless you have significant status in the chain concerned. And different countries have different ideas about what constitutes a breakfast. Western chains sometimes charge astonishing sums for breakfast (like $40) if it's not part of your rate. Oddly, although room service breakfast is usually even more expensive, it can sometimes be very reasonable for a single simple dish. Study the room service menu with care and note the small print for any service and delivery charges (and you should usually tip). Alternatively, the hotel may have a less expensive cafe that's separate from the dining room. If the hotel's offerings are absent/inadequate/unattractive/expensive, then check out the local cafes and restaurants, which will often have good deals on breakfast. And in surprisingly many countries the American fast food chains can get your day started without much hassle or expense. If all else fails, grab a sandwich, or lay in supplies the night before from a local supermarket.

The blogs tend to focus on luxury hotels, often in rather routine destinations, and are not so useful when the hotel is not an end in itself, but merely the means to visit somewhere interesting or attractive. The loyaltytraveler blog covers strategies for more modest hotels, though I think it sometimes goes a bit too far on the penny-pinching.

I named several international chains earlier, but some countries have their own chains. For example in Japan you have chains like Toyoko Inn, Dormy Inn, Route-Inn, APA etc. that dwarf the international chains and provide outstanding value: typically $50-$60 a night anywhere, including Tokyo. They are almost always located next to a train station (which are perfectly good areas in Japan) and are designed for solo travelers (so-called business man's hotels) but many Japanese couples use them too. Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn/Crowne Plaza also have some hotels in this segment. There are also several chains that are a bit more upmarket, such as Tokyu/Excel, Prince, New Otani.

My preference is Toyoko Inn www.toyoko-inn.com/eng; their rooms are rationally designed and identical across all hotels. The rooms are small, like a cruise ship cabin (but better designed) with a small bathroom (Japanese toilet and a shower over the o-furo bath), and Japanese breakfast is included. Their frequent guest program has substantial benefits--definitely join. I've never understood the attraction of capsule hotels when Toyoko Inn is often less expensive. You are required to be out of the room between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. so they can clean the rooms like an assembly line (they will often call you if you are still in the room at 10). But if you need some downtime or have work to do, you can opt for "eco-plan" and stay in the room. Eco-plan means no service, but a bag with fresh towels will be hung on the door handle, and you get 300Y rebate; however, they will insist on servicing the room every couple of days. Some Toyoko Inns are now doing day rooms--you'll need to explore their website for details.

Their rooms have a 4-ft bed (rock solid like all beds in Asia) and a good desk and chair. If the chair was a swivel and tilt variety I could happily live in a Toyoko Inn room, but it is a solid upright job (OTOH many other chains have just a stool). Consequently I generally intersperse several days in Toyoko Inns with a couple in a comfortable western chain.

Note that Japanese hotels are often very strict about checkin time (typically 3pm) and will not let you checkin early, except maybe at airport hotels. Same with checkout. Also, they do not accept bookings very far in advance (typically they cut off at 3 or 6 months ahead).

Another country with its own chain is Spain: the Paradores are state-owned hotels, mostly located in historic buildings such as castles, monasteries, and so on. Some of them are truly spectacular and they are always comfortable and for the most part reasonably priced: https://paradores.es/en. Portugal has something similar called Pousadas but I have no personal experience of them.

Some chains operate differently in different countries. For example, Choice Hotels in most of the world are different to Nordic Choice Hotels and they have separate points systems. You can use Choice Points at Nordic Choice Hotels but can earn only Nordic Choice Points at those hotels. And sometimes one of the point currencies is better value and sometimes the other. Clarion Collection Hotels (not ordinary Clarion Hotels) can be a good use of Choice points (of either kind) as they include an evening meal, which may otherwise be expensive in Scandinavian countries.

Ethnic Hotels

Ryokan are traditional Japanese inns, where you usually sleep on a futon on the (tatami mat) floor. These generally include (very good, kaiseki) food, and may have an onsen or o-furo and an exquisite garden. They exist at all price levels and, for many people, they can be the highlight of a visit to Japan. Just be aware that you may be bathing naked in public (but won't be allowed if you have tattoos), and mostly sitting and eating and sleeping on the floor, so you need to be confident in your ability to do so (and in your Japanese etiquette: e.g., no bare feet on the tatami, use the special slippers in the toilet but not elsewhere, no soap in the onsen--wash beforehand using a bucket at the tap).

Ondol rooms are a somewhat similar tradition in Korea. They may have a bed, but the floor will be bare (though possibly heated) and furniture and seating will be minimal.

Duration of Stay

Moving on every day is tiring and does not give you time to really see a lot. It's OK for a few days, or as part of a driving tour, but in general I think it's best to stay in each place for at least three nights. In addition, I recommend taking a day or two of downtime every week or so: just stay somewhere nice and take it easy, and maybe catch up on things. You'll need to stay at least two nights to get a day where you can just relax like this.

It's also worth noting that hotel chains may have special deals for longer "free" stays using points (e.g., five nights for the price of four) and there are sometimes similar deals when using cash. These change, so you need to research them.

Food

Well, restaurants are pretty much the same all around the world, but I thought it worthwhile to add some notes about certain countries.

People are sometimes apprehensive about eating alone in restaurants and feel they will be the object of attention and curiosity. In fact, no one will even be aware you are there: look up "spotlight effect".

Next, it's worth noting that some countries eat animals (e.g., horse, sea cucumber), or parts of animals (e.g., brain, tendon), that you might rather not. Research it before you go. If you are really nervous about it, learn how to ask for vegetarian food.

Vegetarian and Vegan

The difficulty of going vegetarian varies significantly from one country to another, and even more so for vegan. Restaurants in most western countries are familiar with the concepts and will have vegetarian and vegan options explicitly labeled as such. In India and culturally similar places you always have the choice of "veg" or "nonveg" (not "meat" or "nonmeat"). In other parts of Asia it can be more difficult. In Japan, for example, ask for vegetable dishes and you may find they include fish. Even those that do grasp the concept may use fish stock in your vegetarian noodle dish. The website happycow.net will help you find vegetarian and vegan restaurants, but it may not be uptodate (many restaurants failed during Covid).

Argentina, Spain, and some other Spanish-speaking places

Be aware that restaurants may not open until 9pm and that many people eat dinner around 10-11pm. Some restaurants may open earlier in touristic places, or may function as a (sometimes very good) bar/snack place prior to full opening. In Spain, there is generally an inexpensive but good "Menu del Dia" option at lunch (a holdover from the 60s under Franco), and Tapas is a lighter option for dinner.

Japan

Say Japan and people think of sushi, but this is not an everyday meal in Japan; it's a rather expensive treat, like steak in many western countries. Everyday food is noodles or rice bowls (gyudon) of various kinds, pork cutlets (tonkatsu), tempura etc. Some restaurants specialize in one type of dish, but many offer a selection and will have plastic models of the dishes available in their window--so if you cannot handle the menu (and there's often an English one, with pictures: ask for "eigo no menu"), you can drag the waitperson outside and point. In some restaurants, you select your item from a vending machine, which will print a ticket that you present to the person at the counter. Someone will help you press the right button if you point to the model of the dish you want. Some restaurants will have a button like a doorbell on the table: you press this when you want the server to come over, otherwise flap your hand and say "sumimasen." I'm told that post-Covid many restaurants require you to scan a QR code at the table and select from an online menu but I have no personal experience of that. The waitperson will usually leave the bill when they deliver your food; when you are done you take this to the cashier and pay. No tipping. And don't expect to pass money hand to hand: you put it on a tray and get your change back in the same way (that's true everywhere in Japan, including konbini, supermarkets, and ticket windows).

The Japanese equivalent of Yelp is Tabelog. The Japansese language version is more comprehensive than the English one, but obviously more of a challenge to use.

Some traditional places may invite you to eat sitting on the floor. Often there's another room or area with tables and chairs so look around if the floor doesn't work for you. And sometimes there's a pit below the table, so sitting on the floor is not so uncomfortable,

If dining solo, you will sometimes be seated at a large shared table (or at a long counter). There will generally be some token of privacy between adjacent seats, such as a plant or a screen, and you are not expected to converse. Some Japanese will be apprehensive sitting next to a Westerner, so it's gracious to sit adjacent to a vacant seat if you can. Shared tables are found in other countries, too.

Japanese coffee shops will also have food, with a "morning set" for breakfast (typically boiled egg and toast with meat or another something on the side, plus coffee or tea). You need to specify hot coffee ("hotto kohi") as it can also come iced. You usually order and collect your food at the counter, but you'll need to look around to suss it out.

There are numerous local chains, such as Mossburger for burgers and Suki-ya for gyudon, plus American ones such as McDonalds and Dennys. The western chains are useful if you need to start your day with a familiar breakfast or just want a break from Japanese food. You have to eat it there (the seating may be upstairs): it's rude to eat on the street (except at food carts), though it's OK if you find a bench to sit at.

Food at chains and modest restaurants is inexpensive in Japan: you can eat well on $5 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, and $20 for dinner. You will find these places all around train stations, in malls, and on the top floor of department stores.

You can also get decent food from "konbini" (convenience stores) such as 7-11, Lawsons, Family Mart etc., including sandwiches (with the crusts cut off), bentos, and bowls to heat up in the microwave. The cashiers will warm food for you, and business hotels such as Toyoko Inn will have a microwave in the common area. Family Mart sells "famichiki", which is fried chicken pieces that are very popular. Incidentally, 7-11 is a Japanese, not American, company and its local stores (and other konbini) are totally clean, respectable and safe. There's a konbibi on every corner, they are usually open 24 hours, and they provide all sorts of services in addition to selling food and drink: photocopying, tickets for almost anything, luggage forwarding by Takkyubin, ATMs (but only 7-11 will work with western cards) and so on. You'll find them in South Korea and Taiwan as well as Japan.

Japanese supermarkets will also have food to go (and sometimes a place to eat it) and the basement of department stores is almost always a food store. These will sell unsold fresh food cheaply toward the end of the day.

Train stations will have places selling "ekiben" -- bentos to eat on the train; generally, some of these will be specialties of the region or station.

There is no special tax on alcohol in Japan, so beer, wine, and spirits are very cheap: you can get a decent bottle of wine from a konbini for $5. They sell sake and shochu and other spirits, too. Beer is widely available from vending machines; there is a notion of "green beer", which is beer made from something other than malted barley that attracts even lower tax and is very cheap.

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan and are invaluable when you are hot and dehydrated: they have hot and cold coffee and numerous kinds of soft drinks. One called "Pucari Sweat" is very good--it's like Gatorade. Calpis is also worth trying. The machines take notes/bills as well as coins and they give change--and they always work.

You can also drink and get food at an izakaya (pub). Just make sure it is an izakaya and not a "club" where hostesses sit with you and you get fleeced or worse.

High-end restaurants are very good in Japan, and very expensive. It is unlikely that a westerner will even get in to a seriously high-end sushi place--the proprietors just don't want the bother.

South Korea

They use metal chopsticks. You may be expected to get them yourself from a drawer by the water cooler. Traditional places may invite you to eat sitting on the floor; there may be another room with tables and chairs, so look around if that's what you want.

India

People worry about food safety in India, but any restaurant or hotel that a westerner is likely to use will be OK. The bigger problem in my view is breaking a tooth: meat is butchered rather crudely and often contains chips of bone that will smash a tooth or filling if you inadvertently bite hard on them. I usually go vegetarian for this reason.

Water

Tapwater is unsafe in surprisingly many countries (including parts of the USA). There's a useful list (compiled from CDC sources) here. In those places, you should drink bottled water (and use it when brushing your teeth) and keep your mouth shut in the shower. In some places you cannot always trust even bottled water, particularly if bought from street vendors: the bottle may have been refilled with local stuff and the top resealed. Best to get bottles from your hotel in these cases.

Destinations

I've been assuming you know where you want to go, but let me make a few general observations that might help your deliberations. Note that I am a middle of the road traveler: while I have been to some places off the conservative path, I am not intrepid, but neither do I need pampering. My general goal has been to visit spectacular sights of man and nature that do not involve risk or hardship, though I can tolerate some discomfort.

First of all, the really famous places can be overcrowded and a real hassle to visit, but they are famous for a reason. If you decide to visit one of these (and I mean places like Yosemite, Iguassu Falls, Matterhorn, major sites in European Capitols, Vatican, Jerusalem, Taj Mahal, etc.), study the restrictions and procedures and be prepared to pay for expedited access. Even some of the natural sites (like Yosemite and Arches) have limited and timed access. And bear in mind that even if you do get in, it may be no fun in the company of thousands of others. (See for example, this photo from my visit to the Treasury in Petra.) Consider going out of season (and Europe should in any case be avoided in Summer due to heat and humidity and lack of reliable air conditioning), or getting off the most beaten trails (e.g., you do not have to walk far from the parking lots to find some peace in Yosemite), or visiting secondary sites.

The latter point is worth expanding: although the most famous places are famous for a reason, there are often nearby places that are barely known to the general public and are only a little less spectacular. So visit the main sight and get your photograph, then go to one of the other places to really dig in. For example, after the Taj Mahal, check out Fatehpur Sikrhi (just outside Agra) and the Tombs of Humayun and Safdarjang in Delhi.

When I speak of really famous or spectacular places, I mean those that get 3* in the Michelin Green Guides, which are a good source of general information. Online, I suggest browsing the community pages (especially trip reports) on Fodors and Trip Advisor, and taking a look at videos on YouTube. Don't just look at the top level pages and links: do a search. If you are really struggling for inspiration, take a look at this list of all the countries and territories in the world, courtesy of the Travelers' Century Club.

Guided tours and daytrips can be another source of ideas. You may not want to take such a tour, but browsing their itineraries can suggest places you might like to visit, or to avoid.

For the record, let me observe that the finest concentrations of scenery I've seen are in the American West (Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches and numerous other parks nearby), the European Alps (Bernese Oberland, Matterhorn, the mountains around Mt. Blanc, Dolomites), the Norwegian coastline/fjords (by both road and by ferry), Iguassu Falls, and Pacific Islands (with atolls top of that list). The scenery I most regret not visiting is Southern Patagonia (Towers of Paine in Chile and Mt. Fitzroy in Argentina). And (I should have done these when I was younger) further into the Himalayas (e.g., Sikkim--I've been as far as Darjeeling) and the Karakorum.

For the works of man, I'd recommend the Taj Mahal, Dome of the Rock (I've actually been inside, which I believe is no longer possible for non-Muslims), cities of Andalusia, many European Cathedrals (with Sainte Chapelle at the top), Hagia Sofia, Ravenna, and Easter Island. The places I most regret not visiting (I should have gone in the 1970/80s) are Iran, Uzbekistan (for the Silk Road cities) and Mali (for the music, Timbuktu, and the Mud Mosque of Djenne--but I have been to a reproduction of the Mud Mosque in Jeju, South Korea, which houses an excellent collection of African art).

In addition to the most spectacular sights of nature and man, there are places that are just pleasant to visit and to stay for their general vibe. The country I've visited most often is Japan and it has to be admitted there are no 3* sights in Japan, and precious few 2* (some of the original castles, some temples and shrines, and some scenery), but there are thousands of interesting and attractive lesser sights. In addition, it is very easy, convenient, and cheap to travel in Japan (if you know something of the history and culture, and speak a little Japanese). Other places I have greatly enjoyed visiting include mainland Greece, New Zealand, Vietnam, and the neighbors of those countries. If I were younger I would explore Northern Thailand and Laos, the former Yugoslavia, North Africa, Southern India, Western China and Tibet, and more of Chile and Argentina (the Lake District, Patagonia, Salta).

For cruises (other than repositionings as a way to get from A to B), I recommend those that visit places it is otherwise difficult to get to: Panama and Suez canals, Pacific Islands, high latitudes (Arctic islands and ice cap, Greenland, Antarctic Peninsular), and coastal scenery and isolated towns (Norwegian fjords, the West and South Coasts of South America).

Do take note of the climate, seasons, and weather for any prospective cruise: you don't want to get caught up in hurricanes and typhoons nor mosquito/gnat/midge season. Summer is intolerable almost everywhere except continental West Coasts and fairly high latitudes (e.g., New Zealand), and anywhere close to the equator is miserably hot and humid year round. Also be aware of local week-long holidays, such as Golden Week and Obon in Japan.

For the actual decision where to go, it can be helpful to have a theme. For example, at some point I realized I'd been to many of the US State Capitols. So, if I had a reason to be in the general vicinity of another one of these, I'd make it a point to visit and tick it off. The same with California Missions, Cathar Castles, waterfalls that land in the ocean, and the Japanese prefectures. This causes you to go places you might otherwise overlook, and can provide some serendipitous enjoyment.

Antarctica

I'd like to add a special note about Antarctica. There are two ways of going here by cruise ship. One is a "drive-by" on a mainstream cruise ship, the other is an "expedition" cruise on a small ship. The former generally travel between Santiago, Chile (they actually use the ports of Valparaiso or San Antonio, which are some distance away) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (some others use Rio de Janeiro instead or do a round trip from Buenos Aires). All take a 5 or 6 day excursion to the Antarctic Peninsular and most also visit the Falkland Islands. Of these, I recommend the Santiago to Buenos Aires option. This is because the Chilean fjords are excellent, but seem an anticlimax after Antarctica if you do the opposite direction. And "Glacier Alley" to the west of Ushuaia is truly spectacular (7 or more massive glaciers) and you want to be sure of seeing it in daylight. The expedition cruises are usually round trip from Ushuaia, Argentina, which requires a flight from Buenos Aires.

Either way, it takes a day or more to cross the Drake Passage between Cape Horn and Antarctica (one of the roughest stretches of water in the world), and you then have 3 or 4 days noodling around the islands and coastline of the Antarctic Peninsular (some expedition cruises also go to South Georgia, although that is restricted at the moment due to some bird disease) before heading back across the Drake Passage. The views and wildlife (whales, penguins) are spectacular, if you are lucky with the weather.

The difference is that the expedition ships have landings. There are strict rules about this: something like no more than 100 people ashore at any one time, and no more than 500 on the ship. You land from Zodiacs and have to wear sterile gear (usually supplied by the ship) and boots. The landings are usually at penguin colonies; or sometimes near research stations (you won't see Scott's hut: that's somewhere else entirely). The downside is that it takes the best part of a day to land everybody. Meanwhile, a drive-by cruise will have stopped nearby for maybe an hour, and then gone on to several other scenic locations.

People who have taken expedition cruises rave about them, but I don't get the attraction (though I have only done a drive-by). You can see penguins at several locations on the South American mainland and the Falklands. Walking on glacial snow and ice with a mountain backdrop is cool, but shouldn't be anything special if you've done some alpine mountaineering. There's the tickbox of actually setting foot on the continent, and you have to decide if that matters to you.

The added thrill of the expedition cruises comes at a high price: they cost a lot more than a drive-by (like 3 or 4 times as much): the drive-bys cost about the same as any other cruise, whereas the expeditions are in the 10s of thousands. You need to decide what matters to you. Note that bad weather can more or less wipe out the pleasure of either type of cruise, so you should be mentally prepared to take a second trip if necessary.

There are limitations soon due to apply to ships that venture into the Arctic and Antarctic: they will need to have an ice hull (essentially a double skin). Regular cruise ships do not have these so expedition cruises may be all that's left. The same will apply to cruises to Greenland and the far North of Norway (Iceland is OK because its waters are warm due to the Gulf Stream). Best to do these trips soon if they matter to you. Note that even expedition ships seldom go as far south as the Antarctic Circle: the furthest my cruise went was 65 deg 1.5 mins South. (The Arctic Circle is much more approachable: there are several towns north of that line that have ferry and airline service, and cruise ships go right up to the polar ice cap at more than 80 deg North.)

Tours and Guides

I've been assuming you organize and execute your travels yourself, but there are places where it can make sense to join an organized tour, either for the whole trip or part of it, or for just a day. The only organized full trips that I've taken were for mountain walking/climbing back in my twenties, but I would consider them if I were still able to go to somewhere like Uzbekistan. I've heard good reports for Road Scholar and Overseas Adventure Travel but there are many other options.

Day tours make a lot of sense if you are somewhere for only a day, such as a cruise ship visit, and also if you want to go somewhere that is a difficult trip from your hotel location. For example, I was in Rio de Janeiro and wanted to visit Petropolis. This requires a couple of buses that neither start nor end in convenient locations, or an expensive taxi, or a rather fraught self-drive. But I found a tour that picked me up from my hotel and took me to all the sites I wanted to see for about $40. I don't mind fairly large groups as they tend to move slowly and allow me time and space to look around on my own without losing the group, but if you want a truly guided tour you'll need to make sure it's a small group. Don't be surprised if there's a stop at a shop or workshop: the tourguides get a kickback. Either roll with it, or tell the guide up front that you don't want any shopping stops and will give them a large enough tip to compensate for the lost kickbacks.

To find local tours, check out consolidator sites such as www.viator.com (owned by tripadvisor) or www.getyourguide.com or www.toursbylocals.com or ask your hotel. Sometimes taxi drivers will do a deal to show you around for a few hours or half a day. Again, ask your hotel or, if you can handle rug merchant negotiations, talk with the drivers outside or at the local taxi rank.

Another option, when you want information and guidance rather than transport is to hire, well, a guide. These can range from volunteers to highly qualified professionals and all shades in between. For professional guides, start with the viator and toursbylocal websites above,

Japan has volunteer guides, usually retired folks who are often highly educated and knowledgeable, or sometimes younger people who want to practice their English. You pay their travel costs and it's decent to treat them to lunch and give them some small gift from your home country, but no tipping. Check out Goodwill Guides.

When you enter a tourist site such as a temple or castle in poorer countries such as India, Cambodia, Palestine you will invariably be accosted by people offering to act as your "guide". These are unlikely to have any special education, but it's worth taking one on as they can be informative, know where things are, where to get the best photos and so on--and they keep all the other touts away. Talk with a few and tell them what you want to see and do and select one who seems suitable (and who you can understand). There's no prearranged fee: it's always "give me what you think it's worth," so it's advisable to get some hints beforehand (e.g., ask your hotel). Don't be upset or intimidated if your friendly guide turns abusive if he's not satisfied with your tip when you think it was adequate. On the other hand, it's not worth trying to score a bargain for sums that are trivial to us westerners (we're talking a few dollars).

Day tours and guides are also a good idea if you are in a place where you worry about safety.

Personal Safety

There's petty crime (pickpocketing, bag snatching, opportunistic theft), and there's violence (and the threat of violence). The former can spoil your day or ruin your vacation, but the latter can ruin (or end) your life. If you take precautions to minimize your risk and potential losses, the former need not influence your choice of destinations and manner of travel, but the latter can (and should) do so.

Most westerners feel fairly safe in their home country, but that is probably because we know where to go and not to go, what to do and not to do; and we know the local vibe and can pick up warning signs. Objectively, however, many western countries are only moderately safe compared to, say, Iceland or Singapore. Take a look at this listing, which seems reasonably fair: www.travelsafe-abroad.com. The United States rates alongside Cambodia and Equitorial Guinea; the UK is a bit better, alongside Serbia, Botswana, and Uruguay. There is also useful information on the US and UK government web sites (the US is a bit more alarmist about foreign countries than the UK). Note that safety can vary quite a lot among different areas of the same country.

Most of the places you are likely to visit will be at least as safe as your home country. But as a foreign tourist, especially where you don't speak the language, you will lack the street smarts that keep you out of trouble at home, and you will likely be visiting popular sights--and those may be hotspots for petty crime. And you might be unfamiliar with the distraction techniques used by pickpocket gangs: bird poop on your jacket, shit on your shoes, a baby, a sudden crowd that stops you getting off the subway, a ring on the ground.

In my view, the best protection against petty crime is to make yourself an unattractive target, and to minimize losses if you do become a victim. That means don't carry or wear anything expensive (or that looks expensive, like a fake Rolex). Don't keep your wallet in your back pocket, and be prepared to lose it--so don't carry a lot of cash, and only 1 or 2 credit and cash cards (Google "mugging wallet"). If you are somewhere that requires you to carry ID or passport, keep them buried in a travel pocket or money belt inside your pants or under your shirt--and keep some spare cash and credit cards there too. A photocopy or photo of your passport will often work for minor ID checks (like getting foreigner or age discounts at museums). Keep your other stuff (weather and camera gear etc.) in a small scruffy backpack or nondescript shopping bag, and be aware of where these are when you put them down (put your leg or chair leg through the handles/straps). After all this, the only valuable items you are likely to have on you are your cellphone and maybe a camera. Hold on to these or bury them in your pockets or bag when in crowds or public transport: don't wander around staring at the screen or nattering on the phone and don't hand your camera over to someone who offers to take your picture. And be prepared to lose them--which means back up your photos and other mementos every day: you can replace the camera but not the photos. I speak as someone whose camera was pickpocketed in Athens--but that's all they got. (There are lots of reasons for having two cameras; this is one of them.)

Don't think any of this is going to make you blend in: you will still be an obvious tourist or foreigner, but a less interesting one.

And if you still feel nervous, a good plan is to join a day tour or hire a guide--see above.

You should leave valuable stuff in your hotel's safe box (there is often one in the room, if not it'll be at the front desk; I think it is a legal requirement in most places). If you are worried that you might forget to retrieve your things, include something you cannot leave without--like a shoe. And lock up minor stuff in your suitcase. You're not defending against the maid, but someone who walks in as if it's their room while the doors are left open during cleaning.

If you do lose stuff, the inconvenience can be worse than the actual loss: dealing with credit card companies, banks, insurance, the embassy, the police. It's a good idea to scan or photograph all your items and their documentation before you leave home and store those somewhere in the cloud that you will be able to reach from anywhere (e.g., Google docs).

If you are thinking of going somewhere that is objectively more dangerous than your home country (and you need to decide where your risk threshold lies), then I suggest going as part of an organized group or hiring a local guide--or just don't go.

With all that said, the vast majority of people in the world are honest and kind and should be treated that way. Deal with those who are not by removing temptation, and possibly yourself.

That's all.