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Let’s face it; it’s the age of hidden fees. Airlines, hotels, banks, credit card companies — all have discovered the fine art of charging hidden fees. It has become a major trend. Everybody seems to be in on the act. They quote one price, but when you finally get that bill, there are all those “extra” charges on it, as well. Some of those charges are quite creative and one almost has to admire the imagination that went into coming up with them. But imaginative or not, one thing is certain and that is that they will all cost you more money! For the unprepared, these hidden fees are not only an unpleasant surprise, but definitely an unpleasant added expense, as well. And those expenses add up!
 Travel Suitcase - Author, Producer, Courtesy Wikimedia Commons Continue reading The Age of Hidden Fees – How To Save More Money When Traveling
Times are tough. We all know this. It’s all we hear about in the news. Unemployment is high. People are losing their homes. Businesses and banks are failing. This sort of negative environment makes traveling difficult for many of us, because right now, we either can’t afford the expense, or maybe we feel we shouldn’t, “just in case.” This is usually because we feel that we don’t know what might be coming next, so better to hang on to our money. And this is especially true of people with families to consider. The costs of traveling in such uncertain times can seem prohibitively high. But there are some ways around this problem, some possible solutions. One doesn’t have to give up and just stop traveling abroad.
 2007-2009 map of world showing countries in recession (red) or with economic slowdowns (pink). Author, Felipe Menegaz, Courtesy, Wikimedia Commons Continue reading Traveling In Hard Times, Some Ideas
Fees — we’ve discussed them in detail before now. We’ve shown costs for wiring or obtaining foreign currency through various financial services, what they charge, both stated, and in hidden fees. We’ve gone over the various costs for obtaining cash in the local currency of another country either via a bank, an ATM, or a credit card, and listed a good number of them as examples.
However, here in this concluding article in our series on the subject, we are going to attempt to show the total of all those costs. We want travelers to have a good idea just what the sum of all these fees can come to, and what to look out for in some instances.
 Exchange Rates, Work by User: Mattes, Wikimedia Commons Continue reading What You Really Need To Know! The Total Cost of Fees For Obtaining Foreign Currency
Are you bored with the same old travel destinations? Has that “been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt,” attitude taken a firm grip on you? Do you find Paris a bit tedious now, Rome crowded, smoggy, and too noisy, and London just a big urban sprawl with perennially soggy weather?
Admittedly, feeling this way, suffering from travel ennui or boredom as it were, is hard for many people to imagine, especially those that haven’t traveled much yet, or do, but still enjoy it thoroughly each time. How could someone not like London, for instance? After all, as Dr. Samuel Johnson once said, “He who is tired of London is tired of life.”
 Dr. Samuel Johnson, Public Domain Courtesy Wikimedia Commons Continue reading For World-Weary Travelers; Try The Exotic, Or Find Something New In The Old
Trips abroad cost a lot of money. There is just no getting around that. Oh, one can defray the expenses some by booking well ahead, using whatever discounts may be offered, and taking flights at off times, rather than during peak periods. Even so, despite every method of shaving costs I know of, by the time I’ve booked flights, any necessary ground transportation, hotels, pay for meals, souvenirs, etc., the price of traveling to other countries is never really “cheap” for me, except perhaps, in the comparative sense. After all, it could be much more expensive if I didn’t do all those cost-saving measures, like booking my flights five months in advance!
For instance, my trips to the United Kingdom, even under the best conditions, cost around $6,000 for several weeks. There seems to be no lowering that amount. And if anything, that price is going up, despite some experts saying air flights are now cheaper. If they are, I can’t find them, at least not for international flights. So for me, the cost of a trip abroad is not cheap. In fact, it’s quite sizable. Now what happens if something goes wrong and that trip has major problems?
 Travel Insurance Vending Machine - Image taken on 2005-08-23 21:19:48 by nonrev. Continue reading Travel Insurance – Is It Really A Good Idea For The Traveler?
We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating; many of us just hate traveling by plane. For some, it is out of a real fear of flying. For others, the sheer, cattle-car style of transportation, those crowded flights, is what we hate. Most of us now dread the task of just “getting there.” Unlike those vanished days of yesteryear when the traveling itself was a big part of the adventure, today, it is just no longer much fun. Far too many of us now just see it as a necessary obstacle to overcome, so we can get to where we can start actually having a good time, our destination. The Golden Age of travel is no longer, it seems.
 Cruise Ship in Ensenada, Mexico, Author Tomás Castelazo, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Or is it? Did you know you don’t necessarily have to fly, not if you have the time? Yes, we all know about trains, and those are great for actually “seeing” places, the actual countryside throughout mainland Europe, as well as the United Kingdom, and other destinations. But how about when it comes to having to cross the oceans? Then our alternatives are less, of course, but there still are alternatives. Continue reading Alternatives to Flying, How about A Cheap and Slow Cruise Boat Trip?
This is the next article on hidden costs we started last month. This time, we’re discussing costs of using ATM (Automated teller machine). And, as we have mentioned here a number of times, that probably is the cheapest way for a traveler to obtain currency in another country, by accessing it via an ATM with either a debit or credit card. We want to discuss the real costs of such a transaction, because there are hidden fees here, as well. And because these do differ from bank to bank, we picked a large sample of banks. Also, from what I’ve been able to discover, these fees are pretty much the same everywhere, whether Tokyo, London, New York, or Sydney.
 Mobile ATMs installed in a van with guards, User PrimroseGuy, Courtesy Wikimedia Commons But let’s take a typical transaction abroad. Let’s say you are an American in London, don’t want to carry too much cash with you, so you want to withdraw the equivalent of $1,000.00 from an ATM. (Yes, ATMs don’t usually allow so large a withdrawal, but the dollar versus pound rate has fluctuated greatly over the last two years, with the rate at one point being more than 2:1.) Well, the first thing you have to do is select an ATM from which to make a withdrawal. The good news is that as long as your bank is a member of VISA, CIRRUS, MAESTRO, PLUS (some banks list them in these ways), you can do this just about anywhere, and with few exceptions. Slovenia, as of the writing of this article and based on one source, is one of those exceptions, because only Slovenian citizens are allowed to do this. Also, based on another source, a Bank of America card worked fine in Hong Kong, but not in Brazil. So research your destination carefully before you go there! Continue reading ATM Costs Around The World – What Banks Really Charge
We Americans are very used to flying around our country to get from point “A” to point “B.” In fact, it is our preferred method for long-distance traveling, even sometimes from city-to-city within states. I’ve frequently flown from San Diego to San Francisco. Why? Because it’s an eleven-hour trip to drive it, that’s why, and that’s each way!
 Europcar Counter – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons And that’s one of two major reasons why we fly so much. The matter of time; we never seem to have enough of it. We often have to get where we’re going in a hurry. The second reason is distance. Our country spans the entire width of North America and beyond. You have few travel choices if you want to get to Hawaii, for example. It’s either by plane, boat, or swimming, and I don’t like sharks. And boats make a lot of people seasick (not me…). So to belabor an obvious point, that means having to fly there. Continue reading Renting Cars In Europe – The Adventure Begins!
Ever had a delay and a hard time making your connection? Most of us regular travelers have. What I didn’t realize was how tough it was if you had someone along who had a disability, or who happened to be handicapped. Now mind you, it was bad enough for me, but for him it was a real trial.
My father and I had arranged flights from Greensboro to the airport in Newark, New Jersey. There was a two-hour layover there before the London plane. However, because we had to sit on the tarmac in a stuffy little commuter plane for over an hour-and-a-half at Greensboro, waiting for a flight slot, and then delays in landing at Newark, we arrived precisely when our next flight was due to leave. This meant a dash to that gate, and it was 28 large gates away! I’m guessing close to a third of a mile from our starting point.
 Handicapped - Wheelchair Accessible Symbol used in public locations Continue reading Handicapped Traveling
Money, “you can’t get there without it” when traveling. As it turns out, you can’t even just send money “there” without it costing significantly more money, because we are charged through the nose for the privilege of wiring currency. As it turns out, sometimes, this is often on both ends.
 Bank of America and Lloyds Wire Transfer Costs Screenshot Again, we have stumbled onto those infamous “hidden fees” we’ve mentioned in prior articles. This time, it isn’t high-cost currency exchange services we’re talking about either, but our banks. We all know banks are charging more and higher fees for many things. Included in this, is “wiring” of money, as it is still so quaintly called.
Continue reading The High And Often Hidden Costs Of “Wired” Currency Transfers
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