Tightwad Travel Tip - Avoid Lost Luggage

Budget Travel's e-mail newsletter printed a piece today detailing the four reasons why airlines lose our luggage and, more importantly, suggested what you can do to prevent this nightmare from happening. 

I think this suggestion is excellent.  "Ask the flight attendant handling your bag if you can see the routing information placed on the handle to verify its accuracy before she sends your suitcase down the conveyor belt."  To read all the tips, click here.

Tightwad Travel Tip - Trains

Travelers are told to arrive an hour or two early for a flight, but the same principle does not apply to European trains. The departure platform for your train, whether it's a local or a high-speed long distance one, will not be indicated until about fifteen minutes before boarding time.  You must hustle to reach the correct platform after it's posted, but arriving at the station much more than a half hour before the departure time is pointless and unnecessary.  

Note, however, that if you are using Eurostar, you must be at the station to check-in, thirty minutes ahead of time.  Eurostar is the only train I know of where you must check-in and then wait in their amenities-equipped (food, toilets, shops are available) area for the train.

Trip Planning Made Easy

One of the most pleasurable, but also the most tedious, aspects of planning a trip is mapping the itinerary. David and I usually have a dozen guidebooks, along with detailed notes, scattered throughout the house which we use to make sure we choose all the sites we're anxious to see along with their addresses, hours of operation, and cost. Then we plot a daily travel plan that can be accomplished by either walking or public transportation.

Our next trip will be much easier to plan, though, with the discovery of the free website plnnr.com This user-friendly site takes you through several steps to arrive at a detailed daily itinerary complete with maps.

The first step is to choose your city. While the site will be adding more, it currently lists only twenty cities (three in the USA, one in Canada, and the rest in Europe) frequented by tourists.

Next, you input the dates of your trip and move on to the Theme. Depending on your circumstances, you can choose Kids, Outdoor, Best Of, or Culture.

The Intensity screen asks you to decide whether you want to get up late for leisurely sightseeing, hit the street in the wee hours of the morning to pack every day full of non-stop sightseeing, or something in-between. Choices are Light, Easygoing, Moderate, Vigorous, and Extreme.

Since the site will also suggest hotels, the next screen asks how luxurious you'd like your trip to be. Tightwad Travelers will, of course, stay in an apartment but go ahead and choose an accommodation, from one to five-stars, to satisfy the program. (You do not have to make a reservation to use this service, but you cannot get to the next page without making a choice.)

Choose sites from the list. 

Then comes the fun of picking and choosing. From the list of sites, you choose what you want to see, clicking on the title for further information about unfamiliar places, and the time of day you'd like to see it. Plnnr does the rest.

A portion of one day in my finished itinerary.

Italy and Spain on $85 a Day - The Bottom Line

Resist a restaurant's lures and buy carry-out instead.

Never again will I promise "Paris on $70 a Day" or "Italy and Spain on $85 a Day." As soon as I calculate costs in January for David's and my proposed trip in the spring and I am sure every item is included down to the penny, the euro changes and all my projections are increased by 10-15%.

That's what happened again this time. We knew in January we could take this trip for $85 a day, but the dollar did not hold its value and we ended up spending, in May, closer to $98 a day. From now on, I'm simply going to promise "Travel on the Cheap" because I still believe David and I travel more frugally, and comfortably, than is possible any other way.

Italy and Spain on $85 a Day - The Apartments

Our living room in Rome

I've said more times than anyone cares to remember that the best way to save money on a vacation while not stinting on luxury is by renting an apartment.  (In case you don't know the rationale for this philosophy, see this article.)  While David and I spent a frenzied week or two researching our "homes" for this trip, all our advance work paid off in delightful rentals that made our stay in each city even more enjoyable.

Apartment reviews are usually the most important deciding factor for us; if others enjoyed the place, we probably will too.  Since they are so important, we always try to help other travelers by writing reviews of our own when we return from a trip.  Here's what we wrote and submitted to Slow Travel, VRBO, Home Away, and/or Trip Advisor about each of the places we stayed:

Rome - VRBO #282276

David and I absolutely loved our apartment in Rome! Even though it was on the outskirts of the city, tram 8, right in front of the apartment building, got us to all the tourist sites in minutes. And we enjoyed leaving the clamor of Rome behind and returning to the ambience of our peaceful neighborhood at the end of a long sightseeing day.

There's a very large open-air market next door with stands selling bread, cheese, fish, produce and a hundred other things. We LOVED this market as well as the Frontoni Restaurant across the street with the world's best lasagna, and Tony's gelato a few doors down from Frontoni.

The apartment itself is huge with three spacious bedrooms and two big bathrooms. The apartment felt cozy for the two of us yet would be spacious for a much larger group, too. The furniture and beds are all quite comfortable, while the kitchen is well-equipped.

Gracias, Jay and Rob

Jay and Rob lived around the corner from me in Mexico.  I was sad when they moved to Spain, but we still get to see each other--so far we've managed to have three reunions in Europe.  This last one was particularly special because they met David for the first time.

As usual, these guys went out of their way to make sure David and I saw all the tourist sites as well as the hidden gems most tourists miss.  The last twelve days of our trip were especially wonderful because of them.

Thanks, Jay and Rob, for showing David and me the splendors of Spain.   We'll be looking forward to our next reunion!

Italy's and Spain's Quirks

Italy and Spain are full of intriguing quirks that delighted David and me.  This Easter display in Sorrento's Primavera Gelato shop had something for every nationality!

Europeans are adept at finding ways to adapt to their narrow streets.  We loved the three-wheeled cars and were amazed by the three-wheeled trucks.

Imagine.....

Imagine an indigo sky as wide as forever with not even a wisp of white.

Underneath it put a mountain. No, make that a hill with showy palms, pointy cypress trees, and lacy lavender jacarandas. A hill high enough to provide sweeping views of the ocean below but low enough for an occasional shout from the beach crowd to echo up here.

Add narrow, twisting streets paved, not with asphalt, but with tiles or bricks in intricate patterns.

Place white-washed stucco houses with red-tiled roofs on either side of the street, and highlight the windows and balconies with splashes of emerald, pink, and fuchsia.

At the very top of the hill, place a white church in a grove of pine trees and sprinkle confetti on the sidewalk.

Have a just married couple walk down the hill to their reception just a few yards away behind the brown door.

Make sure there's a plaza with a whimsical fountain and tables and chairs and cafes.

Add more people. Happy to be sitting outside on a warm day talking to friends people. Resting their canes against the table and leaning in on their elbows people. Skipping, pig-tailed, not quite grown up people.

And don't forget you and me. 

Here in this lovely place, this Spanish town called Benalmadena Pueblo, that is so perfect just as we've imagined it that there's nothing more to add.

Torremolinos on $85 a Day - Gibraltar Rocks!

It's only an hour and a half drive to the United Kingdom from Torremolinos.

That is, it's an hour and a half drive if you want to see a pint-size version of England crammed into an area that's only 2 1/4 square miles in size.

This spur of land on the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula is dominated by the Rock, of course, which, at almost 1400 feet, is truly impressive. Long symbolizing strength and endurance, the Rock is actually more like a honeycomb riddled with holes in the form of caves where Neanderthal fossils have been found along with tunnels that were dug during WW II. If you take the cable car to the top of the Rock, you'll see the wild Barbary apes cavorting in the nature preserve, St. Michael's Cave where concerts are held in the acoustically ideal chamber, and some spectacular views of Morocco.

Because the limestone outcropping dominates the landscape and leaves little flat land, the Rock has caused an interesting situation. There are no railroad crossings in town, but there is an airplane crossing. Gibraltar's only airplane runway crosses the main road into Gibraltar. When a flight is expected, the road is closed and drivers must wait for the plane to pass!

Back in the village, where some 30,000 inhabitants cling to the edge of the Rock, it is obvious that Gibraltar has an identity crisis.

It is officially a British possession with British currency, postage stamps, newspapers, TV stations and bars serving properly drawn pints, but the languages heard in town are Spanish and English.

The architecture is an interesting blend of at least two cultures--white-washed Spanish houses, often decorated with colorful tiles, have delicate Victorian cast-iron balconies.

Spain's Scintillating Streets

Whether they jog to the right or zig-zag to the left or simply continue straight ahead, one detail is consistent about Spain's streets and sidewalks--they are delightfully crafted of  beautiful materials.

Marble, granite, brick or tile is arranged to be noticed in patterns that make a tourist want to watch his step. 

And the cities must budget considerable amounts to keep their streets so clean.  David and I have seen the cleaning machines, along with men and brooms, sweep our Nogalera Plaza in the early morning hours, and, judging by the pristine city streets, they must also work there on a regular basis.