Tag: UK

Tips for Travelling With Family

Are you planning on travelling with family? There are certain tips that you should heed when you travel with your family, especially when if you are travelling with a baby or children of very young ages. There are many places where you can travel in the UK as well as throughout the world that make travelling with family affordable and fun.

Here are a few useful tips for travelling with family:

1. Make sure that the resort or accommodations that you choose are family friendly. This is one of the most important aspects when it comes to travelling with family members as there is a world of a difference between the facilities offered by business hotels and hotels catering to families. You want to be sure that the hotel or resort in which you stay is a place where you want to take small children. Check out the accommodations first before you make your plans to be sure that you are taking your family to a place that is appropriate for them. This is especially important when travelling outside of the UK.

2. Make sure there are plenty of family activities. The resort or hotel in which you stay should have amenities that appeal to families. Indoor pools and game rooms, for example, will help keep your children entertained if you are travelling with them. Also check out the activities in the area as well and be certain that there are places nearby where you can take your children. Children often get bored easily and do not enjoy the same things as adults. In order to truly enjoy your holiday, make certain that you can find activities that will make everyone happy.

3. Make sure that the resort or hotel has cots and other items you may need for babies and smaller children. This is very important if you are travelling with infants or babies. You will need to get a cot and also a place that will enable you to properly feed your baby. You should look for accommodations that offer amenities such as a small refrigerator in the room where you can keep bottles of milk and foods for babies so that they will not spoil.

4. Look for voucher codes that will give you the most for your money when travelling with family. You can find the best deals when you get voucher codes that you can easily obtain online. In many cases, children can stay for free in some resorts. You can obtain voucher codes for travel in the UK as well as abroad when you use an online site that provides you with these codes that can save you money. Travelling with family can be costly, but you can cut your costs dramatically if you use voucher codes that give you an impressive discount.

5. Find the best accommodations that afford you privacy as well as accommodate your family. When you are travelling with family, it is important to have as much space and privacy so that everyone can enjoy their holiday. Look for accommodations that are spacious enough for everyone so that everyone in your family has a good time on their holiday.

Travel Insurance Will Not Cover Holidaymakers With An Expired Passport

Fine Gael has called for emergency travel certificates to be produced under the provisions of the Passport Act 2008, for travellers whose passports have expired and are awaiting new ones to be sent to them, due to a current backlog.

However, the Department of Foreign Affairs has dismissed calls for emergency travel certificates to be issued, saying there are no plans to introduce emergency passport extensions.

The department said the proposals held little scope and could not be extended. A spokesperson said, An Emergency Travel Certificate only allows for a single, one-way trip. Furthermore, they are not accepted in the USA. Under international agreements, the maximum validity of any passports is 10 years, and therefore cannot be extended.

Irish citizens can travel to the UK using a valid form of photo ID instead of a passport; but different travel companies operate using different requirements.

Aer Lingus will allow passengers to travel to the UK with some form of official photo ID, such as a drivers licence; a government issued ID card, a health insurance or social security card as long as they display a photo. People aged 16 years old or under do not require a photo ID if they are travelling to the UK with their parent/guardian under Aer Lingus rules.

Yet Ryanair insist that all passengers travelling to the UK must have a valid passport and have said there is no question of them changing their position on the matter.

A Ryanair spokesperson said, As an airline flying to more than 26 countries and carrying over 70 nationalities daily, there is no question of our agreed passport requirement to be altered or waived. Its the Governments job to issue passports, and not Ryanairs job to cover for Government incompetence.

Ireland decided to opt out of the Schengen Agreement and maintaining border controls with other EU countries, meaning Irish citizens travelling to countries in Europe except the UK, will be required to hold a valid passport.

Travellers will be left further disappointed by the news that they will be unlikely to claim back travel insurance through travel insurance claims, which usually only cover compensation due to injury, illness or death.

A spokesperson for the Irish Insurance Federation said, The cancellation of your holiday due to failure to obtain a passport is generally not covered under travel insurance policies.

Health Tips To Keep In Mind While Travelling

Every year millions of people travel all over the world. Some visit the cosmopolitan cities, some head to majestic mountain ranges and some tour for their business meetings. Purpose and destination may be different, but one thing that always remains same is the concern for health.

It”s significant for every visitor to pay attention to some healthy travel tips that makes travelling a rewarding experience for them. Read on and get to know some of the essential tips that can prove to be much more beneficial then even the cheapest flight tickets.

Be Stress-free

Try to stay away from the stress as it might kill the fun of travelling. It is best to avoid stress of travelling from the time of booking cheap tickets from UK to coming back home. Avoid fretting over petty things and maintain peace in troubles. Try to indulge in fun deeds and shun constant worrying. Don”t overexert yourself as it may risk your health.

Have Sound Sleep

Some may believe that one is not paying air ticket fares for wasting the time in sleeping! But remember health is the most important factor that determines the quotient of your fun on vacations. And for perfect health, it is important to have proper rest. It is almost essential that you get at least 7 hours of sleep every day to replenish the energy. Appropriate amount of sleep will additionally minimize the ill-effects of jet-lag.

Always Keep Low-Fat Food in Bag

It”s highly likely to get hungry during flights or at some time while roving through from one tourist attraction to another. To avoid taking in harmful foods at such times, it is best to pack in some low-fat snacks like nuts, almonds, raw food energy bars, cookies, or crackers. Having these snacks offers an alternative to eating the unhealthy food. Such low-fat foods are high in fibre and nutrients and thus offer you energy. Avoid carrying foods that may leak.

Stay Hydrated and Drink Safe Water

Risk of dehydration is probably high during travelling. Drink plenty of water and stay hydrated. Proper intake of water lessens the chances of dehydration and other ailments. It”s better to avoid other beverages like soda and alcoholic drinks. While going out, keep a water bottle and don”t rely on tap water. Prefer buying water bottles that are sealed and are of reliable brands.

Be Careful With Food

Eating is a key factor and plays a major role in one”s holiday. One mistake of eating something unsafe can spoil the health of travellers and thus ruin the entire vacations. Invest some more time for those discounted air tickets to save money but try not to eat from cheap roadside stalls. Avoid unpasteurized milk, raw vegetables, unpeeled fruit, meat, seafood, ice, and other dairy products from outside.

How To Be Safe While Traveling Alone

Last minute travel is the current trend. More and more travelers are trying this adventurous trip. Unlike regular traveling that takes months of planning, last minute holidays gives the perfect excitement. Well, if you have also made up your mind on any such impulsive travel alone, here are a few guidelines to help you.

1. Learn self-defense techniques. They will help you tackle any sudden assailant that you might come across during the travel. Do not worry about the duration of these classes. Many crash courses on self-defense is available. They hardly extend up to few days. By enrolling in any of these classes, you can easily get a basic training on self-defense.

2. Do adequate research on your travel place. Remember being an alone traveler, you cannot take the risk of traveling to an unsafe place. Before you choose any travel destination, find maximum information about it through the internet. Doing this will give you an idea of the place.

3. Some of the areas you need to find about are:

Local culture Dressing style General ambience Local people attitude towards foreigners

4. Be careful about the hotel location you choose. Do not choose an area that looks risky.

5. Be careful about the hotel you choose. Remember your first priority should be to choose a hotel that offers good security to the guests. Avoid taking rooms on the ground floor of the hotel. Understand ground floor rooms are easily accessible by windows.

6. Talk to different hotels about their security features.

7. Do not open your hotel room to any stranger. Always ask the identity of the person before opening the door. In case of a hotel professional, ask him/her to wear the hotel Id.

8. Maintain a good relation with the hotel reception officials. Keep them informed about your whereabouts. Do not forget to give contact numbers of some of your family members to the hotel reception. In case of any emergency, the hotel staff can call you or inform your family and friends.

9. Try to dress in the similar fashion to locals. This will help you mix with the crowd easily. You will not look out of place and grab attention of the locals.

10. Be careful if you have plans of partying. Do not drink much. Understand your limits when you are drinking alone.

11. Travel safely on the road. Try not to do late night traveling. Choose the places carefully that you wish to travel. In case of any problem on the road (someone following you), walk close to another pedestrian. Or else, head to a nearby shopping mall or busy public place. Inform the hotel authorities or the local police.

Some additional tips

12. Try to maintain the same routine in the hotel as you have at home. Get up early in the morning, start your day with a cup of coffee, plan out your activities for the rest of the day and return to hotel in early evening.

13. Arrange for a travel guidebook. This will help you plan your travel in that place. Based on the information given in the book, you can schedule the activities for the remaining part of the trip.
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Author Bio: Joselin John is a well reputed travel author in UK. She discusses on many travel related topics like: travel destinations, to dos before travelling and helped so many persons during travel by providing informative articles. From the above article, you will get to know that how will you travel safe while you are travelling alone.

Smoking on the Move Using the Electronic Cigarette Whilst Travelling

Travelling should be as easy as getting from A to B, but let’s face it, it’s rarely this straight-forward. More often than not to get from A to B you have to change at C, take a replacement bus service from D to E, before missing your connection at F and arriving at B, only to find your suitcase is actually in G. It is, it’s safe to say, a stressful time.

For smokers, handling the stress and disruption of modern travel is felt even more due to the blanket smoking bans in force on the UK transport network. In the past twenty-five years opportunities to smoke on the move have been steadily phased out, so from being able to smoke freely on buses, trains, and planes whilst we were all sporting mullets and listening to Wham, smokers now face a long trek to beyond the station or terminal doors if they are to take a relaxing draw.

City commuters have been unable to smoke since the late 1980s, with the Underground network banning smoking following the Kings Cross fire of 1987. Across mainline rail and UK bus services, smoking was phased out across the 1990s and early 2000s, and since the smoking ban came into effect in 2007, rail and bus stations, interchanges and airport terminals have also become smoke-free. It all means for stressful travelling for the smoker; that is unless they make the switch to an electronic cigarette.

While traditional smoking products may be banned on the move, the electronic cigarette is permitted on almost all forms of transport and travel. Because the electronic cigarette is free from tar and tobacco and emits only a nicotine vapour it is not covered by the current smoking ban regulations, and so can be enjoyed on trains, buses and planes across the UK.

However, users should still be careful, as the electronic cigarette can still cause problems of a different kind. Just last summer a significant terror alert was sparked on the M6 north of Birmingham after passengers on a Megabus coach saw what they thought was smoke coming from a man’s bag. The -smoke’ turned out to be the vapour from an electronic cigarette, but this was only discovered once the motorway had been shut down and four dozen police and armed response vehicles had been despatched to the scene.

The skies though do appear to be off limits for now though sadly. Some airlines are yet to have a firm stance on electronic cigarettes, but the majority of mainstream air carriers have bans in place on the use of electronic cigarettes whilst onboard. However, you do always have the benefit of being able to enjoy your electronic cigarette right up until departure, or on the moment of arrival in the terminal, rather than having to lurk outside amongst the taxi queue like traditional cigarette users.

And that’s not the only plus point of switching to an electronic cigarette either, because as well as being free from toxins, they are also much cheaper than traditional cigarettes. So with the money you save from ditching smoking old-school cigarettes outside in the rain, you could be sitting back in first class enjoying your electronic cigarette on the move instead.