Travel In Pictures
Welcome
Hi ! My name is Richard and you have arrived at my travel journal.
You can read all of spiel and find out more about me here. I've been travelling the world now for a few months armed with a bag of clothes, a laptop and my incredibly unreliable digital camera. Enjoy the blog and contact me if you'd like to join the scores of people abusing me.
5 things I’ve learnt part 1
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So I’ve now moved onto the great state of Florida and it’s great. There will be much more to follow on Florida shortly. For now I’m going to divulge a few things I’ve picked up on my travels.
1. Coffee and laptops don’t play nice together
One part of my travels that I am still struggling to get over is my unfortunate accident in Edinburgh where I manage to bathe my laptop in a mug of coffee. Embarassing yes! but a valuable lesson learnt don’t pour coffee onto your laptop under any circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »
Living in Luxury at San Diego
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And I wonder why my budget is on its last legs! Following on from my last post I’ve been looking into San Diego luxury vacation rental. San Diego and California is a beautiful and place and there is lots to-do so having a great place to come back to would be great.
From what I can remember San Diego has a great list of attractions and my last trip there included a neat cruise- this bit I do remember, so I would like to relax a bit more in a upmarket renting. I’ll definatley need to be looking at San Diego furnished vacation rentals at the very least.
Anyway I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll keep looking at vacation rental San Diego and decide whether to go upmarket or get a modest place. I’ve a few other places to visit first so will see how my budget is looking closer to the time.
California - Sticking Around, Possibly?
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Just a random note on San Diego vacation rentals. Here I am still in the Bahamas I’m looking into moving on very shortly and I’m really looking forward to seeing parts of America.
California and in particular San Diego will be a big part of this state side tour as I am looking to go back to an area I spent quite a few years in as a child. As unlikely as it may seem some of my distant relatives used to live in San Diego so the area is not unknown to me. With my budget running thin I’ve been looking into San Diego corporate vacation rental in-case of the possibility of me doing some freelance work while I’m here.
One thing is for sure there are enough people around at my relatives San Diego place that I will definitely need a San Diego vacation condo rental.
Airport Hotels
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airport hotels is a subject I’ve not mentioned previously on the blog. I have touched on airport parking but after arriving at Bahamas airport and staying in their resident hotel I realised that research is key for anyone’s budget or sanity.
You see I flew into Bahamas and naively checked myself straight in at a high cost where as if I was searching for Gatwick hotels or Heathrow airport hotels I would have felt more comfortable searching because I know the area. Anyway the point I’m trying to make is that searching online can be done no matter where in the world you are landing. You can even see for hotels that are in close proximity to the airport for extra savings.
Gladiator Style
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Being a massive fan of all things gladiator Rome has always held a certain fascination for me. I wasn’t too aware of anything else I would really love to do more than visit the Colosseum when I arrived in Rome and what an experience it was.
Rome here we come …
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Just checking in. France and Paris was great. I actually ended up moving on from Paris to Nantes for a few days as I have really enjoyed myself in Paris. My next stop is Rome, Italy and I’m going with a friend.
The Seine River Cruise
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Today I took a beautiful cruise down The Seine River. Beautiful isn’t a word a use much but this really was. The cruise passed lots of old bridges that were quite enchanting and breathtaking in places.
The Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and The Lourve are all based on the banks of The Seine which made for great passing points.
The Paris Experience
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Following on from Dortmund Paris has been much better. As I said in my last post after the boring experience in Dortmund I decided to do the tourist thing in France and it has been great. Read the rest of this entry »
More research, America etc.
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I’m now in Paris and have just settled into my hostel. A hostel although usually the status quo of travellers wouldn’t have been my first choice normally. My funds are shockingly low at the moment so rather than a grovelling call to the bank I’ve been trying to research and organise my travels better. So far my hap-hazard preparation has cost me financially.
I’ve been looking firstly at Travel Coupons which could be a great money saver as I am constantly on the move and more than ready to accept last minute, cheaper deals. This USA Road Trip Planner is extremely useful for my plans of exploring America. America is a huge place and using a trip planner as well as a gas card could be brilliant.
All of this research has been taking place mostly on this Open Travel Info web site. A great guide in my opinion and definitely worth a visit. I think I may be using it more and more in the future.
More on driving America …
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In my last post I talked about travelling America via car and I’ve been looking further into it as I can’t wait to get there. What did I find ? gas cards, they seem to be a great way of saving money or dollars whilst I’m travelling the land of opportunity.
After all my fund aren’t exactly a bottomless pit ! gas cards are effectively credit cards for gas. Not to be confused with English saving cards that will give points or rewards for a certain amount spent over time. Many English reward cards will only give around 1% back.
Gas credit cards can give you as much as 20% cash-back which is great. They operate in the same way as regular credit cards where you can choose to clear your balance on a weekly or monthly basis. Another benefit is the fact that they save pressure time at the pay point which is important when you want to hit the road.
I’ve still to see the legal wranglings of a traveller applying and being accepted for a card but if I can get my hands on one I will definitely be doing so.
Thinking of America
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At some point on my travels I will inevitably cross the pond and do America! I would love to stop by Hawaii and have been thinking of the best ways to travel. Despite my recent problems with rental cars I have been looking at Hawaii Car Rental and Car Rentals, Maui.
America and American states such as Hawaii are much better travelled in my opinion by car and since I don’t want to pay the charge for shipping my car over, rental is the only option. In fact I believe any travel should be aided in some way by cars. That is of course until a greener method because available that is as convenient.
I have been fortunate to visit Florida when I was younger on a family holiday and without a car I can imagine things being really difficult. Therefore researching Miami Car Rentals has also been a must before travelling over to America. After all how can I visit America without seeing Disney Land.
Airport Parking
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More posts on the Dortmund over the next few days as I’m still stuck here, getting a little bored now ! I’m also looking to get a few images up on my flickr so keep an eye out for those.
Just now I’d like to share a bit of knowledge gained during my travels. This blog would be wasted if I were not able to pass on a little bit of advice from time to time. UK airport parking has never been better you can book in advance, find great discounts and all online. Go ahead and book online safe in the knowledge that your space will be reserved and you’ll literally only have to turn up and drive into it.
Some key tips include :
- Check your car when you leave it and more-so when you go to pick it up. If you notice damage before driving away you must report it. Why ? If you drive away then the company who have been holding car will not be liable. You have driven your car away and as such have agreed that you are happy with its condition.
- Make sure you pre-book. If you pre-book you can receive fantastic discounts. Also check if airport parking can been thrown in with your deal at the travel agents.
- Allow a little extra time for your whole arrival at the airport. This may seem obvious but parking up and walking to the terminal rather than jumping straight out of a taxi will definitely add a little time onto your arrival.
Gatwick Airport Parking and Manchester Airport Parking are two of the most popular destinations but wherever you are parking the advice above should hold you in good-stead.
Dortmund
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Happy New Year !
After my stint in Amsterdam which lasted a little longer than usual a left for the neareast city. I wasn’t sure where I would end up so I took out a map and looked for something that caught my eye. There are a few places I wouldn’t dream of missing but I’m pretty easy with the rest of my journey.
Amsterdam - I feckin luvs it …
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So late night on the 26th (boxing day flight) I arrive at Amsterdam’s airport and I’m buzzing. I’ve been Amsterdam many times before and always found it to be very welcoming and never short of something to offer its visitors.
Is this thing on ?
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To my faithful readers, an apology for you have missed out on a small part of my travel diaries due mostly to my undeniable stupidity. It all started back in Edinburgh around 3 weeks ago (how the time does fly) . I sat down smugly with a cup of coffee and looked forward to logging on and posting another update I also wanted to cast my mind to the future. Would I be in the South of France or would I be on my way to Travel in India. What happened next was pure sketch-show style comedy. As I left over to tap my keyboard I accidentally shuffled offa’ the comfy chair I was sat which in turn made me lose balance in the arm that was holstering my coffee. God damn over-sized mugs ! No explanation necessary for what happens next, a bit of smoke and screeching banshee of a waitress (I was both painfully embarrassed and flattered by her ’scream and run round like a headless chicken’ reaction, despite it not being her laptop).
