Travel Dynamics & Wrap-up

Travel Dynamics and Process

	Before getting there - Planning for the trip
	Getting there, Arrival
	While at destination, maximizing your trip and stay
	The trip back - getting back home safely and cheaply

Whether making plans early to ensure availability and locking in a price, or flexible enough to wait until last minute and or deeply discounted fares and travel deals, there are options to suit every pocket, taste and travel budget!

Investing in trip cancellation insurance and travel medical insurance are travel necessities you cannot dismiss, discard or under-estimate. This is not the spot to be thinking cost cutting. Protect your travel investment best you can.

If traveling on an international flight, re-confirm your booking 72 hours prior to departure - some charter companies reserve the right to cancel your booking if you do not! When confirmed on a domestic flight, airlines cannot bump you. Try to get plenty of sleep the night before your trip. Call to find out whether there are any delays before leaving for the airport.

Make sure to set and arrange for a couple of alarm clocks or wake-up calls on your day of departure. Confirm ground transportation to and from the airport if you are not driving yourself and using the park-and-fly service. Allow lots of transit and en route times. Confirm your bookings and remember to always let hotels or resorts know if you are running late, delayed and or if your trip is cancelled altogether.

Utilize travel services, that is why they are there, remembering that all extras like valet parking, baggage handling, luggage carts,  tips etc. all add up and need to be budgetary items or categories in your overall travel and financial plan.

For the budget conscious, select the neighborhood-friendly hotel that caters to the local crowd, not the pricy touristy options. You might be surprised at the value and hospitality you might find. Make the concierge your friend and information centre - they are the main link to the corner of the world you find yourself in. Get that special insider and local insights, tips and expertise at your disposal, waiting to make your trip and experience that more special and memorable.

They can also offer some handy referrals and give ideas on what things might cost, book ground transportation and much, much more. 

There are always also hostels, YMCA, and YWCA's that are clean, safe and reliable. If visiting multiple cities, picking one hotel chain might also be more convenient and save you time and money in the process.

A discussion on travel logistics, dynamics and process would not be complete, without mentioning safety and security. A couple of tips follow:

• Do not travel with precious possessions and be discreet with cash and other valuables. Leave sentimental and irreplaceable items at home preferably. 

• Protect your essentials like travel documentation, passport, traveler's checks, credit cards and more. Concealing them on-person, in a pouch or somewhere in your clothing is all accepted practice. 

• Be watchful but not paranoid about being at risk of becoming or being a robbery victim.  You will end up spending excessive money on cabs everywhere as opposed to taking a gentle stroll and or exploring by foot! 

• Keep valuables concealed in crowded places. Do not consider hip pockets and dangling bags good places for your wallet! 

• Do not carry excess cash you do not need, especially at night and do not flaunt cash in public under any circumstance. Do not make yourself a visible and easy target. 

• Divide and spread your cash and other money instruments like traveler's checks around your luggage - do not carry it all in one place. 

• A good budgeting tip is wrapping your wallet with a rubber band or two to make it harder for pickpockets to remove it from your pocket without detection! 

• Keep your luggage safe, with you and secure at night when you sleep. 

• Never leave luggage and or valuables in a car, bus, taxi, train or other form of transportation. 

• Always watch at security screenings and customs checks to ensure that your belongings do not disappear. 

• Speaking about customs, when exceeding the duty-free limits, know that it will cost you dearly, up to as much as 10 % on the next $1000 worth of goods.  

• If you purchased many items (over $50 each) and mailed them to yourself, they are still dutiable. Personal items can be shipped home and you will not have to pay duties if returning them to your destination as long as you write on the package "American goods returned" for example. 

This might not be the case for other locations, so verify this with your mail carrier beforehand. Again, planning well ensures an informed consumer. These steps can and will save you money, avoid costly errors and or oversights. Attention to detail will assist you in being a smart, well-informed, money-conscious and dollar-and-cents saving traveler.

Again, most of these statement and suggestions are general in terms and do not necessarily list every time how you will be able to save money, avoid cost, benefit from paying attention to detail and be a savvy, money-saving and SMART traveler. It will mostly do so through implied inference and deduction, you will be able to come up with your own interpretation of how these tips can help you save money.

That is the bonus of budgeting, planning and the format of this tips-guide. You can take as little or as much as you need, relevant to your trip and customize and tailor it into a strategy that is right and suitable, appropriate and guarantees savings for your unique circumstance, means and action travel plans and budgets.

Travel Wrap-up 

Post-assessment and budgeting

Once you get home, with all your receipts, bills, photographs (or film, memory cards these days!) in one piece and your dream vacation has come to an end, spend a couple of minutes on a debrief or post-mortem so to speak.

If you are jetlagged and just simply have no energy to do so, wait a couple of days. However, do not delay or postpone for too long, because we are creatures of habit and fall right back into life, without sparing a second thought of our trips' aftermath and how lessons learnt,  money saved and more, can assist us on our next round of travel.

This situation-analysis and post-assessment will be helpful in that the budget-plan now almost takes care of itself and will just need to be adjusted and a new destination, facts and amounts filled in to set you up nicely for the checking off that next dream location or trip you had in mind and listed earlier.

For lots more interesting and informative content on smart travel and travel savings, see our Topical Articles.