Traveling overseas is an exciting experience. You are usually full of wonder at what you are going to see and do.

In fact we are planning our return trip to the US and Europe and as an added bonus we are looking at flying  around the UK to take in the sights and sounds across England, Edinborough and even going to Northern Ireland to check out the Irish pubs. We have just started to research flights to Belfast from London as well as accommodation in Northern Ireland in general as we have never been there before.

So the first part of your journey is generally your flight and it’s this experience that can set the tone for the rest of your trip.

When you consider that the first part of our journey is around a 15-20 hour flight, it makes sense to follow a few things to make this part enjoyable and comfortable.

If you are travelling economy class you are going to be cramped no matter what. And you don’t always get considerate people sitting front of you. They tend to think “I have paid for my seat and if I want to sit in the lap of the person behind – I will”.  And that is exactly what happened to me on our flight from London to Sydney.  

So after that experience I now try to get an exit seat as there is more leg room and in return all you have to be prepared to do is disarm the door and throw it out if there is an emergency. 

You can take a blow up pillow but I find the pillows provided by the aircraft are quite comfortable, so this is just a personal choice. I don’t see the point in taking any more luggage than absolutely necessary. 

In fact when you pack for your journey don’t take the kitchen sink, other countries do have laundromats so you can wash your clothes so keep them to a minimum. 

Keep hydrated by drinking plenty of water.  I don’t drink alcohol  when flying and try to keep drinking soda to a minimum.

Wear comfortable shoes and loose clothing. I always slip my shoes off so I make sure I have thickish socks on for walking around the cabin.

I learnt from my last trip not to sit too far down the back of the aircraft. Flying back from LA we backed onto an area near the toilets – big mistake – and there was also an area where people congregated to talk – one of them rather loudly wanted to share his life’s experiences with all and sundry, making it hard for those around to hear the movie or even sleep.  

I love to fly so on the few occasions when I have experienced little inconveniences I just accept it as part of the experience and concentrate on what is to come when I arrive at my destination.

Who doesn’ t love to save money!!!!  Nobody I know that’s for sure. 

Those of you who read this blog know that we generally book our travel online through expedia.com.au or expedia.com.

 Apart from the great deals and packages that they have available, their website is easy to navigate, and it doesn’t matter if I am booking a trip with multiple stops and only want to book a hotel for part of the trip, I can do it quickly and easily through Expedia.

Now there is even more reason for Aussie travellers to put of that trip any longer – No Flight Booking Fees on Expedia.com.au until October 18th! Book a flight now. – Expires 10/18/09 .

Now although this great offer is available until the 18th October 2009,  if one million Aussies visit the Expedia.com.au  website by  that date,  they will waive the booking on all future travel. 

Well you know what this means – we will be booking our next trip very soon.  We are off Stateside again in March and taking my grandaughter Ayla this time as she will be 21 and will be able to enjoy all the fun in Vegas, such as Jimmy Buffet’s Margarita Bar on the Strip.

But as you also know we often take short breakations right here in Australia and this offer also applies to local flights and for those interstate and intercountry flights that we generally book once we are overseas.

Not booking your entire trip before leaving home means you can take advantage of great deals that come up while you are travelling.  We did this last year when we picked up a couple of really cheap deals to San Francisco and San Diego.

Plus you have the freedom to do what you like when you like by not being tied to travel plan. But that’s us, this type of existence doesn’t suit everyone.  And as I have said before – Expedia.com.au make it all so easy to plan and book all your travel requirements including flights, cars, and hotels.  In fact if you book them all together you save even more money.

So hop online, book that trip and pay No Flight Booking Fees on Expedia.com.au until October 18th! Book a flight now. – Expires 10/18/09 , or simply visit expedia.com.au to make your vote for no booking fees in the future.

One of the biggest concerns when vacationing abroad is how to avoid cholera when you are traveling. Getting sick in a foreign country is a scary thought. However there are a few things you can do to protect yourself from coming down with a nasty bug when out and about in a less developed country.

Let’s break avoiding disease down into the type of travel you’re planning. If you’ll be staying in hotels and eating at restaurants then you’ll take a much different tactic than if you’re backpacking in a remote area.

Typical tourist travelers only need to take a few simple precautions. The most obvious one is “don’t drink the water” order bottled water to drink and even for brushing your teeth. If you get a drink in a restaurant get it without ice cubes.  Make sure your  avoid any leafy vegetables. They could have been rinsed off in contaminated water. Instead stick with fruits and veggies that have a thick peel like bananas, oranges, and avocados. A little bit of common sense is all it takes to keep healthy on your trip.

I always carry a small bottle of  hand sanitzer gel which is a hand cleaning agent that doesn’t require water. Simply squirt a splosh into your palm and rub your hands together to get rid of germs and bacteria. Hand sanitizer is also available in handy to carry wipes.

Backpackers don’t have the same luxuries as the typical tourist. If you’ve decided to hike and pack in to remote areas then you have to have a water purifier. There are all sorts of commercial models out there. You can add chemicals to treat the water as well. But by far the safest thing you can do is boil your water before using it for anything.  It’s bad enough to get sick, but it’s even worse when you are far away from home and any sort of medical care.

Watching what you eat and drink and purifying the water is your best bet when thinking about how to avoid cholera when you are traveling. A little bit of forethought can prevent any nasty incidents and let you enjoy a well-earned vacation.

Last week we drove from Canberra to Sydney to attend an affiliate marketing conference. This was an event that came out of the blue for us so it was a spur of the moment decision to attend. Now we’re used to travelling at a moments notice – in fact we prefer it – so only having a couple of days to book accommodation wasn’t a big deal for us.

And after quickly checking out the hotels near the event in Hurlstone Park (a suburb of Sydney), we decided instead to stay in the city centre and drive out each day.

We are getting used to driving to Sydney and anyone who has driven from Canberra to Sydney will know that getting to Sydney is not the issue – the big problem is driving through it. Sydney traffic can be horrendous, particularly during peak hour.

So before we left we decided to invest in a GPS. I had done a bit of research on the subject and in general most people preferred the Garmin to the Tom Tom so we settled on the Garmin nüvi 255 . One of the deciding factors was that the reviews stated that Tom Tom after sales service is mediocre to say the least, the routes provided weren’t always accurate and someone had mentioned that any long distance routings didn’t always work too well. Not sure whether that was just one person’s opinion but even so, in general, the Garmin just seemed to receive better reviews.

Before we left Canberra we set the GPS to direct us to our hotel but somewhere along the way we experienced a glitch. It kept telling us that there were ‘no detailed maps to support routing’. We’re not sure what happened or whether it was our fault or the Garmin’s but it wouldn’t allow us to select an address. So we finally had to end up using the street directory that we, fortunately, had in the car.

When we got to our hotel we had a look on the net to see what the problem might be. It turned out that we needed an unlock code to get the thing working again…but to get the unlock code you have to first register the GPS on the Garmin website…very frustrating!

After a small amount of cursing we eventually got to the unlock code which is on the Garmin site once you register. We followed the instructions to get the unlock code on to the GPS and hey presto the GPS started to work again. If you are having the same problem, just be aware that you need a USB cable to register your Garmin online as you need to connect the actual device to the Internet. A USB cable isn’t included when you purchase a Garmin 255 so you will need to purchase one separately or do what I did and use the one that I use for my camera. It fit perfectly.

The Garmin website is not easy to negotiate. I do wish product information websites would realise that their visitors want to find information on how to fix something, quickly and easily without all the pop-ups and a multitude of links to click to arrive at the right page.

For the four days we were in Sydney we had to get from our hotel in the city to Hurlstone Park and the GPS worked beautifully.  So apart from the initial hiccup the Garmin nüvi 255 worked great. It is a great little device which we highly recommend if you do a lot of car travel and don’t want to spend a lot of money on an expensive gadget. This is one of the cheapest GPS’s on the market.