My 2012 Travel And Technology Predictions
When we were looking back at your and my travel predictions for 2011 we were mostly on the money with our guesses. Not to sell our prophecies short, but we had a lot of help from the momentum of the trends we saw building in 2010. This year though, things are different. There’s uncertainty in the air – the kind that often leads to opportunity.
As for who picks up those favorable morsels, let’s have to look into my crystal iPad and see what the future may have in store for the present.
Airline Fees Drop And Disappear (Yay!) But Ticket Prices Go Up (Boo)
First of all, don’t get completely crazy and run off with the title – some airlines will drop minor fees throughout the coming year. They’ll do it in such a way that makes it seem like you’re saving but don’t forget airlines follow the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition, “once you have their money, never give it back.” Drink fees for example may go away with some baggage fees reduced, but watch those airfares creep up to compensate. [ED: I wrote this article before this news came out but I'll take it as a good omen for my predictions.]
Americans saw about a 6% increase in prices last year around peak travel times even though more people are now flying than ever. The problem is a combination of rising fuel costs, the use of online aggregators (e.g. Kayak), and prices that don’t reflect the real price of flying through the air in a heavy metal tube. So this year you’ll go (a bit) closer back to the golden days when there weren’t luggage fees or 8 dollar cans of Coke but instead plane tickets that cost 5-8% more.
Tablets Are Going To Kill The Kindle (Fire And All)
I’m a big fan of the smaller 7-inch tablet variety, especially the Nook Tablet and not-so-much the hastily-put-together Kindle Fire; but they’ve really paved the way for their own demise. I can’t see either device dominating that space in the current market. Those devices can’t move up into the larger screen, more expensive/versatile market where iPads and Samsung Galaxy 10.1s hang out. But the big boys can and will come down to bully the current 7-inch tablets off the digital playground.
Now that improved displays optimal for reading (nearly-at paper resolution) are falling in price, you’ll start to see iPads (as rumored) with retina-displays and watch the current iPad 2s drop about $100 (also rumored). One thing that’s definitely not going away are the smaller form tablets like the Nook and Kindle Fire, but they’re now occupying an ecological niche on an island just waiting for some feral 7-inch iPad mini-cats to be dropped off to wipe them out.
A Serious Skype Rival Emerges
The ever-useful Skype is one of several free programs you shouldn’t travel without. So while they’ve added 3-way video calls to the Mac (finally) and a few other features to the video chat client everyone loves (me included) I can’t help but feel that entire genre of software has been static too long. You might be thinking, “well, what more could they do?,” and well, I’ve got my hunches someone or some company is going to answer that question this year.
Countries On The Rise: Ruckus In The Caucus(es)
As I noted last week, Turkey has seen a healthy jump in tourism over the last year, aided by travelers scared off by the Arab Spring. Turkey this year will follow a trend that’s very common in national tourism – start cheap, people visit > get more expensive add more tourist offerings > cheaper bordering countries become new “low-cost” alternatives. (Think Thailand compared to Laos or Cambodia.) Istanbul is already in the expensive phase nearly all year round now – not without good reason – but people are going to begin discovering alternatives in the region during 2012.
The Eurovision contest in May might draw in some interest in Azerbaijan with both nearby Armenia and to a lesser extent Georgia seeing indirect spillover from Turkey’s tourism boom. I’ll stretch my prediction to include Iran as well. Finally, to get specific – Oman will see a 5-6% increase in tourism, Colombia 12%, and Chile 8%.
Dogs In The Skies (Yes, Cats Too)
As Amy mentioned in her prediction last year, there will be more restaurants, hotels, and generally pet-friendly options on the ground. In the skies…well, not-so-much though I’ll disagree a bit on this one. There won’t be any better options (pets not in the cabin are basically treated like cargo) but more people will take to the skies with their pets. (If you happen to be one of them check out The Ultimate Guide To Traveling With Your Pets or these 5 great pet travel sites.)
I would hope that more pets flying would cause the airlines to get creative with their offerings but since bankruptcy hasn’t done that I think we’re out of luck for 2012.
More Bloggers, Less Traveling
Wow, wow, wow, there are about a zillion travel blogs online now. Many are dead zombies, left quiet after their creators have finished a one-year RTW. Many more are born every day as travel journals or money-making hopefuls. The travel blog market though, generally, has become a static factory churning out top 10 things to do in Paris posts and photos of the day. This all said, the travel blogosphere is new and uncertain – like I said before – that’s an environment ripe with opportunity for something unique. You’ll see that this year my crystal iPad says (or this bottle of Jack Daniels, sometimes they sound alike.)
Without getting too deep into the world of blogging you’ll see many more bloggers slow down their travel pace. That will lead to an improvement of the quality of what they produce, whether it’s writing, photography, or video. I’ll also predict independent travel blogs will see some very strong competition from a large outside force.
Where Do You See 2012 Going?
End of the world? The year we finally find out the pyramids were built by aliens? Do we discover time travel is possible from a visitor who arrives from the future?
I’m ready to hear your travel predictions for 2012 large and small in the comments below. We’ll meet up here again in, say, a year from now to find out how we did. Taking bets optional.
Low Budget Travel Tricks You Can Use To Overcome Big Budget Problems: Part 3
Now here you stand great traveler, with all of the power in your hands, expertly wielded with your mind. Nature was subdued in Part 1 and nicking nicked in Part 2. But with great power comes great temptation on the journey we travel. You’ll need to make new allies and rely on ancient texts to guide your quest as lord of the wings.
Upgrade Your Tech For Free From The Inside Out
I really wish I could send all of you a few thousand dollars to buy a bunch of new fancy gadgets but until I can, let’s talk about upgrading what you already have. Remember, gadgets are hardware and software – and software is often you can do something about right away. When it comes to unlocking your phone – Android, iPhone, or otherwise I’ve got you covered with my complete guide to unlocking mobiles. You can do things like add multi-tasking, games, and other apps not available directly for your version of phone. On top of that, you’ll get the added benefit of being able to choose any carrier you want around the world and at home.
Going Apple? – I’ve mentioned a few times before that several PC netbooks are compatible enough to run Mac OS X – with some modifications. If you’re up for creating a Hackintosh that’s one thing but when it comes to tablets it’s another.
- Talking Tablets – iPads aren’t the only tablets on the market – Samsung’s Galaxy 10.1 is a nice competitor – but basically the same price. Rather, if you happened to get a Kindle Fire or (in my opinion superior device) Nook Tablet over New Year’s you can root either (Nook Guide – Kindle Guide) to access to the full Android store. A solid tablet for $250 less than you might pay otherwise. (On a side note, the next version of the iPad will be released by April this year and it’s rumored that the current iPad 2s will drop $100. So, if you can wait until spring, your wallet will likely thank you.)
- Extend Your Battery Life And Wireless Range – Both are easier than you may believe.
- Get Better Alarm Clocks Across Timezones – These 3 methods work across laptops, phones, and other portable devices if you’ve been oversleeping one too many times.
- Take Better Photos With The Same Camera – Software can go a long way to improving your travel photos too.
Finally, if you’ve got a desktop at home, the office, or your parents house you can create your own mini cloud to backup, speed up downloads, and get around Internet censorship. Here’s how to make the most out of your desktop while traveling.
Airlines Beware Nerdy Ninjas Await
The airlines have money and can make metal tubes fly across oceans but you’ve got the world’s largest collection of knowledge at your disposal. First though, let’s go old school. Very, very, old school.
- The Art Of War - Whether it’s literally (don’t fight uphill battles) or figuratively (don’t fight uphill battles) Sun Tzu’s timeless advice can help you win many battles at the ticket counter. (And elsewhere, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read; I highly recommend it.)
- Get More Frequent Flyer Miles – In 8 minutes for the reluctant of you out there.
- Weave Yourself Around Airline Fees – For free you can fly with baggage without the fee.
Now let’s bring out the big guns. Here’s how to use the entire Internet to stand up to the airlines when you need to.
Beat The Bling, Fight Temptation, And Shave Your Hairy Budget
When you’re already off on vacation or traveling it’s easy to dismiss the impact ATM, foreign transaction, and other miscellaneous fees can have on your budget. Avoid wasting your funds unnecessarily (imagine how many beers you could buy) by choosing the right bank before going overseas. In case that’s too late or you’re just extremely diligent, for all its faults, Mint.com does a heck of a job notifying you of fees you’ve paid but could be avoiding. From credit cards to coupons, Mint will also automatically suggest improvements based on your spending. Why think when a technology can do it for you – focus those brain cells on beautiful sunsets or amazing views – it’s what travel is all about.
- Miss Flights For Free – I have a tendency to never be on time and this is a skill I’ve perfected over a lifetime of being late and skipping college exams.
- Exchange Cash The Star Trek Way – Need to borrow a few bucks from a friend or perhaps want to payback your friend Pat Stewart for all of those Romulan ales? Well, Paypal for one lets you bump phones to give and take cash. It’s one of many apps using Bump Technologies.
How much would a week in Indonesia cost you? Budget Your Trip knows the answer to that and many other destinations. Remember preparation and anticipation is what makes the difference between a guy who gets beat up and Batman.
The road is a long one for a traveler without shoes, stamina, or smarts. You are now not one of them, armed with the knowledge of Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.
Low Budget Travel Tricks You Can Use To Overcome Big Budget Problems: Part 2
January 12, 2012 by Anil P.
Filed under Health and Fitness, Money, Security
In Part 1 of Low Budget Travel Tricks you learned to tame mother nature and battle armies of microscopic vampires, you, our nomadic hero. Though your path is still wroth with bandits and ruthless dragons who control the skies, yet still, you will overcome them. Leverage and luck on your side you’ll defeat these foes, allowing you to go on the offensive, but first to today’s battles.
Fight Off Attackers, Pickpockets, And Hotel Thieves
Prevention, awareness, and contingency are the basic steps to a robust security plan, whether you’re looking out for hackers or simply want to be prepared in case of a mugging. When it comes to your personal safety, knowing the streets or parts of town you might want to avoid (or just avoid at night) can go a long way in keeping you from assault. Hotels, hostels, and Tripadvisor are all good resources that can lessen your chances of ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Pocket Protection
- Carry Only What You Need – I only carry a day pack if I’m hiking or looking for a cafe to get some work done. Otherwise, I leave my laptop and other valuables with wherever I’m staying. They’re safer there, no day pack often helps you blend in, plus it’s better for your back.
- Distribute Your Money On Your Person – A little bit of cash in your pockets, socks, underwear, bra, etc. means if someone picks your pocket, you’re not losing everything. A decoy wallet with a small amount of cash and an expired credit card can also protect you by fooling pickpockets.
- Catch The
BastardsCrooks – One of 4 ways to be shadier than a thief is to set a credit card trap:
“Keep this card (with no money in the account) in your decoy wallet. If it’s stolen call the credit card company or bank right away to let them know. In most countries the companies will keep close track to see where and if that card is used. If there happens to be a camera at the first place the pickpocket tries to use the card you may be in luck.”
The digital equivalent of a credit card trap is to use the free Project Prey on your laptop, mobile phone, and tablet.
Hotel Hacking
Much like protecting the items on your person when you’re out and about – it’s a good idea to distribute your valuables. Make use of the safe in the room (no guarantee yet decent protection) but generally speaking, locking the zippers on your bags provides enough discouragement for opportunistic thieves. The first rule of security is that no security is absolute – you just need enough security to make a potential theft more risky than it’s worth to the thief.
- Create A Backpack Security Plan – Remember the layers of clothing that keep you warm and make your mom happy in Part 1 of this series? Well, layers will insulate your most valuable items against theft.
- Get Pacsafe Security Without A Pacsafe – That’s also much less conspicuous.
Overcome Physical Threats
Let’s start with an obvious one that’s easy to forget depending on where you’ve been traveling – keep your valuables out of sight. That means iPhones, which seem as common as grass these days, but don’t forget they’re a cool $600 that’s easily resold anywhere in the world. It’s tempting in taxis, buses, and while wandering the city streets to multi-task with a bit of texting or gloat to your friends (“I iz totally rockin Buenos Aires right now Jimmy”) but it’s not Jimmy that’s going to get jacked that way.
- Treat Your Gadgets Like Real Actors, Not Reality Stars – Meaning be picky about when they make an appearance.
- Uglify Your Things So They’re Not So Enticing – Wise Bread has an excellent guide on uglifying and some handy anecdotes from Brazil.
- Bring A Safety Whistle – This is one personal safety tip from Legal Nomads I can’t get enough of and Jodi’s got 3 good reasons to carry a whistle.
When it comes to personal safety though whether you’ve got formal training or not, these 3 insightful rules by Sam Harris could help you avoid being harmed physically.
Tomorrow in the third and final part of this series you’ll take down a frequent foe and battle your own demons to become the one to rule them all.
Low Budget Travel Tricks You Can Use To Overcome Big Budget Problems: Part 1
You, the sole traveler, wandering the world alone face hazardous weather, gigantic nefarious companies, wildlife that eats you alive at night – and that’s on a good day. Yet you, brave nomad, have one thing they don’t. It’s what allows short judo fighters to flip larger opponents through the sky and hobbits to become lord of rings. You, my friend have, have leverage.
Here’s how to wield yours to find cracks in large systems that aren’t nearly as maneuverable as you are to save money, comfort, and sometimes your own skin.
Change Temperatures From The Inside Out
Most of our intuition about temperatures are wrong because we base them on how we feel and rudimentary dichotomies (e.g. to make something hot use cold). The problem with that general logic is that we’re all running around in hot bodies (oh baby) that fight to keep their temperatures constant. Around many parts of the world where people don’t have the luxury of air conditioning or central heating they’ve stumbled upon some effective but counter-intuitive methods of controlling the air around them feels.
- Eat Spicy Foods To Cool Off – You’ll notice in places like India, Thailand, and the Philippines that aren’t often cold, the cuisine is often peppered with spicy foods. Aside from being effective at preventing the growth of bacteria (especially important in hot, humid climates) spicy foods cause blood vessels on your skin to expand, dissipating heat and encouraging sweating. (On a side-note, antiperspirants don’t effect your body’s ability to cool down.)
Drink Hot Liquids To Beat The Heat – Again, you would think that a cold milkshake would work better than hot tea but cold drinks actually heat you up in the long run. Your stomach cools down in the first 15 minutes, but after that you’re back to normal temperature – then hotter. Digestion takes energy and often our bodies temporarily overcompensate to heat up that cold spot fast.
Hot drinks (without calories) on the other hand work much like spicy foods, causing you to sweat, and tea has the added benefit of being mostly water which helps replace the body’s natural coolant.
- Pee To Feel Warm – No, I don’t mean pee on yourself to stay warm (because soon you’ll feel really cold anyway); but by not holding your urine in, your body won’t have to bother heating it up. You see, your body wastes energy keeping you – all of you – at the same core temperature. Peeing when you’ve got the urge (that means your bladder is about 25% full by the way) frees up heat that can go to your chilly little fingers.
As for beer and other alcohol, cold or otherwise, it’s not going to bring you relief from the heat since booze dehydrates you. Enough beer though and you’ll be drunk which may or may not improve your outlook on the weather. As for drinking vodka and other hard liquor to stay warm, it too actually does the opposite. Alcohol gets those blood vessels flowing to the skin – which makes you feel warmer – but causes your to lose body heat more rapidly. So, if you’re lost in the woods on winter’s day, lay off the booze, it could kill you. Layers, on the other hand, let you regulate your body temperature much easier and make moms happy all over the world.
Finally, this is an old trick from the ancient Egyptians I’ve talked about previously – spritzing your bed and pillow sheets with ice water before sleeping to cool you off at night.
Deter Common Pests
I thankfully haven’t come across bed bugs yet but they’re certainly a growing problem. On top of that, they’re a growing problem that can follow you home. If you suspect you’ve been feasted on and happen to be traveling in the summer or in warmer regions, a car trunk in the sun will get hot enough to rid your luggage of bed bugs. Leave your bags in a hot car trunk for about 4 hours and bed bugs – eggs and all – will be dead.
To defeat other organized insects you’re likely to come across:
- Turn Your Smelly Feet Into Mosquito Traps – Combined with stinky socks, duct tape, and the right measurements.
- Hang Bags Of Water To Deter Flies – A trick I picked up in the Philippines. Here’s what it looks like.
- Use Baby Power, Coffee, Or Cayenne To Throw Ants Off Track – One they lose their scent trails, ants get lost and die, leaving your snacks alone (hopefully).
Unfortunately cockroaches are much more difficult to get rid of depending on the extent of their infiltration (I once stayed at a place in India that would make your nightmares bleed reminiscent of this X-Files episode). That said, apparently catnip is a good deterrent but I’m guessing you’re not carrying that in your handbag.
On Thursday in Part 2 I’ll show you how to fend off other big problems with a bit of actual judo, some old-school hacking, and cloud calculating that wouldn’t bust the most modest of travel budgets.
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