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New York City Pride

by Anil Polat | Jul 9, 2010 | Pictures and Video, Travel Journal | 9

new york city pride parade

I was in New York City two weekends ago for the Travel Blog Exchange Conference (TBEX), where hundreds of travel bloggers got together to meet (many for the first time in person) and pick up some travel blog advice. There were also plenty of TBEX parties and quite a few drinks coupled with late nights; one reason I made it to Greenwich Village around noon, missing the TBEX morning sessions on the second day.

When I emerged off the subway at the 8th St. NYU stop, I stumbled upon the colorful scene that was the New York City Pride Parade. This parade began in 1970 and happens to be the oldest gay pride parade in the world. I didn’t get to stay long as I was making my way to TBEX and the large crowds threw off my already bad sense of direction. I got lost in Washington Square Park before eventually finding the Cantor Film Center.

I had been to New York City many times before but if you haven’t, be sure to check out these top 5 cheap thrills and learn to love American culture in New York City.

Why Packing For 2 Weeks Is No Different Than Packing For 2 Months

by Anil Polat | Jul 8, 2010 | Luggage | 28

Many people correspond the length of a trip to the amount of stuff they have to pack in their luggage. The truth is that you can’t efficiently pack more things than you can use over a 1-2 week period. Whether you’re headed for a week-long holiday or visiting family for several months, you don’t need to carry much more than you can use over 10 days.

over-packing

Over-packing Takes Away From Your Travels Before You Arrive

Over-packing so you’ll be prepared for a trip wastes the time you have at home – spending hours trying to get every single thing ready before you leave. Despite how much prepare, you’re bound to need something you forgot and won’t use many of the little travel goodies you’ve spent money on.

The World Is Small – You can buy just about anything from the larger towns and cities in most countries around the world.
Lighter – Don’t neglect the weight of your suitcase or backpack, which won’t look too heavy sitting on your bedroom floor. Aside from the strain on your back, you might end up paying a number of fees for going over luggage limits so put your backpack on a diet.
Cost Of Time Over Money – It might be well within your budget to purchase every type of clothing for any kind of weather, but you can’t buy time. That’s time spent researching every possible contingency, searching for the absolute best deals online, or going back and forth to every store under the sun.

over-packed group

The physical weight of all the items you carry isn’t nearly as big of a burden as the mental stress of trying to remember it all. Not to mention you’ll also spend quite a bit of time re-packing once you’re ready to leave. You’re travels are better spent doing the things you love – traveling, eating danishes in Denmark, climbing volcanoes…whatever it may be. (I bet you wouldn’t put packing on that list.)

1-2 Weeks Is The Sweet Spot

Traveling (for most people) isn’t equivalent to moving to a new house. You’re taking a temporary supply of the clothes, electronics, and books you want to use and enjoy while away from home. What you pack before you leave on a trip isn’t absolute – it’s not like you’ve only got one chance to get it right or face catastrophe. People wear clothes and use toothpaste all over the world, you’ll find any essential items at stores no matter where your flight happens to land.

Do Laundry – Washing your clothes (or having someone do it for you at a hotel) once every 10 days isn’t torture. Facilities can be found just about everywhere and you can even wash your clothes in the shower or bathtub.
Take Only What You Need – It seems basic, but what are the things you’ll use more than once on a 1 week trip? Start narrowing down from there and stick to a single carry-on.
Mix And Match Outfits – A few pants, shirts, accessories, plus plenty of socks and underwear can still do wonders for your wardrobe.
You Are Not Packing For The Rest Of Your Life – We tend to use things in a cyclical fashion, think about your daily routine at home. Do you wear every single outfit in your closet, or do you have some favorites?

I’m willing to bet that you’d need to replenish essential supplies in your house within 2 weeks, but could probably last an entire season or two with a jacket, 5 shirts, and 3 pair of pants, plus 10 pair of underwear and socks.

Missing The Destination By Packing Your Home

Most of the most memorable events and culturally insightful anecdotes you’ll come across traveling happen during the ordinary. Going to a local market to find a necklace, stopping by a small shop to get toothpaste, or washing your clothes like the locals do is similar, but not the same as it is back home. Each culture takes human-common things and crafts them under their own lens.

Yes, people around the world wash clothes, go to grocery stores, and drink Coca-Cola, but how they do so reflects their culture and perhaps yours. If you’re packing to bring home with you, it’s possible you could be missing out on seeing anything else, and carrying more baggage than you think.

[photos by: Cayusa (over-packing), downtownBLUE (over-packed group), ohmann alianne (one week written on finger)]

7 Ways To Bump Your Frequent Flyer Earning Up A Notch

by Anil Polat | Jul 6, 2010 | Advice, Air, Money | 29

Not signing up for a frequent flyer program is one common mistake many travelers make, but even the most reluctant travelers can be earning miles in 8 minutes or less. You may already be signed up and have a few miles scattered across several programs, have lost track of your miles accounts completely, or are still waiting for your next flight to earn a few more miles.

With a few organizational tricks and tools you can start earning many more miles from home than you ever could in the air by bumping up your game to the next level.

1. Use A Single Account Per Alliance

When you sign up for an airline’s frequent flyer program, in most cases you can earn miles by flying on any of that airline’s partner flights. So, for example, you can earn miles on United’s Mileage Plus when you fly on Lufthansa (both Star Alliance) but only if you used your United frequent flyer account number for that Lufthansa flight. Many people make the mistake of using their individual mile accounts for each airline, which usually means you end up with small amounts of (unusable) accumulated miles scattered across programs.

number one

2. Track Miles The Digital Way

Don’t waste time and discourage your mile earning enthusiasm by trying to track various accounts from different websites with logons and passwords you’ll never remember (unless you’re using KeePassX). Rather, use Award Wallet to keep track of all your frequent flyer programs in one place and get notified if any are about to expire. When booking use MileMaven to find all of the promotions for a particular flight route or hotel and trade your smaller account miles with others on Points.com to rack up a bunch on a single airline.

award wallet

3. Get A Boost With Credit Card Bonuses

Most airlines and many banks offer you a bonus of several thousand miles for signing up to one of their credit cards. In fact, wait a few months after signing up and you’ll notice the offers get increasingly more enticing. Wait for one you like, or, if you’re not loyal to a particular program consider a points-based credit card. For most of the credit cards there is a minimum total to get the bonus miles ($250-1,000 in 1-3 months) and you’ll have to keep the card active for at least 6 months.

boost gauge

4. Know What You Need To Fly

This is perhaps the most basic yet confusing piece of information to find about the various frequent flyer programs. To best redeem your miles you need to know how many are needed for a free upgrade or round-trip ticket. Frequent Flier has a list of the most popular programs and how many miles you need to redeem for US domestic. You’ll still have to do some digging for international flights, here are the requirements for OneWorld partner airlines and Star Alliance members.

5. Ask For Unused Miles From Friends And Family

Sherry brought up a good point last week, many of us have family and friends who fly infrequently or have miles set to expire. Rather than let them go to waste, you can ask to have the miles transferred to your existing account. It does cost a fee to do so (about $50-100) but the investment might be worth its weight in a free ticket or upgrade.

woman sharing a beer

6. Holding A Minimum Balance Has Its Perks Too

Most airline frequent flyer programs have an ‘elite’ or ‘premier’ level attained when you reach slightly less miles than you need for a domestic flight. When you reach this level, typically you get some perks like being able to use the business or first class lines (even if you’re flying coach), boarding before everyone else, and get priority on your luggage at the baggage claim.

priority luggage

7. Shop At The Online Mall

Many airlines and most of the airline alliance frequent flyer programs have online malls that are made up of familiar stores like Barnes & Noble (where you can buy eBooks from overseas), Best Buy, Macy’s, and Dell where you earn more than 1 mile per dollar spent. (Purchase with a credit card linked to your miles account and double the earnings.) All you need to do is click through to those stores from the online frequent flyer mall for a particular program to earn bonus miles on things you’d buy anyway.

girl using laptop in park

Don’t Stop There

Always try and keep your frequent flyer account in mind when you spend money, travel, or sign up for a new airline program. Often, there are miles waiting there to be had if you simply ask.

Pets since they can earn miles too with Jet Blue Jet Paws, Virgin Atlantic, and Continental Pet Pass among several others. Airlines don’t advertise these programs so call if you’re unsure about the airline’s policy on how to travel with pets and earn miles.
Split miles as Earl mentions, you can also book one-way tickets without giving up round-trip miles.
Donate your miles. Matador Network shares 109 ways to use frequent flyer miles for good.

You ultimately may want to redeem the miles you’ve earned for a free flight but beware airlines are changing the game. In order to make good on those miles you’ll need to book well in advance, and can only fly where that single airline goes (no code-shares generally). Refunds or changes of flights once booked aren’t typically allowed either so keep that in mind and always stay on top of the airlines to get the value of the miles you worked so hard to earn.

[photos by: Alicakes* (number one), daftIntrovert (boost gauge), laurakgibbs (question mark and arrow), o.blaat (sharing beer), kalleboo (priority luggage), Ed Yourdon (girl using laptop in park)]

Megan Mary Olander Flower Shop In Seattle, Washington

by Anil Polat | Jul 2, 2010 | Pictures and Video, Travel Journal | 14

megan mary olander flower shop seattle

Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to return back to Seattle since 2006, when I discovered what has become my favorite American city. I just happened to stroll past the Megan Mary Olander flower shop after enjoying a morning taking the Seattle Underground Tour, which I highly recommend. The tour guides are very passionate about the history of their city, which can be quite infectious. Between the Pike Place Market and the free downtown buses, it’s a culmination of the little things that got me to love Seattle so much.

As luck would have it, I also happened to take a picture of the first Starbucks, built in 1971. I thought it looked a bit odd, only to see it featured on a travel show 2 years later. Seattle is one of the best places to travel on a weak dollar inside the US and gets less annual rainfall than New Orleans so don’t let the weather scare you. The summer months of June, July, and August are some of the best to visit.

You can see all of my pictures from Seattle, which I haven’t had a chance to feature before, in my Seattle album here.

Use Your Liver To Get A Leg Up On Jet Lag

by Anil Polat | Jul 1, 2010 | Health and Fitness | 14

spoon in belly There are a number of factors that contribute to the amount of jet lag you feel after crossing a few timezones. Fatigue, flight times, and stress all cause your body and mind to be out of sorts when you arrive at your destination. That feeling is in large part due to your internal body clock not being set to the local time. You can however get a head start on jet lag by setting your body clock from the organ that regulates much of it – your liver.

Why The Liver, And Why Just Sleeping Early Won’t Help

Most people try to get some extra rest (or go out all night) the day before their long flight to compensate for jet lag. The problem is that your mind heavily relies on visual cues to set your circadian (daily) internal clock. That means that despite your best efforts, you’ll find it tough to sleep when the sun is coming up, no matter how tired you are. The second most powerful time cue for your brain comes from your liver. It controls your “food clock” which is a big part of helping your brain decide what time it really is.

Shift Your Mealtimes 24 Hours In Advance

In reality, changing your sleeping habits more than an hour or two outside of your normal bed times is more likely to make you tired the day of your flight and throw off your body clock even further.

Instead, begin shifting your mealtimes, 24 hours before your flight, to match the times you normally eat according to the local time at your destination. So, if you normally eat dinner at 5pm, eat dinner at 5pm destination time.

Follow this schedule the day before your flight and continue it on the plane as well.

How Manipulating Your Food Clock Works

Your “food clock” is a powerful indicator for your body and often overrides your brain’s master clock, especially when you’re hungry. When you’re body is running low on food, the liver’s food clock gets priority, keeping you awake and alert. (Likely an evolutionary adaptation forcing us to keep looking for food, despite being fatigued from starvation.)

Make It Easier On Yourself

You might not find the idea of eating in the middle of the night very appealing, but you might be able to get around that by shifting your body clock using peanuts and using your bladder as an alarm clock, which works on long drives as well.

Sleep deprivation and jet lag both greatly interfere with your decision making so don’t discount the benefits of a good nap if you need one.

The goal isn’t to completely eliminate jet lag (which probably isn’t possible) but to reduce its effects so you can use that day or two after arrival to see the things you want with a clear head.

[photos by: dotbenjamin (spoon in belly), Express Monorail (clock at Disneyland)]

About Anil Polat

Hi, I'm Anil. foXnoMad is where I combine travel and tech to help you travel smarter. I'm on a journey to every country in the world and you're invited to join the adventure! Read More