Travel Tips

If I ruled the world, all driving directions would be formatted like this example:

LEFT on Oak Drive

      Go 5 miles

RIGHT on Davis Street

     Go 2 miles

It’s constructed in the order you need the information. Too often you see directions like “Go 2 miles on Oak Drive. It’s a left.” You’ll sprain your brain reading the information out of order.

Google Maps comes close to getting it right. They use this format:

“Turn right at Dublin Blvd               4 miles”

The word “turn” is unnecessary clutter. And it always takes me a second to figure out whether the “4 miles” means the turn is in 4 miles or if you stay on that road for 4 miles. And “right” would be clearer in caps.

I have the same issue with travel itineraries. When I book a flight on Orbitz, they e-mail me this little confusing mess of a confirmation that just pisses me off:

“Tuesday, June 5, 2007
United Airlines # 1212

Oakland Metropolitan Oak Intl (OAK) to Denver International (DEN)
Departure (OAK): June 5, 1:57 PM PDT (afternoon)
Arrival (DEN): June 5, 5:20 PM MDT (evening)”

It says “June 5” three times. It says both “PM” and “(afternoon)” whereas “PDT” and “MDT” go unexplained. How many people are confused by AM and PM and yet understand PDT and MDT? It borders on random. And would it kill them to use the tab key?

Here’s how an itinerary should be formatted. You put the times on the left, and whatever info you need to the right of those times, in the order you need it.

For example, the first place I put the hotel information is by the estimated time I will check in. I put people's contact information next to the time I expect to first see them. And I put the date only once, as a heading. See how clear this is.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007
----------------------------

11:00 AM     Leave house

1:00 PM       Arrive Oakland airport

1:57 PM       United Airlines # 1212, seat 2B

5:20 PM       Arrive Denver

6:20 PM       Hilton
                   Address
                   555-555-1234

8:00 PM      Meet Joe Blow in lobby
                   cell: 555-555-1234

Those are my travel tips. Do you have any cool travel tips of your own for the comments?

Comments

[Travelers]

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[Grand Cayman Travel]

Great website, very informative travel information.

[Tour Guide]

When you're in Turkey make sure you do a little research on menu items before your vacation. You could end up eating something you wish you hadn't. :- )

[Travel Guy]

I like the addition of the Time Zones though.

[General World Travel Information]

"1) Before a trip, I will work out an Excel table of my country's currency against the currency of the country that I'm going and vice versa."

General World Travel Information - Things you should do before you take that much needed vacation. Before you go and see the World.

Find out where you're going. Take the time to read up on where you're going. Find out what has to be seen or the best restaurant to eat at. Knowing a bit before hand can help you pack and plan.

Want more Information?

[work]

I've just been letting everything wash over me recently. So it goes. What can I say?

[carol]

Anyone else been double-punched in the back after passing the food court at Oakland Airport, by an airport employee! who claims to have bumped someone once, but it wasn't you?

[air brazil discount travel]

Today was a loss. I just don't have anything to say. Not that it matters.

[beer bottle bong]

I feel like a fog, not that it matters. I've pretty much been doing nothing , but eh. Today was a loss. I haven't gotten much done for a while.

[boat international show texas]

I've just been letting everything wash over me. I've pretty much been doing nothing. I've just been sitting around not getting anything done.

[deadgop]

Hello from Belorussia!
Wonderful blog, a lot of information, to think for...
I have a such blog about traveling, look this Discount travels blog Information about travel guide, cheap flights, travel guidance, budget travel, travel, uk travel blog, airfare, hotels.
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regards.

[Shawn]

Find a romantic bed and breakfast when you're newly married.

[guadalupe]

great tips... i should put them in practice, since i'm soooo messy (specially with schedules and itinerarys)

[Shawn]

One essential trip: bring some travel alarms. You are basically bound by flight schedules, and you can't afford missing one.

[Foo]

When hand-writing directions, I write R and L and circle them, then the street name, then the mileage on that street on a new line.

Easier to read at a glance.

[Dan]

A bit worried about the anal retentive quality of Dilbert readers now - who actually follows all this advice?? I travel for business a lot, and can reassure you that while there will be the odd time when I'm rushing a bit to make a flight, there is never a time I thought "I should have got here a fortnight before my flight, booked connections ten hours apart and had more stuff in my carry on". Never.

[Paul Allen (but not that one)]

This condensed version even eliminates the left/right confusion some of us have, especially when in a hurry and/or under stress.

Davis
2 miles

etc.

[jon d]

My travel tip is don't follow Google Maps directions from London to New York, unless you like going via France and swimming the Atlantic! (see step 37)..

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=London&daddr=New+York&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=8.462371,17.050781&ie=UTF8&z=3&om=1

at least the left and right instructions are in bold for easier reading!

[narf]

- Never print your boarding pass from home. There's a reason why the airlines all want you to, as when you do the can recognize the revenue. So while you may get a better seat selection, if you have to cancel the ticket (Because the flight is canceled, you get in a car accident on the way there, you're flying out of Boston's Logan airport and didn't account for the extra 5 hours needed for security and parking, etc...) you can only get credit and not necessarily rebook as conventiently.

- When connecting, avoid the "horror" airports as often as you can, especially the horror airlines at the horror airports (i.e. NEVER, EVER fly airlines out of Chicago, Newark, etc... that use it as a hub... You're asking to be stranded). And if you do have such a trip book (East to West coast in January?), book a hotel room (preferably without a cancelation charge) before the trip, unless you like sleeping and hanging around in terminals for days.

- One (two?) words: NEVERLOST. I always get it in the rental car (on the company's dime), and if nothing else the cool toy aspect amuses me. Great for general exploring to sights you didn't know about before your trip, and and it usually works pretty well on the business "official" functions as well.

[John Harlow]

I propose we eliminate time zones and daylight savings time altogether. These are nothing more than arcane 'tricks' which serve no real purpose except to remind people the sun will be somewhere above their head around 'noon'. We can achieve great gains in efficiency by a simple mindset change (and of course some software changes). Now that we are a global world, we should use a global time.

Logically, and out of necessity, air traffic control already does this by using UTC.

[Patrick]

I use a format for trips similar to bitguru, but a typical itinerary goes like this (I keep this in the body of a meeting request I sync with my phone):

12 Mar HOM-DEF 2:20pm- 3:40pm on Alaska 123
DEF-DES 4:00pm- 5:00pm on Alaska 456
15 Mar DES-DEF 10:00am-11:20am on Alaska 654
DEF-HOM 12:00pm- 1:00pm on Alaska 123

I fly few enough places (or can tell enough from the meeting subject) and with simple enough itineraries that having more details about the airports or other engagements doesn't matter that much but I always put other, non-essential schedule information after the flight information. This is always easy to glance at and see my full schedule, too. I frequently don't have/care about the seats enough until printing tickets the day before my flight to bother.

[rc]

"Get there an hour earlier than you're planning to."

Took me four hours to get out of that recursion and reboot my brain. Feels like I just got off a plane. Thanks a bunch, submitter!

I also like the list of 'comfortable things' to bring, esp. "a pillowcase your wife has slept on for a few days will help."

But it's easier to just wear her undies!

[Robin]

Maps. If I had my way, all travel iteneraries would be maps. Or at least they would include maps. I'm a very visually oriented person and I know I'm not the only one. Verbal directions confuse me, maps are much clearer.

[TheSinistral]

I travel internationally almost exclusively.

1) Arrive at the airport 3 hours before the flight. It lowers my stress level ten-fold, especially after two Single Malts.
2) Never book a connecting flight with less than 2 hours between arrival and departure.
3) Make a color copy of your passport and keep it in your carry-on.
4) Never change money at the airport. The rates are horrible! Instead, use the ATM for a decent exchange rate.
(Unless you are traveling on business.... hint hint.)
5) COMPASS! Clutching my maps, I was quite proud of myself for successfully using the subway until I popped out in the rain with no idea which direction to go. I had to hide in a phone booth and figure it out.
6) Most importantly, on a long flight (10+ hours), take 2-4 Tylenol PM after the first meal. Guaranteed to sack you out for at least four hours. I have occasionally slept through to the second meal. SCORE!

[Listo Entertainment]

1) Don't drink water from the tap.
2) Always carry with you a lot of toilet paper, just in case.

I learned them in Moscow... the hard way.