Ultimate Vacation Spots

posted by Travel Cat on Aug 11

The first thing you need to ask yourself is - Why am I taking my pet?

I know this seems like an obvious question, but really think this through before you make any other plans. Are you taking your pet because you would rather not leave it with anyone else, you don’t want to pay fees for someone else to watch them, or because they are an essential part of your family and taking them will make the vacation 100 times better?

Travelling with an animal can be very time consuming on your part - it can also be quite restrictive and some times more expensive than leaving them with qualified and insured carers while you are away. So this must be considered very carefully.

Opposition On Vacation: 
Many holiday locations will not accept pets of any kind in their accommodation - so you can forget 2 weeks on the beach in an all inclusive vacation resort if you want to take your dog with you. That weekend break in the city will be off your list of choices if you want to bring your cat along. And don’t even think about taking your parrot to Las Vegas……

These may sound like silly choices, but when you travel with animals, there are only certain types of locations, accommodation types and activities you can partake in. From experience - even going into a restaurant for a spot of lunch during a long drive meant leaving my dog alone in the car.

Also, theme parks and restored grand houses and castles are off limits for pets - and you certainly can’t take them into zoo’s, shopping malls and children’s parks.

Will They Enjoy Their Time Away? 
Small animals, such as hamsters and rabbits wouldn’t be taken with you on day trips while on vacation anyway, as with budgies, etc - for fear of losing them - so they would spend the entire time inside the vacation home, caravan, RV or the car - and the latter choices will not only get very hot in the summer months, but can be very dangerous too.

Many holiday parks outside of towns readily cater for clients with pets and are usually self catering and miles away from any dangers. So, if you don’t mind a peaceful reading holiday or an energetic walking or cycling vacation away from the modern world, then you and your pet can have the best time.

I combined my annual vacation time between several local dog-friendly cottages with miles of walking space, with a couple of people-only trips overseas. You shouldn’t feel guilty about leaving your pets at home as long as they are in good hands.

Always consider what is best for the pet involved, rather than what is easiest for you.

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posted by Travel Cat on Aug 7

Travel With Kids Series - Essential Documents - Part 1

It’s not only a passport that is important when travelling abroad, there are another half dozen or more documents that need checking and updating before travelling anyway - then one or more extra if you travel with your kids.

Here, we start with the 3 basics - which no family can travel without.

Your Passports:
As adults, we know that once we get our passport all we need to worry about is that it needs to be valid for at least 6 months AFTER we return from a holiday. In general, you can’t travel into another country on an adult passport with less than 6 months remaining on it.

However, kids passport restrictions are a bit more volatile due to the fact that babies and small children look different every year - a baby in a photo could grow up to be just about any 10 year old.  There is no way to prove one way or another - unless the photos are constantly updated throughout your kids life.

Regardless of the requirements of your home country for children’s passports, you need to check the entry requirements of the country you are visiting. Either way, it is advised that you carry current passport photos of your kids when travelling in case replacements are required at any time or for whatever reason.

In the UK, a child’s passport runs for 5 years and they can keep the same photo for that whole 5 years, and my nephew recently travelled with a baby photo on his passport when he was 4 years, 3 months old.

Kids are considered an adult from 16 in passport terms, and the renewal cost for each passport is the same, even if they do not run continually for you child’s life - therefore if you can leave time between renewals without affecting your travel - this could save you quite some money.

Top Tip -  Your passport details will always be required for visa forms given out at airports or on planes when arriving or leaving a destination. It is therefore a good idea to have a small piece of card to hand with all the passport details on for yourself and your children to avoid getting the actual passports out all the time, and fiddling with the pages and numbers while watching after your children.

The Visas:
Most visas are completed on the plane on the way there, or at the airport itself in a massive queue, but some need to be applied for in advance - up to 3 months in advance for some. There are visas that can be applied for either way, and applying in advance will save you queueing up with everyone else who was on your plane when you arrive there after the long flight - with you kids needing the bathroom and you needing to sleep!!

It’s also possible that to get the visa in advance you will need to send off your passports to the countries embassy to get stamped. This will obviously need to be done way in advance to make sure that they are returned to you before you depart. You could debate taking them to the embassy yourself to save the postal risk, if you find that that is an option for you.

Your Tickets:
Your tickets are obviously essential for your travel, so make sure that they are kept in a secure and waterproof wallet throughout your journey, and preferably get a copy of them if possible and keep the originals in a safe at your destination or at least in a body wallet while travelling. Put any important details on your passport ‘card’ if necessary to avoid getting them out while travelling.

Some tickets these days are e-tickets and are not even an actual ’ticket’, they are just your printed itinerary on a sheet of A4 paper.  For this reason - keep them really safe so they are not lost amongst others paperwork, in-case they get discarded.

Either way - on receiving the printed paperwork or email - always make sure that every single detail is correct for both the outward and return journey straight after booking - and contact the agent as soon as possible if there are any discrepancies. I once booked a return flight, only to find out that the outward and return airports were different!

I had assumed on booking the return flight from one country back to that same country that it was from and to the same airport.  Added to this, the agent made no attempt to advise me of the rather odd routing by way of warning.

It was a good job I checked the details asap - as this could have been a disaster if I was leaving my car parked at the departure airport, or had brought a return train ticket from that one place.

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posted by Travel Cat on Jul 30

Travelling With Your Pets.

If you wish to take your pet on vacation with you, there are many things to consider before you set off.

You firstly need to think about the whether the destination is suitable for your pet - for example tropical fish can live in a heated tank in any country, but your cat may not be able to go outside if you move to a city. Similarly it is OK to take a 2 week vacation abroad with your dog, but it would really be a hassle to journey 400 miles with your horse for just a few days.

Secondly, there are practical and financial decisions to be made - and sometimes over 6 months preparation is needed for your pet to complete the trip with you depending on where you are going - or where you are returning to.

Additionally, there are legal rights and wrongs to battle with - preparation really is the best method of making sure that you have everything in order plenty of time before you need it.

Unfortunately, relying on word of mouth from well intentioned friends or colleagues has caused many travel plans to be ruined or seriously delayed. Only rely on the actual facts given by the companies or government bodies involved in your specific countries. Never just assume anything.

Finally - even if you don’t take your pet away, there are still some important things to bear in mind before you head off without them, including rules and regulations for leaving pets alone or in paid care.

In this continuing series, I hope to cover the basics for each occasion, highlighting any laws or potential problems along the way. It should also offer insights into real life cases and the joy of vacationing with your pets.

Articles in this series will include: Travelling Locally with your Pet, Pet Passports for entry to the UK, Vaccinations recommended for pets in general, Airline Travel Regulations for animals, Transporting your Pet Long Distance, Identifying your Pets, Getting Veterinary care abroad, Diseases and Illness Abroad, Quarantine and Kennelling Regulations.

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posted by Travel Cat on Jul 24

Travel With Kids Series - Part 1

Lets start at the very beginning here - it really is the best place.

Step 1:
So, you have the idea of a vacation with your family, but you are not sure how easy it will be to make all the arrangements and to get the best package for your needs and for those of your children.

Quite rightly you should consider the health aspect of your trip - is where you want to go someplace with excellent health-care? It’s ok getting the travel insurance package that covers the best treatment where you are, but what if there is no way to get to that health-care, or what if the best available just isn’t good enough?

In addition, what if your baby needs specialist care, or you older kids have special needs or specific medication that you might not be able to receive in your destination? Even apparently silly things like your preferred baby formula or children’s glasses prescription can become the biggest hurdles to you well deserved vacation plans.

Tropical diseases shouldn’t be ignored either, and local crime and the countries political climate are also very important - and the same goes for very warm, very humid or very cold locations - they all have their good and bad sides - but which can all be researched prior to making a decision.

Risks from too much sun are probably more of a risk than any other - but all things should be considered when young humans are involved - they certainly know how to create something from nothing from a very young age!!

What First Then?
So before you start with your packing, get some destination guides out from your library of the places you would like to go - and start noting down the small print for each vacation spot, narrowing down the different pro’s and con’s for each and deciding with your partner or family where seems the most suitable destination.

If the question ‘where do aye-ayes live?’ or ‘ where is Myanmar?’ appear in school projects - maybe factor those in when selecting locations. Maybe the answer to the seasonal classic ‘where is Santa Claus right now!!’ is a great place to travel with your family - with regular family orientated vacations to Lapland - with reindeer and sleighs a popular choice!

Sometimes vacation packages can be just as much fun for you as for your kids - little to worry about for yourself, but maybe a reduced amount of adventure. But if you want more adventure - you have to do most of your own cooking and cleaning - and there will be no ‘kids clubs’ in the jungle or desert……..

Ask The Experts.
Visit your local Travel Agents and find out the best times to travel to your favourite locations and see if these fit in with your preferred vacation slots. If it’s winter in New York, it will be winter in Canada, China and most of Europe - but summer in South America, Africa and Australia.

The Tropics are generally warm all year - but they have different seasons - the hurricane season in the Caribbean, monsoon season around India, rainy seasons throughout Africa. The list is endless as nearly every vacation spot has a down side - and you need to know about these way before you start to make plans.

Travel agents also know about local information in worldwide destinations like festivals, religious holidays and other specific factors that could make your destination more crowded and more expensive just because of the dates you needed. You need to decide how flexible you can be with dates as these can really help with finding the best deal and the best weather across the globe.

Confirm Your Choice with All Involved:
If your child is in education, you will need to make sure that their school will allow them time off - some UK schools now ‘fine’ parents who take holiday in term time - and older children cannot normally miss lessons close to exams.

If you are pregnant or your kids have medication or special needs - will your doctor approve their travel and write letters for insurance companies and airlines for your travel.

If you are travelling without your childs other parent - will they consent to their travel and give written documentation for this? Adopted children also need certain written details for travel to some locations, as will nephews, cousins and grandchildren travelling abroad without either parent.

When you have decided on location and time - you can move on to Step 2 - making sure all the documentation is correct for travel.

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posted by Travel Cat on Jul 21

Want to Travel with Kids?

This series of travel related articles will focus on all the details needed for a trip at home or abroad when you are pregnant, have a young baby or some little kids in tow!

It will cover all aspects of travel including preparation tips, air travel ideas and kids games, the best travel insurance policies, travel health issues and advice, all inclusive vacation packages verses independent travel and much more.

It will take the form of a series of articles, each covering a certain aspect in detail - starting with the questions you need to ask yourself before even thinking about your vacation.

There will be several articles covering the steps you need to follow leading up to your vacation (including documents and visas as well as vaccinations), then more tips on issues when you actually get there…….

So whether you are looking to travel within your own country, or are considering a family vacation worldwide - there will be information here to help you decide on the final details - and to remind you of some things you may have forgotten.

It’s easy to think that they are just smaller versions of you - but there are a lot more differences than that - and it’s these little things that could cost you an awful lot of time and money to find out if you are already there!!!!

So regardless of whether you want luxury or discount travel, a peaceful 1-to-1 holiday or some noisy family fun - a Las Vegas kid-friendly lodging or a group ski vacation - or maybe you have a traveler with special needs - get your teeth into this travel guide for everything you need to know………..

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