Planning Helpers
Okay, now let’s get away from the actual vacation for a while. I want to get into the technical side of vacation’s both hardware and software. The savvy planner knows how to use technology to their advantage. The internet is a great tool but like any tool you must know how to use it before it works for you. Let me start with Hardware. Here are the tools you’ll want to invest in. 1. Smartphone. Hey! We’re in a new century here. If you haven’t already moved over to a smart phone, then get thee to a cell phone dealership and buy one! Now that you have one. Start looking for apps. The ones that you want are mostly free and I’ll go over them in depth in Software. But you will want to have access to a lot of information on-the-go and the best way to do that nowadays is to have a smartphone. 2. Portable computer. Most of us have one of these. But you want to make sure that this is really portable. I used to have a laptop. And I occasionally took it on vacations. But to tell you the truth, it was way too heavy and I ended up loathing carrying the thing across the airport. I have a rule, anything that is big, bulky or heavy will nearly always get left behind and not utilized. You have a couple of choices in today’s market. A traditional laptop or a tablet computer. If you go traditional laptop spend the extra money to make sure that it is really lightweight. Also, I’ve found that some of the smallest form factor laptops have non-standard displays and resolutions. This will cause you all kinds of issues when you are trying to use it. Make sure the display is large enough to be useable. Tablets are my favorite. If you invest in a Tablet make sure that it is using the same OS as your Smartphone. Usually apps are cross-compatible between the phone and the tablet so that if you buy an app for your phone, you’ll be able to use it on your tablet. Tablets are wicked light so throw it into your backpack and forget about it because you’ll never feel the weight of it. You can use your smartphone for portable computing but the screen is small and often times the storage capacity is small. A laptop or tablet allows you to access the internet on a bigger screen for ease of use and as a side benefit you can upload your pictures to it and free up room on your camera. 3. Camera. Yeah sure, your smartphone has a camera on it. But usually smartphone cameras leave much to be desired. They are miserable in low light situations, have no ability to zoom whatsoever and they are rarely waterproof. There are great cameras out there which are very sensitive in low light, have a very handy zoom and you can take them with you to the pool or snorkeling. Invest in one. You’ll be glad you did. BTW, the newest thing in cameras is the ability to utilize Bluetooth. With Bluetooth you can take a great picture with your camera and send it to your smartphone for instant uploading. Now for Software: Apps, apps and more apps! There are a lot of freebies out there that will help you plan for and book your vacation. Here’s my list of must haves: 1. Travel website software. Travelocity and Expedia both have their own apps out there that will help you plan and track your vacation. I use these mostly for getting quotes. When I look into a vacation, I will get quotes from every conceivable place and compare them so that when a good deal does come my way, I recognize it. It’s easy to get sticker shock on an item that you have no real idea of it’s worth. But If you know exactly what it is worth, that cheap deal that you would have passed up does not look so bad. 2. Airline apps. More and more the airlines want you to buy your airfare directly from them. That way they don’t have to give anyone a slice of the pie. But be careful, if you are not shopping about you don’t really know what is a good deal. I load up everyone of them I find. Also if you set them up with your email address they’ll send you deals that they think will appeal to you. The Southwest app has what they call DING fares. Occasional flash sales that you can grab for a quick weekend away. 3. Travel Planning software. I use a fantastic little app called Tripit. It will track all of your vacations in a single place without so much as a keystroke from you. (well almost) Anytime you make a travel reservation, you simply forward the confirmation email to plans@tripit.com and magically all your reservation information populates to the app. It really is awesome to behold. 4. Budgeting software. TripBook is an app for iOS. It allows you to track your spending while on vacation so that you can keep on budget. There are probably dozens out there that do the same thing. I suggest you try them out until you find a format that you like. Simply put, you cannot expect to adhere to a budget unless you know where you are in relation to that budget at all times. 5. Tipping calculator. Seems like a simple thing, right? Well, if you travel to multiple countries you find that American conventions for tipping are not always appropriate outside of America. A good calculator not only calculates tips but will guide you on the proper amount to tip. I use a program called simply “Tip.” 6. This one is a little outside of the travel realm but still very useful. If you’re anything like my you quickly realize that you have far too many passwords and log in information than you know what to do with. I use an app called mSecure. Remember one password and it’ll remember all the others for you. 7. Trip Advisor- This one will give you some reviews on hotels and eating establishments. Certainly worth a look. Of all of my software the one that I find is of the biggest use is Tripit. I used to carry all my confirmation printouts in a folder where-ever we went but Tripit has freed me from that burden. All the dates, times, confirmations numbers, addresses and directions are all contained therein. It also tracks multiple trips for future planning. If you are a paid member of Tripit, you’ll find that the program will track your vacation information and inform you of any changes. (such as flight delays or gate changes.) So now as I go forward planning our Christmas getaway I’ll start to refer to the tools that I use for making and tracking reservations.
Planning Your Vacation For Success Part 1
Planning Your Vacation For Success Part 2
Planning your Vacation For Success Part 4
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