This is another one-take-wonder podcast episode – fun and tip-filled but lots of ums. Sorry! Travel Podcast, Budget Travel.

Subscribe to get new episodes by searching 30traveler in itunes.

Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoy!

This is another one-take-wonder podcast episode – fun and tip-filled but lots of ums. Sorry! Hawaii Travel Podcast, Budget Travel.

Subscribe to get new episodes by searching 30traveler in itunes.

p.s. its a few months since I paid any attention to this site and I have 3000 spam comments and a similar number of spam emails, so if you left a non-spam comment or sent a non-spam email, big apologies that your message got lost. Please resend if you still want to contact. 30traveler (at) 30traveler .com

Priceline is one of my favorite ways of saving A LOT of money on hotels.

I’ve used it for Europe and the US.

Its perfect for the budget traveler who doesn’t want to stay in hostels 100% of the time.

However Priceline can be intimidating the first time you use it so I’ve created a video tutorial.

My explanation of the famous free re-bid hack starts at about the 6:30 minute mark.

For two people traveling together: I have gotten 4* hotel rooms for similar to the cost of two hostel beds by using Priceline.

Amsterdam
Barcelona, Spain
Berlin
Budapest, Hungary
Copenhagen
Istanbul, Turkey
London
Moscow
Munich, Germany
Paris
Rome
Stockholm
Vienna

When: Good through 4:59 p.m. Pacific Time, Thursday, April 22

Get em: At the itunes store.

Source: L.A. Times Daily Travel and Deal Blog

How it works

You just email your flight confirmations to plans@TripIt.com and it compiles them into one timeline.

Puts all the info (e.g. flight and layover durations) into a nice consistent format.

You can make your itinerary public or private.

Also has free mobile apps for iphone, android and blackberry (or just use their website).

Does a bunch of other things but I’m still exploring it.

Other than storing my info in one place and showing it in a consistent format, one feature I especially like is…

for free I can auto feed the info to my Google Calendar and it shows the times based on whatever timezone the calendar is set to (e.g. converts the US times for my US trip to New Zealand time).

Before leaving I can share my calendar with family in New Zealand who will then know what days/times I’m traveling New Zealand time.

In the process I discovered something weird about Qantas’s Award Travel Booking Engine.

The flight is: Christchurch – Auckland – Los Angeles.

Christchurch to Auckland was showing available
Auckland to Los Angeles was showing available

but
CHC-LAX was returning no seats.

I called the Qantas FF call centre and the agent who obviously knew his stuff, good on him (!), told me to try it as a multi city booking, even those all travel is the same day, June 24th.

Hey presto – it worked.

And barring any Jetstar schedule changes (CHC-AKL is operated by Jetstar) I will only have a 1:35 layover in Auckland.

I’m really looking forward to it! Especially since have been rechecking the Qantas website for a FF seat for travel at the end of June for at least a month. Today one finally popped up.

Love the feeling of having the ticket booked and being able to start making plans!

Or read on if you prefer the written version.

11th tip that I forgot to mention on the podcast: If you think it’ll be too hot for other exercise, consider staying somewhere that has a pool (that’s big enough for laps).

1. Are you having any of the following cognitive distortions?

- Everyone gains weight while on vacation
- Its inevitable I’m going to gain weight. I have no control over it.
- I can’t have fun without overeating.
- I can’t fully experience and enjoy the food culture of the place I’m visiting without overeating.

Challenge these self sabotaging thoughts.

2. Don’t eat all your meals at restaurants.

At least in Western countries, restaurant meals tend to me higher calorie (higher fat, larger portions etc) than you would serve when you’re cooking at home.

There are bound to be times when you don’t feel like going out eat or don’t want to interrupt your day to go to a restaurant (e.g. you’re going to be spending the day at a museum and suspect the food that’s available nearby will be overpriced and/or gross).

Plan alternatives e.g. taking a picnic.

3. Take with you – a knife, spoon, fork, and container that can serve as a bowl (I use a microwavable plastic bowl that has a resealable lid).

The knife comes in handy for making sandwiches and cutting fruit (e.g. slicing and removing skin from mangoes).… Read the rest of this blog post

You can see walking distances between tubes stops below. (Use this link to see a big version of the image – London Tube Walking Distances Map)

Alternatively, this Map shows which tube stations are less than 500m apart (400m = approx 1/4 of a mile).