You never know when you might be at a boarder point and need one or two to process your visa and trust me, this happens a lot.

The major problem is photo shops charge you a mini fortune for them to be processed.

Be prepared and you’ll no longer ever face this situation.

Some boarder points don’t even have photo booths and if they do they will be happy to take all the coins in your pocket while they are at it.

Not only this but having multi currencies before you enter the country might not be the case and you might get stuck.

Also if you have your passport stolen or want to apply for some hostel membership cards you need a lot of photos.

I like to take a stack of 20 on my around the world trips and I’ve used them all up too, so it’s wise to pack a load.

But before you head to your local pharmacy I have the perfect tip,

Introducing: Epassport Photo

Cut out the Photobooth all together and use your mobile phone or laptop webcam to take the snap.

Following the handy step by step instructions your gather top advice to get the photo correct so you don’t have to worry about not being a professional.

If you’re not 100% sure that your photo would be approved then you can upload it to their Facebook page to gather a free approval.

To upload the photo you can scan and sent it from your Smartphone using the QR code or simply upload it straight from the computer.

Then you are able to download a print out sheet, Simple!

You have two options, you can pay for the company to send it to you and in some countries to your local grocery store (think this might be USA only at this moment in time)

Or even to simply print it from your photo printer or take it to your local store that allows 6×4 photo printing.

My local store (HEMA) does this service for €0.20 per sheet and in the UK Tesco does this for £0.15. Way cheaper than the £3.95 I’ve been charged in the past.

So for £1 or a €1 you can print off all you need for a long time and never have to worry pay a fortune again.

Happy travels! And remember to smile in your travel photos but not your passport photos! (It won’t be approved if you look too happy its happened to me in the past)

Just a word of advice, Passport companies can turn your pictures away if they are not correct so make sure they are within the guidelines and get an approval before sending them off.

Skiing and snowboarding, can be an exciting way to spend your vacation time. The only downside is it can be extremely dangerous. You may have lots of years of experience under your belt, but you still should consider picking up some kind of cover before you go.

Many Europeans just opt for an E111 card, which ensures health care whilst abroad in Europe. But just having this card alone, doesn’t offer you full protection in an emergency. Yes it may cover all or limited amounts of health care, but whilst skiing there are many other elements you need to take into consideration.

Ambulance

An E111 Isn’t enough to cover you for an Ambulance, outside the UK and away from the NHS they are the equivalent of renting a Limo. Except there full of professionals and life saving equipment, which you most probably need. Of course you can opt to get a ride from a mate or hop in a taxi, but what if you have just broken your leg? You will need an ambulance, this will cost you without the correct cover.

Mountain Rescue

Stuck in an avalanche and need to be picked up by a helicopter? With travel insurance you’re covered, without it your screwed. You will be asked to fork it out for yourself. In a lifesaving situation, money comes 2nd and you will get rescued but immediately asked for your credit card. Emergency helicopters can cost €10,000+ at many ski resorts so be careful and make you’re covered.

Ski patrol

If you get caught on a slope with an injury, the only way off the piste is by the Ski Patrol. Cars are unable to access many areas, so specially trained staff will collect you in a ski mobile and take you to the roadside. This is a very expensive operation and the Ski Patrol will be very happy to point that out. With correct Snow Sports cover, this is one area which is normally included with the package.

Recent video of a kid who fell from a ski lift and needed to be rushed to hospital

This is why you always see a snow sports option when purchasing insurance. Allot of situations are different when skiing and accidents happen on a regular basis. This is why they charge extra for snow activities and that’s why it’s so important to get it in the first place.

When you are insured, you ski with confidence in the knowledge that you’re protected and safe when skiing on the mountains

Just a note that you should read all the terms and conditions of your travel insurance agreement to make sure you are covered for all the above and to make sure that you have selected a policy that covers the snow sport that you will be taking part in.

Firstly, Travel Hacking is available in many different counties, not just the UK:

United Kingdom: Amazon link
Germany (Europe): Amazon Link
Italy: Amazon Link
Spain: Amazon Link
Japan: Amazon Link
Brazil: Amazon Link

Smart phone or iPod, tablet?

Did you know that you can read Kindle books on your Smartphone and many different types of tablets? Well you can, Even your Ipod with IOS as well!:

Kindle for Apple iPhones, Ipad’s and Other IOS devices: Link here

Kindle for Android Smartphones and tablets: Link here

Desktop computer or laptop?

Even if you don’t own any of the above you can still read Kindle books on your desktop computer and laptop, how about that!

Mac users: link here

Windows 8 Users: Link here

Window 7, Xp and Vista: Link here

This was one of the reasons I wanted to launch Travel Hacking on the Kindle Market as its really easy to access to a number of devices, not only this but your book will be delivered in under 10 seconds, much faster than the postman. Also if you read the book on one device and carry on for another it will remember the last page you were on from the other device and you can take off from there, very smart! It really is a joy to sync between all your devices and its simply a breeze to use, so why didn’t you try it and give it ago!

So there you have it, more than one way to read Travel Hacking and of course if you have a Kindle, kindle Paperwhite, kindle DX, Kindle Fire or any of the other Kindle devices then its as simple to download from the Amazon stores Direct.

Once you click and pay once that’s it, free between all devices as much as you want when you want, delete and download again, you still pay once per an account, it’s yours!

Thank you so much for your continued support in Travel Dave and every Ebook sale helps to keep it going. I really hope you enjoy the book and happy travels!

Travel Hacking by Dave Brett

It’s an exciting moment for me with many long hours working on trying to pull together this book.

But do you know what? It feels incredible finally getting it out there and worth all the effort.

Writing a book is like climbing a mountain but once you set your course you have to stick to it and get to the top,

It’s a great feeling.

The project was first thought about 2 years ago as an idea because time and time again people were telling me “do you know what you should write a book”.

But actually doing it is another thing,

In fact it wasn’t easy at all and I started to take the project seriously just under 6 months ago.

I brought together paper’s, notebooks and jottings from here, there and everywhere and started to pull something together.

It was actually based around one book that gave me a lot of encouragement to travel when I was younger, which I will blog about another time.

I didn’t want to replicate it but create a similar book built for someone who was my age at that time and tell them simply that they can travel!

Once I got into the flow of it a lot of the information just come naturally. Was great to get into a flow, A mind dump in a lot of ways.

Encouraging the next global traveler to do it is all I want to create out of this book and that’s the whole goal and always been the main aim from the start.

• So if you want to travel and have wondered how I’ve done it,
• Have a friend who wants to travel and desperate for some top advice,
• Or know someone in your life who could really benefit from a boost by reading this book, then by all means please tell them all about it.

Cheers for all of your support and every purchase of the book is funding and helping Traveldave.co.uk to continue so I Thank you deeply for that.

Happy Traves!

One of the peak times to visit Orlando is during spring break or around the Easter holiday period when the parks can get very busy.

Because of the long lines, its best to pick up fast track tickets to save time on waiting for the rides.

Disney offers this for free, Universal charge you for their service.

For a two day both parks universal express pass during peak time the cost comes in at $139.99 per a person.

This means that all day at any time you can directly cut the lines and head on the ride, it’s a fantastic service and will save you a lot of time.

However it costs a fortune as well as the cost of the park tickets that you have already purchased!

So Dave, what’s your secret?

Well if you stay at any hotel resort located at Universal Studios you get a free complementary Express Pass to use at Universal studios.

The cheapest hotel to stay at is Hard Rock Hotel Orlando resort at around $244 per a night depending on what time of the year and how far in advance you book.

When phoning up the front desk they informed me that a total of 5 guests can sleep in the room.

Also if you apply to the Hard Rock all access membership (around £16 a year) they can upgrade your room to a bigger one free of charge.

But surely one night only activates one day express pass at the park surely?

Nope! Stay one night at the Hard Rock hotel and you can have access to a two day Express pass. Which covers all checked in guests staying in your room (in my case 5 people)

Simple maths:

5 express passes = $699.99 – hotel cost: $244 = saving of $455.95

Also staying at one of the hotel resorts allows you an hour early access to the park.

How is this useful?

Well the express pass does not cover two rides at the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Both the wand show and the forbidden journey which are two of the most popular attractions at the park.

This is because they are new rides they are very popular and its impossible to offer it at this moment in time. So use both early days for each ride to avoid disappointment. Because of the early access I waited 30 minutes for both rides.

We had heard from the guy working there that the lines easily go up to 4 hours waiting during busy times. At 4 hours we would have not enjoyed each of the rides as much especially the wand show which even 30 minutes was pushing it.

Not only this but every ride after those two we waited no longer than 10 minutes, one by one whizzing straight to the front.

(people waiting for the park to open an hour before it opened whilst we just walked in)

We really saved a lot of time on our holiday using this trick and saved a lot of money as well, not only this but I forget to mention the Hotel itself!

That’s right, not only do you save close to $450 you get a night at a hotel in the deal which is easily forgotten, Hard Rock hotel was amazing!

Nice peaceful room with lots of facilities such as a massive pool with underwater music and a slip and slide as well as a cozy hot tub.

Getting up early for the park meant we didn’t get much use out of the room but that was the point, we were only a 5 minute walk away to the entrance an we got in early.

Even though we had checked out we were able to come back to the hotel and use the pool in the evening time which was a nice way to end the day as well.

I hope this little tip helps to save you and your family a lot of money and allows you to enjoy both the parks a lot better. Thank you for reading and have a great time!

Get to the park early

Be ahead of the game and arrive when the park opens, then head directly towards your first ride that you really want to go on the most, it’s rather common that rides break down but they are always working in the morning so getting in first can avoid disappointment.

Be the correct height

If you’re not tall enough, sorry but it ends here, Don’t blame me but blame the health and safety and manufacturing rules, they have them for a reason. You will hold everyone up in your group and the last thing you will want to do is be the bag donkey for the day. Last resort if you’re an inch off the limit, head to Sketchers and buy a pair of the Spice girls platform shoes, works every time.

Pay close attention to rules

Many rides have different rules to follow, make sure you understand them and follow them, this speeds up the time boarding and gets the ride going faster.

Make sure you don’t have any health conditions

People die on theme park rides and mostly they have all had past health conditions. No ride is worth dying over so avoid high thrill rides if you suffer from past conditions. Also if you have any neck pains your only going to make it worse so best to sit this day out.

Get your fast passes in order

Many theme parks will let you pick up a fast pass for many popular rides which means you can skip the queue and go straight to the front with little waiting. They are not unlimited and you can only activate them after a particular amount of time so pick wisely.

Single rider

If you’re in a group you don’t want to be holding hands all day so why don’t you all speed up the lines and go single rider. Normally this tip works well when Fast track passes are gone and the lines are busy, you won’t be in line that long and you can re-group at the entrance, awesome!

Leave everything at home!

Don’t bring a phone, wallet, backpack, hat, sunglasses ECT. You are here to ride not take pictures, such a fuss having to keep on fiddling around with everything every time you go on and come off the ride. Worst chance you could actually lose it. It also stops you from enjoying the ride if your worrying something is going to fall out of your pocket. Either get a one day locker at the entrance or leave it in the car, you’re here for the rides not your stuff!

Bring a poncho

If it rains having a poncho can help, buy them outside the park and they cost nothing, if they fall out of your pocket when on a ride who cares! But having one can help when the heavens open, from slowing you down. Keeping dry saves time.

There you have it, very quick and simple tips to help you quickly enjoy all the theme park rides in as much time as humanly possible, have fun!

Don’t fly Direct

Flying Direct is going to be expensive from London, Alternatively you can fly via a major hub in the US and grab a connection to Orlando for a fraction of the the direct price. Sure it might take you more time to reach Orlando (maybe not a good idea for young families) but your instantly notice the savings.

Some Example Flights:

Canada Air: London – Montreal – Orlando

United Airlines: London – Huston – Orlando
London – Washington – Orlando

Depending on the dates I’ve seen them priced at roughly £400 return with advance booking, so do check these routes out. I have also seen a one off direct charter airlines offer flights for as low as £278.98 if dates are not a problem.

Booking a flight with a connection compared to direct flights on peak time with a packaged holiday I saved £1,000. They really charge a premium during busy periods because of the demand.

If you have a lot of time and able to take this route you can save yourself a lot of money by being flexible with the connections, dates and times.

Do hunt around flight search engines to see what you can find and juggle with the itineraries to find one that is affordable to you.

Accommodation

($30 a night, slept 6 people and included a cooked breakfast and swimming pool as well as free airport transfers. Found on Hostelworld)

If you’re traveling with a friend then booking a motel along international drive can be very affordable. I managed to book a hotel room for 6 people at £30 a night. Staying at one of the Disney resorts can be rather expensive. I also Found Hostelworld to list a few hotel/motels at rock bottom prices so also worth a check.

Transport

Getting around isn’t easy if you don’t have a car, but rental costs can be expensive and add up everyday. Best bet is to make the most out of the public bus service. You can take bus 42 for $2 and that will take you from outside the airport terminal to international drive. From there you can find affordable motels and private buses that can transport you to Disney World resort, Universal studios, sea world and there are even longer route buses that head to Kennedy Space Centre.

Once you reach Disney world resort you can make use of the free transportation system that will take you to all the parks, water parks, downtown Disney as well as all the hotel resorts. Its top notch and includes boats, monorails as well as buses so make full use of it.

If you get stuck when the buses are not running its roughly $20-30 by Taxi from Disney World Resort to International drive so splitting this with friends can also work out.

Food

Cooking yourself was actually noticeably expensive, so eating out is the most affordable option.

However, preparing your own breakfast and pack lunch can be a cost effective move. Simply pick up some cereal in the morning and make some sandwich’s for during the day and put them in your bag. Buying drinks and Breakfast/lunch snacks from large supermarkets such as Walmart can be miles cheaper than the parks so prepare your food for during the day.

For Dinner head to a diner located off the park premise close to international drive and your find some affordable eat out places. Many places have good set deal menus and you can have a 3 course meal for $9.99. Before you go make sure you google the place to find any coupons or sign up to the places email list as I received many heavy discount such as 20% off the full meal and even free bacon, no harm in checking!

Buying Gifts and shopping

You will want to buy lots of merchandise for memories and gifts but this can all become very expensive. Walmart (Americas answer to Asda) offers a lot of official Disney products at cut down rates. When your at the parks, avoid buying anything and buy it off resort for a lower price. This can save you a lot of time in the parks as well as saving you a lot of money.

Check receipts!

Americans love deals and most of them are placed on receipts after you have purchased an item so do check them out. I noticed an additional 10% off the next order, $5 off in Nike store, 20% off next meal and 20% off in downtown Disney store before 11am so do check all your receipts before you dispose of them.

Visit factory stores

(Ralph top costing £75 RRP in UK priced here at $75 RPP reduced to $54.99 with sale price of $44.99 with added 15% off from receipt coupon: total £25 with a whopping £50 saving compared to UK price)

Just located along the I4 close to the parks you can find a massive factory outlet park with many top stores offering bargain discounts. They are normally last seasons stock but offer heavy discounts. I was in need of some new trainers and found a pair at half the price compared to UK prices as well as using my discount voucher to get a better deal. If you are in need of anything do check it out.

Travel Insurance

Yearly travel insurance will cost more if you have a visiting America policy so best to just take an individual policy out for the duration of your stay in the USA as it will be more affordable to your policy. For two weeks I paid £29 with Insure and go, not bad value for the protection. Travel to the USA without Health insurance can cost you a bomb if you get caught so Don’t risk it!

Don’t forget your ESTA!

No matter what, if you live outside the USA you need to apply for an Electronical Visa called an ESTA. Without it you can’t enter so don’t forget it! Best to get it direct here: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

Park tickets

Once you have reached Orlando with your cheap flight and jumped on the local airport bus and checked into your affordable Motel and got your food and shopping sorted its a rather affordable holiday once laid out over two weeks. However what’s going to hit you the hardest is the park Pass prices.

They don’t come cheap so your best to ask yourself which parks you really want to visit the most:

Disney World resort: –

Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Magical Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
Blizzard Beach
Typhoon Lagoon
Down Town Disney
Disney Quest

All the Disney parks are best covered with a Multi park hopper pass, The best deal I managed to find was direct with Disney on their website which offered two weeks for the price of one. I noticed that a lot of resellers and ticket sale companies in the UK could not match it and as it was direct with Disney with a collection service once at the park it was a no brainer. (Just noticed that this offer is every year just before Easter so keep an eye out)

Total of two weeks unlimited for all the parks with hopper access: £248

Works out to be around £17.70 per day. Its activated on the day of first use and expires 2 weeks later. When you look at it this way and Don’t plan on visiting any of the other parks outside Disney this can be fantastic value.

With 6 Parks to visit, this gives you two days at each and then a couple of free days to explore Downtown Disney and Disney Quest. Laying out each park over two days can make the trip more enjoyable as you won’t be in such a rush allowing you to break up the days. For example visiting Magical Kingdom in the morning and doing another day at night to see the fireworks. Also parks such as Epcot have two areas which can easily be broken up over a couple of days.

Universal Orlando resort

If you don’t want to completely spend all of your time at Disney then I can highly recommend Universal Studios. It’s all rather upbeat with bigger rides and aimed at an older audience compared to Disney, so if you’re a thrill seeker this could be a better option for you.

Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure (With the Wizarding World of Harry Potter)
Universal City Walk

I didn’t Purchase my Tickets until I had arrived, But managed to find a 2 day multi park hopper pass with an addition extra day for free at the cost of £99. I purchased this at a reduced rate compared to the on the door price (With the free additional day and no booking fee) at one of the Hotel desks by the entrance. So last resort don’t buy online or at the entrance, walk into one of the close by hotels and pick one up, much cheaper!

My family however had purchased a 14 day use any date pass for the same price from this website: Attraction tickets direct, if you have the time to get the tickets sent to your home address (Which is needed) then this is your best option.

Other Parks to consider:

Wet N Wild
Bush Gardens
Sea World
Discovery Cove

(which can also be picked up from the above ticket website)

I didn’t personally bother, but you can look into these parks if interested and they can normally be added to the price of the Universal pass as they are under the same company. If you wanted to visit Discover Cove, you have to book in advance as the park has a visitor limit per a day.

Kennedy Space Centre

After visiting a lot of make believe lands and parks full of fantasy maybe you might want to see something more realistic such as a Kennedy Space Center.

I was unable to find any discount tickets what so ever, but for £35 face value its not bad at all. I found it very enjoyable and interesting and a nice break away from the buzz of Orlando, it’s really easy to tour around the center and enjoy the attractions at an easy rate.

(Curenntly $5 off via there website with code: ATLANTIS)

The only downside is getting there and the bus to the space station has to be booked in advance and it can cost between £20-30 return. Do talk to your Motel about where it picks you up. It is located away from all of the main theme parks, roughly an hour and bit drive but it’s covered by completely different surroundings and worth checking out. With lots of swamp life and natural beaches in the areas it’s easy to spot an alligator which can be rather exciting so do not dismiss this right away. See if you can head out to visit the NASA Kennedy Space Centre for an alternative day out.

Round up

Two weeks with a package holiday company can easily cost you £3,000 per person but by doing it yourself you could easily pay a third of that which is a dramatic saving. If you are backpacking of course you can just stop in Orlando for the day but if your a theme park nut like me then it can also be affordable for two weeks compared to the average price.

Thank you for reading and if you can add any more tips please feel free to post below:

Next time you get the urge to chuck yourself down a piste follow these simple money saving tips and enjoy an affordable skiing session.

Travel in Bulk, go with a group.

Many European backpacker/expat magazines (In London check out TNT Magazine) run cheap Ski trips for rock bottom prices. Its possible to do this by filling up block amounts of busses and maxing out cheap chalet apartments. Another area they can save money on is the ski pass which is cheaper when purchased in larger volumes over a long period. Also if your student why not look out for student associations who also run similar heavily discounted trips in Europe and they will most probably pick you up from your Uni dorm as well which is an added bonus.

I recently Went on A student Ski trip to the French alps for £295 and all I had to do was buy food and supply my own equipment which if you have already, can be a really affordable trip. Bulk buy in mass amounts is a great way to afford a ski trip.

Travelling alone or in groups of 4-6 can be expensive but seeking out the above method and tagging along with a mass organised trip can really affect the price dramatically and with so many similar trips, grab them whilst you can.

Once you have Transport, Ski pass and accommodation covered providing you have your own skiing equipment, there really is very little extra you have to pay for on top.

Also these type of trips can be exciting and a great way to meet new people as your be put with a like minded sort who want to go skiing who you have never seen before. Everyone is up for a good time and the experience will be like known other. Pretty much party, party, party.

Bring your own supplies of food.

Ski resorts are normally in hard to reach places like up mountains where its hard to deliver supplies which makes it expensive, plus they attract hardly any competition so they can charge whatever they want to due to the demand of visitors so expect high prices. I took along a weeks worth of instant noodles, alpine bars and coffee which come to around £10 for a weeks worth of food, not bad. Your find in the local shops they will charge high prices for meat and salads but local beer and french bread is not so badly priced so you can still juggle some home brought food with local food.

You can also get together with your room mates and cook in bulk, maybe you could split up the cooking days and share it out equally and that person has to bring enough for everyone. Smart and simple to sort out if you know who you are sharing with.

Eating out can also be avoided as this can add up very quickly if you decide to do this every day. Ski resorts can charge up to £15-20 for a fully loaded pizza and a small beer and this can really break the bank quickly. Go self catering and cook yourself, normally organised bulk trips come with the option.

Borrow Ski Gear

If you don’t have your own gear, need not worry. Ski gear sits in a wardrobe until you go skiing, I look at ski equipment the same way as I look at a time share (unless your Norwegian). It just sits there not getting used so why don’t you ask your friend who is an identical build if you can borrow their gear? Some people would also not mind if you borrow their boots and skis but please promise to compensate them if they get damaged and do offer a small contribution of either French wine or a night out. But at least it will be a lot cheaper than buying new equipment that will hardly get used and be a lot cheaper than the rental price.

Insure only what you have to

Skiing without travel insurance is pure stupidity but paying for skiing on a yearly policy and only going skiing for one week out of every year can also be expensive. Buy insurance just for that week with ski cover and then your yearly policy won’t be as expensive when skiing is not covered as this brings the rate down. For one week skiing in France my cover was around £25 which is a perfect amount for the reassurance it gave me in case of an emergency.

Bring sun screen

Ski resorts are a death trap for sun cream as there is such a demand they can charge whatever they want, can you blame them? You will need it so buy it at home and save on the overly priced ski resort prices.

arrange to ski Early or late into the season

Peek times in the season mean the best snow conditions and this makes the rates very high, take the risk and ski in March/April and you could grab yourself a bargain. Its risky as past season on Europe have seen these months to have no snowfall at all but in recent years the conditions have never been better so take the gable and ski later on into the season.

Find free WiFi

WiFi seems to be impossible to find on Ski resorts as they normally team up with WiFi providers at a charge per use rate system. You’re probably staying in the cheapest chalet in town so Wifi will not be an option so look out for bars or cafe offering free WiFi, Normally they are happy for you to use it whilst you enjoy a Euro Espresso then you have the password for the rest of the week, be frugal and seek out free WiFi, paying for it can quickly add up, but hey! your skiing! log off the internet for a while : ).

Bring Walkie talkies

Phone use abroad can add up and as you only need to communicate with a handful of people why not bring your own walkie talkies to communicate with each other, much cheaper than over priced phone calls and you can meet up again if you get lost.

Use YouTube instead of hiring out expensive instructors

If you have never been skiing then you have no way out of it but to take lessons, learn from the professionals. If like me you have been skiing for a while and just want some tips and pointers to improve yourself why don’t you use YouTube? Its full of helpful videos on how to do tricks and moves whilst skiing, you can download them onto your laptop and come back to them every evening to see how your getting along. Little crazy but an idea to think about for sure.

Make the most of Happy hour.

All ski resorts have ski bars and all ski bars want customers whilst its quiet so the happy hour was born. After a long day of skiing nothing beats a nice refreshing taste of a cold beer and when its half price it tastes even better. Ski bars can be expensive so start the party when its happy and then stop when it hits sad hour (hour after happy hour). Skiing takes a lot of energy so you might want to cook up a meal and hit the sacks. Work your party around the Happy hour and save big. If you decide to party on after its been Happy then pick up some cheap beer from the local grocery store and carry on the party in your Chalet balcony. Also make sure you keep an eye out for any deals or offers using four square or using a special bar card which might save you even more money.

Simple rules to follow but very effective methods on saving cash in order to make your ski trip more affordable. Do you have any more tips to add? I would love to hear from you and please post your response below, thank you.