Travel

It has been a while since we posted any travel tips, but we've been collecting them.  So here is a quick list we've pulled together from Gadling, LifeHacker and a few other blogs we love to read.

Filed under: Gear, What's in Your Pack?

We all usually try to travel light, but when you succeed, do you feel a little nervous? I do. If I can lift my suitcase without grunting, I'm fairly certain I've forgotten something. Here's a list of the Top ten things not to forget on a trip -- hopefully both you and I can remember to check it next time we're about to head out of town!

1. Cell Phone Charger. They've started carrying universal chargers (with multiple heads) at places like Walgreens, but that's $15 to $20 you really shouldn't have to spend.

A few hours trip on a vintage train in the fall is a chance to experience American history surrounded by color brilliance. As trains pass along the edges of small towns and waterways, under canopies of leafy branches and across mountainsides, passengers are treated to stories of commerce, adventure and natural history.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, United Kingdom, United States

If you're as fascinated by language as I am, especially by the differences between American and British English, you may want to head over to the "Americanisms" section of the Economist's style guide.

The erudite London-based mag offers its journalists tips for how to make sure their prose doesn't sound too American, including the following:

• "Hikes are walks, not increases. Vegetables, not teenagers, should be fresh. Only the speechless are dumb, the well-dressed smart and the insane mad. Scenarios are best kept for the theatre, postures for the gym, parameters for the parabola."
• "Use senior rather than ranking, rumpus rather than ruckus, and rumbustious rather than rambunctious." [Rambustious? That's a new one.]
• And most importantly, "Gubernatorial is an ugly word that can almost always be avoided."

Mr. Dude note: If you are a traveler, you need to grab the Gadling RSS feed.  These guys know what they are doing.

Filed under: Gadling Gear Review

In this Gadling gear review, I'll introduce you to a product that is becoming increasingly important for travelers. As more and more airlines start charging for (excess) baggage, you'll run the risk of a nasty surprise at the airport.

Mr. Dude Note:  Hopefully if you are reading this blog and purchased products from Best4Men.com you understand the benefits of heading to spas or places like the Grooming Lounge.  Get groomed, have a drink, relax with some guys, and get the upper hand no matter what you are doing.  Looks like more than a few spas are cutting their prices to increase customer volume.

Upscale spas may not be accustomed to offering deep discounts, but the current economic situation has left them little choice. As a result, you'll be able to take advantage of some fantastic deals and go to spas that might be out of reach otherwise. Live like the wealthy (used to) for a few days.

For the top shops in the spa business, the International Spa Association (ISPA) says that visits are down and shorter, and the people who are coming are spending less. Day spa trips are becoming more common than destination alternatives, which has kicked the industry into "survival mode."

Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Budget Travel

As the economy shrinks and belts begin to tighten, mileage programs are playing a larger and large role in the everyday consumer travel lanscape. Many travelers are turning to their caches of miles for use in lieu of spending their hard-saved money on a ticket. Similarly, airlines are also paying attention to our mileage accounts, changing many programs to restrict the number of awards that they permit and making our free flights few and far in between.

First you couldn't smoke on planes. Then trains banned smoking. Now, you can't smoke in rental cars, at least, not if you rent from Avis or Budget. As of October 1, all cars in both rental companies' fleets will be non-smoking.

Avis and Budget say the policy came about in response to the needs of renters, citing a non-smoking car as the most-popular rental request. Cars that have been smoked in also require additional cleaning and are out of service longer,

Whenever I come home after an extended trip, I always know I've been out of the U.S. for a long time when I have to remind myself that toilet paper can be deposited directly into the toilet. (That, in addition to free refills at fast-food restaurants, baseball, and Tommy Lee Jones, is what makes America great.)

Writing for the Humanitarian Relief blog, international aid worker Michael Bear comes up with a highly entertaining list

For the residents who live on waterfront property in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the daily mail delivery comes by boat. The U.S. Mailboat Walworth makes the delivery every morning at 10am from June 15 to September 15, stopping at over 60 lakefront homes.