Tag Archives: travel tips

Why I Think Travel Is So Important Now

Since the U.S. presidential election, there’s been a lot of talk about how certain groups of voters—from the “liberal elite” on the coasts to folks in the rural heartland to the tech establishment in Silicon Valley to the media that covered the election to anyone who gets their news solely from Facebook—are living in a bubble.

But isn’t it true that everyone’s always lived in a bubble? That’s the reason why we travel—to get outside the bubbles we were born and raised in or currently inhabit, see how other people live and think, and broaden our worldview. Whatever your political leanings, I think this election reinforced how important it is to experience new places (especially within our own country), connect with people who aren’t like us, listen to different perspectives, and find common ground. As Mark Twain put it, “Travel is fatal to prejudice.”

With America’s role on the international stage unclear, though, some people are wondering how they will be treated when they go abroad now. As someone who has traveled in a number of risky countries at times when U.S. government policies were not in favor, I’m here to tell you that, in my experience, as long as you don’t behave like an “ugly American,” people don’t judge you based on your government. That’s because they don’t want you to judge them based on their government.

I can also tell you that, in countries that depend on tourist dollars and don’t see lots of U.S. travelers, people are particularly nice to Americans because, simply put, the American visitors who do travel there spend more money and tip better than other tourists.

When I went to Istanbul during the build-up to the Iraq War—a period when people were worried about anti-American sentiment and experts were advising not to fly on U.S. airlines or stay in Western hotels—everyone I met, from waiters to carpet merchants, told me that while they might disagree with U.S. policies, they love American travelers since they are more interested in learning about Turkish culture than other tourists who go straight to the seaside on cheap package holidays.

Later, during the Iraq War, I found myself in Kurdistan in southeastern Turkey and, again, nobody I met equated me with the foreign policy of the nation I live in. I was treated as a fellow human being first.

The same happened when I traveled in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In fact, I’ve found people in the Middle East to be among the most welcoming and friendly people I’ve met anywhere in the world. As Aldous Huxley said, “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”

It’s a good thing I saw the sites of Syria when I did; today it’s off-limits, as a result of a brutal and tragic war. Lord only knows what the ancient city of Palmyra looks like now. I’m always telling people: Go while you can.

That’s why I’m taking the family to Sri Lanka this winter. Yesterday I asked my husband, Tim, if he’s having any second thoughts about that. “I was in Nicaragua during a war when Reagan was in power,” he replied. “After that, anything’s easy.”

People overseas are already wondering how they will be treated if they travel to the United States in this new era. We’re already seeing foreign governments issuing warnings to their U.S.-bound citizens to exercise greater vigilance. Will State Department travel warnings for outbound travelers change? It will be interesting to see.

In the meantime, here’s how to interpret travel warnings. And, if you’re concerned about safety in a foreign country that’s perceived as risky, here are steps you can take.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

These Are the Most Interesting Cruises Planned for 2017

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When it comes to cruises, our readers are picky: Only the most remarkable itineraries will do—those that stop in the most interesting and charming ports, give you enough time there, and show you places that would be too logistically difficult, time-consuming, or cost-prohibitive to see any other way. So we scrutinized the 2017 cruise itineraries on offer in order to point you toward the gems. U.S. News and World Report even interviewed Wendy for its article 10 Dreamy Cruise Vacations to Cross Off Your Bucket List. Then we narrowed our picks down to the best values, the most unusual routes, and the can’t-miss bucket-list journeys. To pinpoint the best cruise-planning travel specialist for your needs—to ensure you get the best itinerary and perks for your money—feel free to write to Ask Wendy.

Cruises that explore today’s hottest destinations at a value:

Iceland, and Japan are currently very popular—and, consequently, very expensive, if you want to do them right. One way to save is via one of these under-the-radar sailings:

Iceland: A lot of cruises touch on Iceland these days, but Lindblad Expeditions is doing something different: a full circumnavigation aboard the National Geographic Orion. The ten-day trip isn’t cheap (it starts at $9,130 per person), but it’s a relatively immersive experience of the whole country.

Japan: A brand-new itinerary with off-the-beaten-path ports you don’t ordinarily see is the “In the Heart of Japan” route aboard L’Austral. It’s an 11-day itinerary from Osaka to Muroran this coming May. Alternatively, you could combine a Japan land trip with a unique cruise to nearby islands. The Silver Discoverer sails to some of the most exotic islands in the South Pacific, from Palau’s Rock Islands (a UNESCO Heritage site and a mecca for divers) to the dolphin-filled Mariana Islands to Japan’s remote and isolated island gems.

Cruises that open up remote, hard-to-access regions:

Because of changing sea ice conditions, an increasing number of ships are heading to the Arctic for one-off or unique itineraries. Rare, once-in-a-lifetime voyages include:

Wrangel Island is a federal nature preserve and a great place to spot polar bears. Photo: Katya Ovsyanikova

Northwest Passage: Crystal will be sailing the Northwest Passage a second time next summer. The route was once impassable but, because of global warming and melting sea ice, it can now be sailed by a mammoth ship carrying 1,700 passengers and crew during the summer months.

Northeast Passage: Changes in sea ice have now made it possible to take an expedition cruise through Russia’s Northern Sea Route. Aboard the research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy, travelers stop at remote settlements including Wrangel Island, a federal nature reserve and a renowned polar bear denning site, and Franz Josef Land, an archipelago of 192 islands only ten degrees from the North Pole.

Sub-Antarctic and New Zealand: If you want to explore an area few others have seen, board L’Austral or Spirit of Enderby for the sub-Antarctic islands between New Zealand and Antarctica. Nicknamed the “forgotten islands,” they don’t even appear on some maps, but they’re worth seeking out for wildlife lovers, photographers, and adventurers. One of the remote rocks is Macquarie Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; few permits are granted to visit this nesting spot for royal penguins, but these two companies have garnered access for their guests. Expect sightings of sea lions, penguins, albatross, elephant seals, and glacial fjords.

Bucket-list ideas for cruisegoers who’ve seen it all:

National Geographic Quest cruise ship room

Nearly half the rooms on the new National Geographic Quest will have floor-to-ceiling windows. Rendering: Lindblad Expeditions

Coastal West Africa: Regent Seven Seas’ Navigator will be making a 35-night transatlantic voyage in December 2016. First the ship will hug the coast of Africa all the way from Cape Town up to Cape Verde, stopping in Namibia, Angola, Sao Tome, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Gambia, and Senegal. Then it will spend four days crossing the Atlantic and hit five Caribbean islands—Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe Grenada, and Curacao—before winding up in Miami.

Belize and Guatemala: A new, state-of-the-art expedition ship scheduled to debut in June is the 100-passenger National Geographic Quest. The small ship of 50 cabins will ply the coastal waters of Alaska (in the summer) and Belize and Guatemala (February and March), seeking out wildlife havens. Guests can dive the Mesomerican reef (the largest in the Northern Hemisphere), snorkel, and paddleboard. Quest will have features you don’t usually see on an expedition ship: There will be adjoining cabins for families, and nearly half of the cabins will have balconies with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Indian Ocean: Jacques Cousteau called Aldabra Atoll “the last unprofaned sanctuary on the planet.” And with good reason: more than 150,000 giant tortoises live there. If you want to be one of the few travelers to visit, board the Silver Discoverer on its itinerary through the Indian Ocean, where you’ll stop in the Seychelles, Maldives, Zanzibar, and more.

The Canadian Arctic has some incredible views including this ice bridge. Photo: David-McEown

Canadian Arctic: Discover one jaw-dropping national park after another as you explore the remote bays and fjords of Labrador and Torngat, in the Canadian Arctic’s rarely visited wilderness. “Since many locations such as Monumental Island can only be accessed by ship, [the research vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov] is the perfect platform for viewing wildlife such as whales and perhaps even polar bears,” says Ashton Palmer, Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for expedition cruises. He adds that for an even more epic exploration of the Canadian Arctic and East Coast, combine the Labrador and Torngat Explorer trip with the popular Fins & Fiddles itinerary.

South Atlantic Ocean: An expedition voyage that collectors of rare passport stamps have been waiting for is the Atlantic Odyssey aboard the research ship Plancius. This voyage out of Ushaia, Argentina, takes you to South Georgia Island, the South Orkney Islands, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena, and Ascension Island. It’s hard enough just to get to each of these remote islands, let alone see all of them in one trip.

Barge Luciole cruising on Canal du Nivernais, Burgundy, France. Courtesy: Barge Luciole

Canals of Europe: You haven’t experienced Europe’s waterways properly until you’ve tried a barge trip. Barges are small luxury boats—some carrying just your own family and friends—that wind through Europe’s manmade canals. “It’s intimate, very authentic, very slow,” explains Ellen Sack, Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for barge cruises. “You see the rural countryside from the water and get into a world that a traveler wouldn’t get into ordinarily.” Barge vacations come with private chefs, private English-speaking guides, and land activities such as bicycling through fields, shopping at local markets, wine tasting at vineyards, or getting a behind-the-scenes tour of a chateau.

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Big News From WendyPerrin.com and Town&Country

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For Town&Country’s 170th anniversary, the magazine and WendyPerrin.com have teamed up to bring you another travel fantasy: a 170-day trip around the world! Wendy’s WOW List of trip-planning experts is the exclusive source behind Town&Country’s modern-day Grand Tour, the ultimate round-the-world itinerary.

If you don’t have 170 days to spare and need an itinerary custom-tailored to your specific goals, “contact travel expert Wendy Perrin,” advises T&C. “She monitors year-round all the specialists who helped us create this extravaganza, and her counseling services are invaluable.”

The next time you want an amazing trip at an unbeatable value, go to Wendy’s list and find your perfect destination, cruise, villa, or adventure specialist. Ensure you get VIP perks and avoid pitfalls by having Wendy monitor your trip. Find out how by clicking through to the WOW List and reading more from Wendy in her FAQ on how to get the best possible trip.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Ask a Teenager: Do’s and Don’ts for Your Trip to London

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Note from Wendy: I’m just back from a trip to London with teen and tween boys, and out of 12 days’ worth of family-friendly activities—including a cricket match, the Science Museum, the H.M.S. Belfast, and Kensington Gardens—these are the experiences that my 14-year-old son, Charlie, enjoyed most, as well as those he feels are overrated. Here, Charlie tells it in his words:

My mom took me to London over the summer and it ended up being an amazing experience. However, there were some times when I just wanted to leave whatever it was that we were doing. So, in this article, I will be sharing do’s and don’ts for London: where to go right away, and what to hold off on.

DO take a rib ride on the Thames.

This ride was both simply thrilling and thrillingly simple, as all it is is a high-speed boat ride. Your kids will love it, and you will probably love it too. It’s basically a tour of London, just much faster. With James Bond music playing, you feel like you’re in a movie. In addition, it isn’t too much of a bumpy ride, and I highly doubt that someone would feel sick after. I recommend getting there early so you can grab one of the front-row seats.

I recommend sitting in the front row on the London rib ride.

DON’T prioritize the London Eye.

Everyone traveling to London has this on their agenda. But this really wouldn’t be too bad a thing to miss. The views aren’t as great as you’d think, and it’s sometimes hard to see because you’re packed in a cell with 25 others. There is also a very long line to get tickets; however, there is a big playground for the kids right next to it. You should still go here, but don’t overhype it or make it a priority to the other sights you’d like to see. If you have time, go for it.

The views from the London Eye are good, but you get better views from other places in London.

DO pay a visit to the Churchill War Rooms.

This place surely exceeded my expectations. It is an exhibit about how Britain was run during the war and Winston Churchill’s life. They had a humongous interactive computer that had a timeline of world history during Churchill’s life. I spent a long time there. They only take groups of 5 or 7 at a time, so try to come when it first opens in the morning.

At the Churchill War Rooms you see the World War 2 bunker that shows how Britain was run during the war.

They have a humongous interactive computer that displays a visual timeline of world history during Churchill’s life.

DON’T randomly visit the inside of Tower Bridge.

You should only go to the exhibition inside Tower Bridge if the drawbridge is scheduled to go up. We got lucky and got there 15 minutes before the drawbridge lift. We watched the bridge draw from the glass bottom floors at the top, when it really might have been better to watch from the wings at bridge level. But I only did one, so I can’t tell you which is best. Besides that, there isn’t really too much to see inside the bridge. It’s a worthy destination, but only if you get to see it in action.

Tower Bridge as seen from the H.M.S. Belfast.

From one of the bridge’s glass-bottomed floors we watched the drawbridge lift.

DO climb St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The view from the top of St. Paul’s is phenomenal, undoubtedly better than that from the London Eye. But instead of a line to get there, there was a climb. And some climb it was. To get just to the second floor, there is what seems like a never-ending spiral to the top. But when you get to the fourth floor, you get the great payoff of going outside and feeling the breeze on your hair, the entire city of London in front of you. This is why I feel that St. Paul’s does the London Eye’s job better. There are even a lot of seniors making the climb for the top, which I thought was great. If you truly can’t make it, I would recommend just going up to the third floor, as the view isn’t that different and you aren’t forced to keep moving like you are at the top.

The view from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

These are the stairs you climb to get to the top of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral.

DO take some time at the British Museum.

The name is misleading because nothing in this museum is British. Kept here are all of the artifacts and spoils of war that the British have won, stolen, or recovered. You will find things in this museum from every country, including mainly ancient Rome, China, Greece, and Egypt, as well as Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Assyria. You can also find things from the Americas, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Your kids would have very likely learned about some of this stuff in school, so they can tie what they’ve learned to what they’re seeing in person. No one will come out of this museum unsatisfied or unimpressed.

An Egyptian mummy in the British Museum.

DO hire a Blue Badge guide for a day or two.

Without our guide, Sean, there would be many more things I would’ve wanted to skip. Our guide had insight on nearly everything in the city, he made the Tower of London come alive, and in Stonehenge we would have been lost without him. If you asked him a random question about London, his answer would never be “I don’t know.” We only had him for two days in London, but the amount of things we were able to see with him in that span was exceptional. I recommend hiring one, even if just for a day, as you won’t need one for an entire week. Try making it on the first day because your guide will have insight on what to do for the remainder of your stay. [Note from Wendy: We hired an exceptionally kid-friendly guide—one who can’t be hired via the Blue Badge site—through Jonathan Epstein, an England specialist on my WOW List of local fixers.)

In the Tower of London our guide, Sean Moran, showed us “graffiti” carved by prisoners centuries ago.

In the Tower of London, Sean showed us “graffiti” carved by prisoners centuries ago.

DON’T wait in a crowd to see the changing of the guard.

Some people will get to Buckingham Palace two hours before the changing of the guard starts to get a prime spot. If this is truly something you want to do, I won’t stop you. However, our guide knew where to go and got us a spot just outside the gate to the Wellington Barracks about 10 minutes before the change started. What’s more is that here, the guards walk right by your face, maybe three feet away. You also get to see the band playing before they start. Make sure you snag a spot in time on the sidewalk and hold your ground. Some people will go onto the cobblestones that they force you off of when the guards start and try to stand in front of you. Kindly ask them to move.

Here’s the band marching out of Wellington Barracks toward Buckingham Palace. My mom and brother and I all videotaped it.

DO spend some time at Borough Market.

Borough Market has been in business for more than 1,000 years. Schedule lunch there for one day, whether you have a bite in one of the restaurants or sample the many booths. There is some very interesting food there. The closest stand to where we ate sold ice cream from goats. Saturday is rush hour there, so if you want something less hectic, aim for a weekday.

Our guide Sean taught me the geography of London during Roman times over lunch at Borough Market.

DON’T bring your wallet to Harrods.

Harrods was probably one of the most overrated places we visited. There’s not a lot to really see that you can’t see anywhere else. If you can drop in for a visit, go for it, but don’t prioritize it over something else. On top of that, the prices are marked up way too far. There was a toy there that in Hamley’s—which is definitely a place not to miss if you have kids—cost £3 for 2. In Harrods, the same exact toy cost £15 for 1, which is a 900% markup from Hamley’s. As for the food halls, there are 2 places within 10 minutes of our house that have better sushi than what we tried. However, if you buy anything at Harrods, the food is the way to go.

My mom and brother ordering sushi in the food halls at Harrods.

At Hamley’s, testing out the toy that ends up grossly overpriced at Harrods.

DO spend an evening at Covent Garden.

Come here with no plans but maybe a dinner reservation, and you’ll leave happy. There are lots of shops and restaurants to spend your time in, but the best part was the performances in the square. I saw this pantomime starting his act while I was waiting for my brother and mom to get out of a shop, and we all ended up watching his show until the end, laughing the whole time. Spend an evening here and it won’t go wrong.

A Charlie Chaplin impersonator at Covent Garden.

At the end of the show he gave a hug to his sidekick plucked from the audience.

Photos by Timothy Baker

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

10 Apps That Will Improve Any Road Trip

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Old-school as it may be, we still say that a paper map is an essential on any road trip packing list, and that putting down your phone might just be the smartest thing you can do with it on a vacation. But we’re not exactly Luddites here either: A smart digital toolkit can lower stress, ease planning, and even enhance a road trip, and these days you’ll benefit greatly from stocking up on a small collection of apps before you hit the highway. The following apps were all tested by Wendy and her family on recent road trips. Add your own favorite road trip apps in the comments below—and see Wendy’s full list of recommended apps over at TripAdvisor.

Waze

This one is a no-brainer and many of you probably already have it on your phones: Waze. The real-time traffic app will clue you into the least congested routes, collisions or road blocks, even police speed traps.

Around Me

Driving through unfamiliar territory can get very stressful very quickly if someone has to use the bathroom, the gas tank is hovering on empty, or worse, one of the kids is sick. Wendy uses Around Me to discover nearby hospitals, pharmacies, ATMs, even grocery stores.

Gas Buddy

She recommends GasBuddy for info on fill-up stations and their gas prices.

Sit or Squat

For the other kind of emergency, download Sit or Squat (by Charmin) and you’ll always know where to find a clean public restroom.

Roadside America and Along the Way

The best road trips have nothing to do with your final destination. The journey is the point, and the stops you make, make the journey. In addition to Wendy’s advice on the three things you should always stop for on a road trip, she recommends the Roadside America and Along the Way apps to ensure that you don’t miss quirky fun attractions, interesting parks and landmarks, or the world’s biggest anything.

The Yellow Pages

Yup, this old standby has been updated for the mobile age. The YP app will help you find automotive repair shops, health and wellness facilities, and more—all with contact info, address, and websites—but what Wendy’s family uses it for is to punch in the type of food they’re in the mood for—say, Southern fried catfish, or peach pie—and find out the closest restaurant that’s serving it.

TVFoodMaps and LocalEats

Ever seen some delicious dish on a travel TV show and wish you could try it yourself? With TVFoodMaps, you can search for restaurants featured on food shows. You can either search by show title (Adam Richman’s Man vs. Food or Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, for example) or even search by route: Type in your starting point and your destination and it’ll serve up a list of interesting eateries various hosts have visited. LocalEats has a similar mission: to help travelers discover insider favorites. Search by city, browse a calendar of state-by-state food events, or scour appetite-inducing lists like Best Breakfast Places in America.

Urgent.ly

Urgent.ly is an on-demand roadside assistance service. No AAA? No problem. Download the app, and if you ever get a flat, need a jump, or—d’oh!—locked your keys in the car, contact the service and they’ll send help. They’re on call 24-7, every day of the year, and you only pay for the services you use.

For more road trip intel, see Wendy’s series at TripAdvisor: How to Plan the Ultimate Road Trip Itinerary, Packing List: Essential Gear for a Road Trip, How to Make Family Road Trips Fun and Stress-Free; and 15 Simple Hacks to Make Any Road Trip Better.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Watch: How to Choose the Right Cruise

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People who say they wouldn’t be caught dead on a cruise have either never tried one or chose the wrong ship. There is an enormous variety of vessels and itineraries (including expedition ships, freighters, and yacht charters), but it’s vital to choose the right one for you, the first time. In this video, shot during my latest cruise, I lay out key factors to consider, as well as the pros and cons of different ship sizes and itineraries.

If you’ve got an additional savvy tip for picking the right cruise, by all means post it in the comments below. I may include the tip in an upcoming article featuring your advice! And if you’d like me to personally recommend the right cruise for your specific travel goals and needs, click to Ask Wendy.

Transparency disclosure: Our sponsor, MedjetAssist, provided the financial support that made it possible to bring you these travel tips.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

The Best Time to Book Any Trip, By Destination

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Booking a trip at the last minute can occasionally yield an amazing travel bargain. More often than not, though, it means paying more for an inferior trip. Sure, if it’s low season in a destination that has a ton of airline service and hotel rooms, you might get your choice of flights, resorts, and rooms at the last minute. But when you want a high-caliber trip to a destination that’s very popular and has limited infrastructure (say, Iceland) or where the travel season is short (say, Alaska or the Amalfi Coast), it’s much smarter to book early.

Here, Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts detail the benefits of booking early in assorted destinations worldwide, as well as the optimal moment to book for each destination. For the best possible trip and to be marked as a VIP traveler sent by Wendy, contact these Trusted Travel Experts via their black CONTACT buttons on The WOW List.

You get more charming accommodations and more suitable room types. A destination’s most charming hotels usually have just a handful of rooms, and larger properties will have a limited number of rooms of the type you want. When your goal is the sort of high-caliber trip that Trusted Travel Experts (TTEs) orchestrate, starting early means that the TTE can not only match you to the right accommodation but can also put in a request for a specific room number. Beware of last-minute hotel deals in Southeast Asia, warns Trusted Travel Expert Andrea Ross: “The deals tend to be for the rooms no one wants, or they are too good to be true and you’ll find yourself at an overbooked hotel, being moved to a ‘comparable’ hotel outside of town.”

The best private guides are still available. Nearly all guides are independent contractors who work for a number of different companies, so travel planners reserve the savviest English-speaking guides first, before a competitor has the chance to do so; last-minute bookers get novice or part-time guides. These less skilled guides might be able to recite important dates and events, but they likely are not as charismatic, can’t discuss the nuances of contemporary local culture, and don’t have the experience to make sure your trip runs flawlessly.

There’s time to arrange WOW experiences. All of the experts on Wendy’s WOW List can set up unique encounters with locals and access to places that are normally off-limits to the public. But they need time to pull these strings. So if you want V.I.P. access to portions of Versailles that are closed to the public, or an invite to a remote indigenous community in the Amazon, book early.

The best tables at top restaurants can be reserved. You may be coming to Thailand in November, points out Thailand travel specialist Sandy Ferguson, “but some of Bangkok’s fine dining establishments stop taking reservations in June.”

You’ll be at the top of the list for upgrades and other perks. Hotels are more likely to dangle incentives—such as a room upgrade—to those who book early, when they aren’t very full yet; as availability diminishes, they are less inclined to give extras that they don’t need to. Likewise, a last-minute trip usually takes more work for a travel planner to arrange (calling around to multiple hotels to find available rooms, scrambling to find guides and transportation), which increases the cost to you; when you book well in advance, the planner may well pass some of the savings on to you, in the form of complimentary spa services, a bottle of wine in your room, and the like.

You may save money on accommodations. Gone are the days when hotels had just two or three rates per room, depending on the season. Today, most hotels increase rates as their supply decreases, so that early bookers get the best rates. If you give Jonathan Epstein, Trusted Travel Expert for the United Kingdom, enough lead time, he can arrange the order of your itinerary so that you stay at certain hotels when they are less expensive (spending weekends in a city, for example). Most cruise lines give discounts for early booking as well.

Your itinerary will maximize your time. By planning ahead you’ll have more options for flights between destinations. If you wait until the last minute to book a Southeast Asia itinerary, says Andrea Ross, “What could be a direct flight from Luang Prabang, Laos, to Siem Reap, Cambodia, turns into a daylong excursion through the Bangkok airport, running for the only connecting flight available.”

Now, what do we mean by “book early”? In most instances, this means nailing down your itinerary at least six months in advance, but that varies depending on whether you’re traveling in the destination’s high season. Here are general rules of thumb:

North America

Alaska and Canada: Book six to nine months ahead for summer travel; the top properties sell out as early as September or October for the following summer.

Disney: Book at least seven months out.

Mexico: Book eight to 12 months ahead for Christmas/New Year’s, and at least four months ahead for other times of year.

Caribbean and the Atlantic Islands

St. Barts: Book 11 months ahead for villas; for hotels, book six months ahead for larger properties, nine months ahead for smaller ones.

Central America

Costa Rica: Book 9 to 12 months ahead for Christmas, New Years, Easter, and Spring Break. For July and August, book six months in advance. For the rest of the year, three months in advance is fine.

Nicaragua: Book six to eight months ahead for high season (November–April). For July and August, book three months ahead; for the rest of the year, two months is sufficient.

South America

Brazil: Book four to six months ahead for low season, eight to nine months ahead for Christmas/New Year’s and Carnaval. Book a year or more out for hot spots like Trancoso during those prime times.

Colombia: Book six months ahead for the high seasons (Easter and Christmas/New Year’s), three months ahead for other times of year.

The Galapagos: Book 10 to 12 months ahead during the warm air/water season (December to June), six to eight months ahead for other times of year.

Patagonia: Book six to eight months ahead for peak season (December to February).

Peru: Book six to eight months ahead for travel during the dry season (May to October).

Europe

Spain and Portugal: Book six months ahead for high season (May to September); eight to 10 months ahead for Christmas/New Year’s or Easter.

Turkey: Book four months ahead for gulet yacht charters during the prime season (May to October).

U.K. and Ireland: Book six to 10 months ahead.

Asia

Bali: Book six to 10 months ahead during high season (July to September and Christmas/New Years), four to six months ahead for other times of year.

Bhutan: Book six to 10 months ahead during high festival seasons (March, April, October, and November).

Myanmar: Book six to 10 months ahead.

Southeast Asia: Book six months ahead, even earlier for travel during Christmas/New Year’s.

Africa and Middle East

East Africa: Book six to 12 months ahead; book 18 months ahead if you want to stay at small camps.

Israel: Book six months ahead for high season (spring and fall, outside of major holidays).

Morocco: Book at least six months ahead for spring and fall travel, eight months ahead for Christmas or Easter.

Australia and Pacific

Papua New Guinea: Book 12 months ahead for the Mt. Hagen Cultural Show in August. For the rest of the year, three to six months in advance is fine.

Fiji: Book six to eight months ahead for the first three weeks in July, when Aussies and Kiwis flock to Fiji to escape their winter. For the rest of the year, three to six months in advance is fine.

New Zealand: Book 9 to 12 months ahead for Christmas and New Years, especially if you want to stay at the ultra-luxury lodges. Book nine months ahead during Chinese New Year, America’s Cup races, and All Blacks games. For the rest of the year, six months is plenty.

Australia: Book 10 to 12 months ahead for top-end luxury lodges, Kimberley cruises, Great Barrier Reef islands, and the Red Centre during high season (April–September), and for Melbourne during the Australian Open in January. Book six to nine months ahead for Tasmania during peak season (October–March), especially if you’re doing a multi-day walk. For all else, three to six months’ lead time is fine.

French Polynesia and the Cook Islands: Book 9 to 11 months in advance, particularly if you want one of the overwater bungalows with a prime view.

Cruises

Book six to 12 months ahead.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Pokemon Go Is Coming on Your Trip: Here’s How to Keep Kids Safe

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Note from Wendy: When the augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released this summer, my 14-year-old, Charlie, was (like a gazillion other kids) instantly enthralled. I let him play the game during our travels—in small doses only, and in safe areas. As he used his smartphone to hunt and catch digital creatures in real-life locations everywhere from California’s Hearst Castle to England’s Stonehenge, I saw first-hand how Pokémon Go can be a double-edged sword for traveling families: On the one hand, it leads kids to explore places and discover sights that otherwise might not interest them. On the other hand, your kid could stumble into a dicey neighborhood, wander into traffic, or walk off a cliff in pursuit of a Pokémonster. So I asked Charlie if he would share a few suggestions, from a teen’s perspective, for how to achieve that balancing act of giving your kids the freedom to play the game while minimizing its drawbacks and keeping them safe. Here’s his advice:

Hi. I’m Charlie and I’m 14 years old. You might trust your kids to play Pokémon Go in the town you live in, but playing in an unfamiliar place could put them at risk. The app contains warnings not to trespass or enter dangerous areas, the loading screen warns players to be alert at all times and stay aware of their surroundings, and there is even an alert when you go too fast, noting that the game should not be played while driving (though it is easily bypassed by pressing the “I’m a passenger” button). Unsurprisingly, these have done little to make the game safer. People have fallen off cliffs while playing, have wandered too close to military bases, and have even been stabbed. Some kids have ended up in places where they shouldn’t be, and some have been lured into being robbed. And with the recent release of the game in South America, there are now even more foreign countries where your kids could be at risk.

So how can you keep your kids safe while they try to catch that elusive Pikachu at the Eiffel Tower? Here are my three tips.

1. Play it with them.

Obviously this is a lot to ask, but it’s your best bet for keeping your kid safe.

You can’t have your head in your phone, though, since you need to watch your child. What you can do is put your phone in battery saver mode. That turns the app into a black screen when it is held top down, and it rumbles when you find a Pokémon. Let your kid be the one to track down the Pokémon; then, when he finds one, catch it with him. This will make your kid want to wait up for you, so you can catch them together. If you need a break, you can pretend to take a long time to catch one, so you don’t tire out too quickly.

2. Set a curfew.

The later at night it gets, the more dangerous a place can be, especially in an unfamiliar country. Nighttime is a more likely time for drunk drivers and illegal activity. So giving your kid a time to be in by is a surefire way to be safer. A good curfew might be about 9 or 9:30 pm, but it will depend on how old your child is and what country you’re in.

3. Limit how far they can go.

To make sure that kids don’t get lost or take too long to get back, set boundaries on how far they can travel. This could be a hard rule for your kids to follow. If you tell them not to go past 7th Street but the Pokémon that they’re after is on 8th street, they’re without a doubt going to stretch the boundaries. The best way to enforce this, if you have an iOS device, is to make sure that the “Find my iPhone” app is on your child’s phone. That way you can enter your child’s iCloud information on your device and track their location. Another great way to limit their range of play is to let them play in a park that they’re not allowed to leave. Parks have little to no cars and are often great places to play, boasting frequent sightings of rare Pokémon.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How and Where to Spot Supercars in London

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Spotted on Sloane Street: A Mercedes Gullwing in front of a Ferrari 458 and a modded Range Rover

The Dorchester hotel's parking lot on a Monday morning in August

The Dorchester parking lot

Right to left: a Lamborghini, a Mercedes, a Porsche, a Rolls-Royce....

A Ferrari 458 wrapped in chrome blue, at the Dorchester

Me and Stuart, the extremely nice and knowledgeable concierge at The Dorchester

Me and more new friends at The Dorchester

carbon-fiber Pagani Huayra, Lamborghini Aventador

A carbon-fiber Pagani Huayra (right) and a Lamborghini Aventador (left) outside 45 Park Lane, next to The Dorchester

3 modded Mercedes G-Wagens outside 45 Park Lane

Two Lamborghinis and three Rolls-Royces at The Dorchester

A Rolls-Royce with a stainless steel hood and modded headlights, at The Dorchester

A Lamborghini Aventador on Piccadilly Circus

Two Lamborghinis in front of Buckingham Palace

A crystal-encrusted Mercedes in Sloane Square

A McLaren P1 in Notting Hill. I was speechless.

Here's a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta Coupe with the coolest wrap job I have ever seen in real life.

That same Ferrari F12 as viewed from the front

A rare Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat with a KSA license plate

A DB9 Aston Martin on Piccadilly Street

A Maybach 62 Zeppelin just off Sloane Street

A crazy-nice Brabus Mercedes

A Ferrari F12 Berlinetta Coupe with a modded hood

A Lamborghini Gallardo with a rare type of back window

A McLaren 750LT at the McLaren dealership on Knightsbridge Road

A modded BMW M6

A Pagani Zonda, extremely rare and fast

A Porsche 918 Spyder, the only electric supercar

A rare Rolls-Royce Wraith

A very loud Ford GT in Notting Hill

British-made TVR sportscar, with super-interesting exhaust pipes

Lamborghini Aventador interior

Pagani Huayra interior

Photos by Doug Baker and Timothy Baker

Hi. I’m Doug and I’m 12 years old. My mom just took me to London, and one of my favorite activities was spotting supercars. The craziest car I saw was a rainbow-diamond-encrusted Mini Cooper inside Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, but there were other rare supercars driving around London all the time. I saw a Mercedes plated with gold and black Swarovski crystals on Sloane Street, and a gray W Motors Lykan HyperSport in Knightsbridge. It was one of four ever made! If you want to see cars like this too when you go to London, here’s my advice:

Go in summertime. That’s when all the wealthy Middle Easterners come to town for cooler weather and they ship their supercars from home.

Go to The Dorchester hotel’s parking lot. Stuart, a concierge at the Dorchester, told me that if I wanted to see the most and best cars, I should come in the morning before 11 a.m. That’s when the cars’ owners are sleeping, so their cars are parked. Don’t go after noon because that’s when they’re driving the cars. If you have questions about the cars, the concierge can answer them. (The concierges were super-nice even though we weren’t staying at the hotel.) The streets and other fancy hotels near The Dorchester can have nice cars too.

The best time to see the cars driving around is after 5 p.m. and late at night. The best places to see them are Knightsbridge, Mayfair, and Notting Hill, and especially on Sloane Street and Brompton Road. They are on the streets around fancy department stores like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason because many of the car owners shop there so you can see their cars.

Go to supercar dealerships like Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, and Lotus. The Lotus dealership in Piccadilly Circus actually has no Lotuses in it, but you’ll see Lotuses driving past it. The McLaren dealership is near the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at the Knightsbridge Tube stop. The employees were friendly and nice both times I went in.

When you photograph the cars, don’t forget to photograph their license plates. You’ll see license plates from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. Some have both English and Arabic numbers.

Tips for photographing cars

Always have your camera ready.
Take the bus. Sit at the front row of the top of the double-decker bus.
Listen for the cars. Sometimes we heard them coming before we saw them.
Look inside to see what the interior looks like.
Never spend too much time on one car. A cooler car might come by.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Three Things You Should Always Stop for on a Road Trip

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Wendy and her family are big road-trip fans and have become experts on sussing out the stops that elevate any old long drive into a memorable adventure. Here are three things they suggest always stopping for on a road trip.

Don’t miss Wendy’s full list of 15 ingenious road-trip hacks over on TripAdvisor.

Quirky attractions advertised on billboards

State fairs and world’s largest anything are the sorts of attractions you’d expect to find advertised on the highway (and those are worth stopping for as well), but keep your eyes peeled for unexpected or goofy-sounding sites too. Wendy’s kids spotted a sign for OstrichLand USA in California and are still talking about feeding the oversized birds.

Full parking lots in the middle of nowhere

If you’re driving on a lonely road and suddenly encounter a lot packed with cars, investigate! The locals are probably onto something you’d have had a hard time finding out about as a drive-through tourist: say a pancake breakfast, outdoor concert, firemen’s carnival, or wildlife spotting. Wendy’s clan saw a packed rest stop on California’s Highway 1, and when they got out to see what all the hoopla was, they found a herd of elephant seals playing on the beach.

Small-town picnic spots

Not only is it an adventure to browse unfamiliar supermarkets for regional foods and brands, but a grocery-store stop is also a smart way to save money on lunch. Pick up food for a picnic, then look for a town square, park, or scenic spot where you can refuel while you people-watch or meet other local families. Wendy always packs a soccer ball so her boys can run off energy or start pick-up games with other kids they meet. See the rest of her road trip packing essentials here.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Watch: How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus and Mosquito Bites

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Recently, health officials confirmed that the Zika virus is being actively transmitted by mosquitoes in Miami Beach, Florida. That’s the latest destination in a list of popular U.S. vacation spots—greater South Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands—that have recently reported transmissions of the virus.

Experts are learning new information about the Zika virus every day, and the CDC is sharing that information online at cdc.gov/zika. There you can find up-to-date details on transmission, risk factors, mosquito control, as well as geographic listings and a map of where cases have been reported.

As we’ve stated here before at WendyPerrin.com, travelers who are thinking about pregnancy (along with those who are already pregnant) should not visit destinations where the virus is spreading. The illness has been reported in both men and women, and is known to be transmitted by mosquito bites, sex, blood transfusions, and from a pregnant woman to her fetus.

But as I’ve also stated, the rest of us should not let panic determine our travel decisions. The truth is that mosquitoes have been carrying nasty diseases for centuries: dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever. And nearly every country has mosquitoes. If we were to stop traveling to places with disease-carrying mosquitoes, we’d have to stop seeing most of the world and build a bubble around our own backyards. What’s more, as I explained to journalist Scott Mayerowitz in his recent article for AP News, “the rest of us should be careful not to focus so much on avoiding Zika that we choose a destination that puts our health at greater risk, whether from mosquitoes carrying other diseases or from another cause such as tainted water.”

It’s always important—not just in Zika-affected countries, but everywhere there are mosquitoes—to protect yourself. Here’s how my family and I did it in the rainforest along the Panama Canal. (While Panama is a Zika-affected country, we did not see or feel any mosquitoes during our time there.)

Wendy and her family, in mosquito-resistant clothing, in the rainforest of Panama last month.

Wendy and her family, in mosquito-resistant clothing, in the rainforest of Panama in April 2016.

Transparency disclosure: Our sponsor, MedjetAssist, provided the financial support that made it possible to bring you these travel tips.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Family Getaway Tips for Labor Day Weekend

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I can’t believe it’s nearly Labor Day Weekend. My kids go back to school soon, as do most kids in the Northeast—though in other places around the country, school has already started. Either way, we all have one last gasp of summer left. Wherever you might be headed with your family this Labor Day weekend to savor it—even if it’s just a day trip to an award-winning aquarium—I’ve got hard-earned advice to save you money and headaches. Over at TripAdvisor, I’ve often shared such family trip tips, and I’ve gathered some for you in the links below. Happy Labor Day weekend!

Charlie and Doug at the Georgia Aquarium Photograph by Timothy Baker

Tips for Trips to Zoos and Aquariums

If a stellar zoo or aquarium is within your reach this weekend, this advice will help you make the most of your visit, including turning it into a scavenger hunt….

Tips for Trips to Amusement Parks

The cost of spending a day (or two) at these places adds up very quickly: admission, parking, food, souvenirs. Here are ways to keep costs under control, including checking the right social-media feeds for deals and making your child C.F.O. of the family trip.

Jelly Belly jellybean flavors of toothpaste rotten egg and skunk spray

Jelly Belly flavors of toothpaste, rotten egg, and skunk spray. Photograph: Timothy Baker

Tips for Family Road Trips

If you’re hitting the road this weekend, avoid traffic jams by taking America’s backroads. Here’s advice for finding quirky roadside attractions, embracing the kitsch, and keeping the kids content without having to stop at any wacky food factories.

What tips and tricks do you use on your own family vacations?

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

What You Need to Know About Visiting Mongolia: All Your Questions Answered

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The allure of Mongolia is evident as soon as you start looking at pictures of it: snow-capped mountains, wide-open plains, wild horses, fairytale reindeer, modern nomads. But it also has a certain mystery to it. What do you need to know about planning a trip of a lifetime to this sprawling but sparsely populated country? We talked to Jalsa Urubshurow, Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for Mongolia, to answer your FAQs. Jalsa—who splits his time between Mongolia and the U.S.—has been a recognized champion of sustainable, eco-friendly travel in a country fast becoming a tourist hot spot and has served as an advisor to all seven of Mongolia’s prime ministers and two of its presidents.

For more on him and his unique approach to Mongolian travel, check out his Insider’s Guide to Mongolia or contact him through our site to be marked as a WendyPerrin.com VIP.

When to go?

I like spring, fall and middle of summer,” says Jalsa, a Mongolian-American who was among the first to offer highly customized trips here. “It’s not oppressively hot. You’ll get into the high 80s or maybe 90 in the Gobi desert.” Jalsa also recommends visiting during the Naadam, a festival of horseracing, archery, and wrestling held early every summer (noted by UNESCO as a tradition of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity), and the Golden Eagle Festival in October, when the Kazakhs, Mongolia’s largest ethnic minority, show off their centuries-old tradition of hunting with trained eagles.

Camels in Mongolia. Photo: R. Stavers.

Who can go?

Anyone. Jalsa can tailor trips to all levels of activity. Altitude isn’t an issue either.

How long do I need for a trip?

If you’ve got 11 to 12 days, you can see three ecosystems.

Three Camel Lodge. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

What to pack?

Layers. Even though summers are mild, temperatures can drop below freezing at night in some areas, so bring a warm coat and several layers you can put on and peel off as necessary.

Trekking shoes. The terrain varies greatly, but no matter where you are, comfortable shoes are a must. If you’re horse trekking, long boots will protect your legs from chafing.

Flip-flops or shower shoes. You’ll need them at most ger camps.

For more packing tips, see Jalsa’s list.

Horse riders in Mongolia. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

What will I do and see?

Mongolia offers a wide range of landscapes, activities, and cultural experiences (see “Why Is Everyone Talking About Mongolia and What Do You Do There?”). You can hike in the Altai Mountains; horse trek through the northern region’s forests and meadows; visit a paleontology lab to learn more about Mongolia’s famous dinosaur finds; receive a private blessing from a lama at Ulaanbaatar’s Gandan Monastery; taste huushuur, traditional fried dumplings usually filled with meat, at dinner with a Mongolian family; and much more. Read Jalsa’s Insider’s Guide to Mongolia or our “Why Is Everyone Talking About Mongolia and What Do You Do There?” for more ideas.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Road Trip Hacks: 5 Things That Will Come in Surprisingly Handy

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We all know the no-brainers to pack for a road trip: Snacks, maps, phone chargers…. But there are other items you’d never think to bring along that will save you a lot of hassle. Here are a few of Wendy’s problem-solving road-trip essentials. Don’t miss her full list of 15 ingenious road-trip hacks over on TripAdvisor:

What would you add to Wendy’s list of surprising road-trip must-haves?

Small overnight bag

Pack it only with what you’ll need for one night: toiletries, pajamas, and the next day’s clothes. By keeping those essentials separate from the rest of your luggage, you won’t have to unpack the entire trunk every time you stop for the night.

Cheap beach towels

If you’re flying to your road trip, don’t take up precious space in your luggage with a towel. Buy one when you get to your destination; you can usually find them for five bucks or less. They’ll serve as picnic blankets, a cover for your valuables when you leave the car, seat protectors for messy activities or on-the-go eating, makeshift pillows and, of course, as towels if you make a pit stop at a lake or a pool.

Permanent marker

No matter how organized you start out, the car is going to get messy, and everyone’s stuff is going to get mixed up. Bring a marker to label things, especially if they look alike (say, when four passengers with iPhones have brought identical white power cords and charging blocks).

A roll of quarters

Even in this age of credit cards and pre-purchased toll passes, you still need an old-fashioned handful of change on a road trip. Throw a roll of quarters in your glove compartment for parking meters, vending machines, and laundromats.

Garbage bags

They have endless uses in addition to the usual one: storing wet bathing suits, serving as emergency rain gear, protecting cameras in the rain. You can even twist one into a rope and use it to tie things together.

For more road trip intel, see Wendy’s series at TripAdvisor: Packing List: Essential Gear for a Road Trip, How to Make Family Road Trips Fun and Stress-Free, How to Plan the Ultimate Road Trip Itinerary, and 15 Simple Hacks to Make Any Road Trip Better.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Family Road Trips: How to Eliminate Stress and Bickering

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Mom, he’s on my side! She won’t stop touching my stuff! I have to go to the bathroom! I’m hungry! Are we there yet? If you think family road trips are all sing-alongs and car games, you’ve never been on a road trip. Maybe it’s the cramped car, the sitting still for hours on end, the long stretches between meal stops. Whatever the reason, road trips seem like the vacation most likely to inspire bickering and stress—but all those other moments in between are golden. Luckily, it’s easy to ensure more of those memorable family bonding times with a few simple strategies. Based on her own family’s experiences, Wendy has put together a surefire list of methods for making a road trip stress-free. Here’s a preview, but don’t miss the full list over at TripAdvisor.

And, for more road trip intel, click to Wendy’s essential packing list, and her Keys to Planning the Perfect Road Trip.

Let each kid play navigator.

Let each kid pick an attraction or two during your trip. Wendy’s son chose La Jolla Cove as a pit stop, to see the seals.

Give your kids a map of your route before you leave and let each one pick a stop or an activity each day. You’ll give them a sense of ownership over that day’s events that will keep them energized and interested all day.

Make the trip a treasure hunt.

Create a fun trip challenge or goal to make stops more interesting. Wendy’s kids collect Do Not Disturb signs.

On Wendy’s trips, the family picks something to search for at each stop, creating an easy scavenger hunt: maps, magnets, Do Not Disturb signs from hotels…. Or try giving the kids a camera (nothing fancy needed) and turn the game into a photo-taking mission.

Give each kid his/her own space.

If you are able to set up each kid in a separate row of the vehicle, great. If not, try crafting a divider between them (even if it’s just out of colorful tape).

Agree on how long you’ll drive between stops.

To prevent kids (and adults) from going stir crazy, put a time limit on how long you’ll drive between rest stops.

It’s nearly impossible to make sure everyone is on the same schedule during a road trip. Someone is going to get tired before everyone else; someone else will get hungry; someone else will get restless. And if the driver is feeling good, he or she may want to push through…stretching everyone else’s patience. To avoid arguments and meltdowns from stir-crazy kids, set a limit for how long each leg can be.

Whenever there’s a world’s biggest, longest, or quirkiest something on your route, stop and check it out.

Nighttime minigolf at Chuckster's, home of the world's longest mini-golf hole. Vestal, NY

Wendy’s family seeks out quirky roadside attractions, like Chuckster’s in Vestal, NY, home of the world’s longest mini-golf hole.

Rest stops are more than just a chance to stretch legs and burn off energy. They can be the source of fun memories and even funnier pictures.

Wendy’s family seeks out quirky roadside attractions, like the world’s biggest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas, or the world’s biggest yo-yo, in Chico, California—or the world’s biggest anything, really. School playgrounds and children’s museums not far from the Interstate are other kid-friendly pit stops. That said, even “boring” rest stops can be amped up: bring a tennis ball, inflatable beach ball, or a Frisbee for games. Keep a few picnic basics in the car too so that you can make a rest stop double as a food stop. (For more info on what picnic essentials to stow, see Wendy’s road trip packing list.)

Prioritize pools.

When choosing where to bed down each night, Wendy recommends finding motels with pools. The end-of-day swim will help kids work out any pent-up energy and can even serve as a reward after a long day of driving. A reinvigorating dip can be just as rewarding for tired parents.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Why Is Everyone Talking About Mongolia and What Do You Do There?

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One of the most sparsely populated countries in Asia, Mongolia has an exotic, wild mystery to it. There are more horses than people, wide-open landscapes, desert, mountains, crystal clear skies, nomadic tribes, and even a modern sprawling city.

In the few short years since it was named the fastest growing economy in the world in 2013, Mongolia has attracted more and more attention, popping up on travel websites and blogs with stunning photos of reindeer, colorfully garbed tribesmen, and rustic yurts. In 2016, the National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year won that prestigious contest with an image of one of Mongolia’s horsemen galloping through the snow.

It’s a country of dichotomies, says Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for Mongolia, Jalsa Urubshurow, a Mongolian-American who was among the first to offer highly customized trips there and who also created one of the country’s original guide-training programs. “There’s a modern city, and then an hour outside of the capital, you see the nomadic lifestyle, where people are still living this pastoral existence,” he says.

As the country is attracting more and more sophisticated travelers—and the infrastructure to cater to them, with Shangri-La recently opening Ulaanbaatar’s first five-star luxury hotel—we asked Jalsa to explain what travelers can expect from a well-planned trip.

Discover one of the world’s oldest cultures.

Mongolia nomads. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

“Mongolia is home to the last horse-based nomadic culture—30 percent of the population. It’s a trip back in time,” Jalsa says. By visiting them in their gers (traditional yurts or tents), you can immerse yourself in the culture of one of history’s largest empires. “People are still living and utilizing the same tools they did during Genghis Khan’s time.”

Dig up paleontological treasures.

Travelers can go back even farther in time on a paleontology dig. Mongolia has seen some of the most famous dinosaur fossil finds. In the late 1970s, the “Fighting Dinosaurs” fossil was discovered in Tugrugiin Shiree, and the first dinosaur eggs were unearthed at the Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi Desert.

See unspoiled nature.

Mongolia’s landscape with a rainbow. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

At about 1,500 miles long (half the length of the U.S.), with only 3 million people, Mongolia is largely untouched. “I think Mongolia offers what people are seeking today: a true chance to get away from things and unplug,” says Jalsa. “It’s a place that inspires unavoidable reflection and a meditative, transformative experience for people.”

To facilitate that inspiration, Jalsa works with organizations like the World Wildlife Fund to create unique experiences that enable visitors to see Mongolia’s natural beauty at its best. For instance, the second-largest concentration of rare snow leopards in the world lives in the Gobi Desert (about 26 to 32 adults), and on Jalsa’s Snow Leopard Quest tour, travelers get to trek with WWF biologists to set up cameras and help conduct other research in the Altai Mountains. Even cooler: Jalsa’s company donates 100 percent of the proceeds from the trip back into snow leopard research.

He also has an astrophysicist on staff at his remote luxury inn, the Three Camel Lodge, to lead a 3-D presentation on the creation of the solar system. “Then you go outside with her and her telescope,” he says. “I call it our five-billion-star hotel.”

Bactrian camels in Mongolia. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

Explore a new city balancing ancient culture with modern growth.

“When Mongolia became a democracy in 1990,” Jalsa explains, “Ulaanbaatar went from 600,000 to 1.5 million with no urban planning.” So when you visit, you’ll see the old and the new juxtaposed: an ancient Buddhist monastery from the 1700s next to a modern 26-story skyscraper, gers all around, lots of cars, and now the city’s first five-star hotel, the Shangri-La.

Ulaanbaatar is also vibrant with culture that draws from new and old: There are museums showcasing ancient tribal costumes, next to galleries featuring young Mongolian artists; you can see modern performing arts, or attend morning services with monks at the oldest monastery in the country. (One of Jalsa’s special experiences is to arrange a private dinner and performance in the Fine Arts G. Zanabazar Museum, amid the institution’s beautiful Buddhist sculptures.)

All that and stellar shopping too: Ulaanbaatar is known for its exceptional cashmere, along with traditional felt slippers and fur hats.

Participate in unique traditions.

Horse riders in Mongolia. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

Jalsa’s travelers get to experience some of Mongolia’s most fascinating traditions and events. One of them is a festival Jalsa created himself, October’s Golden Eagle Festival, which his guests can attend. “In 1998 I rode with the golden eagle riders,” he says of the Kazakhs, Mongolia’s largest ethnic minority, who live along the western border and practice a centuries-old tradition of hunting with trained birds. “There were only 40 of them left in the world.” Jalsa explains that the riders’ activities were suppressed by Stalin during the country’s time as a Soviet satellite, but after the launch of the festival in 1999, there are now 400 families that have eagles. The festival celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2019.

Sleep under the stars without giving up creature comforts.

The inside of a luxury ger, Mongolia. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

Mongolia’s remote nature and rugged landscapes don’t mean that travelers have to rough it to get the most out of the experience. Jalsa’s team has you covered. In an effort to introduce visitors to the beauty of the Gobi Desert and its nomadic culture, he opened the luxurious Three Camel Lodge in 2002. Since then, the solar-powered eco-lodge has won various awards. While staying there, you can explore the desert, watch the stars with an astronomer (Jalsa once counted 43 shooting stars in one night), meet nomadic families and local herders who share the property’s wells, enjoy a performance by local school kids, or head to the Flaming Cliffs for a sunset dinner.

Even if you’re not staying at the lodge, Jalsa’s team can set up mobile accommodations all over the country, and get you to them by small aircraft or helicopter. “From the high Altai Mountains to the Mongolia tiga, we can set up in the most remote places a sumptuous experience—with luxury gers, portable toilets and showers, field chefs and kitchens, and even a butler if you need it.”

For more on Jalsa and his unique approach to Mongolian travel, check out his Insider’s Guide to Mongolia or contact him through our site to be marked as a WendyPerrin.com VIP.

Children in Mongolia. Photo: M. Dunlap

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Tag Archives: travel tips

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These Are the Most Interesting Cruises Planned for 2017

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What You Need to Know About Visiting Mongolia: All Your Questions Answered

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Why Is Everyone Talking About Mongolia and What Do You Do There?

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