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Trip Ideas

Travel Tip: Connect Your International Flight With a Train

We recently had a wonderful experience in France with their TGV (Très Grande Vitesse or Very High Speed) trains. We were planning a road trip from Paris encompassing Lyon, Avignon, and Carcassonne. It would be a 5-hour drive between Paris and Lyon, and almost 3 hours from Lyon to Avignon. Rental cars were also expensive, […]

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Trip Ideas

Visiting France’s Provence and Occitanie Regions Using Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We have done a number of trips to France such as Normandy and the Loire Valley, and we already suspect that we will be back again to see more of this beautiful country. There is much to see and it’s nice to be able to speak French too, even if they smile at our accent. […]

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Booking Separate Internal Flights

Have you ever checked a round trip airfare to a small remote destination on one of the major airlines? We’ve often seen the price of a flight double by simply adding a small hop which could easily be done with a local flight for a great price with lots of availability.

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Get the Visitor Pass

Visitor passes usually bundle the cost of multiple attractions into one. In the end it’s more economical and convenient to skip the long line to buy tickets. You simply show the pass and walk in.

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip: New Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) Required for the United Kingdom

If you are planning on visiting the United Kingdom, you may need an electronic travel authorization (ETA) or a visa. As of January 8, 2025, citizens of Canada and the United States need an ETA to enter the UK for up to 6 months for tourism, visiting family, business trips, or short-term study. This also […]

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Status Match and Partner Status Offers

Nowadays we are not as loyal to the various affinity programs from airlines and hotels as we once were because these have gotten less valuable and the recognition is not what it used to be. That’s a whole other story but, if you are like us, you may find yourself traveling with an airline you […]

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Download the Local Parking App for Your Next Road Trip

More and more, parking is becoming an automated thing around the word. The days of depositing coins into parking meters is long gone, and nowadays you pay via a machine with a credit card or download an app and pay on your phone. If you are planning to rent a car in your next international […]

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Bring Some Small Bills in Local Currency

Another tip is to bring some small bills in local currency with you as you may not find change or foreign exchange as easily as you’d expect. We recently returned from Italy, and had gone with just a handful of euros and some US cash thinking we could easily find a foreign exchange place there. […]

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Layovers | Stopovers

Istanbul Layover: Touristanbul Half Day Free City Tour

We had previously taken advantage of Turkish Airlines stopover program where you get a free hotel room simply for adding a day or two to your itinerary to spend in Istanbul. For shorter stops, Turkish Airways also offers their Touristanbul program with a variety of tours at different times of the day and different venues […]

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Travel Tips

Travel Tip:  Pleasant Surprise on Rebooking Policy and Trip Credit Expiry

We tend to book our trips well in advance and love travel planning. At any given time, we may have the next 2 or 3 (or even 5) trips in various stages of planning. In fact, we often do our planning around finding a great price on airfare. If something pops up that looks good, […]