Travel Tips

I felt like I was a winner in a card game. On our recent trip to the middle part of the country we did the entire trip without renting a car or eating at a national chain restaurant. Our destinations and the hotels that were selected, lent themselves to not needing a car. With the help of the front desk at the hotels, we were able to get around the three towns with the use of public transportation in just about all cases. The only exception was the use of hotel shuttles for one errand and to reach our transportation center. Here are just a few random hints about how to get around most towns without needing a car. It also eliminates the need to find a place to park, when you visit local tourist destinations.

01. You need good sources of information about the places that you will visit. You can find most of the information on the internet by checking web pages for the local transit agencies and local chamber of commerce.

02. It seems that with the modern transit systems, the use of prepaid cards has increased and you can purchase a card that will allow use of many buses and light rail lines for a period of time or several rides all with one card. Cards may be available for one day, three days, a week or a month to meet your varied needs. It is not just the savings in cost but the simplicity of use that makes it great.

03. Ask questions at the front desk of the hotel. We asked about where the closest self-service laundry was at a hotel and not only did we get suggestions but the hotel shuttle took us to the best choice and then came back to pick us up when we were finished with the laundry. It is not an original thought. We asked a clerk in a store about a product and not only did she suggest the store that had that product but she reminded us that the hotel would probably drive us to that location.

04. Be prepared for any type of weather that you think may occur during your trip. The advance forecasts may not be 100% accurate but will give you a good indication of what you will encounter before you leave home. Many sources on the web will give you advance forecasts including hotels and pages from the city you will be visiting.

05. Take an umbrella, it folds down nicely and many places do actually have rain all year round. I also used it as part of my exercise routine and it was easier to take through airport security then the three foot PVC pipe that I use at home.

06. Ask locals for good places to visit or good restaurants. At one of our stops we meet friends for dinner and they suggested a place to eat. We ended up having breakfast at that place twice during our stay. We did find one pizza place by accident so don’t worry about trying new local places. You may want to see what local specialties you might what to check. I found that Portland, OR is very proud of locally produced beer. I did not try Chicago pizza nor have a Chicago style hot dog, but that was because we ran out of time.

07. Note if you will be traveling on a holiday and think about how that will affect your trip. We found that many businesses in downtown Chicago were closed for the Memorial Day holiday, which made our dining and shopping choices limited. The year before, we were in Washington D.C. in time for the Memorial Day Concert on the National Mall.

08. Listen to all advice and then decide on your own. I was told that the Mall of America was not worth visiting, I found that it might just be a big mall with all the same stores as most malls BUT it did have some places of interest. In addition, it started raining just before we arrived and we enjoyed wandering around, without getting soaked. It is also a great transportation center with busses and light rail converging in an area of the indoor parking structure. As I said after our visit, any place with a Peep’s store can’t be all bad.

These are just a few thoughts I have had since I returned from our recent trip and I do hope that some of the ideas will be of help to other people. I will write more about some specific areas of the trip separately.