Welcome to my Travel Tips!

I'm not a seasoned pro, admittedly, like a Rick Steves or many of the other experts you would find on a Google search for European travel tips. But I am a real traveler, and I've done a fair bit of traveling.  Enough traveling that I've followed advice from others and I've come to my own conclusions on how to travel best -- these pages are a compilation of what I have found to work for me.

A little about my background, so you can judge if my travel advice might jibe with your viewpoint:  I was born and raised in New England. I'm a male, in my (very) early 40s. I make a decent living, so I don't feel the need explore extreme-budget travel, but I don't make so much money that I pursue luxury travel, either. Middle-of-the-road, reasonably priced off-label hotels are my usual choice, especially abroad. No hostels for me, though I don't have anything against them.

I have typically traveled solo, and most of my trips have been to Western Europe during the Spring or Fall. I’ve spent time in Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Brussels, Bruges, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Liege, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Galway, Kinsale, Shannon, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt-on-Main, Munich, Salzburg, Prague and Vienna among other destinations.

I blogged about my three most recent trips – http://www.vacaken.blogspot.com

This site is under construction. I intend to add my advice about finding flights and hotels, packing tips, how to behave when abroad, and how to make the most of your spending money.

Sections:

• Researching your Trip – Where – When – Budgeting
• Finding Cheap Airfare
• Hotels – Location, then Price
• European Train Travel – Spoke-and-Wheel vs. Point-to-Point
• Packing– clothing – Theory and Reality
• Packing– electronics – Theory and Reality
• Packing– accessories – Theory and Reality
• Packing– A Men’s Packing List for Europe
• Trip Preparation Timeline
• Staying Connected While Abroad – Blogging – Facebook – Twitter – Phone
• Travel Websites and Apps