Backpackers On Wheels: Practical Travel

By Andrew Dunn and Deborah Matheson

Backpackers on Wheels is a manual for travel
organizing, essentially a “how-to” guide. It is directed at
first-time travellers and experienced travellers alike.
First-time travellers will benefit from this book by
avoiding potholes in organizing their travel.
Experienced travellers will benefit from this book by
streamlining their travel arrangements and perhaps
widening their travel horizons.
This book is a practical guide to contemporary travel in
a technically connected world.
Backpackers on Wheels is peppered with travel
anecdotes from the authors who provide practical
examples from their travel experience.
Organized in a time-line of preparing for travel, there is
no requirement to read the book in order. Travellers
who want specific advice about a particular topic can
simply go directly to that chapter of the book.
Backpackers on Wheels is perfectly readable as a
hardcopy or in an eBook format.
It is neither an onerous read nor a technical manual.
Backpackers on Wheels is easy to read with great and
useable advice and guidance.
Travellers of all ages, experience, and locale will benefit
from the advice proffered in Backpackers on Wheels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9780994523204

Book preview

Andrew is a retired police officer and union official who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He has travelled internationally since he was 20 years old when he went to the UK to meet his relatives. For many years, Andrew was a solo traveller—and was quite surprised when some years later he found he didn’t mind travelling with a companion!

Andrew Dunn currently sits as an independent non-executive board member and volunteers as an Adelaide Greeter. He is still working on getting a downsized home for retirement—he’s on number four.

He has always said that when he is too old to fly around the world on jet planes he’ll see Australia in a Winnebago.

Andrew has lived in Australia and Hong Kong.

Reach Andrew at [e-mail]

Deborah was a registered nurse before she qualified as and became a solicitor (attorney). She now works as a political electorate officer. She too has travelled since she was 18 years old. When in her early 20s, Deborah moved to the UK where she worked for some years.

Deborah says that she will stay at work to avoid having to spend too long every day with her now retired husband.

She has lived in Australia and the UK.

Reach Deborah at [e-mail]

Andrew and Deborah went to school together in country South Australia, and they were married in a drive through chapel in Las Vegas. They weren’t together for all the years in between!

About the Authors

Disclaimer and product placement

Caution

Welcome

Why – where – when – how

Part 1: Planning to be there . . .

Trip notebook

Security

Guidebooks

Information sources

Deciding on your destination – exchange rates

Planning

Planning your time – don’t try to do too much

Over (and under) planning

Itineraries

Part 2: Preparing to get there . . .

Bookings: Agent vs DIY

Visas

Insurance

DFAT registration

Cash or cards

Loyalty programs

Point-hacking

Part 3: Packing to be there . . .

Clothing selection – the travelling wardrobe

Health – glasses

Health – medications

Health – first aid and preventative

Luggage

Packing

Electrical power needs

Wallet/purse

Notebook

Camera

Provisioning for the trip

Packing – toiletries

Devices to carry

Batteries

Just in case

Part 4: Getting there . . .

Planning and routes – to stopover or not to stopover

Travel days

Gentlemen’s and lady’s hours

Which airline

Airfares

Emergency rows and other premium cattle class seats

When to buy fares

Add-on fares

Airline lounge membership

Health – on board long haul flights

How long before flying do I need to be at the airport?

Transferring from international to domestic flights

Airport transfers

Duty free shopping

Part 5: Being there . . .

Days off or administration days

Accommodation

Accommodation – booking on the run

Where do we stay?

Choosing a hotel

Hotels – resort fee

Hotel vs apartment

Local (public) transport

Orientation

Touring – do-it-yourself

Finding your way around

Rental (hire) cars

Train travel

Tourist tickets

Show bookings

Collecting mementos – and sending them home!

Communications

Communicating with home

Information storage and email access

Food on the run

Part 6: Meanwhile at home . . .

Security at home

Money savers at home

Suspension of domestic health insurance policy

Finale

Appendix 1: Websites

Appendix 2: Deborah’s Las Vegas Shopping Guide

Further Reading

No fees or other considerations have been received for mention or listing of any product or website in this book. In fact, the owners or operators of any website or business mentioned herein were unaware of their inclusion at the time of publication.

Mention of any product or website is for illustrative purposes only.

Despite the fact that all of the businesses or websites mentioned herein have been used by or have been useful to us in making our own travel arrangements, their inclusion should not be considered a personal endorsement of these products or websites. For every website mentioned herein, there are dozens that cover similar information. You will have or find your own favourites as you go.

As will be mentioned throughout this volume, make your own enquiries and form your opinions as a result of those enquiries.

If any of the products or websites that we mention are of use to you then great; if not, you are sure to find some that do work for you. There is so much out there.

No animals were harmed in the writing of this book.

As you plough through this book of advice, keep this overarching advice to the forefront of your mind:

Don’t believe it just because it’s on the Internet; and

If it looks too good to be true – then it is too good to be true!

We love to travel and we think that many millions of others do too. The size of the formal travel industry (let alone the informal or do-it-yourself sector) supports that position. However, just because we love to travel doesn’t mean we know how to travel. Not well at least. While we are not perfect travellers, we want to share some of what we’ve learnt over the years about travel.

Our desire to share probably goes back many years to when we went overseas for the first time. We were no doubt very naïve travellers ourselves; but we noticed that it was obvious, others were even more naïve than us. The luggage they carried, the clothes they wore all pointed to very inexperienced travellers. And their inexperience troubled me. It seemed that so many of the people I saw were on their first much-saved-for and long-awaited overseas extravaganza. They just lacked travel experience.

Now, many years later, we still see these inexperienced travellers in every airport we visit.

So, we decided we would do something about it by offering some basic travel advice. Just enough advice to get somebody going on his or her travel adventures or to give potential travellers the confidence to become travellers. Just enough advice for travellers to be able to investigate travel themselves by some very simple means and without it being expensive and for average travellers to become better travellers.

We don’t mean to sound patronizing about inexperience—we’re not—we just raise this by way of explanation for what we are doing. People starting on a pre or post-college year of travel will benefit from what we have to say as well.

We think that reasonably experienced travellers will be able to get some benefit from our advice too. All of us benefit, if we learn something we didn’t know before.

So this handy little tome came into being.

Our aim is not to be definitive about what we say and have you slavishly follow our advice, but to give you the impetus to research the travel issues that interest you.

Likewise, we don’t expect to start any debates with the few travel anecdotes within. If you disagree with our assessment of public transport in Los Angeles, that’s okay. You can let us know. Our contact details are on the author page. However, we didn’t mention Los Angeles to start a row; it’s just an example.

We’re trying to help; but if you think that we have it wrong, then tell us.

This is not a standalone book. We expect you to use it in conjunction with other travel advice.

Happy travels. We hope that this will help.

And just in case you were wondering why we have an appendix about shopping in Las Vegas, it’s simply because we can! We are asked for this information so often that we just decided to include it. There is no real nexus between the book and the appendix.

There may be a reason to travel somewhere —business, meet or visit relatives, desire, recreation—or not.  Where to go is reasonably simple if there is a reason for going. And if there is a reason for going, travel arrangements most often come down to the convenience and cost of those arrangements.

Travel that is locked into a specific time and place because of a reason is certainly the easiest to plan.

Holiday travel is often decided by the allocation of holiday time. Sometimes, when you will travel is decided for you. It is still a stage of travel planning that makes the other stages a little simpler, because at the least, you know when you’re going.

Travel that is purely recreational is often the hardest to plan because from the outset nothing has been decided, sometimes not even where or when to go.

To state the obvious (and we may do that often) stay away from the airlines’ high season if possible. Ticket prices are at their very highest then, as are most other travel-associated costs.

Pricing seasons vary from locale to locale. A high season fare may get you somewhere, but then you may attract low season costs.

Airlines are not the only seasonal chargers. Hotels, rental cars, and most other tourist and travel service providers have seasonal rates.

Seasonal rates are not the only consideration when planning to travel. Availability plays an important part in rates charged, no matter what the season. Seasonal rates can be directly correlated to the weather