hello i just want to ask if i need a transit visa for a 3hr and 45 mns layover in JFK? i’m very confused right now. btw i’m travelling from toronto to philippines.

I am going to be studying abroad to Prague in a few weeks and my professor mentioned that he goes to his bank and orders 300 Czech crown before he leaves. I went to my bank and they said there would be a $30 fee. That sounds like a lot to me but I’ve never been abroad before. Is the $30 worth it? Or is it cheaper and not too much of a hassle to get it exchanged after arriving in Prague?

I’m gearing up for an 18-hour layover at Istanbul Airport and I’m itching to check out the city center. I’m curious about the luggage storage options at the airport. Does anyone know if there are services available to store my bags so I can roam freely? Also, I’m pondering whether I should exit the airport with my luggage for the city tour and then do the check-in process all over again for my connecting flight. Are there any alternatives that might be more convenient? Any insights on luggage storage facilities or layover logistics at Istanbul Airport( Havalimanı ) would be super helpful. I want to ensure a smooth experience and make the most of my time in this beautiful city. Thanks a ton!

I’m flying to Amsterdam on August 3 and wanted to visit Paris while I am not too far away. My problem is I wanted to avoid the olympics and I have family in Hamburg that I should see while Im near by.

I am planning on leaving Amsterdam on Aug 6 and heading towards Hamburg. I need somewhere else to go to kill some time before I go to Paris around Aug 12. I am thinking maybe Copenhagen, Cologne or maybe Luxembourg.

What do you guys think? I could also spend more time in Amsterdam if the 3 nights is not enough

I’ve purchased a flight from the US into Lisbon, Portugal for July 1, and a flight back to the US from Madrid on the 14th.

I don’t want to spend too much of the trip traveling.

I want to do about 3-4 days in Lisbon and then 3 days in Lagos.

I then want to do a city in Spain, and then Madrid.

I want to end the trip on the Madrid leg, but I am unsure what to do after Lagos. I’m not sure if my planning is logical even so advice is appreciated

I mainly want really good food, wine, beach, and lots of options to fill the day.

Beyond the itinerary, advice on transit between stops, things to ensure I do/eat would be appreciated.

Hi guys, this July my girlfriend and I will be visiting Colorado. We are going for the beautiful, hikes, the cities, a Rockies game, breweries, and everything else it has to offer.

We would be there for a week (Saturday morning to Sunday morning). We’re planning to stay/spend time in Denver the Friday/Saturday weekend where we leave because we’re planning to go to a Rockies game on either Friday or Saturday night and then the flight leaves Sunday so just makes the most sense to us.

The Saturday morning we get here, we were planning to rent a car for a majority of the trip and head to sand dunes, Florissant fossil beds, Colorado Springs, boulder, Estes park, and finally Denver.

Is this too much in a week? Is there better routes to do? What would you guys recommend other places like Aspen or Great Lake over these that I mentioned? Where would you guys head to if you only had a week in CO or what has your trip looked like when you’ve gone?

Thanks in advance for help!

my band and i are flying out to play at a show, and if any musicians who’ve had to travel by plane can give me tips on some steps i could take to help keep my instrument safe, it’d help a lot and i’d appreciate it more than i can put into words.

specifically, im playing bass. i’ve heard horror stories of instruments being treated like shit on planes, and i love my bass. so does anyone have any recommendations for a case that’d both protect my bass really well, as well as being convenient to carry? if i had to pick one (out of convenience or protection), protection is more important to me than convenience, i just meant convenience in the sense that i’d be happy if a protective case had wheels or something.

any help is appreciated, and thank you so much in advance if anybody takes the time out of their day to help me out.

Seems like most posts on here are folks traveling for pleasure. Wondering if anyone else has sought out jobs that involve travel. There's plenty out there for white and blue collar workers, to say nothing of the military (join the Navy, see the world).

I'd say about 80% of my airplane travel is for work. Obviously, you don't get to spend the whole time sightseeing, but I always make it a point to build in some time for cultural experiences and local meals. Admittedly, sometimes I have to fight colleagues who want to get Subway in Paris, and I don't win every one of those, but I'm fine to strike out on my own.

Work travel has taken me to places I'd have never paid out of pocket to see but either enjoyed or at least got a fun story out of (sometimes both, cough Dubai cough). Travel is expensive as hell, so I feel like if you can get paid to do it, that's a win-win.

My friend and I had planned to do the Camino de Santiago this summer, but due to some minor complications with his wife's pregnancy, we're bumping the trip to next year. So, I've got an open travel slot next month (the week of June 10th, with some flexibility), and a lack of a destination. Where should I go?

Dates: June 10th-16th ish, flexible +/- a few days either way.

Budget: $2000 total-ish?

From: SFO or other Bay Area airports

Who: Me (35M), maybe solo, maybe with a similar friend

Looking for:

• Relatively cheap
• Relaxed energy--I want to eat, drink, hike, and read books
• Good food
• Natural beauty--mountains, beaches, whatever's clever.

Not worried about:

• Any specific location--I've looked at Central America (Costa Rica, Belize) and Vietnam, but pretty open
• Partying. Don't need any crazy night life!
• Fancy hotels--pretty comfortable almost anywhere
• Humidity/heat--pretty comfortable in the sun, so not worried too much unless it's excessive.

In July, the wife and I will be arriving into ORD T5 at around 535p (hoping for tailwinds). Looking to make a southwest flight, also out of T5 which departs at 715p.

We have global entry and plan to bring carry ons. How are we looking? Never been through ORD before…

Hi guys, I booked tickets on CheapOair and I missed my flight due to bad weather. my airline informed me that they can give me a refund but I have to contact Cheapoair. So I did. and this is their reply:

Please be informed that, upon checking your reservation you have missed your flight due to which airline has considered you no-show.

We can try to submit refund request for CAD679.36 to the airlines. However, there will be a cancellation fee of CAD250.00 which will be a new charge on your card.

Upon airline's approval refund will be credited within 60-90 business days.

If you wish to proceed ,reply to us stating that "I agree to refund"

Since there is a cancellation fee and it takes months to get the refund. I doubt if I should proceed, I am afraid of losing this money with no refund. Does anyone have a similar experience?

Is it still available or does everyone need to go to the same line now? I have a flight coming in at 6:30pm tomorrow and connecting flight is 8:15PM. I forgot the short layover/customs. Currently the only choice I have is to change my seat so I am closer to the front of the plane. If not, change my flight to one that has 12 hour layover :(. Thoughts?

1. Non US citizen
2. Carry on bag
3. Fit enough I can run terminal to terminal without being winded
4. Nothing to claim

Just a rant - sorry. We booked a hotel for the total solar eclipse way ahead of time (December 17th). The hotel called me a month before the eclipse (outside of booking.com communication channels) and requested that I approve a date change (because they just realized they are overbooked). Obviously to a date outside the eclipse. I declined.
They send me an email through the booking.com system with a one-click "please confirm if you’d like to cancel this booking" link, followed immediately with a "YOUR ROOM RESERVATION HAS BEEN CANCELLED".

I called the hotel to complain and they told me to contact booking.com - the hotel claimed it's the mistake of booking.com because they advertised a wrong rate.

So I contacted booking.com - and I was not prepared for how terrible their customer support is.

It took me hours on the phone, multiple managers and superviors, emails and call backs to finally reach someone who was "allowed" to make a decision on the case. I was told on the phone that I can book a new hotel of the same class, and booking.com will refund the difference in price. Just a month out from the solar eclipse, any other hotel was obviously way more expensive now - over $300 more expensive to be exact. This was communicated to booking.com multiple times. And this was acknoledge by booking.com multiple times on the phone.

Because of the messy experience over the few days with their customer support, I requested the resolution in writing. I was told I will receive an email confirmation and we ended the call. Again, I was not prepared for how terrible their customer support is. The email I received stated:

!We are happy to see that your trip is back on track!  We can work on a refund for the price difference of your stay, up to a maximum of 25 EUR.!<

I called them again, for the 20th time (not exaggurating) - and I still feel bad for the poor representative that day. It ended up being a 3 hour call of "No call backs. No more bullshitting. Get whomever you need on the phone to sort this shit out now." ... which actually worked, which is the saddest part of the story. I don't want to be rough and rude to people to arrive at a resolution. The result was an email stating:

!We can work on a refund for the price difference of your stay, up to a maximum of 361.69 USD. All you need to do is send us the invoice for your alternative accommodation.!<

So I did. 4 weeks ago, just a week after the eclipse, I forwarded the $333.50 invoce via a response to the email I received from booking.com, which had a custom support sender address linked to my account, booking reference in the subject, everything. I gave them a May 1st due date to process the refund. And waited. To no avail. No response. No refund.

So I called them. And again I was unprepared for how shitty they are.

Call 1: They (pretended to?) be unable to hear me and hung up.

Call 2: Friendly, to the point, understood the issue, claimed they never received anything, gave me a new email address to send documents to. I did, they acknoledged that my email was received, I asked for a one-liner in response to confirm in writing that the email was received. "absolutely, give me just a minute" was followed by 30 minutes of silence and the call got disconnected. No email was received.

Call 3: They (pretended to?) be unable to understand what my issue was, claimed they have to get in contact with the refunds department, I was placed on hold music mid sentence, and the call was disconnected 20 minutes later.

Call 4: Friendly, request for a supervisor was declined because she wanted to try and help me first, took a bit more time to make them understand the issue, but in the end she said she will be able to send me an email confirmation and asked if she can put me on hold - I declined, because I was hung up on two times tonight while being on hold. So I listened to her typing for 20 minutes. She told me that she sent the email to me and wanted to disconnect the call. I asked her to wait on the line until I actually receive the email, and her immediate response was: >!oh, sorry, I sent it to the wrong email address, my mistake.!<

She corrected her mistake(?) and I received the email saying "We received your latest email regarding the documents for the refund."

...and how was your evening?

You only learn how good a company is if things go wrong. The way booking.com handled issues tells me that I will never book anything through them ever again. Be warned.

For context, my friend and I are the travellers, mid 20s dudes. We like exploring, but enjoy partying as well. We make enough to spend a decent amount.

Flying into Lisbon on a Saturday morning before heading to Barcelona on Thursday. In between, we have Monday-Wednesday where we would like to check out a city or two in Spain. Any recommendations?

Doesn’t have to be a partying city, somewhere nice to check out during the day and lively enjoy for young people at night? Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I recently flew out on Delta last week to Atlanta. I saw there was a delay and so I got asked to be booked on standby, as I had a hunch that it would be weather related. Turns out it was that and a broken light bulb. My original flight was diverted mid flight but the flight I got pushed onto standby for ended up being +3h late because of the rain.

I wasn't sure if this falls under a case with the new DOT rules that can qualify me for a refund, even though I paid for this trip in award miles. Thanks in advance!

Flight info:

9 May 2024

Delta Air Lines (DL) 1073

BWI (Baltimore) - ATL (Atlanta)

Day 1 : Land in Nice at noon, evening in Nice

Day 2 - Day 4 : Stay in Nice and do day trips to Monaco and Cannes

Day 5 : Fast 4.5 hr train to Lyon in morning. Spend rest of the day there

Day 6: Stay in Lyon

Day 7 : Morning 2 hr train to Geneva. Spend day there and stay overnight

Day 8 : Morning train to Paris 3 hrs. Spend day there

Day 9 - Day 11 : Stay in Paris

Day 12 : Fly back to USA

We have booked air tickets already but not the hotels. Going in September

Our background: 50+ year old couple

What we enjoy: Sightseeing, quaint villages, scenic picturesque places, strolling around in lively places in the evening, architecture

What we don’t enjoy : Museums, hiking, adventure sports, clubs

Questions:

1. Is it worth going to Geneva for a day or should we spend extra day in Lyon?

2. Is there any recommended day trip from Paris?

Thanks in advance

We often travel with the kids and a single room with 2 fulls or 2 queens seems ideal but while planning a long international trip I am having difficulty finding this arrangement. Most rooms sleep 3 with a sofa or rollaway, which can work but its just not ideal and a bit surprising.

• Zurich in Switzerland spent the night there arriving in the afternoon from Milan & then leaving for Munich just before lunch. Zurich was so beautify with the lake & alps in the distance. Did not get to visit much attractions as it was a Saturday
• Nice in France. Stayed overnight after arriving in the afternoon from Spain. Did a big walk around the town both along the coast & went up the mountain with the fountain. Very nice pretty city with a good style. Then left around noon to head to Monaco

We've purchased Eurail passes but I read somewhere that you still need to reserve in advance for high speed rail like AVE.
1, is that true, and if so 2: how far in advance? Like month+ out or is it something you can do a few days before? Thanks!

Stopping in the Finger Lakes this summer on our way back from Rochester. Looking for a nice hotel on the lake near breweries and wineries. Any recommendations?

As the title suggests I had applied for a Vietnam E visa through Atlys. My passport has a given name with no surname. I didn’t know this would be an issue for Vietnam visa. There was no contact from Atlys regarding this and I had to make them aware of this issue after requesting multiple callbacks. When I spoke with someone from their side, they said the forms are AI filled and that they don’t cross-check with the passports we provide. They’re now refusing a refund because I have given incorrect details and that they have already paid for the application. But they’re refusing to share with me the reference id or any emails from the embassy. I’m travelling on Friday and I really don’t know what to do. Please help.

Planning a family vacation to the Swiss Italian Canton / Ticino and neighboring Italy. We love nature and hiking and have been to Geneva, Bern and Zürich and enjoyed all. We are thinking of spending about 2 weeks. Also thinking of renting a car instead of riding trains like last time. Any recommendations for which towns to visit and the route/ airports to use? TIA.

Traveling to Spain in early November for the first time for 7 days. I’m torn between two itineraries.

1. Seville, Granada, Cordoba, and Madrid

Or 2) Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid

Would prefer to avoid renting a car but not opposed to it. Also wherever weather will be the best is also a factor. Any info on which is a better option would be great!

13 hour flight, trying to transit through LA to fly to a different country. Probably 1500 people in front of me in the lineup, walk maybe a km by the time I get my passport checked, takes over an hour. Go to get my bag from the carousel which has been mishandled and has slight damage on one side, check bag back in for transit flight. Walk another km or little less outside to find where the connecting desk is to get the next boarding pass printed, no signs that I can see anywhere, walk way past my airline. Try to get it printed from machine, doesn't work so need to see an agent. Takes about ten minutes, walk to the security, have to get the full scan to get back into the airport including taking shoes off. Then walk probably another 700 meters to get to my gate. Whole process takes two hours, for a fucking TRANSIT. Makes me just dislike the USA as I don't think any airport in another country would make you go through this level of bullshit.

I'm currently booking a trip to the Pacific Northwest from DC from mid-July through the end of July. Since it is so far off, I'd like to get travel insurance with the cancel for any reason option. The problem is that I'm slowly booking different portions of the trip, as I'm traveling around the state and staying in different locations. I booked my first hotel on May 2 and my next Airbnb yesterday. I still need to book lodging for the 3rd part of the trip, a rental car, and book my flight.

I know most insurance companies won't allow you to add CFAR after 14-21 days, so I need to add it within the next day or so. Am I able to continue booking portions of the trip and make changes as long as I get the initial insurance and CFAR purchased now? Also, my flight window is either July 10 or 11. Do they need the exact dates, or can that be adjusted as well?

Basically, if I have two lodgings booked, can I estimate the remaining cost of the trip and get travel insurance now? Or do I need everything booked before I get it?

As the title suggests I had applied for a Vietnam E visa through Atlys. My passport has a given name with no surname. I didn't know this would be an issue for Vietnam visa. There was no contact from Atlys regarding this and I had to make them aware of this issue after requesting multiple callbacks. When I spoke with someone from their side, they said the forms are Al filled and that they don't cross-check with the passports we provide. They're now refusing a refund because I have given incorrect details and that they have already paid for the application. But they're refusing to share with me the reference id or any emails from the embassy. I'm travelling on Friday and I really don't know what to do. Please help.

Hi there! Myself and my partner are planning a trip to France next summer. My partner is from France originally, near Argenteuil, so he is very familiar with Paris. Our plan is to spend time with his family for a week or so before heading to Biarritz for our anniversary. We are looking at accommodations in Biarritz, and were wondering if we should also consider a day trip to San Sebastián? We’ve heard only good things but were wondering about ease of travel / if crossing the border between France and Spain is an easy process. Would love to hear recommendations from anyone who has travelled there! :)

Has anyone here quit their work for a year to travel with the kids? How did it work out for you? Was it worth it or did you regret it?

We have a 3 kids under 5. We’re mainly interested in traveling around Europe. We have a fully paid house and have a passive income of 7,000 monthly. We’re planning of saving about 40k before leaving. Would that be enough? Should we aim for higher savings?

We’re also homeschoolers. Looking at doing world schooling and joining world school hubs later on.

After the recent solar storm do we reckon everyone’s going to flood to see the northern lights later this year?