Tag: mail

Lock up your Home and other Good Advice before Going on Holiday

Lock up your Home and other Good Advice before Going on Holiday

In all the preparations for your summer holiday don’t forget to take good care of one thing that isn’t going with you – your home! After enjoying a fabulous week or two away the very last thing you would want to return to is a burgled house.
If possible, leave your keys with a family member, friend or trusted neighbour and ask them to pick up any post to leave the doormat clear and therefore remove an obvious clue for would-be burglars to non-occupancy. Alternatively Royal Mail offers a service known as Keepsafe where your mail is held at the sorting office and not delivered between dates that you specify. For less than a tenner you can have the mail withheld for up to 17 days, but remember that you need to allow at least five days notice for the service to be set up.
If you still have milk delivered to your doorstep don’t forget to cancel it, and the same applies to any newspaper deliveries. There is no bigger clue to an empty house than an accumulation of full milk bottles outside the front door.
One of the most often made mistakes when leaving home for a holiday is to close the curtains. All this does is alert thieves to the fact that the house is empty. Leave your curtains open but do use automatic timers to turn lights on and off to give the impression of occupancy.
Home insurance policies cover non-occupancy of a property, but most for only a limited number of days, typically around 90. So, if you are leaving on an extended break ensure that your home will be covered by your policy.
Make it harder for any would-be burglars by ensuring that when you travel that you do not display your home address on any luggage labels. That is the equivalent of broadcasting to the world that you are leaving your home empty. Obviously, that doesn’t apply at the end of your holiday when you are checking in luggage for a flight home, but on outward travel only.
If the worst should happen don’t make it easy for burglars by leaving important documents, valuable items and credit cards that you may not be using within easy reach. Either hide them away, deposit safely off-site such as with your bank or with family members.
Lastly, before departing make sure the house is secured. As well as locking and bolting all the doors, make sure that if you have lockable windows that they too are locked and the keys hidden away. That particular piece of information is very important as if burglars do get access to your home leaving keys in the window locks will make it easier for them to exit the property.

Why it Pays to Take Care Abroad – Reducing the Risk to Yourselves

Why it Pays to Take Care Abroad – Reducing the Risk to Yourselves

Although the following tips, aimed primarily towards women travellers, should help to ensure a hassle free and safe trip abroad, many are just common sense suggestions that equally apply to male travellers and also for travelling in the UK.

When travelling around, the key is to act confidently. For women travellers, wearing dark glasses can boost confidence and think about how your clothing will fit in with local customs and attitudes. If travelling alone, you may attract unwelcome attention and you may receive unwanted propositions or remarks. It is best just to ignore them. Never accept car rides from strangers or hitchhike and if possible try and double up with someone you know when travelling by taxi. Always pack your own baggage and never leave it unattended. Never carry packages or anything else through customs for other people. In your accommodation abroad, never leave a key where someone can note your room number. Don’t leave your window open if your room is on the ground floor and use a door wedge on the inside of your hotel room door for extra security. Again women travellers need to take extra care when checking into hotels and hostels such as, don’t use a title such as Ms, Mrs or Miss, use only a first initial and be careful about opening your door to anyone – if in doubt check with reception.

Try and stay in touch. Keep your family and friends aware of your plans and leave a copy of your itinerary, passport, travel insurance documents and credit cards with someone at home. It is worthwhile taking a copy of these with you when travelling and keep separate from the originals. Once abroad, e-mail or telephone home regularly. Carry a list of British Consular offices in the countries you plan to visit.

Don’t forget to check out the latest travel advice from the FCO before you go and find out about the culture and customs of the countries you will be visiting. And why not take a look at the travel advice section on the Travel & Insure website which contains easy to read advice on the support you can expect from embassies and consulates worldwide should you get into difficulty.

Hotel And Holiday Booking: 6 Ways To Save Money On Your Travel

Hotel And Holiday Booking: 6 Ways To Save Money On Your Travel

Have you been planning a vacation or a quick getaway? If you are, it is obviously important that your holiday is perfect. For this, the right planning is the first step. If it’s a known destination, you could do with planning yourself. However, if it’s an unknown venture, you must take the help of a professional, who has the right resources and expertise to help you. Herein we provide some tips on how to plan the perfect getaway without paying enormous bills.
1. Hiring the services of an expert
As mentioned above, unless you’re an expert on the destination, it would be a great idea to hire the services of a travel agent or travel company. With the increase in the number of OTA’s, you would actually be spoilt for choice. With their domain knowledge and expertise you might actually be able to save some money. Sign up for their newsletters, mailers and travel alerts so you are the first one to know on any special offers that come up. A number of travel companies also provide special deals and discounts on using a certain credit card – so check out on those before you book.
2. Planning ahead
This one is kind of tricky. How early is enough? I’d say that you should start planning at least 2 months in advance. This is especially important if you are planning to travel in the peak season or your kid’s summer holidays. Start doing your research online and check out on rates available. The earlier you book, the better your chances of bagging a cheap deal!
3. Travelling during off-season
Unless imperative, skip the actual holiday season and travel when it is low. Alternately, travel to places that are not likely to be thronged with tourists during your holiday. The lower the season is, the higher your bargaining chances.
4. Selecting an all-inclusive tour package
Unless you are going camping and backpacking, get an all-inclusive tour for yourself. This has two advantages: if you book with all inclusions, you’re likely to get a cheaper deal, since separately, various elements like transfers and meals tend to cost more. Also, a pre-planned trip takes the load off your head when it comes to securing inclusions. I recommend packages that at least include transfers, some sightseeing and breakfast.

5. Save money on hotels
You don’t always have to stay at a five-star hotel – there are a huge number of 3 star hotels too that provide great service at really affordable prices. An alternate to this would be staying at a service apartment that comes with good rooms, a kitchenette and even the services of a butler.
6. Research online
This is best done by logging on to travel websites that often feature deals and discounts. If you’re booking a hotel, you could also research on the hotels own website – they often have lower deals than most OTA’s. Not just the price, I recommend checking up on the user ratings and reviews posted by actual customers as well as photos of hotels and rooms.
Budget travel must never be a horrid experience. When done through the right channels, they actually turn out to be really memorable experiences. With some simple tips and tricks, you can actually save enough to spend on really meaningful things – such as shopping or a nice meal for the two of you!

Hiking Trails: How You Can Choose the Best One

Hiking Trails: How You Can Choose the Best One

Are you interested in going hiking ?  Whether you would like spend one day hiking or five days, you will need to find a hiking park to visit and a hiking trial to hike.  Although you can choose to go on any hiking trial that you want, you may want to take the time to find the best one. Those who take the time to examine a number of different trials, and handpick their favorite ones, are more likely to have an enjoyable time. 

Although it is nice to hear that you should take the time to find the perfect hiking trail, you may be wondering exactly how you can go about doing so. In all honesty, there are an unlimited number of different ways that you can go about finding the “perfect,” hiking trail.  A few of the many approaches that you can take are outlined below.

One of the easiest ways that you can go about finding a great trail is by asking those that you know for recommendations.  Asking those that you know for recommendations is nice and easy, because it limits the amount of research that you have to do yourself.  If you know of anyone, like a friend, family member, neighbor, or coworker, who enjoys hiking, you may want to see if they can recommend any good hiking trails to you.  You will want to try and find hiking trails that are well maintained, cheap to hike, as well as safe.

Another way that you can go about finding a great hiking trail is by contacting any of your local hiking parks.  If you are looking to stay local, you should be able to find the contact informationby using your local phone book. By contacting some of your local parks, you may be able to get information on the trials in question.  In addition to getting information over the phone, you may also be able to request that you have a few brochures, like maps, mailed to your home.  If you live close enough to the hiking trail or park, you may want to think about stopping by to get the same information in person.

If you are interested in not hiking locally, but hiking a distance that is away from your home, you may be wondering how you can go about researching hiking trials or parks.  Of course, you can use the internet and other resources, but you may want to think about waiting until you get to your destination. As previously mentioned, asking those that you know for recommendations is a great way to find a good hiking trail.  When you arrive at your destination, you may want to think about asking some local residents for hiking trail recommendations. 

As previously stated, you can also use the internet to help you research local and non-local hiking trails, as well as hiking parks in general.  If you know where you would like to go hiking, like in what city or in what state, you may want to incorporate your destination into your search. This may help give you more tailored results.  Speaking of those results, you will likely be connected to websites that are referred to as hiking websites.  These websites often provide you with information on hiking, as well as information on popular hiking trails.

No matter where you find yourself hiking, doing a little research beforehand, goes a long way in making your trip and enjoyable one. Remember for all your travel needs visit us at myroadtotravel.com