Tag: whyyoumustbuytravelinsurance

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Do You Know How To Use Your Passport?

Read your US passport. Did you read it? Now, read through it again. This little booklet is full of a lot of information beyond serving as your ID when you travel outside of the US.
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First of all, it contains a page for your emergency contact information. Let’s say you and your spouse were both in a bus accident while on vacation and both left unconscious. Your passport would contain the contact information on who to contact–and hopefully you listed someone other than your spouse. It’s also a good idea to update your contact information in pencil so that you can easily update it when changes necessitate. You may also want to leave a few copies of your passport home with your emergency contact.

Your passport also contains information on where to find health and vaccination recommendations, healthcare coverage, and travel warnings.  Let’s say you are headed to Mexico for a 2 week stay. Do you know what vaccinations and medicines are recommended due to risk of diseases in that country? The CDC website or Travelers Info Line can help with that. (Which, by the way, the vaccines for Hepatitis A, and Typhoid are recommended for Mexico.)
Additionally, does your medical insurance cover you overseas? Most do not. See my previous post Why You MUST Buy Travel Insurance or consult http://travel.state.gov for more information on maintaining coverage while overseas that will actually provide you with coverage.

https://tlcpostcards.com/2017/07/20/why-you-must-buy-travel-insurance/
Why You MUST Buy Travel Insurance

Finally, do you know if the country you will be visiting is safe? You can check by accessing the US Consular Information Sheets, Travel Warnings and Public Announcements on the US Bureau of Counsular Affairs page before your trip and evaluate your decision to travel to that locale. You can even set alerts on their website so you know when their safety has changed.
Your passport also contains information on what to do in the event of a disaster or catastrophic event, how to register with the appropriate US Embassy for a prolonged stay, and offers advice on things I would consider pretty “common sense” such as safety, violating foreign laws, illegal drugs, etc.

It’s also a good idea to take a couple of spare photocopies of your passport along on your trip. Typically, when I travel out of the US, the first thing I do upon arrival is lock up my passport so it doesn’t get lost or stolen–I DO want to be able to go home at the end of my trip. However, since most countries do not observe my Missouri Driver’s License as a valid ID, I will carry a photocopy of my passport to identify myself.
Overall, your passport is MORE than a multi-page form of ID. It also contains valuable information for travelers traveling outside US borders and is an excellent place to keep your updated emergency contact information. You may have to read a few pages of it to locate the info you need, but isn’t a few minutes of your time worth it?

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Our Apple Vacation—Nuevo Vallarta

I’m on our flight home from Nuevo Vallarta and am reflecting on our trip through Apple Vacations. We stayed the previous week at Dreams Villamagna Nuevo Vallarta.

Here are what I consider to be the pros and cons of using Apple Vacations:
PROS

  • It’s relatively easy to put together your own trip on their website and prices are transparent. (You do have to pay for the entire trip to reserve.)

-check under flights to see when/if your airport has non-stop flights
-plug in the dates and location of where you want to go

  • Choose flight type and room upgrades.

-I only upgrade our room for special occasions or if they go on sale. For the amount of time we are in our room, a garden view is usually just fine

  • Add travel insurance if desired.

-I usually skip this as I get trip insurance elsewhere–see Why You MUST Buy Travel Insurance

  • You can add on desired excursions if you wish.

-I usually skip this as well, finding the prices on resort to be lower or negotiable

  • Apple always includes transportation in their packages.
  • I watch their sales and more often that not, they are priced better than the same trip on other travel sites.

CONS

  • While Apple does not have a loyalty program, they also own Amstar or AMResorts which offers a loyalty program for a certain group of resorts.

-the loyalty program gets presented as a way to get discounts on spa services and excursions–you just sit through a 90 minute meeting
-BEWARE–the meetings tend to last way more than 90 minutes and are pretty high pressure to sell you
-since AMResorts/AppleVacations own the loyalty program, it seems their resorts may be priced slightly better or given a higher rating. Comment below or check their link if you question which resorts are part of the group

  • AppleVacations tends to use different charters for their flights.

-bear in mind that these planes have more limited space and luggage limits (you may only have a 45lb suitcase limit instead of 50lb–do your research)
-the air upgrades may be worth it for the first on/first off perk, but for this trip (with Swift Air) it wasn’t worth it for the snacks and beverages. Even though we paid a little more for the Preferred Perks they were out of “snack packages” both legs of the trip and the cocktail selections seemed to be off brands. Additionally, there were no selections that were coffee mixable, similar to Bailey’s, Kahlua, etc
-if you’d like to see my more detailed opinion of Frontier Air, click here

Overall, I believe AppleVacations offers a good deal online as long as you know what you’re getting. You can easily price out their trips before you buy and it’s easy to find frequent sales. You may even be able to choose luxurious accommodations, but you likely won’t be air traveling in style. Additionally, beware of their group of resorts in the loyalty program. If you are lucky enough to sit through one of these meetings (regularly longer than 90 minutes) be prepared to give up some of your vacation time and either buy a plan, or end up saying no, A LOT, repeatedly, and then again. But if you’re fine with that, enjoy the freebies! You will have earned them!