Personal Travel
Booking airfare
When you want to know which carrier offers the best combination of low
fare and convenient routing, use www.itasoftware.com, a search engine created
by scientists at MIT. Unlike online travel agencies such as Expedia and
Travelocity, it is not biased toward certain airlines and provides the
most complete list of flight options for a given itinerary. You can't purchase
tickets from it, but you can find out which carrier best suits your needs
and then go to that carrier's Web site and book your flights.
Students are able to get discounted tickets through STA Travel, look
them up online at www.statravel.com. A great feature of STA is that a
one-way
ticket is half the price of a round-trip (this is seldom the case when
booking normal tickets), so maximize your itinerary by flying into one
city, use local train, bus, etc - and fly home from another city. This
is known as an "open jaw" ticket, check it out at STA.
Finding budget airlines overseas is a snap with www.lowcostairlines.org.
Of if you are flying within Europe, try www.whichbudget.com.
Vacation Insurance
Personal effects (clothes, camera, etc) are normally covered on your renter's
or home insurance - they will not be covered by trip or flight insurance
- be sure to verify details of your coverage.
We recommend getting good vacation insurance which will provide medical
coverage, airline cancellation/delay protection, and trip cancellation
refund (in the event of natural disaster or personal emergency). Compare
products from a variety of insurers at www.insuremytrip.com You can plug
in your trip information and get price quotes from more than a dozen different
insurance providers, along with a chart showing key differences between
plans - such as the amount of coverage you get for a medical evacuation,
whether you're insured if the trip is unexpectedly canceled, and what kind
of terrorist incident would allow you to cancel and get your money back.
Visas
Most travelers can purchase an Entry Visa at the border or airport, cost
is $50 US cash. Ensure passport is updated with at least six-months until
expiry. To save the lineup at the airport, obtain advance visas from
the Kenya and Tanzania embassy in your country – check out their
website for details.
Selected nationalities must apply three months in advance (Afghanistan,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Nigeria,
North Korea, Pakistan, Senegal, Somalia, Tazikstan, Yemen).
Before you leave, make 2 copies of passports, visas, tickets & immunization
records (hide one copy in suitcase somewhere and leave other copy with
friend or relative to hold in case of emergency).
Other websites
A few other websites may also prove helpful:
Finding out a flight's actual arrival time, www.flightexplorer.com
Converting any currency into any other currency, www.xe.com/ucc
Finding out the local holidays in your destination country, www.bank-holidays.com
For celebrations around the world try, www.whatsonwhen.com
|
Africa
1999