Handy travel safety tips

Posted: February 5, 2013 | Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Chapter 4 briefly discusses the importance of being safe as you travel. Tom Hall of LonelyPlanet.com has compiled a list of warnings that travel journalists and travelers in general should heed. Among some of Hall’s warnings are watch out for fake police and police officers seeking bribes. Travel journalists should be able to count on local authority for not only safety but free reliable information as well.

Continue cruising

Posted: January 22, 2013 | Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Chapter 3 discusses the importance of cruising to travel readers. The cruise industry is in need of some good news after the tragic sinking of the Costa Concordia. 2013 may be the turn around the industry is looking for according to Travel Weekly. Tom Stieghorst of TW reports,

Deployments in 2013 will feature more cruise segments that can be combined into longer voyages. Celebrity Cruises, for example, will offer more short cruises in Europe that can be paired with a second short cruise with a different set of port calls.

2013 may give cruise readers more to read about.

Cruise story: Safety

Posted: November 19, 2012 | Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Chapter 3 gives the travel journalist angles to pursue while writing a travel story about cruising. With the recent sinking of the cruise ship “Costa Concordia” another topic to consider is safety. Here’s a bit from Beverly Beyette’s article for the L.A. Times:

It’s a cruise vacation, promising lots of fine dining and drinking, new adventures and relaxation. What could go wrong?

As the 4,200 people aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia found, just about everything. The Jan. 13 capsizing of the Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which at least 11 people died, caught the world — including the cruise ship industry and its passengers — off guard and is shining a spotlight on cruise ship safety concerns.

Is it possible for today’s megaships — some hold as many as 6,000 passengers —…

Read more »

A step ahead of the stomach ache

Posted: November 5, 2012 | Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Chapter 4 offers brief advice on how to stay healthy while traveling. Budgettravel.com‘s Fran Golden offers similar advice coaching travelers on how to keep their stomach safe while traveling. Golden offers a few tips every traveler can remember to avoid being apart of the 50 percent of travelers that receive some type of stomach sickness while abroad, he advises:

  • One easy rule of thumb: If your lodgings don’t allow you to flush toilet paper, don’t drink the water. It’s a sign you’re visiting a region with an unsafe water supply.
  • As for food, “Boil it, peel it, or forget it” has been the standard recommendation. Make sure food is served piping hot. If it’s been left out to cool, it could be harboring a growing colony of bacteria.
  • Fly from flies. Never eat food that isn’t protected from insects, which can contaminate even freshly cooked…

    Read more »

Safety first, deploy decoy wallet

Posted: October 28, 2012 | Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Chapter 4 gives the travel writer two pieces of pre-travel advice on safety while traveling. Christopher Elliott of The National Geographic adds to this advice by offering the writer tips to solve every crisis during travel. Elliot offers this bit:

Regardless of your locale, always watch your things when in a new place. Carry a throwaway wallet or decoy purse containing daily cash and old photos but nothing that would make you hesitate to hand it over in a holdup. Keep a credit card and cash in an inside pocket. 1. Hand over the fake wallet. 2. Notify the police.

Do not hesitate to hand over anything in a hold up, no material object is worth risking your life.