My son Tevis is spending 4.5 months in Southeast Asia on a backpacker’s holiday. He made all of his own travel arrangements. I was having difficulty finding flights from London to Florence and Venice to London. I sent Tev a WhatsApp message asking for advice.
When Tev worked at Google he used a travel hack that was first available to Google employees then to public. Go to Google.com/flights and then search for flights. It is an amazing summary of available flights without all the palaver you find on Travelocity and similar sites. I was able to fix my flights in no time.
I also rediscovered a copy of Smithsonian Journeys, a travel quarterly magazine, that I had saved. It appears to be a new venture. You can buy each issue for $13.99 but cannot subscribe yet. My copy is Fall 2015 and the theme is “The Inca Road.” All of the articles are about the history of the Inca empire and all sorts of interesting articles from Ecuador, Peru and Argentina. It is an interesting approach that plays to the Smithsonian’s strengths. Priced like a paperback, it is worth saving. They also have tours and other services.
I just discovered a local Jane Austen Reading Group at my local library. As I was leaving I mentioned that I would miss the next month as I will be in Italy and then spending a few days in London. One of the members recommended Walking Jane Austen’s London. Sometimes the best resources are found by word of mouth from other traveller’s.
americanjulie.com 