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Those who follow me are often impress by my moving lifestyle. Motivated by the adventures of travels and with a handful of resourcefulness, I managed through the years to live my dream of cycling around the world. With time, I gained valuable experience and since I am often asked for advice, here are some of the best tips I can think of when travelling.
Buying your ticket
I gave up long time ago the idea to understand the complicated algorithme used by companies to fix their prices. Their is a lot of important parameters beside the price to take into account when you buy your ticket. Here are some tips to keep in mind during your search.
1) Use a search engine
Website like Kayak.com are very usefull to give you an idea of market price. If your travel dates are flexible, you can search a wide range of dates simultaneously. Often, the price varies by a few hundreds dollars. You can also use the "proximity" option to look out nearby airport. You can also use different filters such as airlines, alliances, to narrow up your research.
2) The best price doesn't equal the best option
Keep in mind that a cheaper price doesn't necessarily mean a better choice. Indeed, you need to consider the extra time / cost needed to go to a different airport as much as consider the amount of stops of the flight and the choice of airline (different baggage policies). With all these parameters in your head, you can choose the best option.
3) Compare price based on buying location
Once your flight found, you can do another verification with Google ITA, who allow you to change the buying location of the ticket which can inflect the ticket price again. Be sure to have a good credit card in case you need to pay your purchase in foreign currency.
4) Buy with a good credit card
Nowadays, the competition is fierce among credit institutions. Good for us! Be sure to chose wisely based on your need. Thanks to different promotion, I applied to some of these promotions through the years and gain very good incentives; welcome miles, free VIP salons passes, free travel insurance, etc. Rather than buying a separate travel insurance, make sure you have one of those card with travel insurance (tric and medical) and make sure you pay the ticket with it to be eligible for coverage.
Presently, their are a few interesting promotion with American Express
Gold card with welcome bonus points American Express
- 25 000 bonus points, after 500 $ to the card during the first three months.
- Aeroplan 1:1
- Complete travel insurance (medical, baggages)
- No fees for the first year, 150$ the following year, (if you choose to continue)
Platinum card with welcome bonus points American Express
- 60 000 bonus points, after 1000 $ to the card during the first three months.
- Aeroplan 1:1
- Access to VIP salons in airport worldwide
- Complete travel insurance (medical, baggages)
- 699$ annual fees
Luggages
Very often, I wonder if I picked up the right sport when time come for packing for a trip, especially when I need to travel with more than one bike. In addition to the fact of preparing the baggages, the extra cost is often prohibitive and unexpected. For a long time, I traveled with a home-made double bike box, but after some bad experience with the TSA who apparently couldn't differentiate the opening from the wall of a box, I turn myself towards even more economical options. I have thought for a long time about building a bike box small enough to go as a normal luggage yet, big enough to fit a normal size bike. Of course, the bike need to be completely disassembled, but the hassle is well worth it as it can make me save 50-300$ per trip depending on the airline !
Some airlines are part of alliances and offers good incentives about luggages allowance based on your status. If you fly over 20 000 miles per year, you would be better off to stick with the same alliance for most of your trips and thus achieve a frequent flyer status by the end of the year.
Home made double box
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| Not bad for a double bike case with a sub 20$ budget ! |
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Trip in Taxi
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Not easy to move around with two bikes ! - Championnats panaméricains à Aguascalientes en compagnie de Stéphane Cossette. |
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Currently working on a new bicycle traveling bag !
- Eating
No matter where you travel, make a good research about it to know what to expect. I always travel with probiotics supplementation. Travels are tough on the body and probiotics can make a real difference. In case of stomach problems, don't hesitate to double up the dose and also add electrolytes to compensate the deficit.
- Phone
More often than normal, you should avoid roaming as you can easely build a enormous invoice. I advice to unlock your phone if its not already made and buy a sim card once you arrived. This way, I have been able to use my own phone for extended amount of time and for cheaper price than my canadian account. Beside the usefull aspect of it, having a working phone when traveling is a security, especially when in a foreign country.
- Lodging
Most of the time, I do not have to deal with lodging, because it is the responsibility of the team and or the event where I am. However, when it is the case, I always try to avoid tourist specialized options. If you know people where you are traveling to, it is often fairly easy to rent something out of word of mouth. Their are also interesting online platforms like (Airbnb) where you can find really good and affordable option and also (Couchsurfing) where you can spent a few days with locals and meeting some exciting new persons in the process!
