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Carrying medicine and either entering the UAE or passing through in transit, make sure you have a prescription for it showing your name address and date of birth. This includes cough and cold medicines. Passengers have been imprisoned or had their passports confiscated whilst the “substance” is examined. If in doubt bin anything you have on landing. Check on www.uaeembassyuk.net or phone the UAE Ministry of Health and Drug Control Dept on 00 97 12 61 17 505.
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Some countries require you to have 2 unused pages available in your passport. A friend recently went to check in at Heathrow but was not allowed to fly off on holiday by BA because she did not have any blank pages in her passport. Even if you only have a tiny stamp and the rest of the page is free many countries will not let you in. It may seem rather petty and officious, but had she gone she would have been deported on the first available flight back to the UK. Even worse, if immigration could not find a flight to send her back on she would have been sent to a detention centre. It is all in the small print of most travel companies, but a lot of people aren't aware of the 'two unused pages' rule.
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Check entry requirements. They are becoming more stringent, so make sure you check these well in advance, or you could be sent back on the next plane. These include checking on vaccination regulations.
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Do you tend to pick up coughs and colds after flights? Eat healthily in the period before departure and cut down on alcohol. Also take supplements of vitamin C in the few days before you go. Taking a probiotic pre and during travel will also help guard against dodgy tummies and will aid recovery if you do get a stomach upset.
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Know your baggage allowance. It may seem obvious, but how many times have you seen passengers frantically battling with case contents trying to lighten their loads?
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Take a photo of your case. If it is subsequently damaged in transit you will have the proof to claim.. If you lose your bag it may help with identification too.
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Keep copies of passports and other documents, and scan them onto your phone/ tablet too. It will save a lot of hassle.
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Stay connected and arrange a roaming package at special rates with your mobile provider.
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Travelling alone or with other women? Visit Go Girl Guides which offers a wide choice of country specific guide books aimed at women travellers, together with lots of useful tips.
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British Airways has introduced a Bronze Card, aimed at leisure travellers. It gives you free seat selection and you can use the business class check-in desk. You will need 300 tier points, which is the equivalent of two return trips to New York in World Traveller class. Not bad when you think how much extra you can get charged just to select a seat.
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Secret Escapes is a relatively new website offering last minute sales of 4 and 5 star holidays and boutique hotels.
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Want to try a house swap? Our suggestions are Love Home Swap ( membership is £99 a year). Home Exchange (membership is £6.00/month) and Guardian Home Exchange (membership £35/year)
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Insurance for existing medical conditions. You should tell your insurer of any condition that you develop, as non disclosure may negate your insurance. Disclosure may increase premiums or may not, but if you have trouble getting cover try Avanti Travel Insurance, Freedom Insurance, Staysure and All Clear Insurance.
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If you are in transit for a significant time, for £130 (up to 4 people) Abercrombie & Kent offer a concierge service to whisk you through customs and take you for a city outing. So far it operates at the following airports- Madrid, Bangkok, Dubai, Delhi, Singapore and Jo'burg.
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Etihad flies a lot more routes than you might think– and they have now added Kathmandu, Australia and Japan with more to come this year–their economy class is highly competitive on price, they give great service, the planes are all new, and the entertainment and food is excellent.
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Which airline is best? Apart from who is cheapest other things to consider are leg room, on demand seat-back entertainment, wings on the headrests etc. as standards vary significantly. One of the most useful sites especially for leg room and passenger reviews is airlinequality.com
And from April 2012 Easy Jet is starting a 'book your seat' programme . For £3 you can forget the crush that is 'speedy boarding' and reserve your seat!
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Fed up of pitiful legroom? If you are travelling long haul, try to use the airlines that offer a larger seat pitch – Air New Zealand, Thai and Air Malaysia are three of the best for service too.
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Where to sit? For annotated guides on seat locations, pitches and plans, provided you know what type of plane you are travelling on, use seat guru.
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Michelin is putting its travel guides on line during 2010 and will give users the ability to create your own itinerary, calculate your route, reserve your hotels and restaurants, book your transport, and even check the weather.
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Fly east to west if you are travelling to Australia or New Zealand and you will avoid the worst of jet lag as you will get the chance to sleep for longer. Fly during the day if you can so you can go to bed soon after you arrive and get a full night of sleep.
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Luxe City Guides have now put 20 cities onto apps, focusing on food, shopping and entertainment, maps and providing touch dial telephone numbers.
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Layar uses your phone’s camera to provide useful information with AR (augmented reality) that essentially overlays digital information on a real world view picked up as you point your phone at, for example, a building.
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Wikitude World Browser also uses AR to provide travel and sightseeing information.
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Google Goggles does the same thing as Layar, but better, though it is for Android phones.
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Metro (free) shows you how to get from A to B on public transport in 400 cities around the world.
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Google Maps Navigation (free) is a sat nav app with actual street views, and on some phones you can also speak your destination for directions.
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Nearest Wiki also uses AR technology to give information on buildings, paintings and so on.
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Pano lets you take up to 16 successive shots on your phone camera and patches them together, adjusting exposure and alignment, to make the perfect panoramic picture.
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Footprint has launched really useful guides for South America, plus reader reviews.
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Need a translation app? Try Lonely Planet Phrase Books or myLanguagePro for spoken phrases. My Translator Pro UK is an easy to use app that translates words and phrases both ways in 52 languages. You can text and email the translations and it has lots of useful phrases - from apple.com/itun.
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My Voucher Codes was once a high street discount site but is increasingly offering travel related discounts, like car hire.